A Terrorist Behind Every Bush

0:00 So this is the beginning of the community formal retreat. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:11 And so it is communal, means we support each other during this time, not a matter of what, you know, I particularly prefer doing. It's an agreed agreement to work, to meditate, practice as a community. Report an error in the passage at 0:11 Highlight the passage at 0:11

0:41 So many of you have had self-retreats and where you kind of separate yourself from the community. Now observe what it is to be in communion, to go along with others, working as a group, being together. Report an error in the passage at 0:41 Highlight the passage at 0:41

1:14 It's not to say one is better than the other. It's not a matter of comparing. But observing is like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:14 Highlight the passage at 1:14

1:28 Being with others, just the word retreat itself, formal retreat, communal retreat, these words affect our consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 1:28 Highlight the passage at 1:28

1:41 And the encouragement is to observe this and not to analyze it or think about it or form views and opinions, but just notice how words affect. So the Report an error in the passage at 1:41 Highlight the passage at 1:41

2:17 very direct path of awareness, mindfulness, isn't so much dependent upon, you know, the conditions involved in kind of ideal techniques or whatever, but in learning to trust and cultivate a continuous awareness, working within the convention. So noticing, observing the conventional form that we're using is like this. Theravāda, Buddhism, as it's evolved here at Chithurst, from the Thai forest tradition, the Report an error in the passage at 2:17 Highlight the passage at 2:17

3:09 way it is, not saying anything about it in terms of, you know, trying to defend it or criticize it or whatever, but it's like this. Report an error in the passage at 3:09 Highlight the passage at 3:09

3:22 So they're on a conventional level where... You know, we decide this is what we want to do. Then we conform to this way, to the conventions of this tradition. Report an error in the passage at 3:22 Highlight the passage at 3:22

3:42 Or the way that we're doing it here at Chiturst. Well, Amar Bhatti, they do it. Or at Vatnanachat, they do it a little differently or whatever. Then you get into personal preferences or views and opinions. That's not the point, is it? It's not, you know, encouraging that kind of, that thinking process of comparing, but it's simplifying. Report an error in the passage at 3:42 Highlight the passage at 3:42

4:10 If you just accept this the way it is, as it is, then you don't have to think about it. You can reflect from it. Report an error in the passage at 4:10 Highlight the passage at 4:10

4:26 And that's the point of a tradition and a convention used in a religious context, is it's more or less... It is in itself anicca dukkha natta, so it's not trying to promote itself as some kind of transcendent convention, because conventions are only limited. They're forms. They're expedient means. Report an error in the passage at 4:26 Highlight the passage at 4:26

5:00 But if we spend our time just trying to work on the conventional level, trying to get the perfect convention that suits me, That satisfies me as a person that I can truly believe in and totally accept without, you know, because it's what I feel and what I think, then one never transcends it. You're just using conventional forms to support an ego, to perpetuate that illusion. Report an error in the passage at 5:00 Highlight the passage at 5:00

5:38 So even the irritating aspects of a convention. The things we don't like or don't agree with on a personal level is, you know, that's fair enough. It's not a demand or an imperative that you have to like and agree and defend the conventional form in all its aspects. Report an error in the passage at 5:38 Highlight the passage at 5:38

6:07 But on the level of trusting in that, it's a moral convention. It's traditional. Report an error in the passage at 6:07 Highlight the passage at 6:07

6:23 We're not asking you to do anything immoral or illegal or wrong. So Report an error in the passage at 6:23 Highlight the passage at 6:23

6:38 what I'm pointing to is a simplification. The religious goal is ultimate simplicity. It's not complicated in any way. Report an error in the passage at 6:38 Highlight the passage at 6:38

6:52 The conventional form can be quite complicated. Report an error in the passage at 6:52 Highlight the passage at 6:52

7:00 And we can complicate it even more by trying to, you know, endlessly trying to think about it, improve it, change it, modernize it, or whatever, you know, our reactions might be to it. That increases its complexity. But the complexity of a convention, then, is just the way of Sankara's, call it Samut Banyat. Report an error in the passage at 7:00 Highlight the passage at 7:00

7:33 Or conventional realities that we live with in terms of society and religion. So Report an error in the passage at 7:33 Highlight the passage at 7:33

7:51 during this retreat, just agree to surrender to the form. Don't make a problem about it. Do the best you can with it. And observe the way it affects you. Communal practice. Report an error in the passage at 7:51 Highlight the passage at 7:51

