Love in a World Full of Hate

0:00 This afternoon is a chance to reflect. And when I talk about reflection on the Dhamma, then what I mean to do is, what I say is to be, how does it affect you? How does it reach you? And to begin to notice how words and the way things are said, how they... Report an error in the passage at 0:00

0:35 How they feel. Sometimes you set them on a high seat like this and then you have your titled authority, a master of something or other, and then the tendency to just believe or disbelieve. Report an error in the passage at 0:35

1:00 Some people have strong views about Buddhism as meaning this or that. And others have various angles on it from various schools of Buddhism. And so we recognize that Buddhism is a convention, meaning that it is something that is created. And so we have form in words. It's a teaching that has come down to us. Report an error in the passage at 1:00

1:37 Several thousand years given by what we regard as the Lord Buddha himself. And so this gives it a lot of credibility. But the main thing to me, the value of the Buddha's teaching is not just its historicity or the conventional form, but how it affects us, how it reaches us in terms of the immediate present. Report an error in the passage at 1:37

2:08 Because this is one of the things that really attracted many of us to Buddhism was that it's a teaching that points at reality rather than defines reality. So this pointing to reality is in here. I'm not pointing to something outside you or that I'm the authority on Buddhist teachings. Report an error in the passage at 2:08

2:38 And that what I say is what the Buddha taught. But the teachings themselves, the words, the conventions, the forms that we inherit in this Buddhist form are pointing at you actually, at each one of us. Report an error in the passage at 2:38

2:58 So this whole system of mindfulness, this is the essence of Buddhist teaching, is awakened awareness. So the Buddha... Actually means awakened. The word itself is not the name of a person. It's meant to convey a devotion to a person or historical personage, but to convey that sense of awakening, which is something we're all capable of doing. Report an error in the passage at 2:58

3:29 It's not asking something, an impossible task, or that only a few very special people can possibly I mean, awakeness is something that is natural to us. And awakening then isn't just the fact that we're sitting here and we think we're awake, but we're actually open at the same time. We know what's going on inside ourselves at this moment. You're listening to my words and at the same time you can actually be aware of how you're feeling. Report an error in the passage at 3:29

4:12 You know, what state of mind or emotional quality or physical state that you happen to be experiencing at this moment. So awakeness includes everything. It's like an inclusive ability. When we concentrate, then we concentrate on one thing, and that means that we exclude the other things that aren't conducive towards absorption into the object. Report an error in the passage at 4:12

4:43 But with mindfulness it's the opening of the heart or in Pāli terms the jitta or consciousness that we begin to really observe and know how things are rather than just make assumptions from habits of mind, conditioning factors, the way we've been habitually conditioned to perceive or react to experience. Report an error in the passage at 4:43

5:19 This is the first talk for the summer on love in a world of hate, because love and hate are powerful words, and they're quite common in English. We use the word love for almost anything. It's a powerful word, and we all subscribe, we all would like to love. Report an error in the passage at 5:19

5:48 And be loved and experience love. And what do we mean by that? And what is the reality of love rather than a definition of it? Report an error in the passage at 5:48

6:02 So there's romantic love, when you fall in love with somebody and you have these strong feelings where like and attraction come together and oftentimes obsession. Report an error in the passage at 6:02

6:17 You can get besotted when you fall in love. Can't think of anyone else. And so that's what we call romantic love. And then there's a kind of just a way of using, I love flowers and I love the birds and I love the trees and the mountains. I love my mother and father and my friends. I mean, you're not obsessed maybe by this emotion. Report an error in the passage at 6:17

6:49 And he loved fish and chips in England. He loved Report an error in the passage at 6:49

6:59 football. He loved David Beckham. Report an error in the passage at 6:59

7:07 And then the unconditioned love or Christian love. In a country where Christianity is the dominant religious form, they talk about Christian love or what I assume that means is unconditioned love. It's not towards an object in particular. It's not... on. Report an error in the passage at 7:07

7:27 Fixing on a person or an idea, but it is a state of being that we can all realize, but oftentimes not notice. So it's not a sentimental kind of experience, because sometimes we feel hatred for somebody that we can also love. So many of our relationships, we call them in modern terms, Love-hate relationship relationships, you're supposed to love somebody, like your parents, and sometimes you don't. Report an error in the passage at 7:27

