The World and The End of The World

0:02 So I wish to welcome everybody. Can you hear me? Report an error in the passage at 0:02 Highlight the passage at 0:02

0:14 And this is the first of this series of talks or reflections. And for those of you who are here for the first time, what I like to do is more or less reflect. And it's not like giving information or kind of explaining Buddhism. An attempt to awaken or encourage an attentive attitude of looking inward because the Buddha's teaching is really summed up with the word awake. Report an error in the passage at 0:14 Highlight the passage at 0:14

0:59 You could even use this as what the translation of Buddha means is awake. And even though this is quite an ordinary word, This awakened, this Buddha or awakened attention is something that is so simple and natural to us but in which we tend to, because it is so simple, we tend to even not notice it. I mean, modern life is usually very complicated and, you know, we're always planning for the future or thinking and remembering the past. Report an error in the passage at 0:59 Highlight the passage at 0:59

1:44 And our minds are so programmed, conditioned to create endless complexities, making ourselves as personalities, as individual human beings into very complicated creatures, as well as looking at the world around us through all kinds of criticisms. criticisms, views, cultural attitudes, prejudices, and that, that influence our... Report an error in the passage at 1:44 Highlight the passage at 1:44

2:17 So when we use the word awake or the word Buddha or in Thai forest tradition we use it as a mantra like Bhutto which means the kind of mantric form of Buddha and putting that into practical reality is Attention or awakened attention to the present. And the awakeness is towards, you know, all that we're experiencing now, either emotionally or intellectually, physically. Report an error in the passage at 2:17 Highlight the passage at 2:17

2:57 It includes, rather than is a kind of pointing to one thing and trying to dismiss the rest. So it's an awakened attention that includes. Report an error in the passage at 2:57 Highlight the passage at 2:57

3:12 And opens to the present rather than tries to exclude everything by focusing on just one particular thing or one thought or one idea. Report an error in the passage at 3:12 Highlight the passage at 3:12

3:26 So it sounds simple enough, but the cultivating of this way can be quite difficult. Not because it's difficult in itself, but because we tend to be difficult. Report an error in the passage at 3:26 Highlight the passage at 3:26

3:43 We're complicated and this is very simple. Sometimes simplicity is the most difficult thing for us to bear. We can deal with complicated things much better. People are really eager to learn computer science and internet, really complicated stuff. Report an error in the passage at 3:43 Highlight the passage at 3:43

4:07 Spend thousands of pounds just to get more complicated. And here, dharma talk, ramravati afternoon, free. You don't have to spend anything. Simple, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 4:07 Highlight the passage at 4:07

4:26 Some people think if I charge a lot of money, there'd be more people to come. Report an error in the passage at 4:26 Highlight the passage at 4:26

4:37 But then they'll give the wrong impression, isn't it? It's like, you know, it's worth a lot of money. You know, you have to have lots of money to be able to afford. This teaching is not the message I'm eager to give, that I want to give, because in terms of the Buddhist tradition, the idea is it's free. Report an error in the passage at 4:37 Highlight the passage at 4:37

5:08 People need to show an interest, and then it's freely given, rather than something you have to pay for. So in another way you can see it's priceless rather than worthless. I think if it's free it must be worthless. But in theory we can use the word priceless. It's beyond price. There's not enough money that you could accumulate in the world that would really pay the full price of this teaching so you get it for free. Report an error in the passage at 5:08 Highlight the passage at 5:08

6:05 the... Well, they always like to have titles for these talks, and every year it's a challenge to think of some and say, what kind of dazzling new title can I give? Report an error in the passage at 6:05 Highlight the passage at 6:05

6:23 What will pull in the crowds, you know? How to deal with stress in the marketplace? Report an error in the passage at 6:23 Highlight the passage at 6:23

6:35 So this was called The World in the End of the World, and I think, you know, all the doomy... play it. Report an error in the passage at 6:35 Highlight the passage at 6:35

6:43 Gloom, doom predictions about the greenhouse effect and the problem with the pollution and so forth. We think of the end of the world and the problems that face us in this present century. And we notice just in the news that you hear through the radio or the mass media how Gloomy it all tends to be, the American president refusing to sign the Kyoto Agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, and the kind of, so many views and opinions about is this a greenhouse effect, is this really, is this a joke or is this a reality? Report an error in the passage at 6:43 Highlight the passage at 6:43

7:36 And some people just, because they don't particularly feel it themselves, think it must not, you know, it's not really happening. Report an error in the passage at 7:36 Highlight the passage at 7:36

