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- 2:10
afternoon I was talking about what we call inner Inner listening, and this is a means, a skillful means that we use in order to, say, look at something in a different way.
- 2:56
The human mind is a reflective mind. It means that in this life that we have, being born in the human form, it means that we can contemplate and look at Bodies, our emotions, feelings, thoughts, all the mental formations can be objectified. That's what we mean by reflective mind.
- 9:58
Now this is important because it's important to realize that an object then is... Can no longer be seen as oneself, isn't it? When we objectify something, I know this clock is not me, because it's very separate.
- 27:23
lay people thought very highly of him and he had great talents and abilities he was somebody that people generally took to very easily and praised and yet this particular monk would always have this this assumption this kind of ongoing ...fear that he was worthless. So no matter how successful this monk might have been in anything he did, there would be this underlying kind of obsession going on saying, you're no good, you can't do anything right. And this wasn't a rational thing at all, because he could see very well that he was doing well and that everything was going along and...
- 54:04
It's very nice textile given to me by considerate lay people, so I don't have to go around scrounging for rags at Oxfam, but I have a very nice robe actually, but the sense of being grateful, isn't it, rather than complaining. If I had high expectations or I had certain very high standards for textiles, our own kind of hopes and expectations of life through reflecting on the standards given to us in the monastic life.
Transcript
0:03 I wish to welcome you here to Amaravati this afternoon. This is the first talk in this series. Report an error in the passage at 0:03
0:17 Again, I repeat that the purpose of these talks is to try to create an atmosphere of reflection, contemplation, so that what I say is to be regarded only as a means towards Your own reflection on the spiritual development or religion or the subjects that we talk about. Report an error in the passage at 0:17
0:51 The Buddhist teachings are reflective teachings, so that's why we can say it's not a doctrinal approach. Buddhist teachings are for consideration and for investigation. To apply those teachings to your own experience, to internalize them so you begin to realize those truths, those truths that the Buddha was talking about rather than just believing in words or ideas from somebody else. Report an error in the passage at 0:51
1:33 Because the truth is something that we need to know in a direct way. The problems that we face in our lives so much evolve from just accepting someone else's ideas and then acting on our reactions to those ideas in which we never really penetrate profoundly into the true nature of things. This Report an error in the passage at 1:33
2:10 afternoon I was talking about what we call inner Inner listening, and this is a means, a skillful means that we use in order to, say, look at something in a different way. We tend to regard listening as listening outwardly, trying to listen to somebody else or sounds that come from the outside, listening to music or sound of another person or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 2:10
2:44 But inner listening, we direct our attention as if we were listening inwardly to, say, the thoughts, feelings that we are experiencing. The human mind is a reflective mind. It means that in this life that we have, being born in the human form, it means that we can contemplate and look at Report an error in the passage at 2:44
3:18 Bodies, our emotions, feelings, thoughts, all the mental formations can be objectified. That's what we mean by reflective mind. If our mind were merely a conditioned mind, if we had no ability to reflect on it, then we would merely operate according to What's been programmed or put into the mind through our experience of life, and we would have no possible way of transcending it or getting beyond it. Report an error in the passage at 3:18
3:56 An animal's mind, the difference between an animal and a human being, very much one of the differences anyway, is the fact that they don't have reflective minds. Their minds are, they are certainly conscious in the same way we are. They have intelligence. Report an error in the passage at 3:56
4:21 nature. squirrel can't contemplate squirrel-ness. we can contemplate our own humanity. We can ask ourselves, what is human being? What is it that makes me human and not a squirrel? Report an error in the passage at 4:21
4:41 is the difference between... A mind that just operates on the instinctual plane and a reflective mind. So these are the types of questions that we can ask ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 4:41
4:57 The human body itself. If we are just the human form that we have, if that's what our true nature is, then the body itself cannot contemplate itself. For example, your... Your eyes can't look and see themselves and the body, its very nature is such that it is what it is but it can't realize itself. But the reflective mind can contemplate and realize the nature of the body, the human body. Report an error in the passage at 4:57
