Here we go again

0:00 So I wish to welcome everybody and this is the first of these summer talks and we're just getting ready now for the entering of the annual retreat starting on the full moon well the day after the full moon of this month. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:32 So to emphasize that I don't really, I hesitate even to call these talks because it's not like teaching or giving a lecture, but it's meant to be more of what I call reflective, for reflection, for consideration. So to look inward and to observe rather than to just, you know, get caught in believing or disbelieving what I'm saying. Report an error in the passage at 0:32 Highlight the passage at 0:32

1:04 The essence or the teaching of the Lord Buddha is about awakened consciousness, to be alert and awake, to be observing rather than just someone who grasps words, ideas from somebody else and believes or disbelieves them. Report an error in the passage at 1:04 Highlight the passage at 1:04

1:24 And I think this is of course what is greatly needed at this time because we're living in an age where There's so many human individuals alive on this planet and we're all subject to our conditioning, to the way we've been conditioned to think and perceive ourselves and the world that we live in. Report an error in the passage at 1:24 Highlight the passage at 1:24

1:50 And of course the very conditioning process, you know, we get the kind of attitudes, prejudices, biases, assumptions from our, you know, after we're born. We acquire them from our parents, from our social background, our societies. And some are good, some aren't very good, some are true, some are false. Report an error in the passage at 1:50 Highlight the passage at 1:50

2:15 But this is where the Buddha placed his emphasis on mindfulness or awareness. I use these words interchangeably. And this is a simple, imminent act of being attentive in the present because this is... The reality that we can verify at this present moment is here and now. Whether it's things of the past or memories that arise now. Report an error in the passage at 2:15 Highlight the passage at 2:15

2:48 So everything that's happened to you before, good, bad, indifferent, it might come into your consciousness at this moment, but it's a memory. And it's what you remember. We have retentive memories. We have to remember that which has happened to us, that which we've done, or which has happened to us in the past. Report an error in the passage at 2:48 Highlight the passage at 2:48

3:13 And in the future is what we don't know. Say, right now, sitting here, the future is what hasn't happened yet, what we don't remember. But we can project all kinds of possibilities into the future of success, failure, happiness, suffering, whatever. And of course our projections tend to be based on what we, of our memories from the past, our expectations, our hopes, our longings, our fears, what we dread. Report an error in the passage at 3:13 Highlight the passage at 3:13

3:47 So the emphasis of sati, or what in Pāli language, sati or mindfulness, awareness, is this simple natural ability that we all have as human individuals to Report an error in the passage at 3:47 Highlight the passage at 3:47

4:05 Listen, pay attention and be alert. And so what I say, you know, the words that I'm using, it has its effect on your consciousness. Since I'm the one that's speaking now, sitting in this seat, and you're looking at me and listening to me. Report an error in the passage at 4:05 Highlight the passage at 4:05

4:28 So it's having an effect on your conscious experience at this very moment. And so that's what I'm pointing to. To be aware of the way it is rather than to maybe just spend your time thinking whether you agree or disagree or whatever your emotional reactions or habit patterns might be. Report an error in the passage at 4:28 Highlight the passage at 4:28

4:53 The basic fact of this very moment is that each one of us is a conscious being. Whether we're male or female or From whatever ethnic background or religion or whatever the separative conditions might be, we share this conscious moment. We're all experiencing consciousness. Now this is natural consciousness. You don't create it. It's not something you create out of cultural conditioning or personal preference. Report an error in the passage at 4:53 Highlight the passage at 4:53

5:33 When a baby is born, It's born as a conscious being. It doesn't have an identity yet. It doesn't think as soon as it's born, oh, I'm a little English baby, or I'm a boy or a girl. I mean, you acquire those identities after you're born. But when you're born, you are experiencing this natural reality of consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 5:33 Highlight the passage at 5:33

6:00 So this is a fact that we can verify at this very moment. Every one of us, unless you're unconscious, but I assume you're all conscious at this moment. So consciousness is natural to the human condition. This we share with all creatures in fact, not only with other human beings but with the animals and nature in general. Report an error in the passage at 6:00 Highlight the passage at 6:00

6:29 This is natural reality. Report an error in the passage at 6:29 Highlight the passage at 6:29

6:33 And another fact is that we're experiencing consciousness through the particular form that we have, the body. So you're experiencing consciousness from where you're sitting at this moment. And so this is so obvious, and yet many people never really recognize the significance of this. I've never seen the reality of this, where our reality can be with that which is not very real, like our own views, our opinions, our preferences, our fears and desires, our habit patterns. Report an error in the passage at 6:33 Highlight the passage at 6:33

7:18 And so we can live in a self-created world that we think is real, based on fear, based on anger, resentment, greed. greed. Report an error in the passage at 7:18 Highlight the passage at 7:18

7:31 Mistaken identities, prejudices, biases, and that's why in modern life we have all the problems, social problems, political problems, economic problems, religious problems, terrorists, and the various wars that seem to go on endlessly. And when one war is finished, another one begins, all based on delusion. A war is never based on delusion. Report an error in the passage at 7:31 Highlight the passage at 7:31

8:00 Understanding Dhamma or knowing reality, but based on assumptions, on prejudices, on conditioning of the individual consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 8:00 Highlight the passage at 8:00

