Oceans of Good Action

0:01 See many familiar faces. Report an error in the passage at 0:01 Highlight the passage at 0:01

0:08 This Report an error in the passage at 0:08 Highlight the passage at 0:08

0:12 is the first of this summer's Sunday talks. The theme of Ocean of Good Actions. This is, of course, a reflection. The aim of these Sunday afternoon talks is not any attempt to tell you anything, but to Reflect is to contemplate our own existence, because this is the great gift that we have as human beings. Report an error in the passage at 0:12 Highlight the passage at 0:12

0:53 We have a reflective mind, ability to observe, witness, and learn from what is happening to each one of us individually, that we learn from our lives. Report an error in the passage at 0:53 Highlight the passage at 0:53

1:14 And so it's like learning to listen in this very broad sense of listening, an attitude of open attention rather than trying to listen for anything in particular, just be open yourself up just to observe how what I say affects you or whether you agree, disagree, interested, bored. Report an error in the passage at 1:14 Highlight the passage at 1:14

1:48 Like or don't like or whatever is to have the confidence to observe and to know what you are feeling. Sometimes just recognize the situation that we're in here. Say myself in this position as somebody giving a talk and then you're listening to me talk. So what I say It has a certain power to it, to affect you in some way or other. Report an error in the passage at 1:48 Highlight the passage at 1:48

2:26 Hopefully these Sunday afternoon talks will be inspirational, interesting, useful, beneficial, encouraging, and all the best. But still, that isn't... The purpose really isn't to make that the main intention but the intention to open the opportunity to reflect, to observe what we actually are feeling because even though we have this reflective mind sometimes we ignore or we aren't aware of this gift so we get caught in just our own habits, the momentum. Report an error in the passage at 2:26 Highlight the passage at 2:26

3:14 momentum and power of our own habits without observing that whatever we're feeling, whatever is going on inside us at this moment, it is what it is, but it's not any more than that. The tendency, Report an error in the passage at 3:14 Highlight the passage at 3:14

3:38 he says, to want to define ourselves, we want to know who we are and have a kind of definition, a nice definition of who we are. The tendency Report an error in the passage at 3:38 Highlight the passage at 3:38

3:46 kind of for ourselves, and we want to see ourselves in terms of certain qualities, even negative qualities. We would like to maybe see ourselves in terms of positive qualities, but a common problem. Modern life is seeing oneself through the negative, defining oneself through what's wrong or what isn't right or the fault or the flaw or the weakness and see that as what we are rather than see that that is merely a condition or a thought or a perception that we might be holding on to. Report an error in the passage at 3:46 Highlight the passage at 3:46

4:46 So then, what is our true nature? What are we really, then? And this, of course, the various religions are attempts to direct our attention to what we really are, the purpose of our life, why we're born, what is our true nature, and so forth. Now, the Buddhist approach... It's quite unique compared to the other religions because Buddhism, the Buddhism, Buddha took the, rather than say a metaphysical doctrine starting from the ultimate reality and describing or naming or pointing at that, the Buddha Report an error in the passage at 4:46 Highlight the passage at 4:46

6:15 The birth, death, and the sensitivity that we experience in a sensitive form for that span between birth and death, which always means there's some kind of suffering. Like you can see in the animal world the tremendous fear that propels the animal kingdom to survive. Survival of the fittest. Law of the jungle. You can... Report an error in the passage at 6:15 Highlight the passage at 6:15

6:44 See in yourself how much of your own life is based on fear, anxiety, worry, even within the midst of all the kind of guarantees of security that we demand from our governments and our families and friends. Report an error in the passage at 6:44 Highlight the passage at 6:44

7:07 So getting to recognize, and then we see ourselves maybe from an idea we shouldn't Report an error in the passage at 7:07 Highlight the passage at 7:07

7:22 terms which then leaves us feeling definitely something that there's something wrong me I'm not all that, you know, I'm not the best, the ideal, therefore that There's something wrong and then that's seen in terms of in a very personal way. There's something wrong with me and I've got to, you know, I shouldn't be this kind of way or the way I am. Report an error in the passage at 7:22 Highlight the passage at 7:22

7:56 And then we can see what we should be. But in like recognizing that now we're not trying to become anything at this moment or to tell you what you should be. You know, like these afternoon talks, there's no attempt to tell you what you should be in terms of the ideals, but an encouragement toward awakening to the way things are as direct experience in the present, which is, you know, we're not trying to say this is the best, this is the ideal situation at any moment that you're experiencing at this time during this talk. Report an error in the passage at 7:56 Highlight the passage at 7:56