8:14 The way the weather is, the community itself, the way different individuals affect you, not in order to make any decisions or form any opinions, but developing, cultivating awareness. It's like this, the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 8:14 Highlight the passage at 8:14

8:44 Now this reflection of the way it is is neither approving nor disapproving. It's just a notation. It's just noting. It's like, right now, at this very moment, it can only be this way, isn't it? It's a truth, an obvious truth. At this moment, for each one of us sitting here in this hall, the way it is, you can't, you know, say, I wish it were other than this, is rather ridiculous, because right now it's like this. Report an error in the passage at 8:44 Highlight the passage at 8:44

9:24 And I'm not telling you how it is or how you should feel or perceive it, but encouraging you to just trust yourself to observe how it affects you, the temperature of the room, the hall itself, the time of the early morning period, the conditions around, your own physical body, your mental state, your mood is like this. Report an error in the passage at 9:24 Highlight the passage at 9:24

9:56 So when I reflect in this way, then I say it's the way it is, or it's like this, that brings attention to, say, just the mood, the state of mind, the consciousness, and the quality that's present at this moment. Report an error in the passage at 9:56 Highlight the passage at 9:56

10:27 So that's reflecting, isn't it? It's a non-critical ability to observe and pay attention and notice. Awakened... Conscious awareness. Report an error in the passage at 10:27 Highlight the passage at 10:27

10:46 I'll apply that to the physical body, just the way it is, the sitting posture, it's like this, and observing, you know, allowing it to be the way it is. You're not trying to make it anything otherwise, but learning to accept and let things be the way they are, the physical state you're in. Report an error in the passage at 10:46 Highlight the passage at 10:46

11:13 Comfort or lack of comfort or discomfort your feeling, allow it to be that way. Don't get caught up in trying to think it should be otherwise. Whatever way it is, as you're experiencing it now, it's the way it is. It's like this. Now this is a kind of relaxed attentiveness. It's not into controlling or trying to change anything or judging. Report an error in the passage at 11:13 Highlight the passage at 11:13

11:17 way. Report an error in the passage at 11:17 Highlight the passage at 11:17

11:45 I'm emphasizing these words. It's a relaxed attentiveness and acceptance and alertness. Report an error in the passage at 11:45 Highlight the passage at 11:45

12:09 And you can grasp these words and say, I should be more relaxed. I'm so tense now. I should relax. And then you're grasping the concepts again. So it's not saying, I'm not trying to say, you should relax. Report an error in the passage at 12:09 Highlight the passage at 12:09

12:28 And if you're tense now, there's something, you're doing it wrong because you should be relaxed now. Don't get me wrong, I'm not telling you how you should be, but these are more like guidelines, encouragement. That even if you're totally tense, stressed at this moment, the awareness of it is like this. Report an error in the passage at 12:28 Highlight the passage at 12:28

12:56 It's total acceptance, allowing even pain or stress or... or whatever be present your consciousness, allowing it to be this way. Report an error in the passage at 12:56 Highlight the passage at 12:56

13:15 noticing how words like retreat affect consciousness, like a something to do. There's sense of having to do something, get something, to something. Report an error in the passage at 13:15 Highlight the passage at 13:15

13:36 in any tradition, and especially one of one, a lot of the views and opinions that form. Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. Report an error in the passage at 13:36 Highlight the passage at 13:36

13:56 All Rights Reserved. be mindful, should... Be very strict. Should Report an error in the passage at 13:56 Highlight the passage at 13:56

14:24 keep silent, not talk at all. Report an error in the passage at 14:24 Highlight the passage at 14:24

14:35 Some of you get into, you become samādhi, obsessed with samādhi, trying to get a lot of tranquility by shutting everything off. Notice that, that desire to control, to stop any kind of, or prevent any kind of irritation or interruption. Report an error in the passage at 14:35 Highlight the passage at 14:35

15:04 So Report an error in the passage at 15:04 Highlight the passage at 15:04

15:09 you can encourage you to observe the desire to control something. Maybe you've had experiences at other times of very strict retreats that you've been on where there's been total silence and you get into a lot of samādhi, tranquility. Through controlling the situation and then you get a kind of bliss, pleasure from that and then that very pleasure, the memory of having that pleasure creates the desire to have it again. Report an error in the passage at 15:09 Highlight the passage at 15:09

15:52 So one of the problems about even the suggestion of retreats is that we remember previous times and we'd like to have some more of that or you might have had terrible experiences on previous retreats. Maybe you've been on a retreat before and it was absolutely a nightmare of pain, misery, and And so then you think this one is, know, then you see this one is going to be another. Report an error in the passage at 15:52 Highlight the passage at 15:52