8:14 So when you recognize the significance of this, you begin to feel the kind of pathos of this realm that we're living in, because we have this potential for enlightenment, for seeing things as they are. And this is... This very teaching is an ancient teaching. It's not like modern kind of idea. So Buddhism is, as we regard it, is very kind of ancient religion. Report an error in the passage at 8:14 Highlight the passage at 8:14

8:43 Not a modern teaching or something new. It's not new age. This was related to us, to the human population in India, 2,550 years ago. So, I mean, it's been around for a long time. And yet, this reality that the Buddha pointed to is subtle, meaning it's so obvious that we ignore it, because our lives can be so conditioned to always live our lives for something else, for the future. Report an error in the passage at 8:43 Highlight the passage at 8:43

9:21 Like modern life here in the West tends to be working now to get something in the future. The reality of now can only be important to us, say, under emotional stress, such as when your life is in danger, something in you forgets about the future and the past, and your main interest is self-preservation, survival. Report an error in the passage at 9:21 Highlight the passage at 9:21

9:54 So under surviving conditions, there tends to be an instinctual kind of intelligence that takes over for just learning to survive, learning to live in a life-threatening situation, to escape danger. But in the ordinary humdrum life that most of us have, daily life here in England, Report an error in the passage at 9:54 Highlight the passage at 9:54

10:21 If things are stable enough to where we don't feel we're on the edge of survival, most of us, we live our lives in a sense of security. And we want security. We want this feeling that the government's stable, the economy's good, and that everything's going to be all right. That everything will get better and better. It's the idea that progress is what we want. Report an error in the passage at 10:21 Highlight the passage at 10:21

10:47 everything to increase and get better and better for us, and richer. the problems solved, all difficulties overcome, our lives in the future will be some kind of state. So the Buddha was pointing to the way it is. is the way... Report an error in the passage at 10:47 Highlight the passage at 10:47

11:16 The way this conditioned realm is, not the way it should be, or even the Buddha would like it to be, or the way anyone wants it to be, but the way it is. And so this is where the Buddha was emphasizing just this simple truth that all condition, phenomena, all phenomena is impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 11:16 Highlight the passage at 11:16

11:43 Because this The characteristic of impermanency is common to all conditions, whether it's the physical body, whether it's thoughts or emotions, memories, feelings, whether it's through the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, or the body, pleasure, pain. Report an error in the passage at 11:43 Highlight the passage at 11:43

12:10 One thing that we can all recognize is that at this moment whatever you're thinking, that very thinking process is a changing reality. Its reality is change. No matter what you're thinking or what emotion you happen to feel at this very moment, whether you're happy or sad or whatever, that emotional reaction, memories, Worry, doubts, fears, desires, whatever conditions arise that you experience in consciousness is the common characteristic is there in this process of change. Report an error in the passage at 12:10 Highlight the passage at 12:10

12:51 So this attention to the present, this mindfulness in the present is learning to recognize the importance of mindfulness in which Report an error in the passage at 12:51 Highlight the passage at 12:51

13:31 carry resentment, anger and hatred about Unfairness that we've experienced or injustices or terrible things that may have happened to us in the past. Or the present media seem to inform us of the most kind of ominous prospects for the future. Climate change and just look what's happened to England in the past few days. Terrible weather patterns and... Report an error in the passage at 13:31 Highlight the passage at 13:31

14:06 Changing conditions that we have no control over because this planet, this planetary system that we're experiencing in this very moment is, the reality of it is that it's changing. There's nothing stable in it or fixed. Its very nature is changed. And so our ability as a human individual to observe change and so the awakened consciousness is our ability to To be the observer of change. And how do things change? Things don't get better and better, better and better, better and better. Report an error in the passage at 14:06 Highlight the passage at 14:06

14:52 They get better and better, and then they get to the best, and then what happens? After the best, they don't get better than best, using the limitation of the English language. Report an error in the passage at 14:52 Highlight the passage at 14:52

15:07 But after they've reached the peak, the best, let's say the best is the peak, then it's... other, and it gets Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced way it is that the body Report an error in the passage at 15:07 Highlight the passage at 15:07

16:22 That is our refuge, that is the only possible refuge where we can free ourselves from the delusions, from the habit patterns, from the assumptions, from the prejudices, biases, fears, and that that we might have, that we might create in our consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 16:22 Highlight the passage at 16:22

16:48 So in meditation over the years you can see one who becomes very committed to this way of looking begins to see the reoccurrence of same old thoughts, fears, habits, conditions arising and the way that one's emotions are affected that you've developed over your life. So even at In your old age you could still have the same reactions you had when you were 15 years old. Report an error in the passage at 16:48 Highlight the passage at 16:48

17:22 You know, because you tend to develop our characters by, they are a teenage, they tend to get kind of fixed into some kind of committed ego or sense of this is what I am, this person, this personality. Report an error in the passage at 17:22 Highlight the passage at 17:22

17:44 So the Buddha encouraged us to investigate this very This very concept of personality, the sense of self as identified with the body, the sense of self as identified with our emotional habits. Like living in a community here at Amaravati where you have many different people living together, we have different reactions to things, to the same thing. Report an error in the passage at 17:44 Highlight the passage at 17:44