7:44 When you're living here at Amaravati, it's like living in an ivory tower existence, you know. You're living in a very nice place where you're not all that aware of the pressures and problems that the society has. Just here in England, for example. Then when you go from England even to like Thailand or India, places where There's all kinds of problems, political, economic, and social problems. Report an error in the passage at 7:44 Highlight the passage at 7:44

8:24 When you live in monasteries, somehow the monastic life is a very kind of specially privileged way to spend your years as a human being. So I'm quite grateful because my life in England, this is my 25th year living in this country. has been a very kind of special kind of lifestyle. I mean, I don't know, you know, it's very rare that somebody only experiences the UK as a Buddhist monk. Report an error in the passage at 8:24 Highlight the passage at 8:24

8:58 And I was never here before as a lay person. So I have a Buddhist monk's perspective on United Kingdom. And of course, coming here in 1977, Report an error in the passage at 8:58 Highlight the passage at 8:58

9:15 As a Buddhist monk, I came on an invitation, so already I didn't just kind of come here as a tourist or just, you know, a stranger, but actually the English Saṅgha Trust and those involved with it at the time were very keen on having Buddhist monks living in England. So then my experience of living in this country has been with the Buddhists. So that's also a very... Report an error in the passage at 9:15 Highlight the passage at 9:15

9:45 It's a kind of special way of seeing a country. When I go to Italy, I see the Buddhists. When I go to Switzerland, the Buddhists. And then Australia, it's Buddhists. And the United States, Buddhists. And for all I know, that's all there are, Buddhists. Buddhist Italy, even. Italy, you know. Report an error in the passage at 9:45 Highlight the passage at 9:45

10:17 And one thing about being a Buddhist is that it is a teaching that seems to appeal internationally. So even though, like here at Amaravati now, we have the most kind of international saṅgha I've ever seen. We've got this Vasa retreat this summer. We've got people from so many different countries living together, from Asia, from India, Eastern Europe, from Western Europe, from the States. Report an error in the passage at 10:17 Highlight the passage at 10:17

10:52 Australia and places like that, that you realize your common bond is your interest in the Dhamma, in meditation. This is quite a strong connection actually because problems do arise. There's so many misunderstandings. Report an error in the passage at 10:52 Highlight the passage at 10:52

11:26 conflicts arise on a personal level and then if they're different nationalities and different races it can be more complicated but the kind of beauty of the life is that it Report an error in the passage at 11:26 Highlight the passage at 11:26

11:41 Somehow these complications aren't our focus. These are not to be the things that we fill our consciousness with endlessly, but our aim to be free from these kind of attachments, to get beyond just the limitations, get beyond the limitations of our personalities or our ethnic background or cultural conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 11:41 Highlight the passage at 11:41

12:11 So the Buddha is pointing to the reality beyond all these conditioned states, like all cultural conditioning is conditioned. If you're born in England, then you acquire that way of those particular values or perceptions. If you're born in Sri Lanka or Thailand or Japan or the United States, you acquire a certain way of of experiencing life that's culturally conditioned through your family and your social position your ethnic background and of course these distort our experience of reality because we're interpreting always our experience of life through trying to fit the experience into these particular perceptions that we've acquired some of them are quite good some of them are Some of them are beautiful, some of them are not very good at all, some of them are really horrible. Report an error in the passage at 12:11 Highlight the passage at 12:11

13:14 But still, the aim of the Buddhist practice is to realize transcendence, a natural state of being, of consciousness, before it becomes anything, before it becomes a man or woman. Report an error in the passage at 13:14 Highlight the passage at 13:14

13:36 British or American or before it becomes Buddhist even or Christian before any of these perceptions these things arise there is our natural pure state of being of consciousness and this can be completely ignored and unnoticed because our attention is always toward is interpreting things from these distortions of a self personal Report an error in the passage at 13:36 Highlight the passage at 13:36

14:07 of me and my limitations and myself and then my own values, cultural attitudes. I mean, because I've chosen Buddhism, I wasn't born into a Buddhist family. It was a mature adult. I was a physically mature adult anyway. Report an error in the passage at 14:07 Highlight the passage at 14:07

14:37 When I chose Buddhism. And it wasn't like forced on me or anything. It's just, you know, part of a cultural attitude that I'd acquired. So it was quite a conscious choice and preference. And also because I had brought up as a Christian, I also had a bias against Christianity. Report an error in the passage at 14:37 Highlight the passage at 14:37

15:01 You know, because I felt disappointed or... Or very critical of the kind of Christian conditioning I'd had. And so there was this bias against and then there was this preference for. The preference for Buddhism was to, you know, always kind of try to always see it in terms of it's the best, you know, this is the best. Report an error in the passage at 15:01 Highlight the passage at 15:01

