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Key passages
The teacher's own words, quoted from the transcript below and chosen automatically as representative.
- 5:33
We think in ways that make us suffer all the time, like being selfish. When we're obsessed with ourselves and we suffer. To have to think about yourself very much is real suffering.
- 35:17
For the super practices where you contemplate the 32 parts of the body is to develop more discriminative awareness of the body which leads to dispassion because then you're not just taken over by the initial, say, lustful contact. We have a way of... I should
- 1:11:04
But when we don't do that, then when I accept you at this moment, just the way you are, then there's an openness and a sensitivity. And even, say, somebody that has been abusive to me in the present, if I can accept that the way it is in the present, then I find I have a way of resolving the problems that bring that abuse. I've seen this work very well in a community life, where if somebody starts abusing me and then I get offended and get on my high horse and that, then that just exacerbates the problem and increases the division.
- 1:24:30
Then more and more you realize that just the restfulness in the peace And the natural purity of being. But at first, it's hard to accept emotionally, because emotionally we resist it. Because it seems like nothing.
Transcript
0:15 Non-burning questions? Like Report an error in the passage at 0:15
· · · silence, 1 minute
0:53 the horn of an Indian rhinoceros. That's Report an error in the passage at 0:53
1:04 interesting. Report an error in the passage at 1:04
1:10 Morris was Report an error in the passage at 1:10
1:29 just saying that Dr. Norman, who's a president, a Pāli scholar, was saying that translating that verse about rhinoceros, that it probably meant, The horn of the rhinoceros because the Indian rhinoceros has one horn and it doesn't have two and it's the only what the only mammal that has one horn yeah this is special it means you know it's implying the sense of of not being caught in the in the in the Report an error in the passage at 1:29
2:21 Flow of just mundane life, special quality of one-pointedness. Report an error in the passage at 2:21
2:43 Eka-katha. Report an error in the passage at 2:43
2:50 Do you have any questions? Yes? Or Report an error in the passage at 2:50
3:06 with the importance, the Buddha was teaching, say, on one level for how to live in a society. That's through the sīla, like the moral, taking on the moral responsibility for what we do. Report an error in the passage at 3:06
3:23 And like being generous and moral and kind were the qualities for living in the world. Relating to others in the right way and being generous and refraining from doing things that harm ourselves and others. And so that would apply to, you know, like right livelihood, right action, right speech. Report an error in the passage at 3:23
3:52 for the life, religious development. then the Palana is the... meditation or cultivation of the mind, that also can be done in lay life, it's not a of monastics, in lay life it tends to, say the Report an error in the passage at 3:52
4:25 Especially now, in a modern society that's very materialistic, all the messages you get are usually non-spiritual ones. All the kind of things that you're confronted with are usually, like you can see, capitalism tends to increase selfishness. We think about ourselves all the time, and what we look like, and what we have. Report an error in the passage at 4:25
4:55 And all that, and just the advertising here in Britain is just, you know, you can't help but always be thinking about yourself. Report an error in the passage at 4:55
5:06 And these things are very, you know, have powerful effect on the mind. But also at the same time, the amount of suffering that exists in Britain, or in Western Europe, or in affluent societies is... Can't be blamed on the fact of the external conditions so much as the way we think. We think in ways that make us suffer all the time, like being selfish. When we're obsessed with ourselves and we suffer. Report an error in the passage at 5:06
5:43 To have to think about yourself very much is real suffering. suffering and so when you know When you can liberate your mind from thinking about yourself, then you don't suffer, or it diminishes. Report an error in the passage at 5:43
6:02 You don't create suffering. And so the power now, the cultivation is to develop the right attitude. So that's something that we encourage, like here in Britain now, as a Buddhism, Buddhism is now, say, it has a lot, There's a lot of Buddhist centers and a lot of teaching. There's a lot more available for people here because people are interested. Report an error in the passage at 6:02
6:39 There is a real interest now in meditation because people need to realize that their lives are meaningless. Even when they have their BMW and everything, that they're still basically quite unhappy. Report an error in the passage at 6:39
6:58 And that unhappiness is something you can't just get away from by getting something new, but through mental development. Because it's all from the way we start thinking. And this is something that I've seen, I've experimented with. For example, in the... uh, uh... Report an error in the passage at 6:58
7:28 We know that the average person sees that my suffering is due to somebody else or the fact that somebody else is doing something to me that's not nice or that life hasn't been fair or the external things have not given me everything that I think I should have to make me happy. And then... A more mature way of looking is we begin to see that we create on our unhappiness and even if somebody is causing us, saying, telling lies about us or slandering us or doing horrible things to us, the real suffering we create is our hatred, aversion, resentment. Report an error in the passage at 7:28
8:23 What they're doing is not really the suffering, it's our reaction that is the suffering. When you begin to really understand that, then you're not so concerned about what people do or say about you, because you know how to respond, or how not to create resentment and anger and all that over the experiences of life. Report an error in the passage at 8:23
8:54 Because life is, you know, inevitably, so much of our human experience is going to be unpleasant. It's just a natural thing. It's not because there's anything wrong with you or anything wrong with life. It's just the way it is. That this realm we live in is so fraught, is so sensitive, and we're in such a vulnerable state that we're... Report an error in the passage at 8:54
9:23 We are in a state where we do suffer enormously because of the continuous aggravation, irritation that comes through sensitivity. Report an error in the passage at 9:23
9:39 But we don't know how to interpret. We take it personally, then we get it all wrong. and then learning to To interpret it through wisdom, through dharma, rather than through, say, social conditioning or personality views. So in business or any profession, it's learning how to relate to, say, professional conditions, to family. Report an error in the passage at 9:39