8:08 you feel anger toward them or hatred, you love your husband or wife and then you feel anger and resentment. Then you think love has disappeared because the power of anger or hatred is dominating consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 8:08

8:27 So in a world of hatred at this time we can see there's so much of this negativity just on the international scene where there's so much anger and revenge is dominant and desire to destroy the evil forces, the focus of evil. The United States now is taking a stand against evil. Report an error in the passage at 8:27

8:58 Determined to destroy it. And this, of course, has a certain logic to it. When something happens to us that is very horrible, when we're unjustifiably, unworthily treated, and that which we love and cherish is attacked and destroyed, then we can't help but feel a desire for revenge, an emotional reaction wanting to destroy that which that harmed or destroyed what I love and respect. Report an error in the passage at 8:58

9:30 But through all these different emotional states, romantic love, anger and hatred, desire for revenge, desire for justice, righteous outrage, righteous indignation, these kind of strong emotional experiences, the possibility of being awake to them is here and now. Report an error in the passage at 9:30

10:00 Because the human mind is what we call a reflective mind. We can easily become our emotions and be totally bound up and overwhelmed by them, but there's a part of us that needn't be. And if we begin to reflect, to open to the way we're feeling in the present, no matter how painful or how strong the emotion might be, Report an error in the passage at 10:00

10:30 Then we're in the state of awakened awareness, awakeness, or you can call it Buddhahood. The Buddha is the awakening, the awakened state of being. Report an error in the passage at 10:30

10:47 You can't become a Buddha, so it's not like I have to try to become some ideal called Buddha, but it's a very imminent reality of the awakened consciousness. The consciousness, That is influenced by awakened awareness, not by the emotional power that you may be undergoing in the present. Report an error in the passage at 10:47

11:18 This is a very important realization. It's in the Buddhist context, in the Four Noble Truths. This is a reality. You realize this. Because it's not something you attain or that is an achievement of any sort. Report an error in the passage at 11:18

11:38 Awakeness is not an attainment. So when we talk about attaining Buddhahood or awakeness, then we're conceptualizing. We're caught in some idea, some definition of it, rather than trusting in the reality of being awake. And so this takes a determination to learn how to trust in the reality of here and now, of just your own Pure presence, the state of we are all conscious at this moment, we're conscious beings. And so this is just a fact. Report an error in the passage at 11:38

12:23 Consciousness is like this. And you think, what does that mean? Consciousness is another word that everybody tries to define. Report an error in the passage at 12:23

12:36 You kind of come up with various views about consciousness when the reality of it is always present. It's awakening to the reality of being conscious. So this is what I generally refer to as intuitive awareness. The intuitive ability or intuitive intelligence isn't acquired, it's a recognition, a realization of it. Report an error in the passage at 12:36

13:12 It's interesting, it's always moved me a lot in the fact that the Buddha established a religious teaching that has survived for 2,500 years on the reality of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 13:12

13:29 That human beings, when we're not awake, when we're not aware, when we're caught, into the apparentness or the seemingness or the habitual reactions or thoughts or prejudices or biases that we hold then we create suffering. Now this is the first noble truth is the truth that there is this suffering. Report an error in the passage at 13:29

13:58 So then the Buddha encourages us directs our attention to awaken to this suffering to begin to notice it, understand it. It's not like you're blaming it on somebody. It's not going around blaming somebody else. Even if somebody else is treating you badly and you could easily say that person really causes me to suffer, that's not where we're pointing at. Report an error in the passage at 13:58

14:28 We're not looking at even the meanness and nastiness of others towards oneself as the cause, but the suffering that we have, that we create around being misunderstood or maltreated or abused. Report an error in the passage at 14:28

14:50 In the many years that I've been involved in meditation, it becomes more and more apparent that then unconditioned love is our true nature, putting it in these terms. Because when you really let go of everything, when you relinquish this blind attachment to The thoughts, the memories, the emotions, the physical body, all that we tend to identify and cling to and react to, when we experience this non-attachment, then out of that non-attachment we experience an emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 14:50

15:37 Now this emptiness isn't like an unconscious blank. When you say words like emptiness, logically sound like you just kind of let go and you go into a kind of unconscious state of blindness, of no feeling and nothingness. And that's logic. That's the way logic works. So intuitive awareness isn't logical. It's not figuring it out, analyzing it or defining. Report an error in the passage at 15:37