15:29 And then it was easy to... To criticize Christianity, because the kind of Christian view that I'd learned was a rather childlike view of it. Report an error in the passage at 15:29 Highlight the passage at 15:29

15:42 It was, you know, the kind of almost Santa Claus version of, you know, if you're a good boy, the big father up in the sky gives you rewards. Report an error in the passage at 15:42 Highlight the passage at 15:42

15:56 And if you're a bad boy, then he punishes you. Report an error in the passage at 15:56 Highlight the passage at 15:56

16:19 acquire in a cultural Report an error in the passage at 16:19 Highlight the passage at 16:19

16:23 And even some of you who are born in Buddhist countries, like in Thailand or Sri Lanka or Cambodia, can still have a very kind of cultural attitude, a kind of cultural bias that limits you in regards to how you see Buddhism. Some people see Buddhism, oh, that's where the priests come and they chant the parittas. They think we're priests. Report an error in the passage at 16:23 Highlight the passage at 16:23

16:51 In Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankans call themselves priests. And we're oftentimes seen as ceremonial priests, where we do perform ceremonies. And that's the particular cultural perspective that you might have from an Asian country, where in Europe, Europeans wouldn't tend to see us in that light. And they would tend to see us not as ceremonial priests, but... Report an error in the passage at 16:51 Highlight the passage at 16:51

17:23 Sometimes a view of a monk means someone who shuts himself away. Like it's interesting here at Amaravati, the British attitude at first was a feeling they shouldn't come here because they see a monastery as a kind of cloistered environment where monks and nuns live to escape all the worldly frustrations and that maybe once a year or something you're allowed in through the door. Report an error in the passage at 17:23 Highlight the passage at 17:23

17:54 And only for a short time, so you don't upset things too much, then go away. That's one perception, say, of a certain type of monasticism. Report an error in the passage at 17:54 Highlight the passage at 17:54

18:09 But, say, in a Buddhist country, you wouldn't have that problem. My experience in Thailand was the monasteries are open all the time. The people come and go accordingly. In the middle of the night they'll come or whatever. They don't have the reticence about, you know, they wouldn't even think that they shouldn't come. Report an error in the passage at 18:09 Highlight the passage at 18:09

18:29 It's because the attitude is different in a sense. It's open door policy that tends to be part of a Buddhist monastic perspective. Report an error in the passage at 18:29 Highlight the passage at 18:29

18:44 But getting to the subject of the world and the end of the world, it's... I found it very helpful to contemplate just the word world because in Thailand, for example, when Ajahn Chah would use the Thai word for world, he Report an error in the passage at 18:44 Highlight the passage at 18:44

19:13 wasn't meaning the world that I considered the world with the English words. Report an error in the passage at 19:13 Highlight the passage at 19:13

19:24 Because my perspective of the world is a kind of physical world. It's the planet Earth. It's Britain and it's Europe and it's the United States and Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and so forth. And the world with this world's population. And we're global now, globalization. Report an error in the passage at 19:24 Highlight the passage at 19:24

19:51 And this sense of the world being something external, you know, that is a physical world. Where in Ajahn Chah's way of using the word was the creator of the world is here. We create the worlds we live in. Now this is for reflection. Now contemplate this yourself, if this resonates with you. Report an error in the passage at 19:51 Highlight the passage at 19:51

20:18 If we asked everyone in this room how they saw the world right now, would it come out the same? Are we living in the same world, really? Or we can assume that we're all in the same world. That's an assumption. But our experience of it is going to be Report an error in the passage at 20:18 Highlight the passage at 20:18

20:40 Colored by the way we perceive ourselves and the environment that we're living in, which will vary considerably from one person to the next. Report an error in the passage at 20:40 Highlight the passage at 20:40

20:55 So when people would ask, in Buddhism, who is the creator of the world? Who is it that created the universe? Who is it that created the world? And Luang Por Chah always comes forth with this enigmatic reply. You did. Report an error in the passage at 20:55 Highlight the passage at 20:55

21:17 And that would kind of stop the mind for a while and boggle your mind because we're used to thinking of some kind of mythical creator or some kind of creation theory because other religions do have creation theories about how the world was created, how it was a cosmic egg or it was born out of... You know, something out of mist or whatever. And so these are kind of legends or stories or ways of talking about how it all started in terms of the world or the physical world or the planetary system. Report an error in the passage at 21:17 Highlight the passage at 21:17