5:40 Inner listening then is a skillful means we use just to say bring attention to Our ability to listen, and in listening we have to be mindful, we have to pay attention. If I'm really listening to you, I have to stop thinking and just drifting away in my own moods or feelings of the moment to try to pay attention to what you're saying. Report an error in the passage at 5:40
6:10 I'm listening to say, if you're telling me something very important, then I have to really pay attention and listen. Try to understand what you are saying to me. Report an error in the passage at 6:10
6:23 that same attitude applies inwardly just to, say, your own sense of or despair or depression or anger or fear. Report an error in the passage at 6:23
6:41 if you're really attentively listening to it rather than judging it. If we merely judge condition, then we... We have no way of really hearing its message. For example, if you're trying to tell me something, and so what you're trying to tell me, I merely make a judgment about it, a superficial judgment, that means I can't really understand or hear what you're saying. Report an error in the passage at 6:41
7:11 I merely react to it. My reaction might be totally inappropriate to what you're trying to tell me. And apply that inwardly to yourself. If you feel frightened or you feel angry or jealous or some unpleasant negative state, you happen to be in that kind of a mood and you merely pass a judgment on it as some criticism of that state. Report an error in the passage at 7:11
7:43 That means you can't really, you're not really sensitive to it, you're merely trying to dismiss it, reject it. Report an error in the passage at 7:43
7:54 So inner listening means a patient attentiveness to the mood you're in, to the kind of thoughts or attitudes that you happen to be experiencing at this moment. Report an error in the passage at 7:54
8:16 Attention and willingness to listen, even to very unpleasant things or ugly things, means that we're patient. We need to... To be very, very patient and just have an attitude of acceptance of whatever it is, no matter how unpleasant or unwanted the particular quality of what you're listening to might be. Report an error in the passage at 8:16
8:48 You're just watching it, noticing it, accepting it, and reflecting that it is merely an object of your mind because that Which pays attention is not a negative state, isn't it? The attentive mind, the mind that is listening, that which listens, that which is aware, cannot be negative. It can be aware of negativity, anger or greed or doubt or worry. But in itself it has no quality that we could describe as negative. Report an error in the passage at 8:48
9:33 Attentive, aware, mindful state of being in the present. And Report an error in the passage at 9:33
9:45 in this way we can look at, say, fear or anger, unwanted negativity, mental state, and clearly see it as an object. Now this is important because it's important to realize that an object then is... Can no longer be seen as oneself, isn't it? When we objectify something, I know this clock is not me, because it's very separate. Report an error in the passage at 9:45
10:24 It's not the subject, it's the object of my vision. I might add to a thing, this is my clock. It's not really my clock, but I might think that. I make it mine, but... Report an error in the passage at 10:24
10:40 One never mistakes it for being oneself. And the same would apply to any mood you happen to be in. Once you determine in your mind to listen and pay attention to the mood, then you've destroyed the subjective identification with the mood. The mood is what it is. The thought is what it is. But it's no longer its identity as... Report an error in the passage at 10:40
11:11 As the subject has been destroyed because you are reflecting on it as an object. And so this is what we could say is the Buddha. The Buddha means that ability of a human being to reflect on the way things are. The Buddha is that which knows and sees clearly, is not deluded by the appearance. of any condition whatsoever. Report an error in the passage at 11:11
11:43 So Report an error in the passage at 11:43
11:49 when we take refuge in Buddha, when the attitude of a Buddhist is one of refuge, this means that we are determined to be attentive, aware to the way things are, the mood, the condition, the atmosphere, the feeling, the thought, the quality. And observing its nature for what it is, whatever its quality, whatever its appearance might be, the truth of the matter is that it is something that is impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 11:49
12:33 When you objectify something, then you see it as impermanent. It arises and ceases. When you contemplate impermanence, then you You break down the illusion of that particular condition being a kind of permanent problem for you. Like on the personality level, we tend to identify very strongly with the memories we have of our past. Report an error in the passage at 12:33