16:25 possibility for more misery and pain because you're grasping a memory. We're noticing this. What we... Wanting and not wanting, trying to get something or get rid of something. Report an error in the passage at 16:25 Highlight the passage at 16:25

16:46 It's very important to really become an expert on desire, to know desire, to get to the root of it, to know it in all its subtleties. Report an error in the passage at 16:46 Highlight the passage at 16:46

17:06 Not to get rid of it, we're not trying to wipe it out, we're not annihilating desire, but studying, observing. Witnessing is like this, to want something I don't have right now. I'm going to practice now in order to get samādhi, this desire to achieve some kind of remembered experience in the past or attain some kind of maybe goal, some imagined state of samādhi. Report an error in the passage at 17:06 Highlight the passage at 17:06

17:45 Desire, isn't it? Bawadana, desire to get something, become something else. Report an error in the passage at 17:45 Highlight the passage at 17:45

17:55 It's this very compulsiveness. It pushes us. That's why there is so much misery in the world because of ambition and desire for becoming, achieving, attaining, getting something, and getting rid of, desire to get rid of, wandering mind. Maybe you don't like yourself very much. Your mind wanders. You don't like it. You want to make it stop wandering and get rid of lust and anger and these nasty emotions and attain nirvāṇa or peacefulness with some idealized state you imagine would be very nice to have. Report an error in the passage at 17:55 Highlight the passage at 17:55

19:02 And it's like this. Over many years I've... I observed these desires until I, you know, you just understand, you notice immediately that sense of trying to get something or control something, trying to resist or reject or deny or get rid of something. Or Report an error in the passage at 19:02 Highlight the passage at 19:02

19:38 just sensual desire. We get bored, you know, fed up with meditation or... Get bored and with it all you want some kind of sensory stimulation, something to eat or excite your senses, sound or sight, taste, some Report an error in the passage at 19:38 Highlight the passage at 19:38

20:06 kind of exciting experience through the senses, especially when things are mentally kind of depressing or dreary, boring. Report an error in the passage at 20:06 Highlight the passage at 20:06

20:20 So these, the dhanha is the Pāli word. Report an error in the passage at 20:20 Highlight the passage at 20:20

20:27 These are to be, you know, to be observed. You get, you know, not to, not a matter of getting rid of them, but learning from them. Report an error in the passage at 20:27 Highlight the passage at 20:27

20:43 And we all have habits and we develop, you know, our life. We learn how, when we get, when we feel threatened or ill at ease or depressed or insecure, then we start. We go and try to eat something maybe or switch on the TV or smoke cigarette or do something, you know, to distract ourselves from the dreariness or the feeling of insecurity or restlessness that we might be experiencing. Report an error in the passage at 20:43 Highlight the passage at 20:43

21:24 When it was sensual pleasures, isn't it, they're so easily absorbed into, you know, like eating things. So easy to kind of just change your mental state temporarily by eating something that you like, something that tastes good. Report an error in the passage at 21:24 Highlight the passage at 21:24

21:52 Sexual fantasy, sexual desire, lust is very exciting energy. So get a little frightened, threatened, or ill at ease or bored, then we can liven things up through... Report an error in the passage at 21:52 Highlight the passage at 21:52

22:16 anger, you know, resentment, indignation. There's a lot now we can feel very indignant about in the international scene and whatnot. There's so many unfair things happening, so many dreadful occurrences and disasters and terrible things that people are doing. Governments and whatnot. And indignation is another kind of exciting emotion. Report an error in the passage at 22:16 Highlight the passage at 22:16

23:00 So on the emotional level, you know, we are emotional. This is an emotional experience. Being a human being means we feel life. We have to feel this realm that we're experiencing through the body and through consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 23:00 Highlight the passage at 23:00

23:23 It's a feeling experience. You have to feel the heat or the cold or the pleasure, pain. You have to live in a world where we have very little control over, where things happen, stuff happens. A Report an error in the passage at 23:23 Highlight the passage at 23:23

23:45 lot of it shouldn't happen. It's unfair and bad and selfish and mean and so forth, but it happens and it affects us and others. So on the level of the sense realm, the human realm, this is not judging it anymore, but observing, learning from it. Report an error in the passage at 23:45 Highlight the passage at 23:45