22:03 But that remains still theoretical, doesn't it? Even when we can have various preferences or views about it, about evolution. But in terms of direct experience with the awakened state, the awakened attention of this moment, it isn't necessary, I mean it's impossible to figure out how it all began way back when, because that is a perception that we're creating of the past, way back when, a billion years ago or so forth. Report an error in the passage at 22:03 Highlight the passage at 22:03

22:41 is a perception that we have around time. And so if we're aware of that, even our assumption that the world was created a billion years ago, that in itself is a world that we're creating, that very thought or attitude or opinion. How you see yourself. You create yourself as a person. So our personalities are conditioned, what we identify with, with what we look like, with our gender, whether we're male or female, whether we're tall or short or white or dark or beautiful. Report an error in the passage at 22:41 Highlight the passage at 22:41

23:36 Ugly or whatever, we create the sense of ourself accordingly to how we perceive the appearance of the human body. So this is a creation of the world. We create the world of this country, living here in England, for example. We believe that this is England and that we definitely feel that this is... That's the name of this place we're in. But actually, when you look at it, we've named it England, but it doesn't in any way claim to be England, does it? Report an error in the passage at 23:36 Highlight the passage at 23:36

24:21 It's never, I've asked it many times, it never says anything. Your England doesn't even say yes. So who's creating England? Then I began... Now I'm just reflecting, so I'm noticing that actually this is a conditioned way of thinking. You know, we all agree that this plot of land, this island off the coast of Northern Europe is called Britain, and that this part in the south is England. Report an error in the passage at 24:21 Highlight the passage at 24:21

24:54 You don't go up to Scotland and call it England, you call it Scotland. But like, it doesn't say it's Scotland, we name it that. And so... This is a reflection on how we do create the worlds that we live in. Just our own sense of safety and security or self-worth we create, don't we? There's so many psychological problems, emotional problems that we have in a society like this one. You know, when we look at the kind of life we have here, most of us are living in a, you know, quite a well-run country, politically, economically. You know, there are varying views about how well-run it is. Report an error in the passage at 24:54 Highlight the passage at 24:54

25:45 But, you know, comparatively, it's doing all right. And we live quite a comfortable life and can take an awful lot for granted just by living here. You know, take the security that we get from living here for granted. And so then we want to create a safe environment, a place that we can trust and where danger doesn't exist, where we know we'll be taken care of, we'll be respected, when we're old our needs will be looked after, we'll have an income and on and on like this, our health problems will be taken care of. Report an error in the passage at 25:45 Highlight the passage at 25:45

26:33 And so even at the best, when all this is at its very best, when all these things are at their peak, we still can feel very threatened, very frightened, very uncertain, insecure. Report an error in the passage at 26:33 Highlight the passage at 26:33

26:47 Because the security is not through the creating an illusion of a secure world, but security begins to appear through our understanding the world. and the end of the world. Report an error in the passage at 26:47 Highlight the passage at 26:47

27:05 So, in this way, the Buddha was encouraging this investigation. And these words are very common in Pāli scriptures, in the Buddhist scriptures. They use the encouragement to examine experience, to look into, to get to the root of, to investigate. And these are the very words that drew me into the orbit of Buddhism because of my own skeptical mind. I'm very skeptical by nature. Report an error in the passage at 27:05 Highlight the passage at 27:05

27:40 So that's why I found theistic religions impossible for me because I couldn't get beyond my first skeptical feeling of, you know, to say I believe in God. Report an error in the passage at 27:40 Highlight the passage at 27:40

27:55 I don't think I believe in God. I don't know what it is. So this skeptical sense is what attracted me into Buddhism because it does encourage this investigation. Report an error in the passage at 27:55 Highlight the passage at 27:55

28:15 But within Buddhism, of course, you get people who go along with all the Buddhist ideas and never question, never investigate, but hold on to Buddhist teachings, Buddhist customs, Buddhist doctrines, Buddhist... Buddhist ceremonies and never investigate or get to the root of anything, but merely become a kind of Buddhist personality. Report an error in the passage at 28:15 Highlight the passage at 28:15

28:44 you can become a Buddhist by adopting all the Buddhist ideas and but that is not what the Buddha was teaching. Buddha himself was not a Buddhist. Buddhists. Report an error in the passage at 28:44 Highlight the passage at 28:44

29:05 So he wasn't creating Buddhism as a kind of competitive religion with the existing ones of that time, but he was using his life as a way of pointing at the reality of this moment. And so even though Report an error in the passage at 29:05 Highlight the passage at 29:05

29:31 It's an ancient religion in itself, Buddhism. Its validity is that it's still pointing at this present moment right now. Wake up. Pay attention. Question. Look into. Inquire into. Examine. Experience. It's interesting to see in the... in the century that I've lived here in Britain, the amount of interest in this kind of practice. And also in psychology, in psychotherapy, you find so much of those kind of outside of Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 29:31 Highlight the passage at 29:31

