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Key passages
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- 3:42
Sampatanya includes fogginess, includes confusion, includes uncertainty, insecurity. So it's a clear comprehension or the apperception of confusion is like this. Uncertainty, insecurity is like this. There's a clear comprehension or apprehension of even...
- 9:18
And reason, logic. So awareness then isn't a matter of, you know, it's right now, so it's not a matter of thinking about it, but being aware of thinking about it.
- 23:10
When I say lust, it's a lack of discrimination, isn't it? The experience of lust, sexual lust, is a strong passion that takes you over and you lose your discriminative abilities. The more you absorb into it, the less discriminatory you get.
- 26:30
You know, stylized way that we have, but basically it is sati sampacanya. Sati sampacanya is not, you know, it accepts, it includes. Mettā is one of those inclusive things, very intuitive rather than conceptual. So when you try to conceive mettā as love, a kind of liking or... You know, loving something in a term of liking it, it makes it impossible, you know, to sustain mettā.
- 48:49
So things become really, it's a very, it's experienced then the flow of life from this center point, from the still point that includes, rather than from the, you know, the point that excludes, the extremity, where we want only the beautiful and the good, and the good tastes and the... Life is a banquet and just have one banquet after another. That's an extremity that when we can't sustain that illusion, we get depressed.
Transcript
0:05 So this winter's retreat, I've emphasized this, trying Report an error in the passage at 0:05
0:14 to bring this feeling for right understanding, samādhi, because Report an error in the passage at 0:14
0:29 it's an intuitive understanding, it's not a conceptual one. I found it very helpful in just, you know, like contemplating the difference between thinking, analytical thinking and intuitive awareness. To make it clear, you know, what that is, the difference between the use of the mind to think, analyze, reason, Report an error in the passage at 0:29
1:03 criticize, to hold, you know, have ideas, perceptions, views and opinions, to the intuitive awareness, which is non-critical. It includes criticism as an inclusive. Report an error in the passage at 1:03
1:26 Awareness, it's not like criticism isn't allowed in it, but criticism is included. The critical mind is seen as an object. Your tendency to criticize or compare, to hold one view, this is better than that, or this is right, that's wrong. Report an error in the passage at 1:26
1:53 Criticism of yourself or others. Whatever, even though criticisms can be justified and valid on that level, we're not interested in just developing our critical faculties, because they're usually, in countries like this, highly developed already. But to develop, to trust in the intuitive awareness, Report an error in the passage at 1:53
2:26 those like words, sati sampatanya, come to life. Report an error in the passage at 2:26
2:32 I used satipanya a lot before, panya, but then sampatanya is a word that, you know, I translated into English as clear comprehension, which is so vague and kind of, you know, even though it says clear, it doesn't give you a sense of the broadness of that clarity. Report an error in the passage at 2:32
3:05 You know, when you have clearly defined, when you have clear definitions of everything, then you feel, you think you have clear comprehension. Report an error in the passage at 3:05
3:17 So that's why we don't like confusion, isn't it? We don't like to feel foggy or confused or uncertain, these kind of states. We really dislike and, you know, spend a lot of time trying to have clear comprehension or certainty. Report an error in the passage at 3:17
3:41 So, but then... Sampatanya includes fogginess, includes confusion, includes uncertainty, insecurity. So it's a clear comprehension or the apperception of confusion is like this. Uncertainty, insecurity is like this. There's a clear comprehension or apprehension of even... even the most vague or or nebulous mental conditions. Report an error in the passage at 3:41
· · · silence, 1 minute
5:16 then it's this, know, like some people, know, find this approach frustrating because it's easier to be told exactly what to do, know, to have a more methodic approach. Report an error in the passage at 5:16
5:32 Many of us have done that. Report an error in the passage at 5:32
5:38 And even though it has, you know, it can be very skillful, it Report an error in the passage at 5:38
5:50 also can be kind of addictive, like we never get to the root of the cause, which is, you know, I am this person that needs this in order to become enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 5:50