10:09 We might not be able to help. We do have the families we have. when we have, you know, We can always have what we want, or the best of what we would like, but the way it is, that's something we can, if just by developing a proper attitude towards it, we don't create suffering around it. Report an error in the passage at 10:09
10:33 And talking to people like with disabilities and that, they, you know, if they develop the right attitude towards a disability, they don't suffer. Report an error in the passage at 10:33
10:45 I mean, they're still disabled, but they aren't creating misery about the fact that they are. Report an error in the passage at 10:45
11:19 If we see it in the right way, then we are strengthened through it. We're really strengthened through adversity, through having to go through really difficult, painful, unwanted experiences. When we look at it in the right way, we come out with incredible confidence and strength. Report an error in the passage at 11:19
12:05 It's a real test. And we're really quite resilient and tough creatures, human beings. When we have to be, we get soft and... And wimpy in modern middle class existence. But even that's an illusion. When it really comes to the crunch, we can really be tough. We can survive anything. And the more we realize that we can survive, not through survival of the fittest, but through compassion, through understanding. Report an error in the passage at 12:05
12:43 Not through just, you know, bullying people or Or using power to survive at the expense of others, but through understanding dharma. Report an error in the passage at 12:43
13:18 Well, they have, like in the Britain Book of the Dead, well, Report an error in the passage at 13:18
13:29 we chant the, we usually, we have various funeral chants and reflections. And the idea is to, when somebody dies, to do good deeds, to do things in their, Like our generous acts and that will help them. And so what we're doing is, but there's no, we haven't developed in Theravāda such a kind of teaching as the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Report an error in the passage at 13:29
14:09 But the attitude is one of doing good works and offering the blessings of that. In memory of the departed. Because in many ways that is a benefit to everyone. Report an error in the passage at 14:09
14:32 To you, to the one that died, to all creatures. Because they think goodness, when we do things out of, you know, with the right way, for good reasons, then that's, say, like a universal. offering. It's not just affecting just one being. But Report an error in the passage at 14:32
15:02 there's Report an error in the passage at 15:02
15:09 a lot of theories about what they call the vijnana, when somebody dies and they usually chant, do chants and then on the... On the 50th day or 49th day they have special almsgiving ceremonies in Theravāda. And for the Chinese, Master Hua, they had the 49th day, just like in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Bardo time, the 49 days on the... Report an error in the passage at 15:09
15:41 They didn't actually, it wasn't the Tibetan Book of the Dead, but they did have a memorial ceremony on the 49th day after his death. Report an error in the passage at 15:41
15:54 And then we chant, they had monks from... From all traditions, all Buddhist traditions, the temple in Long Beach, and we did our own kind of funeral chant, so the Vietnamese had a certain style, and the Theravadans, we did ours, and Chinese. Report an error in the passage at 15:54
16:17 He wasn't cremated yet. Then after that, they cremated the body the following week. Report an error in the passage at 16:17
16:33 But they had the body lying in state where we could all meditate on it. They had people continue it all, you know, 24 hours a day for 49 days, chanting and meditating in this special chapel in the city of 10,000 Buddhas. People were in that all the time. Went at one time at 3 in the morning and their room was filled with people. Report an error in the passage at 16:33
· · · silence, 1 minute
18:21 The aim, I think, in Taoism and In all forms of Buddhism is to kind of open to nature itself. Dhamma itself can be translated as nature, but it's everything, body, the conditions of mind, what we see or hear, everything is dhamma. And what happens is that when we contemplate the beauties of nature, Report an error in the passage at 18:21
18:59 Or natural things that haven't been tampered with human defilements, usually when we contemplate them, they tend to make us, they bring us peace of mind. Report an error in the passage at 18:59
19:13 So, I mean, listening to the sound of a waterfall, or looking at the sky, or looking at the trees, when we just concentrate on these natural things, they tend to lead us into calm. Tranquil state. It's like your own breath. When you contemplate your own breath you'll feel calm by just being with the natural rhythm of breathing of your own body. Report an error in the passage at 19:13
19:42 And then you'll find that the man-made things tend to excite you. I mean usually like a city is filled with things made by humans to excite or attract or to To boast or to, you know, say, look at me, or to call out envy, or to proclaim one's ego, or whatever. So that's why sometimes it seems, you know, when you've been, say, when your mind has been soothed and tranquilized with natural things, how jarring, say, man-made things can be. Report an error in the passage at 19:42
20:28 Because they tend to come from that kind of demanding egotistical side, where nature is what it is. Even the dark clouds or the soil, the dirt under your feet, these kind of things can calm your mind. Report an error in the passage at 20:28
20:55 I mean, I've seen it. They've been in retreat for maybe a month. One time in Chittorast, they've been in retreat for quite a long time. And then having to go to London, and you could feel, you know, your whole senses, your mind had been in the forest for so many weeks, and you really hadn't been talking to people, and you'd mainly been meditating. Report an error in the passage at 20:55
21:26 All that time and your whole system had become calm and used to the peacefulness of nature. And then going in a car up the A3 and get close to London and getting to London and all the exciting things, you know, the traffic, the way people dress, the advertisements, the buildings, the... The whole thing is stimulating the mind and you could really see how harsh it was because you were in a very sensitive state. Report an error in the passage at 21:26
22:08 And then when you live in London for a while you get used to all that. You get used to all that. You don't see it because you couldn't possibly live in London in that highly sensitive state. if you're not. Report an error in the passage at 22:08
22:24 You know, not feeling, you know, continuously overwhelmed by the slightest thing. But then, so the Buddha was emphasizing this mindfulness rather than just, say, hermetic practice as a way to liberation. Because, say, a hermit might go off into the mountains and live just with nature and refuse to have anything to do with London. Report an error in the passage at 22:24