30:18 This way of thinking now isn't rare or that exotic. And it isn't confined just to the kind of Buddhist perspective, because it is pointing to a natural state of being, isn't it? It's not, whether you call it Buddhist or whatever label you want to pin on it, it isn't important what you call it, it's the experience itself, it's the reality of it that we're encouraging. Report an error in the passage at 30:18 Highlight the passage at 30:18

30:57 Waking up is a Buddhist teaching. And the Buddha said, 2,544 years ago, he said, wake up to one of his disciples, and then we can quote how many times wake up is used in the scriptures, and still not wake up. I mean, it's a good word, but what does it mean? What is the reality of this moment? Report an error in the passage at 30:57 Highlight the passage at 30:57

31:33 In terms of paying attention, isn't it? I find just this sense of really opening to this present moment. Report an error in the passage at 31:33 Highlight the passage at 31:33

31:46 Now, if I'm caught in a lot of my sense of myself, like being in the position that I'm in, like sitting up here on a seat that's on a stand, so I'm sitting up high, I'm a focus for everybody's attention. Report an error in the passage at 31:46 Highlight the passage at 31:46

32:03 So that... That used to bring in an incredible sense of self-consciousness. I used to find public speaking one of the most horrific experiences of my life. To have to stand up or sit up in front of people and talk to them was terrifying to me. I remember when Ajahn Chah first asked me to give a public talk, I freaked out, literally. Report an error in the passage at 32:03 Highlight the passage at 32:03

32:31 I went a bit goofy. Report an error in the passage at 32:31 Highlight the passage at 32:31

32:41 I can't do it, I can't do it. Absolutely terrified of it. And he said, never mind, never mind. But I knew he was going to get me someday. And he did. He got me when I was totally unprepared and couldn't very well get out of it. And I didn't freak out. I managed to... To get up into the high seat and say a few things. And I had to speak Thai, you know, I wasn't all that skilled. I thought, oh, I can't speak, I don't know the language very well. Report an error in the passage at 32:41 Highlight the passage at 32:41

33:20 They'll all think I'm stupid. And that's a self-consciousness, isn't it? Suddenly I see myself in terms of, what do they think? They're going to think I'm stupid. And I haven't anything to say. I can't speak Thai very well. And all these are self-conscious feelings. And, you know, there's a certain validity to it. It's these kind of fears of being ridiculed or looked down on or being made a fool of. Report an error in the passage at 33:20 Highlight the passage at 33:20

33:52 You know, we're quite strong with all of us and we dread anything that we might make a fool of ourselves, make ourselves look stupid or humiliate ourselves. One of the great human fears, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 33:52 Highlight the passage at 33:52

34:08 But Ajahn Chah also had this sense of using these situations. I realized then that he really wasn't expecting me to say anything profound and meaningful or that great to the people. He was getting me to look at myself. And this he did a lot. After the initiation into public speaking, Then I was called upon quite regularly to give talks and I began to see what he was doing. He wasn't expecting me to give great dharma teachings to the people and tell them where it's at and inspire them, but to be able to see what's happening to me when I'm in such a position. Report an error in the passage at 34:08 Highlight the passage at 34:08

35:02 So one time he actually At a katina ceremony where they have in Thailand, they have these katinas where they, then they have all night before the katina ceremony, the night before they assemble in the monastery, they have all night, they sit up all night and monks give talks, dharma talks. So then it was about two in the morning and suddenly my name was called Sumedho. Report an error in the passage at 35:02 Highlight the passage at 35:02

35:32 And Ajahn Chah said, OK, now talk for three hours, two in the morning. Report an error in the passage at 35:32 Highlight the passage at 35:32

35:43 Up to then, if I got through half an hour, that was long talk for me. And I could see he was really pushing me to do that. But I could understand what he was doing. So I did. I stayed up there for three hours and chatted on and watched people fall asleep and leave the room. Report an error in the passage at 35:43 Highlight the passage at 35:43

36:07 My five in the morning, hardly anyone was laughing. Report an error in the passage at 36:07 Highlight the passage at 36:07

36:18 But in Thailand you can do things like that. Report an error in the passage at 36:18 Highlight the passage at 36:18

36:24 And people don't hate you for it. They all told me how wonderful I was the next day. But anyway, I should see how much fear and anxiety... And concern about what people think. And these kind of mental states would become conscious. Awaken to that. As I began to see how to be aware of what I'm actually feeling and the power of this self-consciousness, I could let it go. Report an error in the passage at 36:24 Highlight the passage at 36:24