24:13 So we're not just caught in endless reactions towards it, like getting caught up with trying to find a place where we can live in a peaceful life, separated from all the turmoil. That goes on in other places. Report an error in the passage at 24:13 Highlight the passage at 24:13

24:38 So the kind of ideas of going to some place, you know, that seems safer than someplace else. In Thailand, I was there some of the months I was telling you, talking about the oil crisis and pollution and the polar ice cap melting and everything sounds like, you know, everything's going to collapse into a heap any day now. Report an error in the passage at 24:38 Highlight the passage at 24:38

25:05 And probably the safest place to live at this time is New Zealand. Report an error in the passage at 25:05 Highlight the passage at 25:05

25:18 So they said, Ajahn Sumedho, why don't you go to New Zealand? Report an error in the passage at 25:18 Highlight the passage at 25:18

25:28 That doesn't attract me, doesn't it? To just try to find some safe place. Because it doesn't really matter in terms of the dharma. What we learn is from the here and now, not trying to save myself. So I can kind of hopefully maintain some kind of privileged lifestyle that isn't quite so traumatic as the rest of the world might be experiencing. Report an error in the passage at 25:28 Highlight the passage at 25:28

26:01 I'm not interested in trying to find some safe refuge on this planet. Report an error in the passage at 26:01 Highlight the passage at 26:01

26:13 But then we ask ourselves, where does safety lie? What is safe? What is trustworthy? What can we take refuge in? Report an error in the passage at 26:13 Highlight the passage at 26:13

26:31 And I wouldn't recommend New Zealand or any other place. So this is a reflection, isn't it, on observing at this moment, here and now, sitting here in this form, in this body, the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 26:31 Highlight the passage at 26:31

26:56 It's not thinking about going somewhere else. I don't find that, even if it's guaranteed by God to be safe. It's still someplace else. It's still something separate in time and place. So with awareness, we're learning to trust this safety in awareness, the refuge that Report an error in the passage at 26:56 Highlight the passage at 26:56

27:31 is only recognized through paying attention, through being present, through witnessing, observing the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 27:31 Highlight the passage at 27:31

27:47 So I encourage this kind of attitude of attentiveness, witnessing, observing, an openness, a receptivity, relaxed attention, and Report an error in the passage at 27:47 Highlight the passage at 27:47

28:11 this sense of opening, listening, receiving, rather than focusing on an object, controlling and trying to... shut everything else off. Report an error in the passage at 28:11 Highlight the passage at 28:11

28:28 know, like samādhi practices, you focus on an object absorb into it. Report an error in the passage at 28:28 Highlight the passage at 28:28

28:36 shutting everything else out. Report an error in the passage at 28:36 Highlight the passage at 28:36

28:42 Practices Report an error in the passage at 28:42 Highlight the passage at 28:42

28:45 attitude of vipassanā is more the receptivity, openness. You've heard me say that The point that includes everything rather than the point that excludes. So like Samatha practice is more like developing concentration on a point that excludes everything else. It doesn't allow the rest. So you control your attention to the one point. Report an error in the passage at 28:45 Highlight the passage at 28:45

29:31 Then the point that includes everything. His oneness, wholeness, completeness, perfection, isn't it? Because you can't imagine anything outside it, since it includes everything. Report an error in the passage at 29:31 Highlight the passage at 29:31

29:47 So to open, you can't, since it's not a point that you can, that has boundaries, that you give boundaries to, since it has boundless, Report an error in the passage at 29:47 Highlight the passage at 29:47

30:02 then it's a different attitude, isn't it, than trying to control and shut everything else out. So the words that convey this are best, you know, the best words I can come up with in the English language are like relaxed attention, receptivity. Report an error in the passage at 30:02 Highlight the passage at 30:02

30:27 It's a kind of love or mettā practice. Love includes, doesn't it? Love is not an exclusive reality. Report an error in the passage at 30:27 Highlight the passage at 30:27

30:41 Or mettā is... When we practice mettā, loving kindness, it includes everything. It's not preferring or excluding anything whatsoever. Report an error in the passage at 30:41 Highlight the passage at 30:41

31:03 So to get a sense for this, for me it's listening, this sense of openness, which Report an error in the passage at 31:03 Highlight the passage at 31:03

31:18 includes both the things as they affect my senses from outside and also what's happening inside, the emotions, the... The physical sensations, the mood, the state of the emotional mood that Report an error in the passage at 31:18 Highlight the passage at 31:18

31:39 I'm experiencing now. This is what I'm encouraging for this retreat, an open, relaxed sense Report an error in the passage at 31:39 Highlight the passage at 31:39