22:54 Or New York or any place like that. But the Buddha, you see, kind of advised the monks at first to go off into the forests. The idea of, because the forests are helpful in that way of calming your mind and not stimulating your mind. Report an error in the passage at 22:54
23:15 But then the idea was that we didn't make it a rule that you could only live in the forest. You have to be related to the villages, the townspeople and so forth, so we're not forbidden to go into the towns, but we're also, you know, to develop awareness around it, so that even the harsh impingement, strident impingement, we're not developing aversion towards, so that we're, you know, we have a, we're developing a wisdom faculty. Report an error in the passage at 23:15
23:50 So that even the most horrible things that might happen to us, we can relate to through non-aversion rather than through anger, aversion, resentment. Report an error in the passage at 23:50
24:07 And I find that very helpful, like in this, say, living in a community where you have so many different people, so many things happen. And if you could have everyone, you know, all the monks and nuns just in this very wise, very mindful, very sensitive, very committed, very peaceful people. But in any community you've got, you know, you've got good people, but then the personality clashes and the various emotions are triggered off for various reasons. Report an error in the passage at 24:07
24:44 reasons. uh... And so you can, you know, I found I used to find aversion coming up, and then by contemplating that more and more, then I learned, becoming more and more skillful not to create aversion around the things that happen, and especially the unpleasant things that happen. Report an error in the passage at 24:44
25:09 So that's wisdom, developing wisdom, where the other is more like getting attached to refinement. Report an error in the passage at 25:09
25:21 Where you become very dependent on things that tranquilize your mind. Where this way, you more or less can work with whatever is happening. You know, if you're in an airport, or you're in a queue, or you're in a traffic jam in Bangkok, or whatever. I mean, you know how to relate to it. Not through wishing you were somewhere else, but through being able to... Report an error in the passage at 25:21
25:50 Have the right attitude towards the conditions you're experiencing. Report an error in the passage at 25:50
25:59 Yes, George? Report an error in the passage at 25:59
26:27 The Report an error in the passage at 26:27
26:45 idea of seeing anything in terms of a permanent quality is a delusion. Because, you know, we tend, like, when we attach to the conditioning of the mind, then we can easily just kind of see things in very fixed ways. and see something as something ugly as permanently ugly or something beautiful as you know kind of absolutizing these things so we and then we become disillusioned when say the beauty is gone and we feel betrayed or often times if we see something as ugly then if it becomes beautiful we can't even see the beauty. Report an error in the passage at 26:45
27:37 Because we've already fixed it in our mind as ugly. Like the racial prejudices or ethnic biases, all these things, you tend to fix your perceptions, you know, in a way that you, whether somebody is beautiful or not, if they just don't fit your... Your conditioned view of beauty, then you can't see it. You merely, you see everything according to a very rigid and narrow conditioning. And that's very common, you know, like witch hunting and these kind of fundamentalist groups that see everything from very rigid views. Report an error in the passage at 27:37
28:29 And everything that doesn't fit into that view is considered the devil or the... Report an error in the passage at 28:29
28:50 already perceived it as ugly. Report an error in the passage at 28:50
29:02 Greece. And he said, you know, they're so convinced That any other religion but Orthodox Christianity is wrong, that all they could see him as was a devil. The monks there, they said he was a Buddhist. They could only see him as a devil. They couldn't see that he was good. Report an error in the passage at 29:02
29:29 He didn't look like Christian, but then if he said he was... Somebody told me that if he was Roman Catholic he would have even had a worse time. They've got strong views against Roman Catholics. And this is like getting a very fixed perception. I've been called like satanic and that. I remember one time in Hampstead when somebody accused Ajahn Chah of being a Satan, devil. Report an error in the passage at 29:29
30:09 I remember telling Ajahn Chah. He thought it was funny. This man just couldn't see the goodness because he couldn't conceive goodness as being anything connected with Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 30:09
30:40 until the... When we see the ugly, it's a visual sight, and then we dwell on it with aversion, then we tend to get caught up into habitual reactions to it. But if you even gaze on the ugly with an empty mind, then you're no longer creating a perception of ugliness. And then you begin to see things in it that are quite beautiful. Report an error in the passage at 30:40
31:13 I remember going to an autopsy years ago in Bangkok where they had a rotting corpse. Some person they'd found in one of the canals had been dead for about a week in tropical country and its corpse was in a state of decay. And just watching my mind relate to that, react to that, To the putrid stench, to the visual ugliness of it. It was ugly and it stank and everything was repulsive on the level of just first impression. Report an error in the passage at 31:13
31:56 And then as I got past, as I kind of didn't follow the first impulses and waited and I began to concentrate on the actual decaying body, Report an error in the passage at 31:56
32:13 One could see a certain beauty in it in the process of decay because you weren't coming from just being repelled by it. The first reaction was repulsion and wanting to get out. The future smelled so strong, so bad that one just wanted to not look. You felt your whole self wanting to run away. Then you kind of willed yourself into the place and then and meditated on the corpse. And then as this aversion ceased then there was a calm and then one could even see the beauty in the process of decay which was quite peaceful. Report an error in the passage at 32:13
33:10 It wasn't depressing at all. Or seeing the ugly and the beautiful. Because if something is beautiful then we tend to grasp it. Report an error in the passage at 33:10
33:28 With something ugly we want to get rid of it, and when it's beautiful we want to grasp it. So then we contemplate the ugliness and the beauty, which is a way of sustaining attention on the beautiful without following. This kind of desire to hold it or to get it. And then one feels more a sense of peacefulness with beauty too because it's not stimulating greed or lust. Report an error in the passage at 33:28