6:17 So this intuitive approach doesn't exclude methodical meditations. You know, it's not like... I'm against the methods of meditation or that that exist in our tradition, Theravāda Buddhism, not at all. But even trying to put that into perspective, so that if you do go to these different meditation retreats or courses or whatever, then... Report an error in the passage at 6:17
6:54 You know, you're not, you know, basic. I'm hoping that what you've contemplated during this winter will have some, you know, help you to be able to do the method in a much more skillful way than if you just start from just faith in the method and never questioning, never seeing beyond the ignorant perceptions of yourself. Report an error in the passage at 6:54
7:23 If you start from the ignorant perceptions of yourself as your basis, Report an error in the passage at 7:23
7:32 so this winter retreat is meant to encourage you to really question, to really look into these perceptions you have of yourself, whatever they might be. If you think you're the best, greatest, God's gift to the world, or you think you're the absolute bottom of the stack, Report an error in the passage at 7:32
7:58 Or you don't know who you are, what you want, or sometimes you think you're superior, sometimes you feel inferior, whatever, because these things change. Report an error in the passage at 7:58
8:12 The personality view, sakya-yaditi, tilapata-paramatha, vichikicca, as the first three fetters that hide the path, that keep us from seeing the way of non-suffering. Report an error in the passage at 8:12
8:42 Like trying to figure out how to be aware, isn't it? It's an impossible task. What is he talking about anyway? Wake up, be aware, and then trying to figure it out and think about it. You just go around in circles. Report an error in the passage at 8:42
9:04 It's frustrating. Intuitive awareness is frustrating to an analytical person whose faith is in thought. And reason, logic. Report an error in the passage at 9:04
9:27 So awareness then isn't a matter of, you know, it's right now, so it's not a matter of thinking about it, but being aware of thinking about it. Report an error in the passage at 9:27
9:39 How do you do that? Report an error in the passage at 9:39
9:45 It's like my insight came when I was a seminary. How do you stop thinking? And then, stop thinking. Well, how do you stop? Just stop. How do you just stop? Report an error in the passage at 9:45
10:02 The mind would always come back with, you know, how? How can you do it? Wanting to figure it out rather than trusting in the imminence of it. Report an error in the passage at 10:02
10:20 And then trusting is relaxing into it and just the attentiveness in which it's an act of faith, it's a trusting, it's saddha. Report an error in the passage at 10:20
· · · silence, 1 minute
11:10 Like with a Then it gives you perspective on anything you want to do, whether it's meditation or yoga or tai chi or mahasis. Report an error in the passage at 11:10
11:26 I have now taught meditations or goenkaji or any of these different teachers or different methods or even different, you know, like the training, the physical body with these various... Report an error in the passage at 11:26
11:41 Mindful practices, yoga and tai chi and things like that, qigong can really fit well into an intuitive approach, actually. Ultimately, when we develop those techniques, it ends up as one has to trust in the mindfulness rather than in just me, my willful efforts trying to do all these things. Remember when I started yoga years ago, Hatha Yoga, just see these pictures of yogis doing all these fantastic postures. Report an error in the passage at 11:41
12:25 I wanted to do them, the really, you know, the really impressive ones, because I had a big ego and wanted to, you know, want to be the boring kind of things that you start out with, but, you know, really aiming at the fantastic. Report an error in the passage at 12:25
12:51 Of course, you've got to damage yourself trying to make your body do what you want before it's ready to. It's pretty dangerous. Report an error in the passage at 12:51
13:04 So intuition is also knowing the limits of your own body, what it can take, and it's not just willfully making it do this and do that according to your ideals or ideas of what you want it to do, because you can really... As many of you know, damage your body quite badly through just a kind of tyrannical forcing it to do something. Report an error in the passage at 13:04
13:35 So it's learning, you know, mindfulness includes the body, sattisambhacanya. So it's willing to, and includes its limitation, its disabilities, its sicknesses, as well as its health. Report an error in the passage at 13:35
14:02 It's pleasures. Report an error in the passage at 14:02
14:12 Another thing is pleasure, because we can think of, in Theravāda Buddhism, where physical, sensual pleasure is, we can easily see it in terms of something we shouldn't enjoy, being celibate and obsmedicant. The Western mind especially easily sees it in terms of denying pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 14:12