31:58 of attentiveness and interest in this moment. It's like this. And keep it a mystery. You don't have to define it. You don't have to kind of fix it and describe it. Report an error in the passage at 31:58 Highlight the passage at 31:58

32:18 It's not a thinking process. You're not trying to create anything about it, but learning to recognize, realize it's like this. Report an error in the passage at 32:18 Highlight the passage at 32:18

32:35 So it's an intuitive sense. It's intuition rather than... intelligence or intellectual intelligence where we we analyze criticize compare using reason logic the thinking process this is transcends thinking it's not thought it's where thought arises and ceases so Report an error in the passage at 32:35 Highlight the passage at 32:35

33:06 then you know the body's included you know that when we point to the way it is at this time that this body here is sitting it's like this Report an error in the passage at 33:06 Highlight the passage at 33:06

33:21 The breath, this body's breathing, includes the breathing, the posture, the Report an error in the passage at 33:21 Highlight the passage at 33:21

33:38 sensations that you're experiencing through the body. It's consciousness. Consciousness is operating. This is consciousness. The body is in consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 33:38 Highlight the passage at 33:38

33:57 You can be aware of, say, just the mental state, the mood. You're feeling bright, awake, lively. Inspired, sleepy, dull, neither Report an error in the passage at 33:57 Highlight the passage at 33:57

34:18 one or the other, bored, unsure, uncertain, whatever. You know, the moods, the kind of emotional state is very changeable, very dependent on conditions. So your relationship to your emotions is not one of judging or controlling, but of observing. Report an error in the passage at 34:18 Highlight the passage at 34:18

34:46 How the weather affects emotions or the time of the day, the way your body is, whether you feel healthy or sickly, vigorous or weak, Report an error in the passage at 34:46 Highlight the passage at 34:46

35:04 like this. Report an error in the passage at 35:04 Highlight the passage at 35:04

35:10 In terms of Samatha Vipassanā, because I'm encouraging this mindfulness, then some people think that I'm against Samatha meditation. Report an error in the passage at 35:10 Highlight the passage at 35:10

35:26 I have a reputation at Nanachala being against Samatha. And I don't think I've ever been against Samatha. But I definitely have found my style much more through the Sati Sampacanya mindfulness practices. Report an error in the passage at 35:26 Highlight the passage at 35:26

35:52 So that's what I teach. I'm pointing to the difference where We're controlling, so much of our conditioning, cultural conditioning and education is about control. Westerners, we're kind of inveterate control freaks, just because our culture is that way, very much so. We want to control things. Report an error in the passage at 35:52 Highlight the passage at 35:52

36:26 And so we tend to gravitate to techniques of control. Where we control a lot. Report an error in the passage at 36:26 Highlight the passage at 36:26

36:47 And it's not that that's wrong. But what I'm encouraging is an awareness of this. It's a kind of desire. It's based on ignorance and desire to control. Wanting to get something through controlling everything. Get rid of things we don't like by denying or resisting them. Trying to... Get desired states that we remember having in the past or we imagine or, you know, we would like to have. We'd like to have nibbāna or the ultimate kind of nirvikalpi samādhi. Report an error in the passage at 36:47 Highlight the passage at 36:47

37:30 Give it a posh title. You know, the highest state that the greatest yogis have ever attained. I want that. And so we go into... When I think of that from a personal conditioned experience, I go into controlling. I see all of you as an enemy to me attaining this high state of samādhi. Report an error in the passage at 37:30 Highlight the passage at 37:30

37:59 I have to go up and become a hermit, go and live in a cave somewhere, so that I can control things better if I don't have a lot of people around. Report an error in the passage at 37:59 Highlight the passage at 37:59

38:14 People are loose cannons, aren't they? The more monks and nuns you have, the more difficult it is to control. Report an error in the passage at 38:14 Highlight the passage at 38:14

38:27 When you're alone, no problem. Then you have to control yourself. But then you've got another monk, and that can create all kinds of problems because then there's personal issues in it if you're not all that agreeable and compatible. Report an error in the passage at 38:27 Highlight the passage at 38:27

38:50 And then you get... Another monk, and then a nun, and then two nuns, and then all Report an error in the passage at 38:50 Highlight the passage at 38:50

39:06 kinds of unknown factors arise. So it's increasing the factors of where our ability to control diminish. So Report an error in the passage at 39:06 Highlight the passage at 39:06