33:59 It's more you're seeing the impermanence that beauty is a perception and then it's a visual beauty and then as you... As you discriminate more, say, rather than just be dazzled by the first impression, then you can see the things that aren't beautiful in the beautiful. But then that's not to be averse to them, but they actually both take you to a level of calm and dispassion. Report an error in the passage at 33:59
34:34 So in, say, sexual desire, lust, where, say, when lust takes over the mind, one tends to see the object as desirable. And then the... The discriminative mind stops working. Once you're taken over by lust, then you don't tend to see, you can lose your sense of shame, of moral responsibility, you just want to get what you desire, and you don't see it in any discriminating way. Report an error in the passage at 34:34
35:10 You're obsessed with the idea of getting. then, so in, they... For the super practices where you contemplate the 32 parts of the body is to develop more discriminative awareness of the body which leads to dispassion because then you're not just taken over by the initial, say, lustful contact. We have a way of... Report an error in the passage at 35:10
35:45 I should Report an error in the passage at 35:45
36:05 think so. I should like to think so. I mean, these days it's hard to be optimistic about humanity. Report an error in the passage at 36:05
36:21 Very hard. But I'd rather be optimistic than pessimistic. Report an error in the passage at 36:21
36:33 Because... Humanity. Report an error in the passage at 36:33
36:30 talking about. Report an error in the passage at 36:30
36:37 I don't expect to ever see a time where everybody's keeping the five precepts. But I think, you know, like the Maharishi, Mahesh Yogi, they say so many people chant and do good things, that affects the whole consciousness of the human consciousness on the planet. And I kind of like that view. I think if, you know... Report an error in the passage at 36:37
37:08 The more that we take on, say, the moral responsibilities, keeping the five precepts and developing kindness and that, as more and more of us do that, then that will also affect the minds of others. Because we're interconnected, interdependent. Report an error in the passage at 37:08
37:46 Well, the precepts, I think, they're not like... There are more guidelines for actions. It's like taking on responsibility rather than kind of commandments that you have to keep the precepts. So it is a very mature religion, Buddhism, because you have to ask for the precepts. You have to say, Ajahn Sumedho, I would like to take the five precepts. I have no right to go and say, I want to give you the five precepts. Report an error in the passage at 37:46
38:21 ...and make you take them, or to try to frighten you into doing it. You'll be damned to hell if you don't take the five precepts, that kind of thing. And the precepts are not commandments, they're not like God saying, you cannot kill, you cannot steal and that. It's like you saying, I... Report an error in the passage at 38:21
38:48 Make the vow to refrain from intentionally killing. And that means it's like a sense of that you're taking on responsibility for how you live. And then those are guidelines for how to live. And then, like with the first precept, to not kill, you know, like if... In Bosnia, we could just get the Serbs and the Croats and the Muslims to take the first Buddhist precept. That would be a great improvement. Report an error in the passage at 38:48
39:26 And then they could kill all the mosquitoes in Bosnia. We wouldn't look down on them. But other human beings, they refrain from doing that. That would be great. But in terms of Buddhist monks... Like we take the vow not to kill any, intentionally kill other creatures of any sort. So I mean, this is our, you know, for us to go around killing mosquitoes and that is wrong, because our vow is one of not killing anything. Report an error in the passage at 39:26
40:03 But what I'm pointing to is a way of trying to bring people out, not just to lay the highest standard on everyone, and then... And then kind of look down on them if they can't keep it. But Buddhism is a much more gentle, more reasonable way of dealing with things, so that you're trying to uplift people, encourage people to rise up, not just intimidate them or ask them to do something they can't possibly do. Report an error in the passage at 40:03
40:34 Like to ask fishermen to keep the first precept in the strictest interpretation. It means that they lose their livelihood. So, like in Thailand, the fishermen are pretty rough people and they kill each other. They were oftentimes the pilots that were killing the Vietnamese refugees in the boats. So I know, I have a friend, a Buddhist monk in Thailand who lives on the coast where the fishermen are and he encourages them to not kill each other. Report an error in the passage at 40:34
41:11 So he gives him the first precept, banadi bata. And he said, that makes a great deal of difference. I mean, they wouldn't even bother coming to see him if he said they couldn't kill any more fish. Report an error in the passage at 41:11
41:25 So it's making it appropriate to time and place and to the ability of the people that you're with. That's where wisdom, mindfulness is the way, where you're... You're taking into account the culture, the people you're with, the time and place. You're not just trying to lay something on everyone, like that everyone should live up to the highest moral standard that you can possibly think of, because very few could ever do that. Report an error in the passage at 41:25
42:01 But we can all, we all appreciate opportunities to be better, to rise up to a higher level. Report an error in the passage at 42:01
· · · silence, 1 minute
42:42 To kill the killers? Right. Report an error in the passage at 42:42
42:54 Right, but when you contemplate, like contemplate, say, the victims and the victimizers, and Report an error in the passage at 42:54
43:04 I've contemplated this, if I'd rather be killed, knowing what I know now, I'd rather be killed than kill somebody, because I'm going to die someday anyway. It isn't so important whether it's now or 20 years from now. Report an error in the passage at 43:04
43:27 But to have to live 20 more years knowing that I've killed somebody just out of anger and heedlessness, even if nobody should ever find out, if I shouldn't get away with it, nobody ever punished me, I would know no matter what. And that's what, you know, it's not a matter of punishing them, because they'll punish themselves. You never get away from that. Report an error in the passage at 43:27
43:56 Once you've committed murder, it's a punishment in itself. And so the idea of compassion then is for both, the victim and the victimizer. And not to try to, you know, it's a natural feeling to take sides, you know, to want to get even and kill the murderer of children. Report an error in the passage at 43:56
44:25 But I don't... And I can certainly feel things like that. It's not that I don't feel, have emotions like that, but I don't trust them. I wouldn't respect that in myself if I acted on that. Report an error in the passage at 44:25