16:09 defining, or limiting anything, it's Report an error in the passage at 16:09

16:19 awareness to trust Report an error in the passage at 16:19

16:45 other religious experiences, religious conventions. non-religious conventions. we come from a society, many of us, that are based on different principles. Report an error in the passage at 16:45

17:01 so our way of thinking, the logic that we use, is very much affected by that. So, judging from my own experience, from a strong Christian background, Where the basic assumption is that of being a sinner. Now this is the idea that we were born in sin and that sin is what we are and we have to try to live in a way that we somehow purify ourselves to be free from this taint. Report an error in the passage at 17:01

17:38 Now I'm not saying that is true Christian doctrine but that's the way I heard it. That's the way I picked it up in my experience. So I'm not saying this in order to diminish Christianity, but just using an example from my own experience, because that's what I learned from. I can't make assumptions about your... I can't say what your experience is. Report an error in the passage at 17:38

18:10 So that very sense of... Report an error in the passage at 18:10

18:15 someone who's a sinner who has to become purified a certain effect on how we see and experience. You know, Report an error in the passage at 18:15

18:27 I could, you know, logically I didn't agree with it when I started thinking and came across more scientific ways of looking at life and modern psychology and, you know, went through the universities and though as I grew up and I began to question this, Report an error in the passage at 18:27

18:45 I also began to realize when I became a Buddhist monk living in Thailand that so much of how I picked up the things around me, how I... How I would interpret experience living in a Buddhist country, in a Buddhist monastery with a Buddhist teacher would easily get influenced by not conscious, rather unconscious or unrecognized assumptions. Report an error in the passage at 18:45

19:31 So there's a sense of a self, a strong sense of self that I've acquired from the sense of being born a sinner. Because I took this very personally. And then the denial of that, I'm not a sinner, is really operating in the same way. I am a sinner, I'm not a sinner, are ways of thinking about yourself that are personal. So thought itself is very limited. Report an error in the passage at 19:31

20:10 You see, when you try to analyze and think through... and develop thoughts and theories and ideas through reason and logic then you're always coming from some state of mind like certain assumptions you make like if I see myself as a sinner then I can logically deduct from that assumption and I can see all kinds of proof that I am and I can see That's true. I think sometimes sinful things. What I would regard from my cultural background as sinful thoughts or have sinful feelings or certainly the desire for revenge. Report an error in the passage at 20:10

20:59 Vendettas are certainly emotions I've experienced. Wanting to destroy someone who's hurt me or harmed me in some way is not an emotion that I've never felt. And then the judgment comes in that this is a sinful thing. You know, this is a wrong kind of emotion and that I should try to get rid of it. So there's logic there. It's a reasonable thing to assume. You deduct from that particular statement. I'm not a sinner. Report an error in the passage at 20:59

21:34 And then I can deduct from that a way of looking at myself that... That I can feel much more positive about myself when I think I'm not a sinner. But then, because the original conditioning was so fraught with the idea of being a sinner, then there's always this sense of who are you trying to fool? Look at what you did the other day and what you should have done, sins of omission, sins of commission. See all the kind of inadequacies and... Report an error in the passage at 21:34

22:09 The Report an error in the passage at 22:09

22:13 Buddha's Report an error in the passage at 22:13

22:33 emphasis on dukkha or suffering as the Aryan noble truth. It's a knowable truth. faults, weaknesses, and very good at picking Report an error in the passage at 22:33

22:43 And that's interesting. They put it under the title Aryan Noble Truth, which is Arya means noble. What's noble about suffering? You know, you think it's a depressing fact of life. You know, that we have to suffer. I used to feel angry when I was a child with God. Why did he create sin? And then I was born and had to go through all this suffering because of My mother told me, well, God was lonely and wanted company. That's a cruel thing to do, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 22:43

23:25 I thought, I wouldn't do that. Report an error in the passage at 23:25

23:29 At least at that age, a child's mind gravitates to logic. You want things to be fair and just. And if you're coming from God created everything, then why is there evil? Why is there sin? it? Report an error in the passage at 23:29

· · · silence, 1 minute

23:49 So logic itself is a function that we have, which is not to be despised, because thinking is a great gift. But how to think in a way that is useful, in a way that helps us to see things clearly? Or are we just thinking out of habit? We can just wander on and on and on, just wander all over the place in thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 23:49