18:11 So we sometimes baffle each other or frustrate each other or irritate each other because We think, you know, the way I react to something is what's normal and if somebody has a different one, there's something wrong with them. Or I can say, maybe I'm abnormal and they're okay, I'm the one that's off. But all this is based on a sense of identity with a physical body and with the conditions of thoughts and emotions that I've acquired after I was born. Report an error in the passage at 18:11 Highlight the passage at 18:11

18:46 Again, at this very moment, emphasizing the reality of this moment is that consciousness, we're all experiencing consciousness, that consciousness is not personal yet. It's not like my consciousness and your consciousness are two different things. Now don't believe me, this is for a reflection. Then you create your separative sense by saying, I think, I feel, my feelings, my view, my opinion, my body. And so through this very thinking process, which is we can think because we remember. Report an error in the passage at 18:46 Highlight the passage at 18:46

19:32 Like language is all about memory, isn't it? You remember who you are and you remember what your identities are. And you tend to regard that as your security. I don't know how many people I meet and situations that I hear about where people are always searching for an identity with something. We want to know who we are. Who am I? What is my real nature? Where do I belong? What should I do with my life? Report an error in the passage at 19:32 Highlight the passage at 19:32

20:13 And so we seek an identity maybe in... We want certitude to really know who I am and define myself on a personal level. Report an error in the passage at 20:13 Highlight the passage at 20:13

20:25 So we'll settle for anything, almost any identity. Some people identify with things that I wouldn't... If I had a choice, I wouldn't want to be bothered identifying with them. But at least, even if you think you're the world's most stupid person... Report an error in the passage at 20:25 Highlight the passage at 20:25

20:44 There's something secure in that identity. Report an error in the passage at 20:44 Highlight the passage at 20:44

20:51 It puts you in your place and you know who you are. You're the world's most stupid person in relationship to the rest. Or maybe it goes the other extreme. I'm the greatest gift. God's gift to humanity is the other extremity. But in terms of the reality of just pure consciousness at this moment, there is a recognition. Report an error in the passage at 20:51 Highlight the passage at 20:51

21:17 Consciousness is knowing, it's ability to know, and ability to discern. We can discern. Like at this very moment, just through consciousness, I discern this moment. It's like this. I'm not saying that whether this moment is good, bad, right or wrong, pleasant or painful, but it's like this. And this way of reflecting, this is the way that the Buddha encouraged us to do, to awaken to this. Report an error in the passage at 21:17 Highlight the passage at 21:17

21:51 Rather than always coming from some emotional reaction or some habitual pattern of thinking or some axe to grind or some scenario that you're attached and some belief that you're committed to. Report an error in the passage at 21:51 Highlight the passage at 21:51

22:10 So sati, sampatanya, these are the Pāli words, these are very significant in the Theravāda school of Buddhism because this is a ancient language of India. So it's no longer a very active language. It's just used in Theravāda academic traditions. But it does have its value because it doesn't acquire new meanings. Report an error in the passage at 22:10 Highlight the passage at 22:10

22:46 But it also gives us a chance to reflect even on the use of our own translations of these words. Because when we talk about awareness or mindfulness or words of this nature, what do we really mean? We can think, you know, I remember when I first started practicing meditation, I kept thinking about mindfulness, yes, yes. Report an error in the passage at 22:46 Highlight the passage at 22:46

23:09 I thought I understood what it was. But then I started reflecting, what does that really mean? And so I assumed that because my whole conditioning, my education, My cultural conditioning was all based on concentrating on things, grasping concepts, ideas, holding to views, questioning, doubting, investigating, and analyzing. Report an error in the passage at 23:09 Highlight the passage at 23:09

23:46 And these activities were all done through some kind of assumption from the very beginning, like I am somebody who... Ajahn Sumedho is studying some subject and I must concentrate on this subject in order to acquire the knowledge that this subject will give me. So I go through the educational systems, read the, now this is the age of information is available. Report an error in the passage at 23:46 Highlight the passage at 23:46

24:14 Too much information, isn't it? We're glutted, even here in a monastery. I get stacks, stacks and stacks of Information every week. And if I want to know anything, I just say to one of the monks, I'd like to know something about this, and they can go get it on internet immediately. Report an error in the passage at 24:14 Highlight the passage at 24:14

24:39 So I was told by someone, I should take first pressed olive oil as a kind of part of my diet. First pressed olive oil. And this man said, but it's very difficult to get. Report an error in the passage at 24:39 Highlight the passage at 24:39

24:57 So anyway, when I came back to UK, I told them I need to get first-pressed olive. Nobody knew what it was. So then, of course, we found out that it's called extra virgin olive oil. So then Ajahn Sumedho went on the internet and got me a whole pack of papers on what extra virgin first-pressed olive oil is. Report an error in the passage at 24:57 Highlight the passage at 24:57

25:25 I'm flattered, you know. This is like magic, isn't it? What is this? And then you can find all about it, all the information necessary. Report an error in the passage at 25:25 Highlight the passage at 25:25

25:38 So I have all kinds of information, some of it good, like knowing about olive oil, probably a good one to remember. Some of the other things are rather unimportant or even foolish. But information that we acquire from outside, it's like... We acquire knowledge from outside ourselves. Even religion can be the acquisition of doctrines, dogmas, teachings from outside. Report an error in the passage at 25:38 Highlight the passage at 25:38