13:03 So if we tend towards anger or fear or jealousy, then we tend to Think that this is a kind of ongoing permanent problem with us. This is the way we would talk about it. I happen to be a very frightened person or I'm a very jealous kind of person. As if this was an ongoing latent condition that hangs in one's mind. But when seen or objectified by listening to To the anger or the jealousy, you're taking away the identity. You're no longer judging it or placing yourself as the one that owns that state. Report an error in the passage at 13:03
13:55 You're merely observing it as impermanent. It is what it is. You're not trying to say it's something it isn't. You're not adding anything to it. You're not making it into something else. You're not even trying, you're even avoiding trying to get rid of it or to prolong it. You're merely accepting, noticing, listening to it. And when it's present, then you're aware it is this way. Report an error in the passage at 13:55
14:30 And as you keep your attention with that, when it's gone, because it is impermanent, there is the knowing that it's not there. Report an error in the passage at 14:30
14:40 There's the awareness of its presence. It's this way, say, for example, anger. It's this way. Anger is this way. In this way of reflecting it, this way is merely a way of acknowledging it without judging it. Report an error in the passage at 14:40
14:59 Then, when it's not present, you reflect on it that there's no anger now. That it's this way. The mind is this way. The condition of anger is no longer present. So in your conscious experience of life, you are acknowledging the way things are, the presence of a condition such as anger and the absence of it. Report an error in the passage at 14:59
15:27 And in that way you're bringing into consciousness the way things are as a continuum rather than merely being conscious through extremity. Report an error in the passage at 15:27
15:41 Now this is another reflection, is that since we are conscious beings, Our consciousness tends to depend very much on extremity of condition. Like we want to titillate or bring into our... We're usually conscious through some kind of extreme experience. We tend to not be very conscious, use consciousness as a continuous, through continuous awareness. Report an error in the passage at 15:41
16:16 Consciousness... We use through distracting ourselves or through seeking something that excites interests, fascinates or in some way holds our attention. Report an error in the passage at 16:16
16:32 And then when we lose our interest, when it becomes boring or unpleasant, we tend to seek to put something else into consciousness. So that we tend to live a life of, say, running around, trying to, say, have interesting experiences or pleasant sensory experiences. Or when we get tired of all that, we try to be unconscious just through, say, falling asleep, drugging ourselves, making it so that we don't have to feel or have any real conscious experience. Report an error in the passage at 16:32
17:15 But with inner listening you're training, you're practicing in a way that consciousness is being used with wisdom rather than with ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 17:15
17:36 Now even the most ignorant, stupid, insane, ridiculous human being is still a conscious one. Report an error in the passage at 17:36
17:47 And sometimes we have to make them unconscious if they're really violent. We try to... To drug them up so they aren't conscious because they're dangerous. Madness and total delusion doesn't make us unconscious. Report an error in the passage at 17:47
18:13 Consciousness is the result of birth. We're born, because we are born into a separate form, such as the human body, then this is the experience of living a lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 18:13
18:28 As a conscious being, we experience consciousness from this place that we have to be in, this human body. And consciousness implies this sense of separation, subject and object. So one, say, has to be the subject of one's conscious experience for a lifetime within the body that we are born into. Report an error in the passage at 18:28
18:59 The time we're born to the time it dies. And this is what consciousness is about. And during that time that we live, the lifespan of our human body, then it is going to experience all kinds of things. Good, bad, happiness, suffering, praise and blame, success and failure, good fortune, bad fortune. A human lifetime is a Mixture of all kinds of extremes. Report an error in the passage at 18:59
19:39 We're born into a particular family, and usually our families are not enlightened families. Our mothers and fathers are not Arahants, usually. I've not met anyone yet who's made that claim. We, even though, Report an error in the passage at 19:39
20:04 of wisdom and goodness, yet generally, from our own particular cultural background, they teach us the things that our class, our race, our nationality, our ethnic background consider right and normal for us. Report an error in the passage at 20:04
20:25 for example, I was born into a Christian. Middle class family in the United States. And so my parents, with all good intention, instilled in me all the values and ideals of that particular class and group. Report an error in the passage at 20:25
20:47 Some of it's very good. Some of it had certain good aspects to it and noble qualities. But it was very much based on the assumption of a permanent personality. personality. Report an error in the passage at 20:47