24:17 And one thought goes on to another thought and another thought and another thought. And so you start with this one thought and in a few minutes you're all over the place. Or then if you're particularly doing some kind of solution to a problem, then you use thinking in a more confined way through logical deduction. Report an error in the passage at 24:17

24:41 So that has a skill that they use in science to deduct. from a premise and the logical expressions that come out of that is a skillful use of the thinking function then so much of our thoughts not So we get confused, don't we? We have somebody says something that really hurts our feelings. We feel wounded and betrayed by somebody. Report an error in the passage at 24:41

25:19 And then what kind of thoughts come up in your mind? You know, so then they're not reasonable thoughts. You know, because you reason it out, you could convince yourself, well, it's really his fault, you know, it's his problem. Report an error in the passage at 25:19

25:34 He's abused me and condemned me for something that's not true. And I can see he's probably just jealous and in some way he's wounded. And I can make a case of a kind of understanding. Trying to understand and not be caught in the actual emotion of anger and resentment. Report an error in the passage at 25:34

26:00 So then I'm not noticing how I'm feeling, I'm just being incredibly kind of reasonable about it and suppressing the actual emotion that's taking place. So then the emotional comes up. Is that so and so? so that Report an error in the passage at 26:00

26:18 You know, if I could get my way, I'd go and drop a bomb on his house tonight. Or if I'm not into being a terrorist, I'll really make him suffer. I won't speak to him again. Report an error in the passage at 26:18

26:33 Or I'll go around looking hurt and wounded so that maybe he'll feel sorry. Ways of sulking, what children do, isn't it? And these are emotional patterns that we have that are not reasonable. But we think about them, we think, I'm hurt, he's the cause, he shouldn't have said that to me, and I'll never forgive him. Report an error in the passage at 26:33

27:01 So maybe that's true. Maybe he shouldn't have said that, and it was wrong, and that he should ask for forgiveness, he should apologize and make amends, and I should be able to, that would be fair, you know, for somebody who's done something wrong to admit it. Confess up and just, you know, then I can forget it. I can forgive. But the problem is that people oftentimes say these things. Report an error in the passage at 27:01

27:31 They're fully convinced they're right when they're insulting me. So then who's right and who isn't? One gets very confused. Then my nature is to try to be magnanimous and feel aversion to my emotional reactions. Report an error in the passage at 27:31

27:55 You know, so you feel anger and hatred arises and you feel, I don't love them. There's a total absence of love for that person. You know, I can love everybody else but that one. There's no problem with all the people, especially the people I don't know. Masses of people in all these countries that you don't know spread mettā, loving kindness to them is easy. Report an error in the passage at 27:55

28:22 But that monk that really offended me, You can't do it. Every time they say, now spread mettā towards your enemies. Report an error in the passage at 28:22

28:37 So this word mettā, to introduce this word, for those of you that don't know it, it's a Buddhist term for loving kindness or unconditioned love. Report an error in the passage at 28:37

28:51 Now as you get to know yourself better through awareness, intuitive awareness, then you begin to Enemies. Report an error in the passage at 28:51

28:59 recognize these patterns, know, how the one side of you is being very reasonable, magnanimous and understanding, and another part of you is feeling very So we get very confused by that. I've seen so many people totally confused in situations because they're well-educated, reasonable, sensible, normal people. Report an error in the passage at 28:59

29:27 And yet they're really angry and upset and furious and outraged and they don't want that. Report an error in the passage at 29:27

29:38 We'd all like, you know, when we're in a good state of mind we all can feel kind of universal love for everything in a general idea but that's still clinging to an ideal of love. Report an error in the passage at 29:38

29:52 In the realities of experience then the intuitive awareness brings us to a state where I now recognize or call this unconditioned love. Because I see the more I trust in this awareness, then that awareness itself, as I learn to rest in it and trust it, it's not a created state of mind. It's not a cultural conditioning factor. It's not something I've attained through Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 29:52

30:30 It's a natural state that... that we We tend to ignore that is overlooked all the time because of our strong attachments, identities to our own bodies, to our emotional habits, mental states, thoughts and so forth. This blinds us to the reality of unconditioned love. So that's why we can subscribe to the idea of love. Report an error in the passage at 30:30

31:03 Unconditioned love and at the same moment feel hatred for somebody. Because the intellectual side likes the idea, we touch the ideal of it. The emotional habits are such that they're working from this sense of I'm wounded and hurt and it's not fair, it's not right. Report an error in the passage at 31:03

