Love and Emptiness (1999)

0:01 So we can all rejoice for the plants. And Report an error in the passage at 0:01 Highlight the passage at 0:01

0:09 so like these Sunday afternoon talks are reflective reflections. They're not like talks that I'm just going to give you information and you should just acquire. But they're attempted to try to open up your ability to kind of contemplate. How things affect you and how, you know, reflecting on what you're feeling and the experience of being human. Report an error in the passage at 0:09 Highlight the passage at 0:09

0:44 And according to the teachings of the Lord Buddha, these teachings are pointing to this state of our humanity in which is quite a mystery to most of us. We're human, we identify with that perception, but yet... Report an error in the passage at 0:44 Highlight the passage at 0:44

1:03 We don't often understand why we're here, what our life is about, what it's for, if there's any meaning or purpose to it. Is it just a cosmic joke or is there a Creator God that actually created us for some reason or other? Report an error in the passage at 1:03 Highlight the passage at 1:03

1:22 Is there a purpose or a meaning? Or should we just give up trying to find out and just carry on? Getting through life the best way we can. These are the kind of questions that we sometimes ponder and sometimes come to our mind. Much of our life is aimed at just getting on with life, making a living, surviving, having relationships and so forth until we die. Report an error in the passage at 1:22 Highlight the passage at 1:22

1:58 And then we don't know what is death about. What happens when we die? And today's title is Love and Emptiness. So these are two subjects to reflect upon. Because love is something all humanity seems to long for and relate to in some way. Report an error in the passage at 1:58 Highlight the passage at 1:58

2:26 Emptiness, not many people really think that is very useful. If it's empty, it's probably... When you think of it, it's quite useful. If everything were full up, it would be impossible to live. But because of emptiness, then we can live, we can survive. Report an error in the passage at 2:26 Highlight the passage at 2:26

2:52 But it's not a subject that pop songs are written about or they make great films about people who've realized emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:52 Highlight the passage at 2:52

3:02 about love there's a lot isn't there when you listen to pop music it's all about either falling Falling in love or falling out of love or losing your loved one and the grief and the disillusionment that comes from loss of the love. Report an error in the passage at 3:02 Highlight the passage at 3:02

3:24 And we can all relate to this because this is a part of our human experience. We fall in love and then we relate our loving experience to some particular person. That changes and then we feel oftentimes bereft or let down or disappointed because there's a longing to have a kind of permanent loving relationship, a kind of eternal love that we can romanticize about. Report an error in the passage at 3:24 Highlight the passage at 3:24

3:58 Later on, through so many disappointing experiences with love, we become quite cynical. So we can just dismiss it as a... Report an error in the passage at 3:58 Highlight the passage at 3:58

4:18 rather than trying to defend it, justify it, or deny it, it's part of our human experience. So this is why we reflect on it, contemplate this. Report an error in the passage at 4:18 Highlight the passage at 4:18

4:34 emptiness, then, is also conveying our humanity, but... But it's never really recognized in any way. Very seldom do we appreciate it because we're very highly conditioned to perceive things in very fixed ways. Report an error in the passage at 4:34 Highlight the passage at 4:34

4:59 Modern society is very materialistic and tends to want to influence us to be very attached to the sense of being somebody. Being a kind of permanent person, a beautiful person, a personality, a famous person, an important person, somebody whose opinion is important in modern democracies, isn't it? We're trying to make out everybody's opinion is important, whether it's the queen or the street person. Report an error in the passage at 4:59 Highlight the passage at 4:59

5:41 person. Report an error in the passage at 5:41 Highlight the passage at 5:41

5:46 Everybody's opinion and view is important, our lives are important. yet, the practical level, We can be abstract and be concerned about the lives of others, but unless they're more immediate, kind of like family or Report an error in the passage at 5:46 Highlight the passage at 5:46

6:14 Our group or our club, we find we can't be that concerned about the state of the life of all sentient beings on this planet. We can do it in a category like all sentient beings. So in Buddhism we do say dedicate the merit of our lives for the welfare of all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 6:14 Highlight the passage at 6:14

6:42 And that's an ideal. Hopefully that the goodness of my life will have some benefit for all beings. But in terms of direct experience, then we're very much concerned with this being that we identified as myself. Report an error in the passage at 6:42 Highlight the passage at 6:42

7:04 Because this is the being we have to be with all the time. You people come and go, but I'm with me all the time. Report an error in the passage at 7:04 Highlight the passage at 7:04

7:16 And I have to be with this creature all the time. Whether I go back to my room or go off somewhere, I'm here with this creature. So this is the way it is, that this being here is important because this is the experience, through this entity here, through this Karmic formation through this conscious form is where I experience relationships, where I experience where I'm sensitive. Report an error in the passage at 7:16 Highlight the passage at 7:16