37:03 It's through allowing ourselves to be fully awake and conscious that we can actually let go. of our fears and our desires and neurotic tendencies. They actually, through understanding or embracing or allowing things to be conscious, conditions to be conscious, no matter how painful they might be or unpleasant, it's through allowing them to be conscious and accepted without criticism that they go. Report an error in the passage at 37:03 Highlight the passage at 37:03

37:38 The natural movement is for them to cease. So then that we call the end of the world. You see, so the end of the world isn't annihilation and like I didn't drop dead or unconscious, you know, fully conscious, but the end of the world was the end of this self-consciousness, this sense of myself and the holding on and struggling and all the habits, emotional habits and identities. Report an error in the passage at 37:38 Highlight the passage at 37:38

38:15 That I'd formed around being this person and the fear of what other people think and the fear of being humiliated or looking stupid and all these things I began to open to, recognize, allow. And as I began to see the value of this then it became more easy. Report an error in the passage at 38:15 Highlight the passage at 38:15

38:45 And one could see that it was really worth doing because it wasn't, you know, one thing being in a position that I have to give public talks all the time. Report an error in the passage at 38:45 Highlight the passage at 38:45

38:59 And so I've had a lot of practice with this, you know. It's been actually, it's worn away, this sense of a self-consciousness and that. When there is awakeness, when the self-consciousness is dropped away, then there's pure consciousness, a sense of pure attention, consciousness, it's intelligent, but it's not clouded with personal perceptions. Report an error in the passage at 38:59 Highlight the passage at 38:59

39:32 It's not, I can't claim it on a personal level as mine, you know, in a personal way, because that sense of I see the pain and the suffering I create through this, through holding on to this sense of myself, this limited self, this limited personality. By seeing the suffering and the anguish I create in my life by doing that, then The insight, naturally, is to let it go, allow it to go away, let it change accordingly. And when it's left, when there's no personality, when you're not attached to anything, what's left? Report an error in the passage at 39:32 Highlight the passage at 39:32

40:19 It's pure attention, awakened intelligence. And it's something you can trust in. It's not... In Buddhist terminology, we say it's the Buddha. Or the... The Bhutan Sarnankacami, we take the refuges, we take refuge in Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 40:19 Highlight the passage at 40:19

40:46 So what is that in terms of the here and now, refuge in Buddha of this present moment, and that to me is attention, being attentive, being receptive to all that is conscious at this moment. So another word, That's come to mean quite a lot in the English word is intuition. Report an error in the passage at 40:46 Highlight the passage at 40:46

41:17 Because this is a word that we use in English, but oftentimes we really don't know what it is. And from my background, we always thought it was something, you know, women's intuition, which was usually put down as something inferior. You know, it's just like being oversensitive. You know how women are, oversensitive. Report an error in the passage at 41:17 Highlight the passage at 41:17

41:43 a kind of guesswork or feeling something. So it's not based on rationality and sensibility, it's amorphous, you don't know where it's coming from, it's just somebody's personal... Report an error in the passage at 41:43 Highlight the passage at 41:43

41:59 It was my particular interpretation of intuition. But then in In my trying to find the right words in English, you know, from the Pāli scriptures, the Pāli is the scriptural language of Theravāda Buddhism, taking those Pāli words and putting them into English translations, the word intuition resonates. Report an error in the passage at 41:59 Highlight the passage at 41:59

42:30 And this is the, now when we're talking about the thing that really is outstanding in the Buddhist path, that really stands out, is unique, is the emphasis the Buddhist placed on intuition, on intuitive awareness, in other words. So like, in this sense, intuition isn't, you know, where we tend to mistrust intuition because people like, people who are intuitive, you know, they do, they are very open maybe to the present. Report an error in the passage at 42:30 Highlight the passage at 42:30

43:05 Maybe they're very sensitive and receptive to this present situation, but they don't know how to interpret it. So it sounds too mixed with personal pronouns and personal interpretations that maybe sound not make much sense to somebody else. Report an error in the passage at 43:05 Highlight the passage at 43:05

43:34 But in terms of a vehicle for Liberation, and this is what the Buddha was pointing to, to trust in this intuitive sense. So intuition in this sense is like sati sampacanya, these two words. Sati is a Pāli word translated as mindfulness, which is when we're mindful, then we're aware, isn't it? We're open to this present. Report an error in the passage at 43:34 Highlight the passage at 43:34

44:05 You know, if I'm thinking about myself and I'm lost in my own mood and that, then I'm not mindful, you know, and I forget all about you, I get caught up. And then suddenly I realize I'm aware, I'm awakened, something in me has just suddenly realized, oh, you know, I've lost myself. At that moment, then there's a sattisampatanya, an opening. Report an error in the passage at 44:05 Highlight the passage at 44:05