8:42 But it is, what you can honestly admit, it is what it is. And whatever you're feeling, high, low, bored, happy, sad, or combinations of these changing, the awareness of them, the ability to observe and witness is what we're encouraging, awakeness to the way it is, because The sensual realm, sense realm, is a realm of continuous inexorable change. When you have a mood, try to hold on to it intentionally. Report an error in the passage at 8:42 Highlight the passage at 8:42

9:22 See how long you can sustain a happy mood or a miserable mood when you really try to make it permanent. So much of our life is really spent in resisting, trying to get rid of bad thoughts or bad feelings. Unpleasantness or boredom or trying to find, trying to make life into something where we feel positive or happy, have experiences of happiness. Report an error in the passage at 9:22 Highlight the passage at 9:22

9:55 Another thing that we're all sharing in this moment is consciousness. We're all conscious forms in space. This is just pointing to the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 9:55 Highlight the passage at 9:55

10:09 That each one of us is experiencing consciousness at this time. So consciousness is like this. You're able to listen, you're able to hear, you're able to see, smell, taste, touch and think because of consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 10:09 Highlight the passage at 10:09

10:27 And consciousness, when you're unconscious then you don't know anything, do you? When you're unconscious. Report an error in the passage at 10:27 Highlight the passage at 10:27

10:38 But when you're conscious, then even whatever you're feeling, you know, there you're feeling something or other. And whether you're interpreting that experience in a positive or negative way, you know, or in a totally distorted way, we can interpret conscious experience through delusion, through insanity, through craziness or whatever, Whatever. So what we're doing in saying when we talk about meditation in the Buddhist sense is learning to develop wisdom with consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 10:38 Highlight the passage at 10:38

11:21 So that because most of us are culturally conditioned not through wisdom. Our cultural conditioning is more or less comes out of a whole attitude and assumptions of life that the ethnic background that we're from gives us when we're when we're born when we grow up we acquire the the ethnic values the cultural values of our parents our relatives our family our ethnic group and Report an error in the passage at 11:21 Highlight the passage at 11:21

11:57 some of those that you know some are good some aren't so good some are silly some are foolish some are based on wisdom But still, it's a conditioning process that we get through acculturation. And so we acquire it more in a passive way. We are not developing wisdom with it, per se. We're merely getting conditioned by it. So that's why a lot of the tensions exist, say, in modern life, say, in a country like England, where there's multicultural... Report an error in the passage at 11:57 Highlight the passage at 11:57

12:46 understandings, attitudes, prejudices, biases that we acquire through our cultural conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 12:46 Highlight the passage at 12:46

12:56 so then the conflicts arise, we see people as alien, or foreign, or Different from us. And we believe those feelings as being a kind of reality that maybe our ethnic group or our particular group would align itself with. Report an error in the passage at 12:56 Highlight the passage at 12:56

13:15 So in awakened awareness, in pure consciousness, there's no ethnic quality to it. Can't say consciousness belongs as an Asian or European experience or male or female. It's getting beyond sexual. sexual differences of the body, of the... Report an error in the passage at 13:15 Highlight the passage at 13:15

13:46 with how we perceive our bodies or ourselves in terms of conditioning. But consciousness is a natural function. It's not culturally conditioned You get it when you're born. Report an error in the passage at 13:46 Highlight the passage at 13:46

14:03 When you're born, that means when the umbilical cord is severed, then you're a separate conscious being in terms of experience until the body dies. So consciousness now is our ability to feel and know things. We're aware of all these sentient experiences. Just the sensation of seeing things, pleasant or unpleasant, or neutral sights and sounds, smells, tastes and touch, feelings and emotional habits that we've acquired. Report an error in the passage at 14:03 Highlight the passage at 14:03

14:47 Our emotional nature is usually conditioned out of fear and desire. So we have certain emotional habits. That we experience when things, based on this identity, this sense of ourself as a certain type, a certain race, a certain gender, a certain ethnic group, a certain type, Report an error in the passage at 14:47 Highlight the passage at 14:47

15:21 and with our own physical appearance, isn't it? We strongly identify with the body and what it looks like. Report an error in the passage at 15:21 Highlight the passage at 15:21

15:33 So notice that... We're using consciousness now, conscious experience, for reflection rather than for conditioning. And reflection then helps us to decondition the mind. We're transcending the conditioning of it because we're looking at it from a transcendent level rather than from an attached involvement. Report an error in the passage at 15:33 Highlight the passage at 15:33

16:00 We're not trying to prove... Or take sides on any issue or propound any particular condition as anything that should or shouldn't be. We're now observing the silent witness. Witnessing and knowing. Consciousness allows us to do this. Report an error in the passage at 16:00 Highlight the passage at 16:00