39:23 observing this, this desire, it's done high, isn't it, to control things. It's fear, isn't it? Fear of losing control. Fearing everything's going to go wrong. Fearing the terrorists. Report an error in the passage at 39:23 Highlight the passage at 39:23

39:43 You know, we live in a society that is permeated with fear at this time. All these terrorists, Al-Qaeda terrorists, people that want to destroy our safety, take away our privileges. Report an error in the passage at 39:43 Highlight the passage at 39:43

40:11 So I'm not trying to say you shouldn't have this desire to control, but pointing to it, to observing this. It's the cause, the grasping of this desire is the cause of suffering in terms of the Four Noble Truths. Report an error in the passage at 40:11 Highlight the passage at 40:11

40:43 So it's, you know, I've watched this in myself. And you learn. This is what pañña, how pañña arises in our consciousness, because we're learning from the way it is. We're not just reading wise phrases from Confucius, quoting them. But it's learning, you know, observing, witnessing from the way you experience life, from your own experience of it. Report an error in the passage at 40:43 Highlight the passage at 40:43

41:18 So this desire to control and resist and... And that is something to learn from, to acknowledge. It's like this. There's something in me wanting, not wanting something, dreading something that I might lose control or somebody might cause me some difficulties. Report an error in the passage at 41:18 Highlight the passage at 41:18

41:45 Wanting to control the community, make sure everybody, you know, doing what they should and behaving themselves. And you get someone who doesn't quite... It's something very unsettling about... Report an error in the passage at 41:45 Highlight the passage at 41:45

42:24 you hear about, you know, when somebody, when thieves come in and the workshop, or something very unsettling about... Out there, there are people that can come in and take our things, disrupt our community, cause us trouble. Report an error in the passage at 42:24 Highlight the passage at 42:24

42:49 So on that level, there's a lot to fear in this realm that we're living in. It is a frightening realm. Fear is a kind of primal emotion that the animals have. It's kind of basic to having a physical body, living in a sense realm. Report an error in the passage at 42:49 Highlight the passage at 42:49

43:11 There's a lot to be frightened of. But then, what I'm encouraging you to do is to learn from this fear, not just try to run away from it, or take it as some kind of personal weakness or failure, but it's to learn. You learn from the fear, from the anxiety, from the desire to control things. Report an error in the passage at 43:11 Highlight the passage at 43:11

43:45 To control is the fear of losing control. So Report an error in the passage at 43:45 Highlight the passage at 43:45

43:54 you're getting down to very basic, primal realities of human conscious experience. Report an error in the passage at 43:54 Highlight the passage at 43:54

44:11 And that's what we learn from this. Through awareness, through attention, paying attention, observing, and learning from this. We learn from fear. Report an error in the passage at 44:11 Highlight the passage at 44:11

44:28 From the fear that we're experiencing, not trying to learn how to get rid of it, but recognizing it. Sometimes we don't even know we're frightened. We're so frightened that we don't even know it. We aren't even aware of how strong that is affecting our experience of life till we open to it, recognize it, dread and worry. Report an error in the passage at 44:28 Highlight the passage at 44:28

44:59 These are the sickness of modern society when we've demanded and expect so much security from our government, from our way of life. Report an error in the passage at 44:59 Highlight the passage at 44:59

45:18 And no matter how stable the government or secure things can get on the external level, there's still all these al-Qaeda terrorists behind every bush. Report an error in the passage at 45:18 Highlight the passage at 45:18

46:00 So on that level, you know, the imagination can. You know, I can imagine, you know, right now I can imagine Al-Qaeda terrorists out there. Report an error in the passage at 46:00 Highlight the passage at 46:00

46:17 They look like somebody called Osama bin Laden. Report an error in the passage at 46:17 Highlight the passage at 46:17

46:24 You know, these are the stereotypes. Report an error in the passage at 46:24 Highlight the passage at 46:24

46:31 But, you know, on a common sense level, I doubt that there are any. But the imagination, you know, how we can create the fear. Through propaganda, through listening to propaganda, or picking up on the anxieties that we can't help but feel at this time, you know, through the way it is as a nation, as an international community. Report an error in the passage at 46:31 Highlight the passage at 46:31

46:59 So the refuge then, not going to New Zealand, but to awaken to this, to observe, to learn from it. This sense of anxiety, of worrying about the future is like this, Report an error in the passage at 46:59 Highlight the passage at 46:59