7:57 It's what I have to experience for a lifetime, for however long that lifetime may be. And love then is a part of that experience. At first I remember being brought up in a... In the American environment of the 30s and 40s, where there was a much more kind of innocent attitude about love. Report an error in the passage at 7:57 Highlight the passage at 7:57

8:27 Actually, Americans used to be quite naive and innocent people. And generally speaking, not every American, but back in the 30s and 40s, if you ever see any of those movies, films made, they're quite naive now. Report an error in the passage at 8:27 Highlight the passage at 8:27

8:52 the mass media at this time. Report an error in the passage at 8:52 Highlight the passage at 8:52

8:57 love was always one of the main topics, more the kind of fairy tale type of things. Cinderella and the and the married and living happily ever after was the great hope. Report an error in the passage at 8:57 Highlight the passage at 8:57

9:17 That was, of course, that's like a child's dream, isn't it? That kind of is beautiful when you're a child. As you grow older, then you realize that that is like a fairy tale. But it also conveys a reality, even that story, in the sense of love as something that is eternal and ever after. Because even though We relate it maybe to two mortal sentient beings, a beautiful princess and handsome prince, yet in terms of, say, a spiritual realization, love is the realization that we have that comes through letting go of all the selfish attitudes, of the obsessions. Report an error in the passage at 9:17 Highlight the passage at 9:17

10:22 because through the power of meditation or through religious practices the aim is to free our consciousness from the delusions that we create in it and to realize, say, unconditioned love. Report an error in the passage at 10:22 Highlight the passage at 10:22

10:40 It's quite empty. It's not a personal thing. It's not a creation of my mind and it's not about relating to this special person. It's an attitude that is natural to the purity of the mind that we all share. Report an error in the passage at 10:40 Highlight the passage at 10:40

11:00 So in terms of each individual being here in this room, if we ask each person their... what love I'm sure we get some interesting definitions. But all would be, you know, we could be even cynical about it, saying, I don't believe it, I think it's a farce, we can deny it. But even a denial has a certain profundity to it. Because... Report an error in the passage at 11:00 Highlight the passage at 11:00

11:39 Because cynicism and negativity come through disappointment, don't they? One isn't born as a cynic. Babies aren't cynical. You develop that through experiencing life and feeling disappointed, expecting more than what you're getting. Report an error in the passage at 11:39 Highlight the passage at 11:39

12:03 So, say, the spiritual path is one where we say monasticism itself, its aim is to... Reflect this, to be content with little rather than expect a lot, to become rather simple-minded again rather than becoming a charismatic, fascinating personality. Report an error in the passage at 12:03 Highlight the passage at 12:03

12:27 The aim of a monk is just the conformity of it, the discipline, the shaven head, the robes, the drab colors, the celibacy. In which personality and all our differences are kind of diminished through a common attire and common rule of conduct. Report an error in the passage at 12:27 Highlight the passage at 12:27

12:59 So this helps to reflect all the idiosyncratic and eccentric tendencies that each one of us has. Whether it's our cynicism, our negativity or our positive views of life. Whether we're from fortunate backgrounds or with lovely parents and good education or we're from unfortunate situations, it doesn't matter anymore because we're not here to blame or to elevate one thing above another, but to reflect. Report an error in the passage at 12:59 Highlight the passage at 12:59

13:41 On the way things really are, that at this moment, right now, here and now, at this very moment, whatever you're thinking and feeling is in this state of change, relentless change. And you can't, when you really observe your own mental experiences, just be kind of like an objective witness to your own emotional habits or your thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 13:41 Highlight the passage at 13:41

14:10 thoughts, memories, you're aware of them as a kind of relentless changingness, rather than as kind of fixations that you believe are kind held inside you as fixed positions towards life. You begin to awaken to this realm that we're living in is a realm of continuous change. change impermanence And this, of course, begins to help us to not expect to find someone who we will permanently be head over heels in love with. Report an error in the passage at 14:10 Highlight the passage at 14:10

14:55 Not out of cynicism, but out of realizing the way things are. That we can't make that demand on anybody. How could I expect somebody to be exactly what I want and love me? And be exactly the perfect, have the perfect relationship with them all the time, forever. That's asking too much. Report an error in the passage at 14:55 Highlight the passage at 14:55

15:26 So when we do that, I mean some people do that, not intentionally or consciously, but quite unconsciously. We can feel tremendous disillusionment with somebody because we've expected something from them and they haven't either. Report an error in the passage at 15:26 Highlight the passage at 15:26

15:54 and carry in our mind as a as how we relate to that person by always holding up what they've done wrong as our reference to them Report an error in the passage at 15:54 Highlight the passage at 15:54