21:02 You are this way and you should be this way. You should think like this. You shouldn't be like that. And that all the Christian attitudes say of high church Anglicanism were instilled in my mind at a tender age and the attitudes of white middle class Americans of the 30s and 40s were 1930s and 1940s were very much my Preliminary experience with life, those kinds of values. So those were instilled in my mind just through being born into that family and those values just came with the package in other words. Report an error in the passage at 21:02
21:55 They weren't, my parents certainly had good intentions and were trying to do the best they can but But the whole attitude still was based on the illusion of you are this body, you are a person, you are your feelings, your thoughts, you are this type of personality. Also with the idea that you should be, maybe you should try to become something else, like become what my parents and the society thought was was the ideal for male children to become. So these were just accepted as the ordinary, normal standards for life. Report an error in the passage at 21:55
22:51 Then, as I grew older, even though I was given quite good standards to work with, this whole basic illusion of me and mine, myself, Report an error in the passage at 22:51
23:19 life, one became very self-conscious, and in a competitive society like middle class America, your worth is very much in relationship to somebody else. Report an error in the passage at 23:19
23:37 What other boys do and how strong or clever or fast or whatever they are, you compare yourself with them as if you are permanently better or worse or equal to somebody else. One is not even encouraged to question this tendency. This tends to be a kind of dread and fear that's ingrained in us. The fear that we're not good enough or the assumptions that we can't do things because somebody else does them better. Report an error in the passage at 23:37
24:16 Or that oftentimes in school, in education, we're convinced we can't do certain things because teachers or other peers have implied that you're no good at this or you can't do that. Report an error in the passage at 24:16
24:32 So these things we hold on to and grasp. And they influence and affect our life in many, many ways, such as we find ourselves oftentimes with unknown anxieties and coming from assumptions that were probably instilled in us when we were still very innocent, before we had any, say, knowledge or understanding of anything, when, say, an innocent mind is a mind that will receive anything. Report an error in the passage at 24:32
25:06 You can instill the best to the worst possible conditions in an innocent child because they haven't yet the ability to discriminate what is true or what isn't. They tend to believe very much what the parents or the authority figures tend to tell them. So we can spend a lifetime very much holding on to An inadequate assumption of ourself that will affect, say, our lives and blind us and cause us much unhappiness and misery until we begin to reflect on it and contemplate. Report an error in the passage at 25:06
25:54 And then inner listening is a way of doing this. We can begin to just listen to maybe these irrational fears or these obsessions of the mind. Not as a kind of personal fault anymore because as soon as you make out that they're bad or you shouldn't have them, then that's a negative, that's a criticism against them as if they shouldn't be there and that there's something wrong with you for having that kind of thought or obsession. Report an error in the passage at 25:54
26:30 So inner listening is non-judgmental, it's attentive, and it's coming from the place Transcendent awareness rather than absorption. Absorption is the ability to grasp something and become like that. But inner listening then isn't absorbing into the condition, it's merely observing it, witnessing, recognizing it for what it is. Report an error in the passage at 26:30
27:01 Now, Report an error in the passage at 27:01
27:05 there was one monk, I remember, who's... who was a monk that all of us thought very highly of and he was the lay people thought very highly of him and he had great talents and abilities he was somebody that people generally took to very easily and praised and yet this particular monk would always have this this assumption this kind of ongoing ...fear that he was worthless. So no matter how successful this monk might have been in anything he did, there would be this underlying kind of obsession going on saying, you're no good, you can't do anything right. Report an error in the passage at 27:05
28:06 And this wasn't a rational thing at all, because he could see very well that he was doing well and that everything was going along and... And he was quite talented and could do all these things. I mean, he was certainly aware that this was all right. But this was something irrational, something instilled that had become so kind of obsessive and a part of his life that it was hard to really get any perspective on it. Report an error in the passage at 28:06