14:46 Happiness and joy, like I say, all this suffering. We do these super practices. We say the body is foul, loathsome, filled with excrement, pus and slime and things like that. And so then we thought you shouldn't even, you know, look at, for your monk, you should never look at a woman and keep your eyes down and you shouldn't indulge in the pleasures of beauty. Report an error in the passage at 14:46
15:15 So I remember even, you shouldn't even look at a flower because its beauty would capture me and make me think of worldly thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 15:15
15:34 I'm from a kind of background, Christian background, that has a strong kind of puritanical ethic to it. Report an error in the passage at 15:34
15:47 So it's easy for someone like me, from a cultural like mind, to assume that pleasure, sense pleasure is bad, and it's dangerous, you've got to try to deny it and avoid it at all costs. Report an error in the passage at 15:47
16:15 But then that's another opinion and view that comes out of the analytical mind, isn't it? That's, uh, that's... You know, from my cultural background, the logic, you see, the foulness or the loathsomeness of the body, a super practice, it's easy for me to see it in terms of being repelled and seeing the body in terms of something absolutely disgusting. Report an error in the passage at 16:15
16:46 And it's easy to see. I can convince myself that bodily functions and also, you know, you see, you know, you... Sometimes you even look at yourself even when you're fairly healthy and you feel disgusted. It's a Report an error in the passage at 16:46
17:06 kind of natural way to feel about yourself if you're identified with the body and you dwell on its less appealing aspects. Report an error in the passage at 17:06
17:35 But in the word asupa, This is not, you know, loathsome isn't a very good word because to me loathsome means it's really just repelled and averse. If something's loathsome, it's dirty and foul and you just develop aversion. You just want to get rid of it. Report an error in the passage at 17:35
18:00 Bad and nasty. But asupa doesn't have that. It means the non-beautiful. Supa. Report an error in the passage at 18:00
18:20 noticing it, because we don't, know, we don't notice. We tend to give our attention to the beautiful, say, in the worldly life, then the non-beautiful we either ignore or we reject. Report an error in the passage at 18:20
18:35 we don't pay any attention to it, just it if it's just not very attractive or non-beautiful. Report an error in the passage at 18:35
18:52 Vowel A in Asupa is a negation like Amaravati, the Report an error in the passage at 18:52
19:01 I found that a better way of looking at a supra-practice than not looking at the... Remember in the old days, Kanti Palo Bhikkhu, not the German one, but the English one, and his robe, He wrote this book called Bag of Bones and published in Buddhist Society Publications. It's the most disgusting book I've ever read. Report an error in the passage at 19:01
19:38 It's just so foul. And he seemed to enjoy it. When you talk to him, you see the eye dirt and the ear dirt. And he could kind of glee almost. He had a perverted kind of joy out of contemplating Copyright © 2020 Mooji Report an error in the passage at 19:38
20:26 Media Ltd. Report an error in the passage at 20:26
20:49 All Rights Reserved. more like pornography. Report an error in the passage at 20:49
20:33 that you it's Report an error in the passage at 20:33
20:38 find these, you know, not leading to like a depression or aversion. know, contemplating a dead human body. If you stay beyond that, if you can... Report an error in the passage at 20:38
21:18 You know, stay beyond just the initial reaction of shock or aversion. And with a sati sampacanya, kind of open to it, to this, then what I find is this sense of dispassion, which is a cool feeling. Report an error in the passage at 21:18
21:43 It's very clear, very cool, very pleasant to be dispassionate. It's not like... Just passion through dullness or just through a kind of cynicism, an intellectual cynicism. It's a feeling of non-aversion, but no longer seeing the human body in such a standard way of either seeing it only as very attractive and beautiful or seeing it as... Report an error in the passage at 21:43
22:22 ...ugly and foul, but being able to just relate to this human body, the body that we call our own or somebody else's, or a corpse, just seeing it in terms of satipanya, satisampacanya, is the experience of dispassion. Report an error in the passage at 22:22
23:10 When I say lust, it's a lack of discrimination, isn't it? The experience of lust, sexual lust, is a strong passion that takes you over and you lose your discriminative abilities. The more you absorb into it, the less discriminatory you get. Report an error in the passage at 23:10
23:45 the critical mind like the Report an error in the passage at 23:45