44:41 Because I feel that the victims, victimizers, are the real sufferers in this life. Report an error in the passage at 44:41
44:57 They live in a hell realm all the time, really. I mean, they create. create. I mean, they're ridden with fear. Report an error in the passage at 44:57
45:13 Because the Report an error in the passage at 45:13
45:28 real test is when it does happen to you. It's easy to talk about it when it happens to somebody else. But I hope it doesn't happen to me. Report an error in the passage at 45:28
45:44 But if it does, you come and tell me. If I start saying, I want to get even with that bloke, you say, remember Ajahn Sumedho. know that. Report an error in the passage at 45:44
46:16 Well, in Buddhism, especially like in Tibetan Buddhism, they've got these wrathful deities. But this is wrath of compassion rather than of anger, of like aversion. Report an error in the passage at 46:16
46:29 Wrath is more, it's not coming from hating or being averse, but through compassion, wanting to help somebody. And sometimes... Report an error in the passage at 46:29
46:40 Rath is, you know, if there's not anger, you know, not that you dislike the person or want to hurt them, it's just that feeling of wanting to help them and they need a strong warning. So you might, you know, like a child crossing a big street, then you yell at it and spank it to make your point. Don't you go out of that street! Report an error in the passage at 46:40
47:07 That's wrathful compassion, where, you know, because if you said, Report an error in the passage at 47:07
47:25 no dear, don't go out in this street, you might get in my... Probably wouldn't hear it. Report an error in the passage at 47:25
· · · silence, 1 minute
48:55 Well, I don't know, because the, I mean, in modern science, you don't know what they're up to, really. Report an error in the passage at 48:55
49:09 And I think the best thing scientists could do if they're really interested is meditate and get enlightened. And that would be the greatest benefit to science and the rest of it. Then, that's the point, because the Buddhist teachings are really, you can prove them yourself through meditation. They're not like teachings of... Report an error in the passage at 49:09
49:40 Using instruments or working in a lab or something, it's something that, because you're looking at the mind, you know, it's coming from this awareness of the conditioning of the mind, the impermanence of thoughts and emotions and the realization of the deathless. So I mean, that's something that you can only... Report an error in the passage at 49:40
50:09 Do yourself, and you can't prove it to anyone. There's no kind of way you can prove it, except by your own insight and your own living example. Report an error in the passage at 50:09
50:26 So if you... But Report an error in the passage at 50:26
50:32 I think, you know, like modern science has... I mean the criticism that Buddhists have with... With modern science, it tends to be so limited. It's based on just, say, objects of the senses. Report an error in the passage at 50:32
50:52 So you're just looking at life. And now, like with quantum physics and modern discoveries, they're realizing that the subject and the object, you can't really separate. Report an error in the passage at 50:52
51:09 You know, you're not just, the world isn't just an object to the, but the subject, the mood, the condition of the mind affects how you perceive the objects. Report an error in the passage at 51:09
51:22 So I mean, if you're, you know, if you've got, if you're just a conditioned creature, even in, and we tend to, like modern science is based on kind of empirical investigation and rational. And on the rational and logical investigation of things. So it sees things in a very kind of logical way. And oftentimes when you're imposing logic onto an experience, you miss it. You can't, because life as a direct experience isn't logical, is it? Report an error in the passage at 51:22
52:04 I mean like intuitive. Intuition is the ability to feel life in the present, which you can't rationalize it. You can only recognize it. We tend to see what we're conditioned to see. So if you're a scientist who's looking for a certain thing, then you tend to find it. Report an error in the passage at 52:04
52:39 In whatever you're looking at, because you're already primed to perceive it. That's why with, like God, for Christians, why they have so much trouble with that is because they're primed, already primed to conceive God as a certain thing. Report an error in the passage at 52:39
53:02 And then they're looking for God as some kind of... Father figure, whatever, they don't see what they're doing, they're merely conditioned to have a perception, and then their meditations are around trying to see this God in the way they perceive. And of course some can actually do that, you start creating it, you know, through... Report an error in the passage at 53:02
53:38 Through concentrating the mind, eventually what you believe in will appear. But in the way of proper meditation, right meditation, then we're letting go of all preconceptions. It's just emptying the mind like the tabula rasa, completely blank, completely pure, nothing, you know, it's a... There's no conditioning in it. We can realize that, know that when the mind is empty. Then we've got the perspective on the conditions that arise, even all the kind of emotional habits and biases and preconceptions and assumptions that we have that are conditioned into us from early childhood. Report an error in the passage at 53:38
54:32 We begin to get them, we begin to see them as mental objects rather than interpret life from those subtle objects. I think Report an error in the passage at 54:32
· · · silence, 2 minutes
57:10 that's happening. I think there's more in the scientific world. You find a lot more things coming together and getting more Buddhist-like. Report an error in the passage at 57:10
57:24 But also, I think that science has been too exalted in the West. I don't think it's as good as it says it is. And so I think also the... The rational mind and the ability has been elevated and given a kind of more importance than it really has because you find in other religions a more kind of mythological symbolism has a tremendous power, emotional power that has to be taken into account. So, I mean, you're finding the kind of... How I'm picking up the time is that there's a coming together of everything, really, like a real university, where even things like shamanism or primitive religions and not to mention kind of... Report an error in the passage at 57:24
58:37 Traditional religions and the whole religious experience and rational gifts of humanity, instead of holding one up and putting the other down, there's a coming together and understanding of the psychophysical processes and not exalting one thing over another, but a much more kind of profound understanding of life in all its aspects from the psychic levels to the rational ones to the objects of the mind to the emotional experiences in which we you know we're finding through that then we're much more Report an error in the passage at 58:37