28:42 The tendency was to just dismiss it and say, oh, of course, don't be so silly. Just try to dismiss it as a silly thing you shouldn't be thinking. Or needing constant affirmation from others. Did I do it all right? Is it okay? You're sure now. You're sure that what I said and what I'm doing is okay. So the need to have other people affirm or to dismiss. Report an error in the passage at 28:42
29:12 So inner listening, listening to this obsession, allowed him to say, just accept that kind of obsession for what it is in the present moment, when it was in operation. Report an error in the passage at 29:12
29:29 There is attentiveness, listening, non-judgment. It was seen, it was something that was impermanent. You can comment on its impermanency, because it is. It has no kind of solid, substantial quality at all. And by accepting and listening and paying attention to it as an impermanent condition, as an impermanent object in the mind, more and more he became aware of it as not self, as merely something that would come and go, but was no longer an accurate judgment. Report an error in the passage at 29:29
30:14 It had no real truth to it at all. It was merely a soulless, empty habit that he acquired in some way. It had no soul or self or essence in it. It was merely a conditioned thing. It could be a nonsense syllable or it could be sensible, but it was merely just a Something that was conditioned to have no power anymore. But when you would react to it through either indulging, believing in it, or in just trying to reject it and dismiss it, then it did seem to have a reality to it. Report an error in the passage at 30:14
31:03 You could say, well, you know, this inner voice is saying I'm no good, and it's probably true, maybe I'm no good. You know, this is probably, you know, some kind of truth. Report an error in the passage at 31:03
31:16 A true description of me that I'm no good. And a doubting mind will get caught up into fearing that this might be a real true statement of one's worth. When objectified and listened to for what it is, it really becomes a meaningless, empty thing in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 31:16
31:51 So this, by... Listening to this obsession, to listen to it, there had to be an acceptance of it, because if you're resisting it, you can't listen to it anymore. You're merely reacting to it. And by accepting and watching, it loses its power to delude. It's just a thing, another thing that arises and ceases. Report an error in the passage at 31:51
32:16 It's no longer important or true or a cause of doubt or anything. It's just a thing in the mind. It is what it is, but the illusion of it being me has been dissolved, disappeared. Report an error in the passage at 32:16
32:43 Now when that disappears, when it's gone, there's also the ability to recognize the non-presence of it, because it's very important to realize when there's nothing in the mind, when there's no condition or no attachment in the mind. Report an error in the passage at 32:43
33:07 So that we, this is, say, in the teaching of the Buddha, the second and third noble truths, dealing with the reflection and investigation of those two truths. It's to realize, to know, and to let go of a condition so that you can see it and objectify it, and to realize its cessation when it's not present. Report an error in the passage at 33:07
33:33 So then your consciousness is being trained. So this experience of being a conscious being, a human being, allows us to use wisdom with our consciousness. Our consciousness is no longer just affected by circumstances and we're just helpless victims of a conditioning process. Because we can't very well help the way we've been conditioned. Report an error in the passage at 33:33
34:38 I did happen to, my parents did have their ways and their attitudes and my society and experience of life was the way it is, which, unless the condition playing, left me at a point, say at the age of 30, feeling quite depressed and despairing with life. Because on the level of my conditioned mind, I was feeling quite unhappy. Report an error in the passage at 34:38
35:07 And had tremendous feeling of anguish and despair by the age of 30, just from operating through reacting to life through the conditions that I'd acquired. I Report an error in the passage at 35:07
35:25 couldn't see at the age of 30 any possibility of just going on living in the same way and having any happiness at all. I thought, you know, even if I live 30 more years, you know, when you're 30, 60 seems quite... Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Report an error in the passage at 35:25
35:54 No part of this recording may be reproduced highly affecting my mind much of the time. Report an error in the passage at 35:54
36:23 because of that suffering, that recognition of the first noble truth of Dukkha, that's what led me into this life as a monk. What I thought would be Buddhist meditation. there was a possibility of changing the direction. life wouldn't be just a, I wouldn't be just a helpless victim of what had happened to me during the first 30 years. would be a really miserable state of affairs, wouldn't it, if we were, if all we could expect was to just kind of and bury the rest of our lives with the botch we've made of our lives through the 30 years. Report an error in the passage at 36:23