47:22 dreading the possibilities of the aging process or things falling apart, the securities, the things that we've become accustomed to and expecting life of them changing or losing or changing in ways that might be very painful or difficult for us. All these possibilities we can create in the future. So Report an error in the passage at 47:22 Highlight the passage at 47:22

47:54 now is where we place our attention. This anxiety, dread, is like this. This feeling of fear, the unknown, the uncontrollable, the mysterious, the uncertain, is like this. Report an error in the passage at 47:54 Highlight the passage at 47:54

48:26 And just notice when you begin to To appreciate this kind of practice, then one is actually letting go of these habits. It's through your willingness to receive life that you can let it go. It's not through idealizing letting go and then trying to practice something you think is letting go. And that just tends to be vipa-vadana again. You're trying to control things and get rid of things. Report an error in the passage at 48:26 Highlight the passage at 48:26

48:59 Or refuse to acknowledge or receive things that you don't like or you don't want. Report an error in the passage at 48:59 Highlight the passage at 48:59

49:15 So I'm just practicing like dreading the future. What's going to happen to me? Report an error in the passage at 49:15 Highlight the passage at 49:15

49:29 And by receiving this, this fear, this dread, it's like this. I'm not trying to analyze why I should feel this, but it is like this. this, dreading the future, worrying about the future is like this. Report an error in the passage at 49:29 Highlight the passage at 49:29

49:56 not demanding that it go away. You're not doing this as some kind of If I receive it, then it'll go away, because then you're playing your Report an error in the passage at 49:56 Highlight the passage at 49:56

50:24 Without any kind of, you know, agreements or conditions placed on the experience. And let's see what happens. You know, trust yourself, you know, your ability to receive life and to learn from it. And this is the great asset of our human state. The only reason I can think of, the purpose of being human. Report an error in the passage at 50:24 Highlight the passage at 50:24

50:59 I mean, it is the ultimate, to me, this is the ultimate in what we can learn as human individuals. Report an error in the passage at 50:59 Highlight the passage at 50:59

51:23 So this retreat, then, is a special opportunity. It's something that is available here and now, during this week. This is called the retreat. Report an error in the passage at 51:23 Highlight the passage at 51:23

51:46 And the conforming Report an error in the passage at 51:46 Highlight the passage at 51:46

51:52 to the schedule and observing. Report an error in the passage at 51:52 Highlight the passage at 51:52

52:01 Not trying to become a good retreatant or a good meditator, according to some idea you have. But if that's how the suggestion of a retreat affects you, certainly you can observe from that, wanting to really use this time well. To really, you know, get your practice together and get your insights. You know, how we can take something like this and then really hang on to it without seeing what we're doing. Report an error in the passage at 52:01 Highlight the passage at 52:01

52:42 Now, this is a monastic retreat, so I do appreciate the lay support team and lay supporters. I recognize your position here is to support. Report an error in the passage at 52:42 Highlight the passage at 52:42

53:05 That's why you're here. Not here to practice like a monk or a nun. Report an error in the passage at 53:05 Highlight the passage at 53:05

53:19 So then the reflection is how to support the Saṅgha. You know, this is what the Winter's Retreat is about. This is an act of generosity rather than thinking, I want to use this time to get my practice together. Report an error in the passage at 53:19 Highlight the passage at 53:19

53:37 And any kind of support I give, I hope, you know, you don't ask too much of me because I'm really determined to use this to get my samādhi and so forth. Observe any kind of selfish attitudes that might arise. Report an error in the passage at 53:37 Highlight the passage at 53:37

54:05 And then the monastics, you know, this is a special opportunity where... Report an error in the passage at 54:05 Highlight the passage at 54:05

54:19 offer their support for our practice. It does give us a sense of gratitude and appreciation for kind of generosity. offering that the lay community is making, so don't take it for granted, or, you know, or if you do, you know, we do start just the lay community for granted, observe that, easy it is to... Report an error in the passage at 54:19 Highlight the passage at 54:19

54:47 To just think of oneself, me and my practice and what I can get out of this, not to even condemn it, but observe what that kind of attitude is. Is it something you want to cultivate? Selfishness, me and my practice, is that an attitude that leads towards peacefulness, joy, liberation? Report an error in the passage at 54:47 Highlight the passage at 54:47

55:30 So in a situation on the conventional level, just being aware of the role that we're playing at this time. The role is not to be clung to, but it certainly can be recognized. It's like this. Report an error in the passage at 55:30 Highlight the passage at 55:30