59:38 compassionate understanding where I mean we can be really arrogant in you know being brought up in a kind of western way with modern education and I was brought up to be quite arrogant you know thinking we're so much better off than say those people that believe in gods in the trees, animistic. Report an error in the passage at 59:38
1:00:36 You know, when I start thinking I'm better than somebody else, if I really look at that feeling, it's not a pleasant mental state. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:36
1:00:46 It's not liberating. Yes? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:46
· · · silence, 2 minutes
1:02:22 Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:02:22
1:02:44 it's, I mean, you're different. Buddhist interpretations, I mean in Mahāyāna Buddhism you have much more emphasis on like the compassionate side, and so they talk about saving all sentient beings, the bodhisattva, and that can be seen in terms of just a kind of literal interpretation. Or one can use that in pointing to a realization that the sentient side is just the appearance, and that basically the natural state is enlightenment, and it's not attained by anybody. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:44
1:03:42 But it can be realized by any of us at any moment. These are just ways of using the limitation of language to try to describe something beyond language or perception. So the condition of the mind is to see yourself as one person because of being a... in a physical form and then to you have a name you have a Report an error in the passage at 1:03:42
1:04:18 history, you have a personality and so forth, you have a past you have a future. you see yourself as separate from everyone else, you know, as a, separate from you. And these are the assumptions we make from just, say, the ignorant conditioning of the mind, just on a conventional level. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:18
1:04:43 Everyday people see the world. We see the world in terms of, you know, it's flat, it's that I'm separate from you, and we have a whole kind of conditioned attitude built around that, the appearance of that. But then as you, you know, just like the terms of the flat world theory, that's how the world appears to the eye. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:43
1:05:11 I don't see... A globe out there, I see flat land. And if I want to go to London, I don't get a globe to go, I get a flat map. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:11
1:05:25 And so on the level of just practicality, I mean, the conventional world is oftentimes, it's all right, even though it's not the ultimate reality, it's adequate enough for us to survive and live. Go from one place to another and communicate. But then as we develop intuitive awareness, then we're getting beyond just the appearances and the conventions that we're used to and to seeing the reality beyond them. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:25
1:06:02 Such as when I'm mindful and not attached and lost in My own thoughts or emotions. And then you're mindful. And that mindfulness is the same. It's not two. It's not my mindfulness as if it's in my head. It's just I've let go of the separating things. And then we relate. Then on the level of convention we might say I'm here and you're there in terms of convention. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:02
1:06:38 But in terms of ...of what really is, is oneness, that purity, that pure intelligence, that pure state isn't anybody, isn't any person, but we can all tune into it. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:38
1:06:56 And so then we realize the power there is in just mindfulness, because when we trust in that, it's more like an act of... Because we can't get it in terms of, you know, we can't show it as a thing or prove it. We can only realize it. Then, as we realize that, then we're, say, there's a sense of, say, of being one with everything, of being, you know, you don't feel. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:56
1:07:38 You're no longer going on with the attitudes of separation as being the reality. And then in that state of awareness, then you send, like you pray, or you send forth mettā or compassion. And then that has its powerful effect on all sentient beings. It's not like, it's just a nice kind of sentimental thought in my head. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:38
1:08:08 And it's through the power of these prayers and this awareness that the world isn't worse than it is. Because it could be worse than it is now, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:08:08
1:08:26 Well, we've got to try to influence it. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:26
1:08:32 Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:08:32
1:09:03 what we mean by acceptance, it's like you can't really understand or change anything. ...or help anyone until you accept the way it is. Like if you really want to help somebody, you have to accept them the way they are. It doesn't mean that you like everything about them. It doesn't mean that you're going to like and approve. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:03
1:09:33 But in order to understand somebody, you have to accept them. If we don't accept people, then we never understand them. We then just react and just react to them. So it's like to really know something, you have to accept it in all its good and bad aspects. And then in that acceptance, then we can see ways to, skillful ways of helping, of influencing, of... Report an error in the passage at 1:09:33
1:10:09 Or just, you know, being patient and waiting so that we're not coming from a hidden agenda or a bias. We can always, you know, say if I think I know what you need, say I form an opinion about you, and then I, so then I, whenever I see you, I've already decided what you are. And so I just react. I see, I project my own views onto you, and then you, then you feel it. You feel that, you know, that you're being looked down on, and then you tend to react. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:09
1:10:54 Unless you're developing mindfulness and wisdom, then you just react to my reactions. But when... But when we don't do that, then when I accept you at this moment, just the way you are, then there's an openness and a sensitivity. And even, say, somebody that has been abusive to me in the present, if I can accept that the way it is in the present, then I find I have a way of resolving the problems that bring that abuse. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:54
1:11:35 I've seen this work very well in a community life, where if somebody starts abusing me and then I get offended and get on my high horse and that, then that just exacerbates the problem and increases the division. But as I learned how to be more patient and accepting, Report an error in the passage at 1:11:35
1:12:00 Then even the abusive side of somebody is not being triggered, it's not being reinforced. And that gives a chance to understand what the real problem is. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:00