37:18 In the aim of Buddha's teaching, then, is to train the mind, to train our consciousness with wisdom. And the teachings, then, of the Buddha are wisdom teachings. It's not wisdom per se. Wisdom is something we use, something here and now. It's not a teaching in a book. You can't say a teaching is in itself wise. Report an error in the passage at 37:18
37:59 book are merely a catalyst for wisdom. help you to, if you're using it rightly, if you are contemplating the meaning of those words and interiorizing it, applying it to your own experience, to your mind and body, Report an error in the passage at 37:59
38:18 Then you begin to understand. You have what we call insight, profound insight into dharma, into the truth, ultimate truth. Report an error in the passage at 38:18
38:39 So instead of being a helpless victim of circumstances, we change that direction. We're no longer a victim. We are the leader. We are the charioteer. We're in the driver's seat. We are... We are beginning to take that position of attention, awareness, wisdom, reflection, rather than just kind of putting up with things, a kind of grin and bear it, poor me attitude for the rest of our lives. Report an error in the passage at 38:39
39:20 We can actually begin to live our life in full awareness with wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 39:20
39:27 we realize this possibility that What Report an error in the passage at 39:27
39:44 is so really beautiful about the Buddhist teaching is that Buddhism does have a kind of ancient history. It's not a modern Californian therapy. It hasn't been discovered by Carl Jung or a Swiss psychologist. psychologist. seems... Report an error in the passage at 39:44
40:08 In our terms of antiquity, it's quite ancient. Going back 2,533 years to someone my age, that seems like a very ancient kind of teaching. And yet it obviously is a universal teaching, a teaching based on ultimate truth, because it's still... is true at this time, it's in its pure form, the Buddhist teaching can be used, it still works, takes us to that realization. Report an error in the passage at 40:08
40:47 If it were merely a kind of religion appropriate to the age, I'll say, of ancient India, then it wouldn't have much meaning to us at this time. There might be a few kind of ancient Indian enthusiasts who might... I find it terribly fascinating to research and go to the museums and write boring books about ancient Indian religion that very few people would find very inspiring. Report an error in the passage at 40:47
41:25 But because it's a teaching based on truth that is timeless not bound by culture. Or by fashion. Then we find ourselves here in a place like Amaravati where we seek out Buddhist teachers or any... Buddhism has that resonance in our minds of a possibility of realizing ultimate reality or truth or getting beyond just the limitations of our conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 41:25
42:05 The feeling of helplessness and hopelessness and despair that come from just being bound into inadequate attitudes and thoughts and perceptions of ourselves and the world. Report an error in the passage at 42:05
42:19 there is a way out of that, we don't have to... Report an error in the passage at 42:19
42:44 practicing Dhamma, meditation, develop skillful means, and inner listening is one that I found very useful for my own practice. Report an error in the passage at 42:44
43:03 A lot of time just listening to my mind. I remember when I went to stay at the monastery in Thailand, I tended to have a kind of grumbling nature. Report an error in the passage at 43:03
43:23 So when I went, it was in the northeastern part of Thailand, quite primitive, there weren't many amenities there. Basic allowances given and the food wasn't all that delicious and there was a lot that, say, a middle class American could complain about when you're used to, say, a higher standard and more comfort than what was available there. Report an error in the passage at 43:23
44:03 So that the mind would tend to I remember one of the things we had to do was, when we went out on the alms round in the morning, it was a very hot climate, Thailand, we had to, the idea was that we had to wear all our robes when we went out on the alms round. So we have this robe here, and then we have a double robe called a sanghati. Report an error in the passage at 44:03
44:37 And in our tradition we had to wear this sangati, which is double thickness with this robe, and to put it on and then, and sometimes it would be so hot, by the time you came back from your alms round, you would have perspired and it would have, your robes, both robes would be soaked with perspiration. Report an error in the passage at 44:37
44:59 It was very uncomfortable sometimes to be out with two robes on and having to... long distances and come back and be all sweaty and miserable. This is pointless. This is... I just don't believe the Buddha ever taught this. Report an error in the passage at 44:59
45:21 And so I'd be grumbling away. I'd do it because they said you had to do it. My mind would always, when I was putting on this robe and you're sweating and felt terrible, I would increase the misery by this. Continuous complaining. So it would be so much more practical. You don't need two robes. I mean, one robe is enough to cover you modestly. Report an error in the passage at 45:21