16:28 Language, isn't it? Memory. We have retentive memory. So when we remember things, we can remember... Things that happened to us years and years ago. And usually our memories are of the extremities. Usually you don't remember the ordinariness of your life 20 years ago. But you might remember some horrible thing that happened or some wonderful thing that happened 20 years ago. Or something that had some significance that you would remember it. Report an error in the passage at 16:28 Highlight the passage at 16:28

17:05 So these affect us, isn't it? The memories that we have can make us happy or depressed, and that we can, because of this sense realm that we're in, we can go up and down with the memories that come into our consciousness. Just sitting here in a place like this, Amrabhati Sala on Sunday afternoon, we can start bringing up all the terrible things that happened to us in our life. Report an error in the passage at 17:05 Highlight the passage at 17:05

17:34 And leave utterly depressed. Report an error in the passage at 17:34 Highlight the passage at 17:34

17:40 It's possible, isn't it? Because that's the way it is. What we fill our consciousness with affects us. So it has impact. So a good memory, happy memory, makes us feel happy and good. An unhappy memory... depressed. Report an error in the passage at 17:40 Highlight the passage at 17:40

18:03 Bad memory makes us feel like that. When we remember, say, yesterday, something that was neither happy or sad, we can remember on the short term sometimes various neutral things, but that's neutral. Neither particularly, you know, high or low. And that's the realm that we're experiencing for this lifetime of this changing that Report an error in the passage at 18:03 Highlight the passage at 18:03

18:32 changing, conditioned realm that we are identified with. We see ourselves as the body, as the emotion. I am this physical form. I am this personality. And then with all that we have what we should be. I should be like this. I shouldn't be like that. And these are the ideals, isn't it? Ideals of... That we hold of, say, the very best that we can imagine are usually the should-bes, and the very worst is the shouldn'ts. Report an error in the passage at 18:32 Highlight the passage at 18:32

19:18 Notice how that particular way of thinking affects you, to thinking about what you should be. And then how that oftentimes makes you feel inadequate in the present. Like in giving inspiring... Ajahn Sumedho talks before about, you know, how a monk should be a nun, you know, the ideal monk, ideal nun should be. And so you're talking about, you know, ideal, not real monks and nuns, but ideal ones. Report an error in the passage at 19:18 Highlight the passage at 19:18

19:56 Talking about they should be wise, compassionate, loving, patient, generous, unselfish. And then you look at yourself. Report an error in the passage at 19:56 Highlight the passage at 19:56

20:14 Some people even come to me and say, I don't think I can be a monk or a nun because I'm too selfish or I have too much anger. They can't see themselves ever reaching and living on that ideal plane of this marvelous nun or this marvelous monk. And then you think... Report an error in the passage at 20:14 Highlight the passage at 20:14

20:39 that's not what we're at. We're not... Trying to be ideals, you know, because it's an impossible, trying to become an ideal is impossible because this realm that we're living in, this sense realm, conscious realm that we're experiencing now is not an ideal. It's a changing, it's the changingness. An ideal is, you know, you remember it, you know, it's like the Buddha image. Report an error in the passage at 20:39 Highlight the passage at 20:39

21:09 It's an idealized form, an icon of perfection. So it sustains itself. You carve a hunk of marble into a beautiful Buddha image and then you've got an icon, a religious icon. And that's an ideal. But then we look at our own living form and it's not marble, is it? It's just this incredible... vulnerable, sensitive. Report an error in the passage at 21:09 Highlight the passage at 21:09

21:42 with till it dies and even though you in moments you know there are probably moments in one's youth where you maybe felt you've reached an ideal you know the perfect or the perfect complexion or something but try to sustain it Report an error in the passage at 21:42 Highlight the passage at 21:42

22:04 tried to keep it for very long. Report an error in the passage at 22:04 Highlight the passage at 22:04

22:08 And then sickness and aging and so forth, we experience all these things that are part of our human experience. In Report an error in the passage at 22:08 Highlight the passage at 22:08

22:25 good actions, say, we, having this retentive memory, for example, we remember what we do, what we say. So in terms of remembering, then... Report an error in the passage at 22:25 Highlight the passage at 22:25

22:45 It's one of the skillful means that we use in Buddhist monasticism is to remember our good actions. And this, I think, is more like those of you from kind of Buddhist or Asian backgrounds will probably understand this and the value of this because like in my experience in Thailand, This was very much a part of a cultural attitude, where you remember the good actions as being a cultural value, of cultural value, not just particularly Buddhist per se, but as part of the culture. Report an error in the passage at 22:45 Highlight the passage at 22:45

23:24 And where, say, my background from the United States is, my tendency, say, cultural tendency is to remember, be more aware of what I've done wrong. Report an error in the passage at 23:24 Highlight the passage at 23:24

23:38 And... To remember and to kind of exaggerate the things that are wrong or not right, both with me or with my family, with my society, with the world. Report an error in the passage at 23:38 Highlight the passage at 23:38