1:12:38 Acceptance is a word that doesn't mean a kind of fatal resignation. it's not. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:38
1:12:49 It's much more of an interest in the situation. It's not like somebody, oh, I'll just take it, and kind of in a wimpy way, but it's acceptance much more like taking a real interest and paying attention to the situation, rather than reacting, like say reacting if somebody starts abusing me, you can't talk to me like that, it would be one reaction. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:49
1:13:17 And then the other extreme one, well, I must be compassionate and not get angry, is the other, trying to be, you know, one who's accepting. But that's not accepting, that's merely kind of, you know, you're not accepting what you're feeling, you know. In acceptance, you're accepting both. You're taking an interest in what the other person's doing to you. I remember one time a man getting really angry with me and he was really being abusive to me verbally and I took a real interest in it. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:17
1:14:04 I mean, I just listened and I felt it. I watched how, you know, how the kind of aggressive gestures he was making towards me and the words he was using, how they affected me. My body and I was watching my own emotional reaction wanting to set him straight, wanting to tell him off, wanting to tell him to get out and my emotional reactions would be like that but I didn't follow those reactions but I felt them. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:04
1:14:36 And because I took an interest in both, you know, in the situation then... What happened was he finally saw what he was doing and he stopped. Then we could talk about what the real problem was. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:36
1:14:54 He couldn't put me on the defensive and I gave him a chance to have a go at me. When I'm in a superior position of being the head of the monastery, I could pull rank. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:54
1:15:12 And, you know, you have a certain amount of power to get out of those situations if I wanted to. And so he was just making sure, you know, don't you get up and go, that kind of thing. So I just accepted. But it wasn't out of cowardice or fear, but more out of taking an interest in it. And then, once he kind of got it out, then he became... Report an error in the passage at 1:15:12
1:15:43 Receptive. We could say, well, what is really the problem here? And we can talk about it. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:43
1:15:54 Or if the other, you know, I would have resented, if I was just being wimpy and just, oh well, you know, I'd hate myself and I'd hate him. It's the result when you hate yourself because you're just being weak and wishy-washy and cowardly. And then if I stood up to him and it... And shouted out and down at him, I'd hate myself because I knew that I'm just reacting and then just trying to overpower him out of fear and just to prove that I'm, you know, a kind of male power trip. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:54
1:16:36 And so I, but this other way was quite interesting, you know, and gave me a sense of a kind of, Insight into how to deal better with difficult emotional scenes than I'd ever been able to do before. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:36
1:17:08 Well, you just accept that. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:08
1:17:18 Because something in you hates to have them feel they've won. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:18
1:17:27 I Report an error in the passage at 1:17:27
1:17:47 find it really, it's a challenge because You have to go against your conceit a lot, you Report an error in the passage at 1:17:47
1:18:01 know, because one has a lot of, you know, conceit to deal with, you know, not wanting to, feeling I'm not going to take this from anybody or, you know, not wanting to be seen as weak or disempowered by somebody, things like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:01
1:18:28 So, you know, you can see yourself kind of of feeling, you know, these kind of emotions come up during those kind of situations. And that's where mindfulness is, once you begin to see how it works, what your conditioning is, and the result of it is good. Because if you're really doing it properly, you do feel, you feel a sense of, like, Report an error in the passage at 1:18:28
1:19:01 ...of self-respect and a sense of having let go of things and having a sense of inner peace that comes as a result of that kind of response. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:01
· · · silence, 1 minute
1:19:58 Yes, I've gotten to be a real bore now. I'd be a real flop at a cocktail party. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:58
1:20:13 Disaster! Report an error in the passage at 1:20:13
1:20:40 Well, prayer is a word, I mean, it's a Christian word. See, how I relate to that word is, like in Christian mysticism, the ultimate prayer is silence. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:40
1:20:54 And that's very much what Buddhists, like there's a beseeching kind of prayer where you're, like a child's prayer, where you're asking God to do things for you. And then there's mettā in Buddhism where you're, This sense of radiating kindness and goodwill, because we live in a radiant universe, so radiation is one of our gifts, so we can radiate, and so like this radiating of mettā, or sending forth this goodwill, is like a prayer, sending goodwill to all beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:54
1:21:40 And then the silence is the ultimate. Because then it's no longer, it's getting beyond the radiance to the pure, unconditioned, where the healing can be most effective. But it seems like nothing actually. That's where most people see it as not worth anything or it's like you're not doing anything. Because it seems like, Report an error in the passage at 1:21:40
1:22:13 Nothing to the emotional, conditioned emotions. And that's where, you know, this reflectiveness in Buddhism is so helpful so you can, you begin to see, you know, you begin to realize how powerful it is even though emotionally it still seems like nothing. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:13
1:22:40 And that's why it's like an act of faith. Or I noticed like in Buddhism, the sanda or the faith or the confidence is increasing, increases as you practice. And that faith is more like a real trust in just being attentive and aware and empty. Rather than thinking, because usually we're, I mean like Western people are often, one of our big problems is obsessive. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:40
1:23:13 Desires to do things. We can feel so guilty if we aren't busy. We're a kind of society that is work-oriented and an idea of attaining. And therefore, from my own experience, I just see how... You know, not doing something, even meditation can be, we've got to meditate, you know, the sense of we've got to meditate as being something you do, and then because if you never penetrate that illusion of compulsive doing, then you're always feeling you're never meditating enough, or you should meditate more, or you should sit longer, or you should take more retreats. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:13