44:34 Some Patanjali ability to apprehend or apperception, the sense of opening to all that is perceivable in this present moment in an embracing way rather than in a particular way. So you're aware, say, of mood or atmosphere or Vibration or things like these are words that are conveying something that you can't clearly define as it's red or blue, but you're aware that there's a certain feeling, a certain mood, a certain experience that when you open yourself to this present moment you have. Report an error in the passage at 44:34 Highlight the passage at 44:34

45:26 And then trying to understand it in terms of dhamma. In terms of the way it is rather than trying to explain it in a highly personal interpretation. Because very sensitive people sometimes are very misunderstood by the society because they sound a bit funny. You know, they're not being rational and sensible. And even they, you can intimidate them, think you're just, you know, you're too sensitive or you're... Report an error in the passage at 45:26 Highlight the passage at 45:26

46:03 You're crazy or there's something wrong with you because being sensitive can be a very, it's very threatening actually. If you don't understand it, if you don't realize how to appreciate this sensitivity, it can be very frightening for us. Report an error in the passage at 46:03 Highlight the passage at 46:03

46:31 Being a man, I mean, look in my background, I was brought up to be insensitive. My generation in America, a sensitive man was despised. You have to make yourself tough, insensitive. I don't feel anything. When I was in the military, they say, you know, I'm not afraid of anything. You're all jelly, wobbly jelly inside. Report an error in the passage at 46:31 Highlight the passage at 46:31

46:56 You stick out your chest. I'm not afraid of anything. The way you try to make yourself insensitive. Because being sensitive is frightening. What do you do with it? You know, it will be overwhelmed. There's too much, too much feeling, and you don't know how to cope with it. So we have to, we tend to kind of develop ways of reacting and protecting ourselves. So then, meditation, what we're doing is we're actually Report an error in the passage at 46:56 Highlight the passage at 46:56

47:35 Like saying this sense of refuge that we have in the Buddhist teaching of Buddha Dhammasanga. I've developed this strong sense of refuge in Buddha Dhammasanga because taking these words and then applying them to the reality of this moment, then I find this, I begin to really trust in this awareness. Report an error in the passage at 47:35 Highlight the passage at 47:35

47:58 I realize it's something that is very stable, very trustworthy. And gives me a sense of being able to receive all the confusing messages or problems or difficulties or hypersensitivity of any situation because I have a refuge in which I can receive life. If it's just on a personal level, if my refuge is in my personality, I get very threatened, frightened and very hostile sometimes when I can't cope with With all the different things that are happening to me or around me. But if I trust in this refuge, then it allows the world to arise and cease. Report an error in the passage at 47:58 Highlight the passage at 47:58

48:49 It allows the world, my tendencies, my emotional habits and fears and desires to arise. It allows me to accept the differences in problems and irritations of the people around me without feeling threatened or resentful or averse to them. Report an error in the passage at 48:49 Highlight the passage at 48:49

49:20 Because this sati sampacanya which I translate as intuitive awareness is our ability to embrace the present and And in the sense of welcoming or understanding rather than just seeing, even if the present is quite unpleasant. Report an error in the passage at 49:20 Highlight the passage at 49:20

49:50 Right now the present is very pleasant, no problem. You're all welcome. But sometimes what's present isn't very nice, isn't it? Somebody's got it in for me and there's contention or anger and resentment. And then my personality would deal with that as, I don't want to know. It's your problem. If you're angry with me, that's your problem. Report an error in the passage at 49:50 Highlight the passage at 49:50

50:19 You solve your problem, I'll solve my problem. Sounds sensible, doesn't it? Very mean, very reasonable. Report an error in the passage at 50:19 Highlight the passage at 50:19

50:29 But in that, isn't it, it's like saying, you know, I can't, I don't have room for you. And I don't want to hear what you have to say if it's something that I find unpleasant, I can't bear it. That's my personality. If I depend on that, that's what happens. So, with sattisambhatanya, then, I'm beyond my personality. Report an error in the passage at 50:29 Highlight the passage at 50:29

50:53 There's a sense of letting go. It's not suppressing, not denying personality, but it's transcending it, so that this, the... That is except my own fear or personal reactions are accepted at the same moment that somebody else's conditions are accepted. So this is what we mean by embracing this sense of sati sampacanya that is the way of non-suffering. Report an error in the passage at 50:53 Highlight the passage at 50:53