23:59 So one becomes, say develops a critical mind that tends to be very much aware of what's wrong. Report an error in the passage at 23:59 Highlight the passage at 23:59

24:21 there's something basically wrong, isn't it? Something's going to go wrong. This kind of gloom-doom tendency, you know, that we had at the end of the millennium, isn't it? This millennium terror, you know, where the Armageddon or the world's going to end or something terrible is going to happen because of this. Report an error in the passage at 24:21 Highlight the passage at 24:21

24:48 this way that we think we know that we're going to die all of us will die and this potential for failure for misery, for unhappiness, for pain we remember even if we haven't had A lot of it we still remember the bits that we have had and taking it from that we can predict in the future it might be just an experience of humiliation, pain, misery, degradation, loss and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 24:48 Highlight the passage at 24:48

25:31 But when we start deliberately thinking, remembering the good actions of our life or the goodness of our life, Then what effect does that have? Report an error in the passage at 25:31 Highlight the passage at 25:31

25:43 So I was, a few years ago, I've read this book on the Prajnaparamita teachings in the Mahāyāna school, and they were talking about developing this muditā, or sympathetic joy, which was... A quality that I greatly admired, but which was not particularly something that came easily to my character. Now, just judging from my own character, ever since I've been a child, I've been a fairly kind person, kindness and... Report an error in the passage at 25:43 Highlight the passage at 25:43

26:36 I feel a lot of compassion for suffering of others and things like that, for those that are poor or sick or deformed or diseased. things like this, these things, these kind of feelings are quite natural for me. But I realized I wasn't developed was I had no sympathetic joy for others. Report an error in the passage at 26:36 Highlight the passage at 26:36

27:03 tended to feel jealous or envious or feel intimidated by the goodness, the beauty, the success of other people. Report an error in the passage at 27:03 Highlight the passage at 27:03

27:17 Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced others and the good actions of others. Report an error in the passage at 27:17 Highlight the passage at 27:17

27:37 Love to be able to be that way. But it wasn't kind of natural for me to feel like that. So this trying to just make myself feel that way as being attached to the ideal also didn't work very well. Because it's kind of this sense of good actions, rejoicing in the good actions, in the goodness, in the beauty of The world that we live in or in the people around us then is something that hasn't been a cultural value that I remember ever being taught. Report an error in the passage at 27:37 Highlight the passage at 27:37

28:21 And I remember being brought up in a competitive society then you are very much aware of who runs faster, who's better looking, who's the brightest in the class, who's the... You know, and then you feel, then you judge yourself whether you're better or superior or inferior accordingly to that. And so when somebody else wins the prize, you know, you don't find yourself rejoicing when you wanted the prize. You might act like a good sport on one level, you know, put on a good face, but inside you can feel really... Report an error in the passage at 28:21 Highlight the passage at 28:21

29:04 having somebody else getting what you wanted. Report an error in the passage at 29:04 Highlight the passage at 29:04

29:12 rejoicing or sympathetic joy, a kind of joyfulness that comes in, that is natural to us when we free our minds from this false sense of a self. Report an error in the passage at 29:12 Highlight the passage at 29:12

29:29 sympathetic joy is not just a sentimental kind of trick we're playing on the mind. I find the more that I... If I develop my meditation, then this ability to experience muditā increases. It's a kind of joyfulness in being that is natural to us when we're not caught and bound into a lot of negative attitudes, emotions, fears and desires when we let that go. Report an error in the passage at 29:29 Highlight the passage at 29:29

30:00 And then we begin to really... And we're no longer bound into seeing ourselves through comparing ourselves with others. We're seeing that goodness and beauty and truth and all that is universal and that we rejoice in it wherever it manifests rather than taking it personally. Report an error in the passage at 30:00 Highlight the passage at 30:00

30:29 And so the aim of Buddhist meditation is to liberate the mind from this false sense of a self. That we hold to, that cramps us, that binds us to this, to fear, to desire, to worry, anxiety. Report an error in the passage at 30:29 Highlight the passage at 30:29

30:52 Feelings of not being good enough, fear of failure and all the rest. These come from this sense of seeing ourselves in very limited ways. Habits, ways of looking at life that... We believe that we've been raised to think are normal, natural, and true. But when we examine them in the light of wisdom, they're not. Report an error in the passage at 30:52 Highlight the passage at 30:52

31:18 Not the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 31:18 Highlight the passage at 31:18

31:26 Now in, say, living in community life, for example, my experience living in monastic community life, Report an error in the passage at 31:26 Highlight the passage at 31:26