23:52 it's interesting, the critical people, the people that are kind of dosa-jarit types, like the super practices usually. Report an error in the passage at 23:52
24:03 like very methodic meditations, you know, do this and then you do that, and a know, intellectually well presented stage one, stage two, nicely, a nice little outline, then see Report an error in the passage at 24:03
24:28 If you're critical, it's easy to see it that way. Or Report an error in the passage at 24:28
24:39 say a rāga jurid, a kind of gama rāga, lustful, greedy type person. They like mettā meditation the best. They teach mettā and they... Because mettā, you're not critical, is it? Mettā is you're not being critical about anything. Report an error in the passage at 24:39
25:15 So these are upayas to get perspective. If one is a lustful type, then the super practices can be very balancing, can be very skillfully used for developing a more discriminative, more aware of the unpleasantness or the non-beautiful. And then the... dosa dharit, the averse types, mettā, being able to accept what you don't like without indulging and being critical and rejecting and averse to it. Report an error in the passage at 25:15
26:17 So mettā meditation then is really, it's willing, it's like it's, you know, it can be done in a kind of, You know, stylized way that we have, but basically it is sati sampacanya. Sati sampacanya is not, you know, it accepts, it includes. Mettā is one of those inclusive things, very intuitive rather than conceptual. So when you try to conceive mettā as love, a kind of liking or... Report an error in the passage at 26:17
26:59 You know, loving something in a term of liking it, it makes it impossible, you know, to sustain mettā. When you get to things you can't stand or people you hate and things like that, you just can't, you know, it's really hard to come to terms with it on a conceptual level, isn't it? Like love your enemies or to love people you hate, who you can't stand. Report an error in the passage at 26:59
27:29 On the conceptual level, it's an impossible dilemma. But in terms of sattisampatanya, it's accepting because it includes everything you hate and Report an error in the passage at 27:29
27:53 like and dislike. Report an error in the passage at 27:53
27:58 So then mettā isn't analytical. It's not dwelling on why you hate somebody. It's not... I'm trying to figure out why I hate this person, but it includes the whole thing. Why the feeling, the person, myself, all in the same moment. It's embracing the Report an error in the passage at 27:58
28:27 point that includes non-critical. You aren't trying to figure out anything, but just open and accept. Report an error in the passage at 28:27
28:41 Patience with being patient. Report an error in the passage at 28:41
28:59 So with food, for instance, Report an error in the passage at 28:59
29:03 We can see that because we eat the Tudanga tradition, they are eating from mom's bowls. I never can convince myself I'm eating one meal a day anymore because of this breakfast. But whatever, how many meals a day you eat, it's... Report an error in the passage at 29:03
29:38 The idea is limitation, not because there's anything wrong with enjoying a meal. It's not like food is dangerous and you've got to, you know, any kind of pleasure you receive from eating will bind you to rebirth again in the saṃsāra vata. That's another view and opinion. But recognize the simplicity. Report an error in the passage at 29:38
30:10 of the life that we have. It's simplifying everything. This is why I like this way. Report an error in the passage at 30:10
30:25 Then the pleasure, in its notice, the attitude towards food, about how you, you know, just the greed or the aversion or the guilt about Report an error in the passage at 30:25
30:42 eating or enjoying good food or whatever. a It's included all, you know, there's no attitude that you have to have, you know, that you taught it, but an attitude of sati sampatranya. Report an error in the passage at 30:42
31:16 So not making eating into any hassle. You know, like Lungphat Chah was, when I'd go on these fasts and all that, he'd say, you know, he'd point out, I was always making a hassle out of my food. Report an error in the passage at 31:16
31:33 You know, I couldn't just eat. I had to, there was always, I was making, making it more difficult than it need be. Report an error in the passage at 31:33
31:49 And then the guilt that comes up if you, you know, if you eat too much or you find yourself, you know, you find yourself trying to get the good bits. You bring up this kind of, in me, I remember, you know, trying to, you know, get the good pieces for myself and then feeling guilty about that. Report an error in the passage at 31:49
32:11 So, you know, there's a There's a greed that really, you know, wants the good, the tasty bits, and then feels guilty about it. It gets complicated. Report an error in the passage at 32:11