26:11 We've not verified the reality of these teachings in our own experience of life. We're merely adopting what somebody tells us, what they say in the holy texts or the priesthood or the monkhood, the guru or the teacher. Report an error in the passage at 26:11 Highlight the passage at 26:11

26:34 where there's so much controversy and interest among different religions in this country. Because Britain now is a country that hasn't just the security of just one controllable religion like it used to have. Report an error in the passage at 26:34 Highlight the passage at 26:34

26:54 Now every, you know, everyone, every kind kind of religious ...possibility is allowed. He called them cults or sects or traditional religions or orthodox religions or acceptable or unacceptable. Report an error in the passage at 26:54 Highlight the passage at 26:54

27:12 But yet, notice how even with the teaching of the Buddha, how the dhamma, the teaching of dhamma becomes Buddhism in the general... This is the only way of reference in this country. We talk about Buddhism and that word includes anything that you might have any connection whatsoever, however spurious it might be, to anything called Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 27:12 Highlight the passage at 27:12

27:43 Fair enough, I'm not objecting to that, but pointing out that these words are generic. And then many people want to define Buddhism. What is a real Buddhist? Then you get the hard liners like a Buddhist has to keep the five precepts. Take the three refuges and the five precepts, believe in the law of karma and that there's no self. And if you don't believe that and you don't keep the five precepts or take the three refuges, you're not a Buddhist. Report an error in the passage at 27:43 Highlight the passage at 27:43

28:14 So then that's one of the hard-line type of Buddhists. Report an error in the passage at 28:14 Highlight the passage at 28:14

28:22 And then, of course, whoever wants to say they're Buddhists can say so. You're not going to be persecuted. And who can object? Can we kind of excommunicate you because you don't keep the five precepts? Report an error in the passage at 28:22 Highlight the passage at 28:22

28:43 So reflecting on this, Buddhism itself is taking a word out of the Pāli Sanskrit tradition and putting it into an English... Report an error in the passage at 28:43 Highlight the passage at 28:43

28:57 pattern, Buddhism. So, in other words, "-ism always implies there's something about Buddha." Report an error in the passage at 28:57 Highlight the passage at 28:57

29:06 What is Buddha? What is the Dhamma? these two words have more significance because then we're not talking about a prophet or a sage or enlightened being of the past. Report an error in the passage at 29:06 Highlight the passage at 29:06

29:24 Well, we can. We can believe that there was a Buddha 2,550 years ago in India. And then we can believe it or disbelieve it. We can appreciate it or be inspired by that or just dismiss it. You know, whatever way our mind tends to regard this word. But when I use the word Buddha, what I'm using this word for is This awakened consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 29:24 Highlight the passage at 29:24

29:56 Now this, taking a word like Buddha, and then making it work for you, so you're not just grasping some sense of yourself as being just another identity, a Buddhist, but recognizing this word means, actually literally means awakened, awakened consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 29:56 Highlight the passage at 29:56

30:23 The Buddha is, or Buddha actually literally means awake. And so each one of us, you know, has this ability to awaken here in the present moment, to be alert, attentive, present, and witnessing, observing the dhamma. And this word dhamma is the... Report an error in the passage at 30:23 Highlight the passage at 30:23

30:50 It's hard to define because it's indefinable, but to kind of give a taste of the truth of the way it is. So I'm not telling you the truth of the way it is. I'm not saying you have to believe in my particular view of dharma, but pointing to the way it is. So during this time, the aim is to encourage you, to empower you, or encourage you to trust awakened attention. Report an error in the passage at 30:50 Highlight the passage at 30:50

31:22 In the present, begin to recognize it. Being aware of even your own, you know, your physical body, your breathing, your mood, the state of your mind, your emotional quality that you're experiencing this very moment. Being alert and awake to the way it is. And then the conditions that you're experiencing, the physical, sensory, emotional, intellectual conditions, Report an error in the passage at 31:22 Highlight the passage at 31:22

31:54 You're aware of them. You're aware of thought. You're aware of feeling happy or sad. You're aware of feeling pleasure or pain through your body, through your senses. Report an error in the passage at 31:54 Highlight the passage at 31:54

32:08 When something happens where you feel pain, you're aware of pain. Report an error in the passage at 32:08 Highlight the passage at 32:08

32:15 And yet if we're not aware, if we don't value awareness, we tend to just be caught in reactive patterns to it. So we're creatures of habit. And if we don't, awake and then we just continue our lives till we drop dead, repeating the same habits over and over again. Here we go again. Report an error in the passage at 32:15 Highlight the passage at 32:15

32:39 The same old thing. How many times in your mind? It'll be 73 next week. 73 years complete. Here we go again. Report an error in the passage at 32:39 Highlight the passage at 32:39

32:58 I haven't had a long time to observe this. Because, you know, I've been a monk for over 40 years now, and the whole emphasis of monastic lifestyle is to develop and to cultivate this awareness. So that it's not just, you know, like a special retreat where conditions are controlled, but it integrates into the flow and movement of life, wherever I am, whether I'm here or... Report an error in the passage at 32:58 Highlight the passage at 32:58