31:29 And then the conflict goes between the brain and the heart. Have you ever experienced that problem? Report an error in the passage at 31:29

31:39 Where this battle goes off. Report an error in the passage at 31:39

31:46 So the head, you know, I thought that's where the reasonable, we can reason and so forth. And the heart is where we feel things. We feel broken hearted. And then Ajahn Sumedho, my partner ran away with somebody else and I'm bereft and broken hearted, I say. All conditions are impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 31:46

32:18 And Report an error in the passage at 32:18

32:23 somehow they don't feel satisfied with that answer. It's true though. It's all the truth. Report an error in the passage at 32:23

32:34 But that's not what they need at the time is some wise statement, isn't it? it. Report an error in the passage at 32:34

32:41 They need maybe just to be listened to, to be directed toward awakening, toward trusting in themselves. And oftentimes that's done through allowing them to say how they feel, to learn how to listen to somebody when they're in an emotional state that isn't reasonable or even good. It might be angry and full of curses. Report an error in the passage at 32:41

33:12 We can feel quite averse to what they're saying in terms of if we just react to it or we pick up intuitively their need to be listened to for them to be able to get some perspective on their own feelings. Report an error in the passage at 33:12

33:32 Sometimes we need to make these emotions very conscious. We have to allow them into consciousness not just censor them because they aren't or right or we're told that they're sinful feelings and we shouldn't be thinking or feeling the way we are then we get caught in the struggle between the the idealized sense of what what should be and in the reality of the feeling in the moment making value judgments about it So, with intuitive awareness, what I mean by this, means that our ability to even listen to ourselves, Report an error in the passage at 33:32

34:18 You can actually know when you're very upset, very angry, very hurt, and you know you are. You say, I feel very upset and angry and hurt. So there's a part of you that knows that you're experiencing these emotions. Report an error in the passage at 34:18

34:40 What is it that knows this? If you were really the anger and the hurt, could you really recognize it as such? You know, like, say, with animals, there are good ways of reflecting on animal behavior. When a cat is angry, it doesn't say, I feel very angry with you because you gave me the wrong cat food this morning. Report an error in the passage at 34:40

35:10 They just become angry. And they don't know they're angry. They are angry. And so they can't reflect. But because we actually can know that I can, at least for myself, I assume we all have this in common, when anger rises, I know it. And this knowing is the ability we have to recognize the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 35:10

35:46 If we didn't have this reflective capacity, then we would merely be like the cat. You know, the anger. If you do something, I get angry and I'm just totally angry at that moment without any reflective knowledge, just reacting out of anger to what has happened. Report an error in the passage at 35:46

36:07 And we're all capable of doing that. I've done that too, just react. But there's also this ability to reflect on it, to know I'm feeling hurt and angry. And then as we begin to recognize this ability to know and understand, we're recognizing, we're not judging it now. We're not passing judgment on the angry feelings or thoughts that we're having. It's merely a way of admitting it. Report an error in the passage at 36:07

36:42 So it's allowed into consciousness. into consciousness. So consciousness is the kind of door that we can liberate the mind through, learning how to use our consciousness in a skillful way, with wisdom, rather than just creating endless problems and complications through being conscious, which we can easily do also. Report an error in the passage at 36:42

37:11 So this is where the need to trust yourself, this sense of faith, or satta in Pāli, Report an error in the passage at 37:11

37:20 Isn't, you know, when we say faith, then this word in English, oftentimes you believe in things that you can't prove, you know. Do you believe in the Buddha? Report an error in the passage at 37:20

37:32 Do you have faith in the Buddha? And then the skeptic, I don't know, I don't know what Buddha is. And others that are, you know, will believe and say the Buddha has the true teachings and they'll believe you. Report an error in the passage at 37:32

37:48 Others will not believe me. But what you can know in that moment is believing or not believing is something you're creating in the mind, in the present. Report an error in the passage at 37:48

38:04 So then this is actually the Buddhahood or the knowing, this awakened state. That's what I call refuge in the Buddha. Because when you... When you, quote, become Buddhist, you take the refuge in the Buddha, which doesn't mean, it's not a belief system, not asking you to believe in some force called Buddha or some historical personage, but it's a reminder of this ability that we all have of awakened awareness, because this is what I always, what... Report an error in the passage at 38:04