32:23 I couldn't be just greedy and shameless. I also had Report an error in the passage at 32:23
32:31 to deal with a strong sense of guilt around it, and not wanting people, hoping nobody would notice. If I was being greedy, I was hoping nobody would see. I keep it a secret. Because I didn't want to look greedy. I wanted to look like I wasn't greedy. And so I remember with Luang Por Jan, and I was trying to be a vegetarian then, really strict. Report an error in the passage at 32:31
33:04 Luang Por Jan in Wat Bung Khao Luang, Seventh Vasa, and he let me do this. So I was helping pass out the food too. So at the monastery they had certain kinds of... Report an error in the passage at 33:04
33:27 Dishes that didn't have any fish sauce in them or any kind of meat or fish. But as most of you know in Thailand, most of the food has fish sauce in it or some kind of animal mixtures in it. It was difficult because I had very little choice and then people would always have to make special things for me. Report an error in the passage at 33:27
33:54 It had to be special. It had to be Ajahn Sumedho's. I wasn't Ajahn then, but pot, tomatoes, food, and then the rest. That was hard to deal with, you know, to be a foreigner, a prathrung, and then have special diet and special privileges. Report an error in the passage at 33:54
34:17 That was hard for me to impose on the group. But then the... Report an error in the passage at 34:17
34:32 Passing out the food, I get very possessive, like the vegetable dishes they did have. I felt I had a right to have a lot of it, because the other monks were eating all the fish and chicken and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 34:32
34:48 So I find myself, when I was passing out, aiming for the vegetarian dishes first, so I could pass them out according to my own needs. I was really brought up, a really kind of childish tendency in me. Report an error in the passage at 34:48
35:09 And then one time, one monk, he saw me doing this. He grabbed the vegetarian dish first and only gave me a little spoonful. I Report an error in the passage at 35:09
35:33 was so angry when I saw that. I took this fermented fish sauce, this pla dak, kind of this very strong stuff. And when I went by his bowl, I splattered it all over his food. Report an error in the passage at 35:33
36:08 Fortunately, we are forbidden to hit each other. This is an absolute necessity for men to have rules of non-physical violence. So Report an error in the passage at 36:08
36:35 I was trying to live up to an ideal of vegetarian purity and yet in the process having these really violent feelings towards other monks. What's this about? Wanting to... You know, this is a vindictive act, wasn't it? A violent act to splatter all that strong chili sauce with a rotten fish in it over some monk's food. Report an error in the passage at 36:35
37:08 It was a violent act in order to keep me in the sense of I'm, you know, I'm a pure vegetarian. So I began to question whether I wanted to make food into such a big deal for my life. You know, really, was I? Wanting to live my life as a vegetarian or what? Was that the main focus that I was aiming at? So then just contemplating this, I began to see the suffering I created around my idealism. Report an error in the passage at 37:08
38:04 Then in terms of, you know, I noticed like Lungpho Cha certainly enjoyed his food and he had a joyful presence. And so it wasn't like, You know, an ascetic trip where you, you know, eating nettle soup and rejecting the good bits, that's the other extreme. Report an error in the passage at 38:04
38:37 So sati sampatanya, you know, it includes, and that's what we, that's the kind of attitude of a samana, rather than The aesthetic, which is, you know, sensual temptations, the sensual world, sensual pleasures are bad and dangerous, and you've got to fight against them and resist them at all costs in order to become pure. Report an error in the passage at 38:37
39:13 Because your purity is, once you get rid of sexual desire, greed for food, all these other kind of greedy, unpleasant scents, And then, Report an error in the passage at 39:13
39:48 you know, you manage to kill everything, including yourself. absolutely sterilized from any of those things like eradicated totally wiped out like these cleansers that you pour down that kill every German site then you're pure Report an error in the passage at 39:48
39:59 So is that the aim? That's taking asceticism to the atta kilamatanu yok position of annihilation. Report an error in the passage at 39:59
40:17 Or the gama sukhalikanu yoka one, where you just, you know, pleasure, live, drink, eat, and be merry, or tomorrow you may die. Enjoy life. Life is here for... Life is a banquet, and most of the suckers are starving to death. The movie back in the 50s, Auntie Report an error in the passage at 40:17
40:51 May was called. Life is a banquet, and all the suckers are starving to death. And so Auntie May managed to, you know, really enjoy the health, in the movie anyway. Report an error in the passage at 40:51