45:49 It's adequate. And surely the Buddha was teaching the middle way. He wasn't an extremist of any sort. And I think these monks here, Ajahn Chah, have probably gone off on an extreme. Report an error in the passage at 45:49
46:05 And I wish he would listen to me, I would advise him. Report an error in the passage at 46:05
46:12 I never had the courage to advise him on this matter. But the grumbling would go on. And then one day I began to listen to this. And I just began to listen to myself grumbling. And what I heard was pretty unpleasant. But before I was just grumbling as a habit and I wasn't aware of how miserable I was making myself because I had become used to being miserable like that. Report an error in the passage at 46:12
46:46 It was ordinary for me to be miserable in that way as I complain, it was easy for me to complain and grumble. But then by listening to this grumbling sound I could suddenly realize it was a very unpleasant condition of my mind. It was really painful and unpleasant just to have that kind of negative feeling that would be with you while you're sweating and walking and going through these villages receiving alms food and it would kind of hang around, you know, it would be influencing everything so that the whole beautiful beautiful experience that I was going through, going on an alms round, receiving alms food and all this, was not really being appreciated because there was this level of filmy, cloudy, murky negativity prevented me from really appreciating what was actually So, instead of just trying to not grumble, because I... Report an error in the passage at 46:46
48:04 By taking it very personally, I shouldn't be a grumble, I should be someone who's very happy, very kind of going on this alms round, receiving this food in this very noble way, and then condemning this grumbling state, that was also not the way to solve the problem. Report an error in the passage at 48:04
48:30 But by actually listening to it, accepting it, then Suddenly it became almost like without any substance or any force to it. It just was what it was. Report an error in the passage at 48:30
48:45 It was that way. But something was no longer there. And that was the grasping of it. The grasping had gone and there was the realization of non-grasping. Report an error in the passage at 48:45
49:03 So then one... I contemplated. I thought, well, actually, two robes is two robes, one robe, whatever they say. It's perfectly all right. I'll do what is the custom. There's no point in making a problem about these things because they're not problems. If it was something wrong and harmful to your health and dangerous and going to cause misfortune to other people, then maybe you should. Report an error in the passage at 49:03
49:35 I went to a monastery six years later in central Thailand where they didn't wear both robes. They said, We believe that you don't, the Buddha didn't really mean you had to wear both robes. But you had to keep, when you were out on the alms ground, you should keep one robe in a safe place. So if you're, you should lock your little kuti so that no thieves will come in and steal your double robe. And so then, I remember when they told me this, I began to think, they don't wear both their robes. Report an error in the passage at 49:35
50:31 Sarah. Report an error in the passage at 50:31
50:35 At our monastery we wouldn't get away with that. We have to wear bozar robes. By this time I'd been thoroughly converted. And began kind of criticizing monasteries that didn't do exactly the same way. Report an error in the passage at 50:35
50:53 But this is another problem. I could make another problem about that. But the thing, what became apparent was that These are conventions only that we use and they shouldn't be really made into any problem. Because ultimately it doesn't matter whether you work one road or two roads. It's not really an absolute moral position that one should take on these issues. Report an error in the passage at 50:53
51:25 But it is a matter of reflection, isn't it? One can learn from both monasteries. Because your mind, once you You get used to both robes and if you go to the next monastery where they use one you can have the same problem only kind of reversed. Report an error in the passage at 51:25
51:46 So the important thing was really in being aware of the tendency of the mind, the way of grasping, taking a position for or against. Report an error in the passage at 51:46
52:02 Here at Amaravati we've in the past six years the emphasis on On this inner listening, the level of complaining of the monks and nuns has diminished enormously. Because I've made a point and encouraged them to really listen to their complaining mind. And they do, you know. Once you start listening to it, you don't, you know, it's not something that you're going to believe and make and, you know, we get... Report an error in the passage at 52:02
52:17 Enormously. Report an error in the passage at 52:17
52:41 that tendency in your life. As some of us, as monks, as nuns, we have very skillful conventions to work with, such as we do have simple reflections on requisites, so that you're not expecting, say, the best in this life. Your aim in the monastic life is not to get the very best of everything. So your standard is based on usually the worst, such as the robe as a rag robe. Report an error in the passage at 52:41