31:42 ...being trained in Thailand, ordaining in Thailand, and being trained there, and then living here for many years in England, and living with people who, say, have a certain commitment in the same direction. So we have a common bond. All the monks and nuns that I live with, there is this commonality of our goal. Report an error in the passage at 31:42 Highlight the passage at 31:42

32:09 Spiritual goal. But in terms of the daily life experience of living together as personalities, there's always problems and tensions created. Report an error in the passage at 32:09 Highlight the passage at 32:09

32:21 Because we irritate each other. We can irritate each other. We don't always agree or we have different ways. Like a very fast person gets very impatient with a very slow one. A very slow one feels very intimidated by a very fast one. And a monk who everybody likes, and then there's the monks that nobody ever notices, and then there's generation gaps. Report an error in the passage at 32:21 Highlight the passage at 32:21

32:56 And we've got, I mean, so many, we're truly an international saṅgha here. We've got Sri Lankan monks. Report an error in the passage at 32:56 Highlight the passage at 32:56

33:09 getting more and more from like Eastern Europe and Russia and places like that. So you're getting, you know, generations and and different assumptions, attitudes, all conditioned through the particular places that they grew up. And we're influenced by. But the common ground is our spiritual aspiration. And then we have this moral commitment under the Vinaya where we agree to live with each other in a harmless and respectful way. Report an error in the passage at 33:09 Highlight the passage at 33:09

33:46 So we all agree when we become monks and nuns that we're going to live with each other through non-violence. We're not going to hit each other. Report an error in the passage at 33:46 Highlight the passage at 33:46

34:03 And we're going to try to be honest, not tell lies to each other, deceive each other and so forth, and abuse each other verbally and whatnot. So these are intentions and sharing the things that are offered to the Saṅgha. So we're not trying to get the best for ourselves or trying to compete for things. Report an error in the passage at 34:03 Highlight the passage at 34:03

34:29 But still, the emotional habits are based on something else, on the kind of way that we did grow up, you know, from the backgrounds we're from, the kind of family situations, from the ethnic attitudes. Report an error in the passage at 34:29 Highlight the passage at 34:29

34:48 So there can be a lot of misunderstanding in a community like this. You know, you think, why does he act like that? Why did she look like that? Why did... Why does he always do that when I say this? And you can get it all wrong. Many times I've been totally wrong in making my assumptions from my own experience. Well, if I'd done that, I would have been in a certain state of mind and then project that on to another person. Report an error in the passage at 34:48 Highlight the passage at 34:48

35:26 So it's... And also we've been trained in a society that's competitive, say like in American society which is very competitive, then it's also we're very, we can be very judgmental about the irritating qualities of somebody else or the fact that they aren't what we think they should be or they're not pulling their weight or they're not... Report an error in the passage at 35:26 Highlight the passage at 35:26

35:57 not living up to the principles that we have or they have these bad habits that irritate us. And we can really hang on to those and let those kind of fulminate inside and then feel really resentful and angry towards people in the community. Report an error in the passage at 35:57 Highlight the passage at 35:57

36:29 in terms of Awakenedness or mindfulness, we're using this to observe our own tendencies to project our views upon other people or how we can hold and create these horrible feelings in ourselves towards somebody over sometimes just not understanding why or where they're coming from. Report an error in the passage at 36:29 Highlight the passage at 36:29

36:57 So these things are just the way somebody moves. You know, like, can bring up a reaction. I remember feeling very angry just because the way somebody walked one time. Report an error in the passage at 36:57 Highlight the passage at 36:57

37:19 Body language, they call it, you know. How we move or don't move or whatever. Can we feel a strong emotion? So this is because of the sensitivity. And how we interpret that, you see, is now we find we have a choice. We're not just helpless victims of the conditioned process, you know, that I'm conditioned like this and there's nothing I can do about it. Report an error in the passage at 37:19 Highlight the passage at 37:19

37:55 But I've found the way to get beyond my conditioning and a way of looking at experience not from ideals that I have or principles that I hold, Which are based on the best, but on the highest standard, but being willing to observe the experience that I'm having, witnessing what I'm feeling. And that, of course, is where we're allowing, say, unacknowledged feelings and emotions and habits that sometimes we are just caught into and we don't even know it. Report an error in the passage at 37:55 Highlight the passage at 37:55

38:35 We just... Caught into that way of reacting and thinking we're suddenly looking at it in a more objective way. We're observing it from the position of pure awareness rather than the position of a personal interpretation and a judgment about it. Now when you allow yourself to use pure awareness, mindfulness, Report an error in the passage at 38:35 Highlight the passage at 38:35

39:07 That is our ability to get, at that moment, when we're really just full attention, really here and now, fully present and attentive, like listening, but not listening to anything in particular, but in a sense of open attention, poised attention in the present. Then that is, when we begin to appreciate that, And in terms of the religious teachings, this is the deathless experience of ultimate truth, in which we tend to... Report an error in the passage at 39:07 Highlight the passage at 39:07