51:24 As we begin to appreciate this, this is a natural ability we have. It's not like a highly refined cultivated state. That only the very special kind of creme de la creme will ever be able to achieve. If we put it like that, then I wouldn't be able to do it. But if we see it, it's a natural state that we share as human beings. Then we're pointing to that and reminding. Report an error in the passage at 51:24 Highlight the passage at 51:24

51:56 And as we begin to recognize that and realize it and appreciate it, then... More and more we see a way of letting go of these habits that limit us and the worlds of misery and anguish and despair and resentment and so forth. We can let those worlds cease. So the world arises and ceases, the end of the world. Report an error in the passage at 51:56 Highlight the passage at 51:56

52:28 But when the world is ceased, what's left? That's something to contemplate. So this reminds me, when the world sees what's left is bliss, you know, there's a belief not to have to create another world. Report an error in the passage at 52:28 Highlight the passage at 52:28

52:52 Then when there's a heedless moment, you know, suddenly I start creating another world, but I'm now more confident, isn't it? I see how, what I'm doing, I'm more aware. Report an error in the passage at 52:52 Highlight the passage at 52:52

53:06 Where I'm not mindful, how I get caught in the certain things. And I'm not being critical of this, but noticing. And through that noticing, then I can pay more attention, trusting. And the kind of complexities and difficulties that I used to have fall away. They drop away to a very natural state. that you might call bliss. Now, in this sense of bliss, it's not like being high. Oftentimes the word is used like blissed out, meaning you're kind of high, like on a drug or something, so you're just not aware of anything. Report an error in the passage at 53:06 Highlight the passage at 53:06

53:55 You've got a starry eye living up in the sky. That's not it. This bliss isn't bliss. Hi, it's full, say it includes, but it's not critical, it's not picking, choosing, it's not creating any problem around the conditions that we have to live with, both internally, both in our mental world, emotional world, physical experiences, or the family, or the society that we live in. Report an error in the passage at 53:55 Highlight the passage at 53:55

54:35 Now this does not make us stupid, we don't care, it doesn't mean we don't care, but we have, then we can have perspective on how to live, how to be of use in our society, how to be of use to our family, how to live in the world without being identified with it, without being limited by the world that we're experiencing. Report an error in the passage at 54:35 Highlight the passage at 54:35

55:07 So now, I see the slavery is now being prepared for the tea hour, and what I've said this afternoon is for reflection, and this is to stimulate you, to kind of challenge you a bit, and to encourage you, because this is a time where We all need encouragement in this direction. If you think about it too much, and you see it from too limited a perspective of yourself, you make it too complicated and think you can't do it. Report an error in the passage at 55:07 Highlight the passage at 55:07

55:51 So I see my role now here is one to encourage. You can do it. Report an error in the passage at 55:51 Highlight the passage at 55:51

56:07 And even though you say, why can't I? It's too messed up. Well, you can do it. Report an error in the passage at 56:07 Highlight the passage at 56:07

56:17 And after a while you begin to see you can. If I keep saying, oh, you're too messed up, you can't do it, that would be very unkind, wouldn't it? Report an error in the passage at 56:17 Highlight the passage at 56:17

56:29 Even that might be how you seem and how you feel about yourself. It's not helpful for any of us to... To give that kind of message to somebody. Because the Buddhist teaching is one of, it's available, it's free, it's not for the special, it's not to be seen as a teaching only for the highest intellects or the most developed super beings. Report an error in the passage at 56:29 Highlight the passage at 56:29

57:03 It's not an elite religion. It's for those who are interested, who have this intuitive sense, who can be awakened or can resonate with it. And like many of us, like for myself, like when I first heard the Buddha's teaching, something in me resonated, responded to that. Report an error in the passage at 57:03 Highlight the passage at 57:03

57:32 Something in me, you know, which I didn't understand. If you'd asked me to explain it, exactly what it is, I wouldn't have... I haven't been able to tell you anything, but it's just, I feel it, you know, it feels right, that kind of thing, it's an intuitive sense for it. And then this is to be trusted, you know, to encourage this, you know, this interest that something in you awakens and is interested, and even puzzled, but interested, maybe even threatened. Report an error in the passage at 57:32 Highlight the passage at 57:32

58:10 This can be quite threatening sometimes, you can feel very threatened by it, but even that shows that there's trust in being aware of these feelings until more and more you begin to have more confidence in your abilities to awaken to life and to understand the world and the end of the world. So I'll stop here, then we can have tea and about... Report an error in the passage at 58:10 Highlight the passage at 58:10

58:40 20 minutes or so, I'll ring the bell and those of you who are interested, we can have a discussion. Report an error in the passage at 58:40 Highlight the passage at 58:40