38:43 This refuge in Buddha means to me, it's practical, it's functional, it works. Report an error in the passage at 38:43

38:57 Then as you trust this awareness more and more, because it's a natural state, it's not something that is dependent on things being ideal. Report an error in the passage at 38:57

39:15 Like the problem with formal meditation practices, oftentimes, or retreats, is that people... Attached to ideal conditions, like in the retreat center here, we try to set up a retreat where there's ideal conditions we can generate on this planet. You know, say, noble silence, no talking. And then you try to tell all the people and the rest of them, stay away from the retreat center, don't bother them. Report an error in the passage at 39:15

39:48 And then we try to get the gardeners and the... One who mows the lawn not to create too much noise and hopefully that somebody in the retreat doesn't snore during the meditation. Report an error in the passage at 39:48

40:08 You know, you're trying to control the situation, make people be quiet because talking, chit-chat, stirs the mind up. So you're controlling the environment to subdue. and Report an error in the passage at 40:08

40:22 The distractions through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body. Try to minimize that as much as possible because then when there's an absence of exciting or strident sensual stimuli, then of course there's a natural calm that comes to the mind. Sensory deprivation. Report an error in the passage at 40:22

40:49 You deprive your senses of being irritated or impinged on. You know, after you get over the initial restlessness and fear of that and resistance to it, then you naturally move into a calm state because there's nothing stimulating happening. Report an error in the passage at 40:49

41:10 So many of us have thought, you know, in our lives, in the meditation life, Ideal situations where these harsh impingement and duties, responsibilities, irritating factors are minimal so that we can more and more have this experience of calm and tranquility that comes through those conditions. Report an error in the passage at 41:10

41:42 So that's why in a meditation retreat we're trying to create, control the situation enough to where people begin to recognize their natural potential for that possibility, that ever-present reality, in other words, of this state of stillness, emptiness, Report an error in the passage at 41:42

42:10 or we call it bliss. And it's not a high, it's not like you've generated a high emotional level of refinement, but it's a natural state of being. So, then when we go out from the retreat and go back into London, then what happens? Everything seems even worse. You know, the noisy streets of London and the... Report an error in the passage at 42:10

42:45 And the family problems and work and suddenly you can't stand it. Before you could kind of, you've gotten used to it so you could kind of get through the day without dropping into hell too many times. But after a meditation retreat you want to become a monk or a nun. So I never recruit after meditation. Report an error in the passage at 42:45

43:21 It's like, I remember during my youth, during the Korean War, I remember, they wanted people to volunteer to join the army, or the Marines. In Seattle, where I lived, in the movie theaters, they'd play one of these great kind of heroic films about Marines, American Marines. Report an error in the passage at 43:21

43:51 Conquering the enemy and saving all the ladies in distress and giving sweets to the kiddies. And you're so inspired you go out and there's a sergeant out there signing you up. Report an error in the passage at 43:51

44:15 So then the thing is to, you know, this is where the need to trust in your awareness is so important. Because as long as you see that you can only get tranquil through controlling your life, through ideal conditions, then you'll always be looking for ideal conditions. And very few of us can actually live in situations for long periods of time where the conditions are what we really like and want for this kind of experience. Report an error in the passage at 44:15

44:53 And so then we get irritated. We get very irritated, but sometimes, I've heard monks and nuns complain about the birds. Make too much noise. Report an error in the passage at 44:53

45:10 Want the whole world to just shut up for my tranquility. Asking a lot, isn't it? And so we run about looking for ideal situations, monasteries, lifestyles, environments where we can have the perfect conditions where we can experience this more and more. But we haven't reflected on what we're doing yet. It's not that even trying to find ideal conditions is wrong with that or that we shouldn't do it, but to know what you're doing. Report an error in the passage at 45:10

45:40 As long as you hold the view that I have to have ideal conditions in order to have this state of tranquility, then you'll always, if that's what you're operating from, that's your premise, then the logic will come from that. So that's where, in the Buddha's teaching, he's pointing not to a premise of an ideal or a metaphysical reality, but pointing to an existential reality that we can still have under ideal conditions. Report an error in the passage at 45:40

46:16 You know, when you're in ideal conditions and then somebody slams the door and people come into the temple and they start talking in a loud voice, And you're just, you know, in a state of bliss. And then these noisy people come in and get angry because they've disrupted, you know, they've broken the, instead of this tranquility, you feel anger and resentment towards them. Report an error in the passage at 46:16