40:09 Not notice or not be aware of because of the conditioning of the mind, the habits we do have. So we're always thinking and caught in emotions and we're always going from one thing to another. So that pure state of being is not recognized, not acknowledged, not known. And we're, you know, just like when you think, what do you do? One thought connects to another. So like, you know, when you're caught in this thinking about yourself, you're always going from one thought to another. Report an error in the passage at 40:09 Highlight the passage at 40:09

40:46 And so you get into this dualistic experience of life where everything is right or wrong, good or bad in terms of opposites, qualities based on, that oppose each other. Report an error in the passage at 40:46 Highlight the passage at 40:46

41:03 But in intuitive awareness, mindfulness, then we're transcending. You can use transcendence not as a kind of turning your back on the world, but embracing the world. Report an error in the passage at 41:03 Highlight the passage at 41:03

41:20 Sometimes the word transcendence sounds like it can convey a sense of I'm beyond all this and I have nothing to do with all these worldly things, which is another delusion. Report an error in the passage at 41:20 Highlight the passage at 41:20

41:33 But how we use transcendence in Buddhism is it's not a kind of getting beyond in terms of turning your back on the world and having nothing more to do with it. But really it's seeing the world in terms of an object. You're objectifying it. You're seeing it for what it is. Because then your true nature is transcendent rather than... Report an error in the passage at 41:33 Highlight the passage at 41:33

42:02 Because Report an error in the passage at 42:02 Highlight the passage at 42:02

42:06 at that point where you pay attention and listen and awaken, then that is the gate to the deathless, the transcendent, the still point in the moving world, and these different terms, isn't it, that point to a reality which can be completely ignored or not noticed due to the To the momentum of our emotional habits and thoughts. So this is where I, you know, in terms of developing conscious experience, because we are conscious beings, we have these forms that we're incarcerated in for a lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 42:06 Highlight the passage at 42:06

42:59 So we learn from this. We have to learn from ourselves, the way we are. You know, this is the... This is the thing that we can learn from, no matter what way it is. It doesn't matter if it's the best or even the worst. If you're disabled or have all kinds of diseases, this is not an obstruction towards this awareness. Report an error in the passage at 42:59 Highlight the passage at 42:59

43:31 But the obstruction lies in our... Heedlessness in not awakening, not recognizing, and believing in the conditioned conditions of the body, the emotions, the thoughts, the memories, and identifying, holding on to that as this is the way I am, this is me, and kind of fixing on that as an identity. Report an error in the passage at 43:31 Highlight the passage at 43:31

43:58 And then that identity is always, that identity is a divisive, When I see myself in terms of qualities, my physical form, my character, my personality, then that makes me very separate. That emphasizes the separateness of me being different from you. When I'm in a pure state of awareness, pure awareness, that awareness isn't mine. Report an error in the passage at 43:58 Highlight the passage at 43:58

44:33 I can say it's... It's mine. It's not like in my... It's a character, a quality that I have as a person. It's natural to all of us, and that awareness is universal. It's not personal. So it's where we all merge, where we're all one, is in awareness. That's the gate where we get beyond the differences, the cultural differences, ethnic differences. Report an error in the passage at 44:33 Highlight the passage at 44:33

45:10 Because that doesn't belong to any culture or any religion. You're getting beyond even the religious conventions. You can't even say it's Buddhist. Report an error in the passage at 45:10 Highlight the passage at 45:10

45:24 So what Buddhism does, Buddhism is a convention for pointing at that. And religions, in general, their main purpose, their sole purpose, really is directing one's attention. Report an error in the passage at 45:24 Highlight the passage at 45:24

45:45 In their various ways, various conventional ways that they do it. So just using the Buddhist convention, then this is, you know, when you try to compare Buddhism, say, with Christianity and all that, you can come out with being they're totally opposite different religions, pointing at a different reality. Report an error in the passage at 45:45 Highlight the passage at 45:45

46:05 But I don't see it like that. I don't, you know, I can see it's just a different, you know, different between a red pointer and a blue pointer. Report an error in the passage at 46:05 Highlight the passage at 46:05

46:18 You might prefer red over blue. That's the only, you know, your personal preference is there. So that influences which one you want to use. But they're pointing at the same thing. And this is the unconditioned, we call it the unconditioned or ultimate reality. You can call it God. You can call it truth, the absolute. Report an error in the passage at 46:18 Highlight the passage at 46:18

46:47 The deathless, but it's not a conditioned thing. So when you try to describe it, your descriptions are always based on conditions. So descriptions never quite make it. They tend to idealize again, descriptions like of God or of ultimate truth tend to, we get stuck in the idealization of it again rather than the realization. Report an error in the passage at 46:47 Highlight the passage at 46:47