33:32 A couple of weeks ago I was in Siberia. And now that's only a memory. But when I was in Siberia, Amaravati was a memory. Report an error in the passage at 33:32 Highlight the passage at 33:32

33:44 Because when you're in Siberia, you remember Amaravati, and now I'm remembering Siberia. So this is a way of observing. This is a perception. That place they call Siberia doesn't say it is that. We call it that. Report an error in the passage at 33:44 Highlight the passage at 33:44

34:05 During the two weeks I was there, it didn't say, I am Siberia. I said, you're Siberia. Report an error in the passage at 34:05 Highlight the passage at 34:05

34:16 And it's interesting what that word, the fact that word has on the consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 34:16 Highlight the passage at 34:16

34:23 Talking to some of the monks, even in Sri Lanka, they use the word Siberia for the place you most don't want to be. Report an error in the passage at 34:23 Highlight the passage at 34:23

34:39 And I remember referring, I lived in the northeast Thailand, in the Isan of Thailand for 10 years. And I used to refer to that as the Siberia of Thailand. Report an error in the passage at 34:39 Highlight the passage at 34:39

34:51 Because in the old days, now it's become quite modern. But say 40 years ago, it was, you know, Thai people living in Bangkok. The last place they wanted to go was northeast Thailand. Report an error in the passage at 34:51 Highlight the passage at 34:51

35:06 And yet when you're in Siberia, you know, the weather was great, beautiful scenery, Lake Baikal, and, you know, it wasn't that much different. Certainly, you know, it wasn't a painful, unpleasant experience at all. In fact, I enjoyed it. And yet, so now the word Siberia doesn't have the same effect. I think of Siberia, oh, that was a nice place. Report an error in the passage at 35:06 Highlight the passage at 35:06

35:31 place. Report an error in the passage at 35:31 Highlight the passage at 35:31

35:35 But if I had been put in a gulag in some terrible place in Siberia, I imagine, and I managed to get out of it, I would still hold memories of Siberia as a terrible place. Report an error in the passage at 35:35 Highlight the passage at 35:35

35:52 Now, pleasure and pain, feeling secure and insecure. One of the greatest fears and anxieties we have is the fear of losing control. ...of being out of control, of things that we can't control will take us over, that we'll lose our minds, we'll go crazy. We'll have anarchy here in Britain. Everything will fall apart, we'll lose control of our lives. Everything that we depend on and identify with will be taken away from us. Report an error in the passage at 35:52 Highlight the passage at 35:52

36:31 When you think of what fear... It really does, the possibility of losing what we depend on, our identities, that which we depend on for comfort or security, sense of certainty. Report an error in the passage at 36:31 Highlight the passage at 36:31

36:48 And yet this very age, it always seems rather ironic, that after the Soviet Union collapsed, and where we had all our fears about communism, Now it's terrorism. And terrorism is even more frightening than communism. Because, you know, it could be out there. Report an error in the passage at 36:48 Highlight the passage at 36:48

37:17 How do you know? There's not some horrible terrorist about ready to set a bomb off here in the Salah. I mean, whatever you imagine is possible. And it's not contained in one place called Siberia or Russia or any place like that. Report an error in the passage at 37:17 Highlight the passage at 37:17

37:35 In fact, Britain seems to be pretty good at producing its own terrorists. They don't have to import them from the Middle East. Report an error in the passage at 37:35 Highlight the passage at 37:35

37:47 And this fear, this creates a sense of fear that is very much the ambience of our time. You can see it, you hear it on the radio, in the news, read it in the newspapers. least so Report an error in the passage at 37:47 Highlight the passage at 37:47

38:15 There's so much fear generated into the population and this makes us insecure. Report an error in the passage at 38:15 Highlight the passage at 38:15

38:23 notice how much we want security, how security is our greatest desire. So even an identity, to know our place, place at least it's I know who I am I know where I belong that sense of security Report an error in the passage at 38:23 Highlight the passage at 38:23

38:44 do people feel insecure around all these refugees, immigrants coming into Britain? because the sense of security is being threatened. We would like to be like we would, you know, we have an idea of what we would like it to be, or what we... We remember it has been that we felt secure when it was, say, when we were children or when we, you know, years ago before all these immigration problems arose. Report an error in the passage at 38:44 Highlight the passage at 38:44

39:21 We would like to have the sense of control and security. And now things seem to be getting out of control and insecure. Now insecurity is something you can observe. Report an error in the passage at 39:21 Highlight the passage at 39:21

39:36 You know, when this feeling arises, I've trained myself to receive it, this feeling of being threatened by somebody or something, feeling uncertain, insecure, confused, Report an error in the passage at 39:36 Highlight the passage at 39:36

39:54 not knowing what to do, not knowing where my place is, who I am, is like this. Now notice when you... This is just a way of reflecting. Feeling uncertain, insecure, inadequate is like this. Report an error in the passage at 39:54 Highlight the passage at 39:54

40:20 And what I'm doing now is just observing. Report an error in the passage at 40:20 Highlight the passage at 40:20

40:25 Now that tends to be an emotion we don't like and we're conditioned to always struggle away from it because it's very frightening to us. Report an error in the passage at 40:25 Highlight the passage at 40:25