46:52 But to recognize this reality and be able to integrate it, the sense of I have to have The best conditions for my practice, I have to have the best teacher, I have to have the best situation, I have to have just right, and then I can really get to my practice. Not that this is even wrong in itself, but the grasping of that view will always make you discontented because very seldom do conditions come together where you feel that you're getting what you want. Report an error in the passage at 46:52

47:31 Sometimes they might, you know, the conditions going on, now it's just perfect, but you know you can't sustain it because it's dependent on conditions that you have no control over. Report an error in the passage at 47:31

47:43 You know, we have very little control over the conditioned realm. So, then, instead of operating from I need ideal conditions, be aware of this attachment we have to peace and quiet, to calm, not to... Not as a critical, not to criticize it, but to recognize this longing, this wanting, this demand on life to have these certain conditions fulfilled, and just see what that is. Report an error in the passage at 47:43

48:20 And then you're aware of the dukkha, or the suffering, of even in the best conditions that this planetary life can offer us, there's still, we can experience suffering. So in this first noble truth, there is this suffering. The Buddha said suffering should be understood. To understand something, you have to go to it. You have to look at the reality of it. Suffering is like this, wanting to sustain tranquility and not wanting to lose it. Report an error in the passage at 48:20

48:58 Wanting to be tranquil and calm all the time. Report an error in the passage at 48:58

49:04 And really resenting it when you're not, and blaming either yourself or the environment. So who is aware of this? This is the encouragement to awaken to these tendencies towards trying to become something, get something you don't have, or trying to get rid of something you have that you don't want. Report an error in the passage at 49:04

49:32 Also, too much tranquility, sometimes we get too much peace, can be really boring. Report an error in the passage at 49:32

49:41 You know, so I mean, peace is not exciting, you know, it doesn't stimulate. So when you're upset, confused, that's it, you want it. And then when you have it, sometimes you can't stand it. So then you want some excitement, you know, want to go live, have a party or do something interesting. Report an error in the passage at 49:41

50:09 So on the level of created mental states, And that there's no satisfaction in any of them. You know, there's no way you can find a refuge in the material world, in a mental world, in emotional experience. Report an error in the passage at 50:09

50:31 Because these things are always subject to other conditions. They're going to change and the conditions change and things happen in a way that we have no control over and we just have, what can we do about it? Report an error in the passage at 50:31

50:47 So the Buddha's answer to that question then is to awaken to it. Suffering is like this. So then under all conditions, whether it's in the midst of a battlefield or it's on a most perfect kind of environment where everything is just what you've always wanted or whatever, you know, in the middle of London or at Amaravati, you start with, you begin to recognize the suffering. Report an error in the passage at 50:47

51:25 So the feeling of discontented or restlessness or whatever you're feeling, wherever you are, aversion, attachment, longing, resentment, jealousy, fear. Report an error in the passage at 51:25

51:44 So in this way you begin to, and it's not a criticism, it's not to say any, give any kind of moral judgment or value judgment to whatever you're feeling, it's just to recognize it's like this. Feeling anxiety is like this. Fear, feeling frightened or threatened by something is like this. Feeling jealous is like this. Report an error in the passage at 51:44

52:10 Angry or greed is like this. So, you know, as I'm saying, it's like this, just to point to the reality of it when it's present, so without judging it, because many of us will make some kind of judgment about, you know, how bad it is to feel feel Report an error in the passage at 52:10

52:32 how, know, we feel anxious and we shouldn't. You know, a normal person should be, you know, well-adjusted and free from anxiety. We'd like to be free of anxiety and we feel anxious and we shouldn't, you know, on an ideal level. So Buddha is not asking us to do that, to recognize that this First Noble Truth takes us to a reality reality of a state of being that is changing. Report an error in the passage at 52:32

53:03 As you learn to recognize these things as they are, as soon as you pass some kind of judgment on them, then they become more than what they are. Report an error in the passage at 53:03

53:16 As soon as you add something, like a value judgment of some sort, then it becomes more than what it is. So you get caught and it becomes increasingly complicated. But if you begin to trust yourself just to recognize the feeling, the energetic quality of being in the body, the emotional atmosphere, mood, it's just like this, as you're more willing to accept that through consciousness, in consciousness, then your relationship to it is accepting it, not judging it. Report an error in the passage at 53:16