47:23 So this awakened point, this awakened is the way to that reality, to know that reality through consciousness now at this time and this place. Report an error in the passage at 47:23 Highlight the passage at 47:23

47:44 In terms of the title of this, Oceans of Good Actions, because of my critical nature, intending to be so aware of what's wrong, I deliberately cultivated this practice of reflecting on the oceans of good actions of conscious beings. Report an error in the passage at 47:44 Highlight the passage at 47:44

48:08 Because with the mass media, the news usually is about the nastiness of human beings. So when you hear the news or read the newspapers or the gossip usually is around scandals, corruption, evil practices and crime and so forth. And it's so easy, isn't it, to see humanity in terms of being selfish, brutal, criminal, corrupt. Report an error in the passage at 48:08 Highlight the passage at 48:08

48:43 These kind of words, scandals, they make news. This is how they attract our attention in a newspaper. They have to use words like scandal or corruption or rape or something like that and the mind gravitates to that. Those are powerful words that convey usually the meanness or badness of human behavior. that gets highlighted in our conscious experience. Report an error in the passage at 48:43 Highlight the passage at 48:43

49:20 So learning to reflect on the good actions, the oceans of good actions, because just think at this moment now, all the good actions performed by conscious beings at this time, and your mind starts going to a different place, doesn't it? Report an error in the passage at 49:20 Highlight the passage at 49:20

49:44 And if you hear about the terrible things somebody's done, then we feel like this. But when we remember, like, all the basic goodness of our humanity, just like, say, the monks starting on this Vasa two weeks, some of the monks and nuns have been going to Berkhamstead to go alms collecting in the morning, Bindabata, in Berkhamstead. Report an error in the passage at 49:44 Highlight the passage at 49:44

50:12 So... this is all. And they all love it, you know, because they come back and usually people have, you know, who you don't know suddenly stop and want to know what is it you're doing and they'll take an interest and when they find out they want to, you know, help you out, give you something, give you something to eat. Report an error in the passage at 50:12 Highlight the passage at 50:12

50:47 You know, when you look like this in England, in a kind of conservative, kind of class area like this, you know, you're expecting... People to not feel very friendly or hospitable towards you. Suspect you. You think it made those cults. Because that's another word in the newspaper that usually grabs your eyes. Report an error in the passage at 50:47 Highlight the passage at 50:47

51:14 A cult. And that means there's some kind of juicy scandal. They've done something horrible to somebody. And that's oftentimes how we're seen as a cult. scandal. Report an error in the passage at 51:14 Highlight the passage at 51:14

51:35 So remembering like the goodness of just like, say, mothers to their children. You know, how many women alive on this planet at this moment of just offering, nurturing their children out of love. That's good actions, isn't it? Or, you know, and these aren't usually, these would never make the news, wouldn't they? But these are ordinary to our state, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 51:35 Highlight the passage at 51:35

52:04 Like, It's rare, it's usually rare when a mother is brutal and nasty to her child and when she's loving and giving and nurturing. Report an error in the passage at 52:04 Highlight the passage at 52:04

52:16 So just remembering that basic goodness that we have as human beings or the willingness to be concerned or to share or to help or to offer solace to somebody in trouble or in pain or All the nurses and doctors and teachers and we hear about the teachers that do, that hit the children. They Report an error in the passage at 52:16 Highlight the passage at 52:16

52:49 told me about the goodness of school teachers. So that just remembering the goodness, good actions performed by conscious beings since beginningless time. Report an error in the passage at 52:49 Highlight the passage at 52:49

53:05 We think of this isn't just time, in our terms of reflecting on time, you know, 100 years, 200 years, beginningless time. That stops the mind, you know, it goes so far back that we, know, time, you can't imagine it. But it does convey this sense of that goodness, actions, Report an error in the passage at 53:05 Highlight the passage at 53:05

53:37 generosity. ferocity All these are quite natural to our state, our humanity. We can even see it in the animal realm, can't we? We can look at animals as brutes, or we can also see, like the way a mother will look after her cubs or puppies or whatever. It shows a goodness, you know, a kind of natural goodness that comes with, say, mammalian birth, in a mammalian form. Report an error in the passage at 53:37 Highlight the passage at 53:37

54:13 We Report an error in the passage at 54:13 Highlight the passage at 54:13

54:18 hear now of all the, you know, the atrocities that happen, like in East Timor and in Malukas and in, you know, all over the world, we're very much aware of the... Report an error in the passage at 54:18 Highlight the passage at 54:18