41:04 So she's a kind of icon, a kind of, you know, not a real woman, but... An icon of just, you know, intelligent beauty and one who just lived life to the hilt and enjoyed everything. Report an error in the passage at 41:04
41:22 So that's a very attractive idol, isn't it? To see that life is meant to be full of pleasure and happiness and love. Report an error in the passage at 41:22
41:40 So that grasping that, you know, is the Gamasukalikanu Yoga. Report an error in the passage at 41:40
41:53 The Samana is... It's awakening to these. It includes both. It's not like taking sides. It's not that anti-mame and life is a banquet. We're rejecting that or condemning it or the extreme ascetic, the life-denying annihilator. Report an error in the passage at 41:53
42:20 But we can see that these are conditions that we create in our mind, like wanting. Always life to be at its best, you know, just a party, a banquet, one pleasure after another. Assuming that is where it's at. Or thinking that life is, that if you have any pleasure or enjoyment in it, it's wrong and bad and lesser and dangerous. Report an error in the passage at 42:20
42:52 Those are conditions we create. Report an error in the passage at 42:52
43:00 But some of us, life is like this right now, it's like this. Just, uh... Report an error in the passage at 43:00
43:07 It's an opening to what we tend to not notice when we're seeking those two extremes as our goal. Report an error in the passage at 43:07
43:28 So life is like this. You can't say it's a banquet all the time, is it? Breath going in, wouldn't really describe it as a banquet. Report an error in the passage at 43:28
43:40 Or the sound of silence is, you know, life at its best, where it's Report an error in the passage at 43:40
43:51 just one laugh after another. Just like this. I Report an error in the passage at 43:51
44:08 mean, most of our experience is neither one extreme or the other. It's like this, in that most of your one life that you live is not the peak moments, either in their height or their depth, but it's neither nor, that which we don't notice if we're primed for the extremities. Report an error in the passage at 44:08
· · · silence, 1 minute
45:26 I find in terms of like beauty, for example, Coming from sati sampacanya, rather Report an error in the passage at 45:26
45:37 than from personal attachments, so like beautiful objects, beautiful things, beautiful people, or whatever, then coming from personal habits, it is dangerous, because of the desire to possess them, to have them for yourself, or be attracted. Report an error in the passage at 45:37
46:07 And get kind of overwhelmed by the desires that arise through seeing beauty through ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 46:07
46:23 And then beauty from the Tathisampatanya, then one can be aware of that, you know, of the beauty as beauty. And you also include one's own tendencies to want to own it or take it or touch it. or fear it you know that includes that in when you're letting go of that then beauty itself is is joy Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Report an error in the passage at 46:23
46:56 live on a planet is quite beautiful. Report an error in the passage at 46:56
47:02 know, nature, isn't it wise, is quite beautiful to the eye. Report an error in the passage at 47:02
47:11 Seen from the Sampatanya, then I experience joy from that. But seeing from the Personal habits, then it can get complicated. Report an error in the passage at 47:11
47:30 Complicated, no doubt, with wanting, not wanting, guilt, or just not even noticing. If you get too involved with your own, what's in your head, you don't even notice after a while anything outside. You can be in the most beautiful place in the world and not see it, not notice it. Report an error in the passage at 47:30
48:08 So then beauty, say, is experience. sense pleasure then is seen as something for what it is. It is pleasurable. Good food does taste good. Tasting good, delicious flavor is like this. It's thoroughly enjoyable. You know, that's the way it is. And Report an error in the passage at 48:08
48:38 then you come to, oh, I shouldn't. Then you're adding more to it. But from sadhisamputanya, then it is what it is. Report an error in the passage at 48:38
48:49 So things become really, it's a very, it's experienced then the flow of life from this center point, from the still point that includes, rather than from the, you know, the point that excludes, the extremity, where we want only the beautiful and the good, and the good tastes and the... Life is a banquet and just have one banquet after another. That's an extremity that when we can't sustain that illusion, we get depressed. Report an error in the passage at 48:49
49:33 We go to the opposite, wanting to kill ourselves or annihilate ourselves in some way. Report an error in the passage at 49:33
· · · silence, 1 minute