53:59 Not liking it, not hating it, it is what it is. And then you can be aware of how it changes. These things, you know, all conditions are impermanent, so they change. Report an error in the passage at 53:59

54:15 Now we can know that, intellectually everything changes, but not realize change when it's actually happening. So in awareness, we're actually realizing, recognizing change as it's actually taking place. So like in suffering, emotional suffering, anguish, whatever, recognizing it, accepting it, then what happens? Report an error in the passage at 54:15

54:42 I find it, I can't sustain it. It kind of dissolves and moves away. And I'm in this state of awareness. I'm not resisting, I'm not creating it into anything. Report an error in the passage at 54:42

55:02 It is what it is. I'm not lying to myself. I'm not trying to pretend, you know, or blame it on anybody or myself included. So, it drops. Report an error in the passage at 55:02

55:14 And in that, when it drops, then you're aware of the end of suffering. Now, that's not the end of suffering, you know, like you'll never experience suffering again. That's the end because you're not judging it. Report an error in the passage at 55:14

55:31 Personalizing it, personifying the suffering, you're seeing the end of suffering, and you realize a natural state of awareness, consciousness operating together. Report an error in the passage at 55:31

55:48 Now this, then, is a sustainable, because this is natural, it's not dependent on conditions. But it's subtle, so we tend to, you know, we're conditioned not to notice it, isn't it? We tend to notice it only under very special conditions, like life-threatening conditions, something your kind of intuition takes over, your self-preservation instincts can operate very efficiently when you feel physical danger. Report an error in the passage at 55:48

56:26 But most of us spend our lives in places where the amount of physical danger is minimal. We like to feel safe. We have laws and police and burglar alarms and rottweilers and things like this where you lock the doors and have this sense of security and yet within the most secure situation we can suffer. Report an error in the passage at 56:26

57:02 So Report an error in the passage at 57:02

57:07 just to reflect on this Love and hate. Then to, you know, this is what I said before, this love then, or unconditioned love, I see, the more that we trust in this awareness, then we begin to recognize that's natural to us. Unconditioned love is natural. It's not some kind of high attainment. And so rather than Then seeing yourself as some miserable sinner because of your thoughts and your emotional habits and your memories, you begin to see, you know, you begin to recognize your true nature. Report an error in the passage at 57:07

57:57 And the more you recognize that, then you're trusting that. Because that's real, that's not a creative, that's not a romantic state. That's not a definition, it's a recognition. Report an error in the passage at 57:57

58:12 And to recognize, then, it takes this awareness of even the most subtle assumptions we make about ourselves and the world we live in. We're highly conditioned to interpret life through various perceptions. But as you trust in the awareness, that's not a perception, that's not a created state, that's not a compounded state. Report an error in the passage at 58:12

58:39 So then you... Then you begin to trust that. And that's common to all of us. It's not a cultural thing. It's going beyond culture or race or gender. Report an error in the passage at 58:39

58:53 All these other things that separate us and cause problems and anger and hatred and jealousy and that. It's getting beyond all that. Beyond class identity, political identity. Report an error in the passage at 58:53

59:13 So then to see the true nature of love rather than This sense of a world of hate, you know, that I'm a sinner, and trying to clean up my sins on a personal level, I can't do it. Report an error in the passage at 59:13

59:31 Even being a monk for all these years, you Report an error in the passage at 59:31

59:40 know, the force of habit and the conditioning of the mind are such, and the limitations of our own humanity. The powerful emotions and instinctual energies that go through our bodies and so forth are the way they are. They're not ideals. Report an error in the passage at 59:40

1:00:00 So we're learning to put that in a perspective. Our personalities, our physical state, our instinctual desires and habits, intellectual abilities. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:00

1:00:13 It's like we're witnessing them. We're actually recognizing them, not judging them, but no longer identifying. We're not limiting ourselves to these limited conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:13

1:00:25 And so this is what I encourage you to move towards, seeing the true nature, love. And even if you don't believe me, that's all right. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:25

1:00:37 As long as you recognize that not believing is a created state. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:37

1:00:47 So, I try to be punctual, it's 3 o'clock, and the tea has suddenly appeared, so I invite you all to have some tea, and then in 20 minutes, for those interested, you can come back, and if you have questions, then feel free to ask me questions. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:47