54:35 Genocides and the brutalities and atrocities. But yet in all those things, there's also a lot of good actions happening, isn't it? When you get behind the scenes, there's a kind of heroic efforts, there's caring, there's people willing to risk their lives to help somebody that is being persecuted. Report an error in the passage at 54:35 Highlight the passage at 54:35

55:02 So remembering these good actions, remembering even your own good actions throughout your life, rather than, say, your meanness or when you did something that wasn't very good. Remember, just in simple things, just like feeding the dog or looking after somebody or giving... Report an error in the passage at 55:02 Highlight the passage at 55:02

55:40 develop any great not dare to think about in terms of personal qualities in the west we tend to think that being honest means we admit faults Report an error in the passage at 55:40 Highlight the passage at 55:40

55:55 admitting one's good qualities is like bragging. So in England, of course, people don't like bragging, you know. The worst thing you can do in this country is just help somebody else how good you are. Report an error in the passage at 55:55 Highlight the passage at 55:55

56:14 So that... But it's not... This is honest bragging is coming from the ego, isn't it? It's not a fair... I'm really the best and I've done this and that. That's bragging. But when I honestly look at my life, you know... I have to admit that most of it has been based on goodness. My intentions. I've never longed to be a criminal or enjoy. Report an error in the passage at 56:14 Highlight the passage at 56:14

56:43 I don't enjoy. It doesn't mean I never have lied, but I don't enjoy telling lies. I don't like to deceive others, even though at times maybe I have. But I'm not proud of it. These are good qualities. Trying to be honest and forthright and generous and kind and caring, loving. And these are natural to our state as human beings. And so reflecting on the goodness oceans of good actions, try this during this next week. Report an error in the passage at 56:43 Highlight the passage at 56:43

57:26 And some of, you know, you can get cynical about it, but even be kind towards your cynicism and really see what the effect is. Even when somebody, you know, like if you have somebody that you particularly find you don't like or you feel strong emotions against. When you start thinking of their good actions, it does change it, doesn't it? It kind of neutralizes the aversion. Report an error in the passage at 57:26 Highlight the passage at 57:26

58:01 Because it's easy to make a case, somebody were totally bad, that's the easiest one. You know, like in a movie where the villain is at his no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Report an error in the passage at 58:01 Highlight the passage at 58:01

58:16 It makes it easy for us when he gets killed. We think, oh, that's good. Report an error in the passage at 58:16 Highlight the passage at 58:16

58:23 But in films where the villain has some redeeming qualities, it kind of tears us. It confuses us, doesn't it? It's not black and white anymore. We feel also other feelings rather than just, oh, good, something like that deserves to die. Good riddance. But we're recognizing that these extremities, somebody who's a pure saint, who's totally good and perfect, doesn't exist. Report an error in the passage at 58:23 Highlight the passage at 58:23

59:00 Neither does a really totally evil being exist. But these conditions, we have this potential within us. But as human beings, when we look at modern society and that, we... Just the ideals of the age, isn't it? Like democracy, concern for the environment. Report an error in the passage at 59:00 Highlight the passage at 59:00

59:25 We're now interested in trying to have fair judicial systems and economies and political systems and so forth that are based on good qualities of sharing and generosity, kindness. Report an error in the passage at 59:25 Highlight the passage at 59:25

59:46 not just exploiting our society for selfish personal benefit. Report an error in the passage at 59:46 Highlight the passage at 59:46

59:59 afternoon i'll stop here it's three o 'clock and and you're invited to have some tea i see it's been out on the servery anyway to on this to to i found this a very useful Report an error in the passage at 59:59 Highlight the passage at 59:59

1:00:20 That makes me look at people in a different way. When I look at you and think of all the oceans of good actions that all of you have done in your lives, it's a different feeling when I think, I wonder what kind of sins these people are. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:20 Highlight the passage at 1:00:20

1:00:43 We can have one of these talk shows where you get up and tell everyone the worst thing you've ever done. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:43 Highlight the passage at 1:00:43

1:00:52 That's what they do now, isn't it, on television. You get up and you tell everybody all about your sex life or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:52 Highlight the passage at 1:00:52

1:01:03 And this is supposed to be a kind of honesty. But it appeals to a kind of prurient curiosity. But when you look at that mental state, that's not a feeling that... and everybody... Report an error in the passage at 1:01:03 Highlight the passage at 1:01:03

1:01:07 hear. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:07 Highlight the passage at 1:01:07

1:01:26 That lifts you toward a spiritual goal. It doesn't point to anything. It points downward, really. But when you reflect on the good actions of others, even just very simple things, then what is the effect of that? And that will give you a sense of appreciating being human and the humanity of others. And the goodness of other creatures. So offer this for your consideration this afternoon and then have tea and in 20 minutes or so, those who wish to stay, we could have discussion on this. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:26 Highlight the passage at 1:01:26