50:34 So it's like this weather we've been having. It's the kind of what people think England is all the time. Cold, wet, damp, drizzly, grey. So this is the worldwide perception of England. So Report an error in the passage at 50:34
51:05 then I decided I wasn't going to, I wasn't going to, you know, I decided to open Sati Sampatchanya to these conditions. Report an error in the passage at 51:05
51:24 It is what it is, you know, but I'm not creating a version onto it. You know, it's all right. It's nothing. And it isn't like this very often. Report an error in the passage at 51:24
51:38 lived in this country 24 years, some of the most beautiful weather I've ever experienced has been here in this country. Report an error in the passage at 51:38
51:49 days, so beautiful, the greenness and the and hills and things like this. But those can be easily dismissed in the... Report an error in the passage at 51:49
52:08 Perception of that England is like this is a constant factor. Report an error in the passage at 52:08
52:26 So the Siddhisambha Chana includes the cold, wet, grey, drizzly weather. There's no aversion created in it. In fact, I find I like it in a way because I don't feel compelled to go out in it. I can sit in my... I quite enjoy feeling I don't have to go out anywhere because the weather's so good. I can just stay in my room. Report an error in the passage at 52:26
53:05 I quite like, you know, quite nice feeling. When the weather gets really good, I always feel I should be out. I Report an error in the passage at 53:05
53:22 have to go out into it. I mean, these are just ways of just noticing, you know, even within the what is or can be. unplanned, like cold. Report an error in the passage at 53:22
53:45 maybe unpleasant as sensory experiences. can we, we, the suffering really is from the aversion. I don't like this. I don't want life to be like this. I want to be where there's blue skies and sunshine all the time. Report an error in the passage at 53:45
· · · silence, 1 minute
55:04 So, like neutrality that they can... Say sweeping, body sweeping practice, you know, this paying attention to neutral sensation I found very helpful to me because it was so easily ignored, you know, completely ignored. I first started doing it years ago because I never paid attention to neutral sensation. I found it difficult to find, even though it's quite obvious. Report an error in the passage at 55:04
55:43 Because my experience of sensation was always through extremity as either pleasure or pain. But Report an error in the passage at 55:43
55:52 then noticing just how the robe touches the skin, or just the one hand touching the other, or the tongue in the mouth, the tongue touching the palate or the teeth, or the upper lip resting on the lower lip, or investigating little... details of of sensation that are there when you open to them isn't it they're Report an error in the passage at 55:52
56:30 there but you don't notice them on you know unless you determine it because if they're if your lips are painful you notice if they're feeling if you're getting a lot of pleasure from your lips then you don't but when there's neither pleasure nor pain there's still sensation isn't there it's neutral and so you're You're allowing neutrality to be conscious. It is like consciousness is a mirror where it reflects. Report an error in the passage at 56:30
57:02 So a mirror reflects, it doesn't reflect just the beautiful or the ugly. You really look into the mirror, it's reflecting whatever, the space, the neutral, everything that is in front of it. Report an error in the passage at 57:02
57:19 But if you, you know, you can only notice the outstanding ones, Really, you know, the extremities of beauty or ugliness. But to be awakened, to awaken to the way it is, then you're not looking at the obvious, but recognizing the subtlety behind the beauty and the ugliness extremities. Report an error in the passage at 57:19
57:50 So like with the sound of silence, it's like a subtlety behind everything that you awaken to. Because you don't notice it usually. If you're seeking the extremities, when you're seeking happiness and trying to get away from pain and misery, when you're always trying to get something or hold on to happiness, or tranquility, we want tranquility. Report an error in the passage at 57:50
58:22 We want samatha and jhānas and get tranquil. Because we like tranquility. And then we don't want... Confusion or chaos or cacophony or abrasive sensory experiences or human contacts, we don't want that. So we sit, close our eyes, don't bother me, give off the signs, come into the temple and sit down, don't bother me attitude and leave me alone. Report an error in the passage at 58:22
59:07 I'm going to get my meditation, my samādhi. So then that can be the very basis for our practice, getting my samādhi. I can feel good because I want that. Report an error in the passage at 59:07