55:49 And so the lay supporters, you know, whatever you're feeling, you know, in regards to being in that, I encourage you to observe it, the kind of magnanimity, the grandness of it, or just wanting to be here so you can practice for yourself, or whatever combinations of magnanimity or selfishness. Report an error in the passage at 55:49 Highlight the passage at 55:49

56:35 Be the observer of it, not the critic, not the critic. But then in terms of action and speech, then we perform our roles accordingly. Report an error in the passage at 56:35 Highlight the passage at 56:35

56:50 Fair enough, you know, that's the agreement on the conventional level. So that simplifies everything. We've got it clarified what we're here for on that conventional level. And from there, if we agree to that, and that's how we're going to use this convention, then we don't have to negotiate. We don't have to spend this retreat time negotiating special privileges and rights and demands and endless things on that level for personal views or opinions or advantages. Report an error in the passage at 56:50 Highlight the passage at 56:50

57:34 What we're interested in then is, Simplification, clarity on the conventional level so that then the awareness is aimed at, you know, we can take into account how it affects us, how our position, our role, our presence in this community, on this retreat, how it, you know, what comes, what happens to us. Report an error in the passage at 57:34 Highlight the passage at 57:34

58:04 And we're taking refuge in this observing and the Buddha knowing the Dhamma. Report an error in the passage at 58:04 Highlight the passage at 58:04

58:25 So this relationship of Buddha-Dhamma is very, you know, this is the refuge, we take refuge in Buddha-Dhamma Saṅgha. The worldly customs are taking me and my views and opinions. So when I come from me, Ajahn Sumedho, and my views and opinions, then that's, Then I become critical and that triggers off my personality, my habits, my emotions, my preferences, my views and opinions. Report an error in the passage at 58:25 Highlight the passage at 58:25

59:11 If I take refuge in Buddha, in putto tamo, then the self, the sense of me, mine, is dhamma. It's seen in terms of the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 59:11 Highlight the passage at 59:11

59:30 So I'm not operating from personal, personal preferences or habits, not my refuge, you know, what I think, what I want. Report an error in the passage at 59:30 Highlight the passage at 59:30

59:43 rights and my views and all that kind of thing. I've seen through that. That's not a refuge that I respect or want to perpetuate. myself as a person. So the Bhutto then, this is the mantra of the Thai forest tradition. The one who knows, the knowing. The pure consciousness, pure conscious knowing, intuitive knowing, awareness, knows the dhamma. Report an error in the passage at 59:43 Highlight the passage at 59:43

1:00:18 So that the self then is seen in terms of dhamma. And how is the self dhamma? Because self arises and ceases, doesn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:18 Highlight the passage at 1:00:18

1:00:29 You're seeing it in terms of dhamma rather than in terms of personal ideas, ideals. Loves and hates, likes and dislikes, and so forth. When you operate from the personal level, then you're back into the critical world again of should and shouldn't, good and bad, right and wrong. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:29 Highlight the passage at 1:00:29

1:00:52 When you take refuge in putto, in Buddha, then you're operating from the transcendent, knowing dharma, the way it is, the truth of the way it is. All conditions are impermanent. the base and granny jar self. Self is, when you really see what self is, it is impermanent. Your personality changes according to, you know, it's changing all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:52 Highlight the passage at 1:00:52

1:01:24 How you're feeling, your personality changes according to the conditions. The knowing of this changing is not personal. I can't claim personally. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:24 Highlight the passage at 1:01:24

1:01:41 Knowing is some kind of personal attainment. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:41 Highlight the passage at 1:01:41

1:01:49 Making this very clear, you know, that practicing knowing dhamma doesn't mean some kind of, you know, Pāli words that we learn and we know all about, Abhidhamma, and we can talk about the dhamma in highly intelligent ways. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:49 Highlight the passage at 1:01:49

1:02:16 Because that can still be self-view. We can learn all about dhamma from reading the books. But knowing dhamma is a different... It's not knowing all about dhamma. It's knowing the way it is. It's direct. It's called jnana-dasana. Direct knowledge. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:16 Highlight the passage at 1:02:16

1:02:39 And then they combine these two sentences. All conditions are impermanent. The pe-tama-anattā-oldhamma is anattā, not self. Now those aren't doctrines to grasp, but they're statements for reflection, helping to encourage our investigation to see and know for ourselves. It's not a matter of believing these words and these Buddhist ideas, but they're there. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:39 Highlight the passage at 1:02:39

1:03:18 To prove, to find out, to know in a direct knowing rather than knowing all about them. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:18 Highlight the passage at 1:03:18