53:25 So then the mind, you put that into consciousness. The Buddha allowed monks, bhikkhus, to collect rags to make a robe. We can go around and find rags and we can make a row. And then he allowed lay people to offer material to the monks so that lay people can offer cloth to the monks. We can accept that. But the standard, the basic reflection is based on scavenging rags. So then this gives us a reflection on that, that the robe I have was... Report an error in the passage at 53:25
54:04 It's very nice textile given to me by considerate lay people, so I don't have to go around scrounging for rags at Oxfam, but I have a very nice robe actually, but the sense of being grateful, isn't it, rather than complaining. If I had high expectations or I had certain very high standards for textiles, Report an error in the passage at 54:04
54:51 our own kind of hopes and expectations of life through reflecting on the standards given to us in the monastic life. So, I mean, we... Report an error in the passage at 54:51
55:03 When you listen to your mind, if you get a robe that you don't particularly like, maybe it's not the kind of material you wanted or you would prefer, but your reflection is based on the fact that the Buddha allowed us to get rags and that this is certainly better than a rag, certainly finer quality than that, then there's a sense of gratitude. Report an error in the passage at 55:03
55:31 That sense of gratitude is a virtue, a beautiful virtue in the human heart that helps towards enlightenment, towards understanding. So gratitude, rather than complaining, gratitude is the joy of our hearts when we feel grateful and we have this experience of katanyu. The mind, the heart is open wide. It's a happy, joyful mind in gratitude where the complaining mind is closed and short-sighted, painful. Report an error in the passage at 55:31
56:30 Inner listening then is, I like to describe it as, for example, you're listening to somebody talking on the other side of the fence. Report an error in the passage at 56:30
56:41 You're just standing there listening. And what they're saying is no longer anything about you. They could be talking about somebody else or the weather or just nonsense. It's alright, it doesn't matter what they're saying. It's just you're aware of it as being an object. Where as soon as you make the assumption of a self, then you become critical of it, you buy into it, you absorb into it, and you either Believe it or you're trying to dismiss it or reject it. So there's always these reactions, judgmental reactions that prolong and create a karmic attachment to it. Report an error in the passage at 56:41
57:26 Like suppression, the desire to annihilate and get rid of things is a very powerful karmic attachment. Like the more you try to get rid of your anger, the more angry you become. Report an error in the passage at 57:26
57:45 You know, just with anger, the more you try to deny it, get rid of it, push it away, the more angry you actually become, become obsessed with anger by trying to get rid of it. But by recognizing it and accepting it, seeing it, knowing it, knowing when it's present and when it's not, then you're not making any karma with that with that condition anymore You've not created anything around it. It's merely the recognition, the knowing, the awareness of it for what it is when it's present and when it's not. Report an error in the passage at 57:45
58:30 And in that there's no karma being made. You've allowed that condition which has arisen to cease. That's its nature, that's dharma. Whatever arises ceases. And you've not in any way been deluded. By that condition, but there is certainly the intelligent wisdom, awareness and knowledge of it for what it is. Report an error in the passage at 58:30
58:57 So it doesn't mean that we'll never feel anger again, that just that alone will completely wipe out anger for the rest of our life. It doesn't mean that, but it means that we are aware at least of what anger is, so every time we tend to feel that impulse. We have an opportunity to let it go or to allow it to cease according to its nature, natural way. And therefore we're no longer frightened by it, no longer making a problem or any complications around these impulses or these conditions that we find ourselves with. Report an error in the passage at 58:57
59:39 There is the Buddha seeing the dharma. There is the way of recognizing things as they are. And this is what we mean as our heritage as Buddhists or as people who have confidence and trust in the way of the Buddha. The convention of Buddhism allows us to use these and to liberate the mind from these onerous burdens of selfishness and despair. Report an error in the passage at 59:39
1:00:12 So it's time to end the formal talk. And we take a short break, five-minute break. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:12
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Talk by Ajahn Sumedho. Original at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ajahn-sumedho-dhamma-talks. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.
Talks of Ajahn Sumedho, archived on Internet Archive. More from Amaravati