40:38 Something we most human beings don't want to have that. Feeling of insecurity. And of course in the affluent world, in the affluent countries, it's all based on this sense of trying to feel as secure as possible. Have guarantees, have stable governments and abundant economies and democratic systems. And even if we prefer maybe dictatorships that offer security. Report an error in the passage at 40:38 Highlight the passage at 40:38

41:09 Like Iraq was much more secure under Saddam. Report an error in the passage at 41:09 Highlight the passage at 41:09

41:14 Much more sure of what was going to happen than anyone can be now. But the Buddha encourages us to recognize just this feeling of insecurity, not to do anything about it or even claim it, but just recognize, observe, be the observer, the knower of this insecurity. And so then this he called the first noble truth. Report an error in the passage at 41:14 Highlight the passage at 41:14

41:45 He called it a noble truth, not something wrong with you or wrong with the world, but he put it into a category that if we begin to observe and receive this, or what we call dukkha in Pāli, or commonly translated in English as suffering, Report an error in the passage at 41:45 Highlight the passage at 41:45

42:09 but you can also use the word insecurity, uncertainty. So in order to To recognize this feeling, rather than just react to it, this way of mindfulness, opening to insecurity, recognizing it's like this. And then, if you're willing to allow insecurity into your consciousness without reacting to it, you'll see it cease. Report an error in the passage at 42:09 Highlight the passage at 42:09

42:42 Insecurity is not permanent. It's not something that... That is a constant factor. But we can constantly feel insecure and have habit patterns where we're constantly trying to run away from it. Always seeking security when we feel insecure. Now, modern life is such that we can. We have so many opportunities for distracting ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 42:42 Highlight the passage at 42:42

43:12 Nowadays, it's incredible. Incredible, you know, just the fantastic technology. It's magical. You know, the internet, that's pure magic. Report an error in the passage at 43:12 Highlight the passage at 43:12

43:27 in the least I depend on on other monks do it for me because I'm too lazy to try to figure it out also I'm not interested enough to do it but Report an error in the passage at 43:27 Highlight the passage at 43:27

43:49 It does, you know, it's easy to distract into something, to anything, like television, for example. Now, I don't watch, I haven't watched television for years and years since I've been a monk, so, but when I do happen to be in a situation where I'm watching British television, I'm glad I don't have to look at it. Report an error in the passage at 43:49 Highlight the passage at 43:49

44:14 And yet, how many people spend their lives sitting in front of a television set? You know, because if they don't have something like that to distract themselves with, then they feel insecure. So just notice in your own life how much, you know, how much we run away from this feeling by seeking something, even if it's rather silly, like all these, a lot of the television programs, Big Brother I hear, and things like this. Report an error in the passage at 44:14 Highlight the passage at 44:14

44:44 Gossip, you know. We can gossip about others and we can always eat something or drink something or telephone your friends or do something to distract ourselves from this feeling of dukkha or insecurity. So what I'm encouraging you to do is to take time to observe this feeling. And to observe it means you accept it. Report an error in the passage at 44:44 Highlight the passage at 44:44

45:18 You're not trying to, you're no longer trying to get rid of it. To accept something, to understand something, you have to accept it for what it is. It doesn't mean liking it, it means it's like this. So feeling insecure is like this. And the more and more that you begin to appreciate this ability, then you begin to recognize that suffering is impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 45:18 Highlight the passage at 45:18

45:46 You begin to have the insights. Through understanding the Dhamma, through knowing the Dhamma as reality rather than your perceptions, your fears, your desires, your assumptions. Report an error in the passage at 45:46 Highlight the passage at 45:46

46:05 And so in this reference of Buddha Dhamma, Dhamma is the way it is. And then the way it is, the Buddha points to characteristics of the way, not defining the way it is. That you have to believe that everything is impermanent. So it's not a belief. To be a Buddhist, the Buddha said everything is impermanent, so it's impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 46:05 Highlight the passage at 46:05

46:34 But this is merely a way of looking at experience that generally we don't recognize, we don't use. We tend to feel like the sense of oneself on the ego level. level of personality. We tend to see ourselves as Report an error in the passage at 46:34 Highlight the passage at 46:34

47:26 You're the same all the time. When I think of Sister Bodhipala, whether she's sitting here or she's in her room, she's the same person all the time. But in terms of dhamma, I see this is a memory, that's a memory I have, and attachment to that memory gives it a permanency that it doesn't really have. Report an error in the passage at 47:26 Highlight the passage at 47:26

47:56 It's functional. You use it in terms of conventional relationships and agreements, how to live in a community on this planet. But in terms of truth, it's only a memory. That Ajahn Sumedho is a memory. And that memory arises and ceases. And when there's no Ajahn Sumedho, there's still consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 47:56 Highlight the passage at 47:56

48:31 Another identity is nationality. So I identify that American monk. That's me. So I've lived in England 30 years, but I'm still known as that American monk. Because that's the perception that people have. That's how they define me. And then I can define myself. I'm the American monk. Report an error in the passage at 48:31 Highlight the passage at 48:31

49:05 I've lived in Britain longer than I have in America. But I still find it hard to refer myself as a British monk because the habit is so strong of being American monks. But noticing that it doesn't really matter one or the other is good enough because they're no longer what I depend on for reality, for identity. Report an error in the passage at 49:05 Highlight the passage at 49:05