1:24:07 And so forth, and you're always feeling guilty about the fact that you're not, you're not as good, you're not meditating as much as you think you should meditate. And then it goes on and on like that. So in reflective meditation you're getting even behind that sense of I've got to do something and letting go of that. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:07
1:24:30 Then more and more you realize that just the restfulness in the peace And the natural purity of being. But at first, it's hard to accept emotionally, because emotionally we resist it. Because it seems like nothing. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:30
· · · silence, 1 minute
1:25:20 It's beyond description. It is an act of trust, because maybe your cynical mind might think, oh, it's all, you know, my... Send mettā to the Bosnians. I mean, what good is it going to do? You know, that's a negative reaction. But what else is there to do? Report an error in the passage at 1:25:20
1:25:45 You know, you can eat chocolate, watch Report an error in the passage at 1:25:45
1:25:55 television, watch one of these shows where everybody's telling about all their problems. Or Report an error in the passage at 1:25:55
1:26:15 we could send mettā to the Bosnians. man. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:15
1:26:21 All we could is meditate in silence. Because the Bosnians and all that, when you're getting to the common ground of being in the silence, where there's no Bosnians, no English or whatever, you're getting outside, beyond the conditioning. I Report an error in the passage at 1:26:21
1:26:51 have great faith in that, that the emptiness of the mind is very powerful. And that's why... You know, they have, you know, like in Thailand, for example, the Thais have great faith in their Ajahns, their teachers, monks, some of the monks who they feel are very highly attained. And I began, and I used to scoff at that. I used to, you know, the Western cynic when I lived in Thailand. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:51
1:27:23 But then, more and more, I think maybe they got a point. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:23
1:27:31 That Thailand has often been pretty lucky compared to most countries, avoiding all kinds of unpleasantness. And because they do have some very powerful empty minds in Thailand, you know. So the monks who are very, you know, very pure. And then you think about the, they used to talk about Arahants living in caves in the Himalayas. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:31
1:28:02 I used to scoff at that. Let's just make believe. Probably there are. That's why the world isn't worse than it is. And here in Britain there are probably all kinds of enlightened beings that you never guess. You never imagine that this person or that. How do we know? Britain must have something very good protecting it because it's another very fortunate place to live. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:02
1:28:31 So I mean, you know, this is just, you know, I'm just thinking out loud. You know, knowing the capacity for evil in humanity, you wonder why it isn't worse. Because basically we love the good. You know, most of us love the good. Yes? Report an error in the passage at 1:28:31
1:28:59 No, not a blank, we're not attached to things. Free mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:59
1:29:14 Empty doesn't mean... In terms of our experience, for example, you know, you recognize the conditions that affect you. There's this body and consciousness and it feels and therefore, you know, for the lifetime of this body, it's got to, whatever impinges on it, it's going to pick up just the way things are. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:14
1:29:41 So if something goes... In front of your vision, then you feel it. It's attractive, then you feel attractive. It's repulsive, you feel repelled. And so, I mean, the empty mind then is... It doesn't mean that this process isn't working anymore, that we don't feel anything, but it means we're not attached to any of the feelings. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:41
1:30:09 We're aware of them as a flux and a flow through conscious rather than just being, you know, if we're not aware then we tend to react. If it's attractive, I like that. If it's ugly, we say, get rid of it. And so we're always going up and down with the conditions affecting us. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:09
1:30:32 You know, the worldly dhammas, somebody says, you're wonderful, and he says, I'm happy. Somebody says, you're a horrible person, I'm depressed. So you're always a victim, you know, of whether it's rainy or sunny, or whether somebody likes you or doesn't, or whether you're rich or poor, or healthy or sickly, and then your mind is reacting all the time, it's going up and down like a yo-yo. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:32
1:30:58 But in empty mind, then... There's awareness of what's happening, but you're not following it. You're not becoming those things. So we call that emptiness. Right, Report an error in the passage at 1:30:58
1:31:21 consciousness and the ego, of course, is a conditioned thing out of ignorance. I mean, that's why, you know, when we're operating from the ego, then we're always, you know, we're happy with the... With good fortune, then we're depressed with bad fortune. The ego's that way. But there's something behind your ego that is wise and knows. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:21
1:31:47 The ego you can detect as an object. When you're aware, you can see what your ego is. It's an object rather than the subject. But when you grasp your ego, then you become the ego. And then you interpret everything from, I like this and I don't like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:47
1:32:08 But when there's that mindfulness, then it's like there's a transcendent awareness. And so then the ego you can see. When your ego says, I like this and I don't like that, you're aware of that. That's for what it is. You're not judging it. You're not saying, you're not making any value judgments against it. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:08
1:32:30 You're just recognizing it. You're no longer being taken over by it. So Report an error in the passage at 1:32:30
1:32:43 I think it's time to call it a day. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:43
1:32:51 Come back next Sunday. Same time, same place. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:51
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Talk by Ajahn Sumedho. Original at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ajahn-sumedho-dhamma-talks. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.
Talks of Ajahn Sumedho, archived on Internet Archive. More from Amaravati