59:26 So that leads to an extremity again, wanting, you know, trying to always be after the ideal of something, refined, conscious experience. Report an error in the passage at 59:26
59:45 Then there's the others that say, oh, you don't need to do that. You just, daily life is good enough. Just in the marketplace practice, that's where it's really at. You're not doing anything extreme like sitting, closing your eyes, but you're just, you know, living life as an ordinary person and being mindful of everything. Report an error in the passage at 59:45
1:00:13 And that also can be another ideal that we attach to this. These are ideals, aren't they? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:13
1:00:26 Positions that we might take. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:26
1:00:35 So they're kind of true but not right, right but not true predicament that we make with our dualistic mind. Not that they're wrong, either one. You know, that one's wrong and one's right. Or one's more right than the other. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:35
1:01:08 All animals are equal but some are more equal than others. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:08
1:01:18 In the conditioned realm, just think like that, isn't it? In terms of, we all think human beings are all equal, don't we? Ideally, all human beings are equal, but then the practicalities of life, some are more equal than others. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:18
1:01:36 You don't find the affluent Western world willing to give up very much for the sake of equality in the third world, do they? Report an error in the passage at 1:01:36
1:01:48 They really resist. The immigrants are... I'm coming into the country. It might lower the standard of living. We'd be more equal then. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:48
1:02:26 So reflect on it like monastic form. It's a convention. And so it has, you know, its aim is to, it's connected to the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:26
1:02:40 And so it's through its obsmedicancy. We need the society. We need. We need the lay community for our survival. They're a part. It's not an attack or a rejection of lay life. And Report an error in the passage at 1:02:40
1:03:09 so that need then our life does. If we're living in a, you know, trying to live in the right way, then the lay community brings out their good qualities. Generosity and gratitude, things like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:09
1:03:40 But we also can move towards silence is encouraged, towards meditation, reflection. So we can, we combine both the kind of samatha, vipassanā, the life of solitude with the worldly life. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:40
1:04:11 It's not to reject one and hold on to the other as the ideal, but to recognize this is the way it is, like this, the world that we live in, the society that we live in. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:11
1:04:32 We're not rejecting it or turning against it or away from it, but including it. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:32
1:04:44 And so then we can include in the silence. And the solitude. So viveka then is like kaya viveka, jita viveka, ubhati viveka. There are three kinds of vivekas. Kaya viveka is like physical solitude. Jita viveka is mental. Ubhati viveka is intuitive. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:44
· · · silence, 1 minute
1:05:52 So tomorrow is the last day before the One observance, there'll be monks, Ajahn Menindo, and the Hara monks are coming today, and then we'll have the influx, 24th, because we'll have their Samaki Patimokkha, which is posted today, but also the monks from Chithurst Report an error in the passage at 1:05:52
1:06:25 and Switzerland, Italy, Annam, Orwell. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:25
1:06:37 Samaki Padimokkha is the ideal of unity. It's a way of reaffirming this sense of samaki, of being together, working together. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:37
1:06:56 In the Bhikkhu Saṅgha, it's been quite divided in the past few years. The sense of samaki has not been a common perception of the... Bhikkhu life in this country. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:56
1:07:14 It's quite an important event for the bhikkhus because it's also, you know, it's a tradition, but it also allows this sense of samarkhi within the Pāli word which means unity, united, harmonious. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:14
1:07:50 Ajahn rather than separating. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:50
1:08:05 Samarki for the Selandars. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:05
1:08:10 they're already fairly sumachy already, so... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:10
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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.
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