49:29 They're merely conventional ...perceptions that are used in various situations. Like when I go to the United States, I don't use the British passport, I use the American one. Report an error in the passage at 49:29 Highlight the passage at 49:29

49:48 And when I come back to Britain, I don't use the American one, I use the British one. So it's dependent, isn't it, on the conditions. Report an error in the passage at 49:48 Highlight the passage at 49:48

50:01 It's easier to maneuver in the system. You have two passports. watch. Report an error in the passage at 50:01 Highlight the passage at 50:01

50:07 I went to Chile a few years ago. And if you're American, if you go into Chile on an American passport, you have to pay $100 when you go in. Report an error in the passage at 50:07 Highlight the passage at 50:07

50:20 Well, amongst, we don't have any money. But if you're British, you don't have to pay anything. Report an error in the passage at 50:20 Highlight the passage at 50:20

50:30 So it's just common sense, isn't it? Now that's dependent, isn't it, in terms of when I write on the form, the entrance form for immigration. anything. Report an error in the passage at 50:30 Highlight the passage at 50:30

50:40 immigration as a nationality. So this is just pointing out what relativity is, in terms of qualities and conditions, and that they vary according to other conditions. And this is also the essence of Buddhism. How things arise and cease. How the sense of yourself arises and ceases. Like being happy or sad depends on conditions. Report an error in the passage at 50:40 Highlight the passage at 50:40

51:14 If somebody's abusing, treating me badly, insulting me or hitting me or something, it doesn't make me experience happiness. Report an error in the passage at 51:14 Highlight the passage at 51:14

51:30 Maybe you're different. Report an error in the passage at 51:30 Highlight the passage at 51:30

51:38 Or when somebody is praising me and everything's going right and it's sunny weather and beautiful flowers and I feel healthy, it's hard for me to, I mean I don't feel sad, I feel happy. Because the conditions for happiness are present or the conditions for anger or sadness or resentment or fear, jealousy. Report an error in the passage at 51:38 Highlight the passage at 51:38

52:10 And so who is it that observes this? Ask yourself, what is it that observes these changing conditions? And of course, in Buddhist terms they say, the Buddha knows the dhamma. Or translated into English, it means consciousness. Consciousness doesn't have a nationality, is not dependent on conditions. Report an error in the passage at 52:10 Highlight the passage at 52:10

52:39 We experience consciousness through this form. So the conditions that we are experiencing now are from this body. I feel the pressures and pleasant or painful feelings from this body at this time. But consciousness is aware of those sensations. And consciousness is the same whether I'm in Siberia or here or whether it's sunny or cold and wet or I'm being praised or blamed for something. Report an error in the passage at 52:39 Highlight the passage at 52:39

53:14 So this is where your refuge is in this awareness. When we talk about refuge or safe place to be in Buddhism, it means we talk about the three refuges, Buddha, Dhamma, Saṅgha. So this is a kind of traditional chart. I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dhamma, I take refuge in the Saṅgha. Report an error in the passage at 53:14 Highlight the passage at 53:14

53:38 What does this really mean? You know, is this just tradition or Theravāda Buddhism? Is it just, you know, chanting for no reason? Is it just belief in things you can't prove? Report an error in the passage at 53:38 Highlight the passage at 53:38

53:57 Or do you have to believe that there's a Buddha, Dhamma, Saṅgha? Is something, you know, out there, something you can't really define, but something you may believe in? Report an error in the passage at 53:57 Highlight the passage at 53:57

54:14 And so, then taking this refuge in Buddha Dhamma Saṅgha, so it actually isn't grasping the concepts anymore. Not grasping the concept of Buddha, but what is Buddha here and now? The reality of here and now. If I'm going to take, if there's a refuge in this very moment, while I'm sitting here talking to you, where I'm free from self, free from suffering, it's in awareness. Report an error in the passage at 54:14 Highlight the passage at 54:14

54:45 It doesn't mean I don't feel anything. It doesn't mean that I am not feeling anything at this time, or I have no emotions at this time, but awareness behind the feeling, the emotion, the memory, the body itself, the pleasure-pain of this present moment, consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 54:45 Highlight the passage at 54:45

55:08 And consciousness is also intelligence. You don't become kind of a zombie or some kind of... It's something that can't relate to the present, but it's the ultimate reality. It's a natural ability each human being has. Report an error in the passage at 55:08 Highlight the passage at 55:08

55:31 It's possible, this possibility, through awareness, to recognize reality. So it's very interesting, you know, you hear on Radio 4, Report an error in the passage at 55:31 Highlight the passage at 55:31

56:06 is there or isn't there then there's so many intelligent people in this country that believe there is and that believe there isn't Report an error in the passage at 56:06 Highlight the passage at 56:06

56:18 so you know then you Then you find, you know, what do you mean by God? What is that? And then, of course, most of us who are brought up in having to go to Sunday school or something like that, we've got rather childish visions. You know, I was brought up as a Christian, where God was a kind of supreme patriarch. Report an error in the passage at 56:18 Highlight the passage at 56:18

56:43 You know, the judge sitting up there telling you you were a bad boy. Report an error in the passage at 56:43 Highlight the passage at 56:43

56:51 So that, you know, that's a child's version, isn't it? But then it's God, can you define, you know, what do you mean by God? Can you prove it? According to the atheists, you've got to prove there is. But then one's coming from this whole sense of a self, I'm somebody who has to prove something I believe in. Report an error in the passage at 56:51 Highlight the passage at 56:51

57:16 And so this way of reflecting and observing resolves this problem. The problem disappears because... You're not trying to define the indefinable or what is undefined. You're beginning to recognize consciousness which has no definition to it. It has no boundary to it. Somebody said it's a point reducible to no dimensions. Report an error in the passage at 57:16 Highlight the passage at 57:16

57:54 Try to figure that one out. Report an error in the passage at 57:54 Highlight the passage at 57:54

58:01 So I figured that one out. I found that very fascinating. So I put that into, you know, trying to contemplate that. And of course it means awareness. Report an error in the passage at 58:01 Highlight the passage at 58:01

58:11 That's how I experience it, awareness. Because this awareness is not a creation. I can't make myself aware through trying to become aware, but recognizing. Report an error in the passage at 58:11 Highlight the passage at 58:11

58:26 So it's a different thing than trying to... See myself as somebody who's not aware that needs to practice in order to become aware or become more aware. Remember in my early days as a monk, I kept thinking, I'm not aware enough. I make too many mistakes. I'm clumsy. If I were really aware, I'd be perfect. Report an error in the passage at 58:26 Highlight the passage at 58:26

58:54 So I had this idea of awareness as an ideal that I have to... Practice awareness and become more and more aware. And I remember some of the futile experiments I've tried, trying to make myself aware. Report an error in the passage at 58:54 Highlight the passage at 58:54

59:17 And failing every time. You know, when I think I'm most aware, I'm not. Because I'm really lost in this. I haven't really challenged or cut through the basic delusion. I'm still operating from I am somebody who needs to become. Something like being more aware. Now awareness is as simple as this, being aware of your own assumption. Report an error in the passage at 59:17 Highlight the passage at 59:17

59:46 So I started recognizing I think I'm somebody who is not very aware and needs to practice awareness to become more aware in the future. What is that? I created that scenario, didn't I? I am somebody, you know, I'm not good enough the way I am now. Report an error in the passage at 59:46 Highlight the passage at 59:46

1:00:09 And I've got to practice hard in order to become somebody who's good enough. Well, those are all concepts, isn't it, based on the sense of self. I am somebody is a sense of self. Or I'm not anybody is another one. So whether you think you're somebody or you're nobody, it's the same thing, really, because that is still conditioning of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:09 Highlight the passage at 1:00:09

1:00:38 To get outside the conditioning, the habit patterns, here we go again, scenarios, is to trust yourself to be aware of them. It's not to judge them or criticize them, but to recognize them. Now if you trust yourself enough to do this, then you begin to see, you break through, you begin to notice. That which is aware of self is not self. This awareness, I can't claim as on a personal level, I can't go around saying I'm really aware. I'm more aware now than I was 40 years ago. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:38 Highlight the passage at 1:00:38

1:01:20 It doesn't make sense. Or that I'm somebody who has become enlightened or after 40 years I'm not enlightened yet. I'm still struggling. These are still concepts of self. I am enlightened or I'm not enlightened. Now awareness allows This perspective, to see this sense of I am as an object in consciousness, it has no permanency. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:20 Highlight the passage at 1:01:20

1:01:53 You have to think it. I am enlightened, I am unenlightened. You have to think it. And then you think and you believe what you're thinking. But if you're aware of this as a perception, it is what it is, Report an error in the passage at 1:01:53 Highlight the passage at 1:01:53

1:02:15 Without judging it, saying it's right or wrong, good or bad, it is what it is. It's impermanent because you can't sustain it. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:15 Highlight the passage at 1:02:15

1:02:25 You can't keep the thought, I am unenlightened as a kind of permanent state. You can believe you are as an ongoing assumption. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:25 Highlight the passage at 1:02:25

1:02:36 Or to believe that you are enlightened on a personal level. Let's say our true nature is enlightened. Pure consciousness is enlightened. Pure consciousness is not personal. It's not something that I have more of than you do, because I've been a monk for 40 years. And if I start saying that, you know I'm not. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:36 Highlight the passage at 1:02:36

1:03:09 Of course, this is why there is this interest in Buddhism now, in the teaching of the Buddha. Many of us are increasingly more aware of just the inadequacy of just even our own conditioned intelligence, how disillusioned we've become with Western science and logic and reason, all the kind of great gifts of the intellect that we've developed, and yet we still feel terribly insecure with it. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:09 Highlight the passage at 1:03:09

1:03:44 Even with good mind, high intellect, Good education is not the answer. It's not liberation. So liberation is through this awakened attention to the present. So this afternoon, the tea is appearing on the servery. And Kulada, she never fails. She's got a grandchild. I thought she wouldn't be here, but she's here. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:44 Highlight the passage at 1:03:44

1:04:28 So much we appreciate. Over these many years, she's always here bringing out the tea at the right time. So I invite you all to have some tea and in 20 minutes or so, if you're so interested, we can have a discussion. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:28 Highlight the passage at 1:04:28