16:08 Now, when you're in love, though, you tend to dismiss the faults of the person you're in love with. They infatuated with somebody, the little faults, the little irritations, the dark side, all these can be pushed aside because they're so wonderful. So say the infatuated experience, infatuation or this kind of attachment to somebody as a love object. Report an error in the passage at 16:08 Highlight the passage at 16:08

16:42 It's a kind of blind experience where the flaws, the defects are dismissed and then we're very much thinking only of them in terms of how wonderful they are. Report an error in the passage at 16:42 Highlight the passage at 16:42

16:58 So that's one experience. When it turns to negativity, where you begin to hate them, then it's more like you forget all their lovable qualities. And you only can remember what's wrong with them and the terrible things they've said and done and their weaknesses and faults. And you just dismiss any goodness they've done. I've found this in myself according to the mood. Report an error in the passage at 16:58 Highlight the passage at 16:58

17:35 When you're angry with somebody, mood. Report an error in the passage at 17:35 Highlight the passage at 17:35

17:40 If somebody starts telling you about how wonderful that person is, you feel very resistant to those kind of perceptions because your mind, your mood is set in a negative pattern and it's not receptive to anything positive. Report an error in the passage at 17:40 Highlight the passage at 17:40

18:00 But getting back to the ability to reflect, then we can actually reflect on this experience of infatuation, of just... blind attachment or aversion, hatred, resentment, Report an error in the passage at 18:00 Highlight the passage at 18:00

18:21 and desire in all its various forms, manifestations, we can actually begin to see these in their changingness. their impermanent, impermanent conditions rather than as fixed positions we take on life. Report an error in the passage at 18:21 Highlight the passage at 18:21

18:46 You're awakening, you're beginning to notice the way things really are which is from an empty state of mind. So when you're actually beginning to open yourself to this reflective contemplative witnessing to life you're actually no longer Operating from a personal position or as a personality or with a particular cause or a position that you're taking, you're operating from the natural state of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 18:46 Highlight the passage at 18:46

19:32 Now the aim of the holy life is to develop this emptiness to become so familiar, so at ease because it's a natural state, natural way of being. Report an error in the passage at 19:32 Highlight the passage at 19:32

19:46 It's not conditioned by it. It's not cultural. It doesn't have any kind of cultural taint. Not European, Asian or American or anything like that. It's not male or female. It's empty. It's not young or old. It has no class, caste, race, ethnic qualities. It doesn't belong to any religion even. Even though we call it Buddhism, that's merely a convention. But it's not... Report an error in the passage at 19:46 Highlight the passage at 19:46

20:17 Buddha was pointing to this in his teachings to awaken human individuals to, I think, to this realization of emptiness. Now, as you begin to trust in this emptiness more, rather than fear it, and rather than looking... Report an error in the passage at 20:17 Highlight the passage at 20:17

20:59 obsessions, kinds of thoughts, all kinds of distractions, as you begin to appreciate the true nature being with wisdom in the present, then, of course... What manifests through this is an ability to love unconditionally because this seems to be the natural response to life from the purity of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 20:59 Highlight the passage at 20:59

21:30 Now it's very important to, say, recognize what's important to have a base, a determination for this emptiness. So the basis, say, of Buddhist... practice is always the taking responsibility for action and speech so we have a kind of moral responsibility to do good refrain from doing evil acts to speak on what is kind good and generous and refrain from speaking through hatred and negative emotions because Report an error in the passage at 21:30 Highlight the passage at 21:30

22:14 it was very interesting I just came from the Summer school up in Leicester where a woman was telling me, she's an Irish lady, who was telling me that one of the great terrorists of Ireland, IRA terrorists who murdered a number of people, and I forget his name, but he had a kind of terrible name that conveyed his kind of monstrous qualities, something to do with rat. Report an error in the passage at 22:14 Highlight the passage at 22:14

22:46 And this person was asked about how, when he started killing people, wasn't this frightening? Didn't he experience fear? And he described his training. He says, no, we were trained how to deal with fear, which was to, when we started feeling that... Report an error in the passage at 22:46 Highlight the passage at 22:46

23:10 those energies of fear. Report an error in the passage at 23:10 Highlight the passage at 23:10

23:24 fear was gone, and then you were quite capable of murder. Report an error in the passage at 23:24 Highlight the passage at 23:24

23:44 a good point, because... Report an error in the passage at 23:44 Highlight the passage at 23:44

23:55 they made very clear the kind of foundation, the basis any spiritual path is this morality which is refraining from. and speech which causes harm and division certainly one can be mindful while murdering and robbing banks and And doing, you know, a certain level of intelligence and, you know, mindfulness necessary to be able to be successful at these violent occupations. Report an error in the passage at 23:55 Highlight the passage at 23:55

24:37 But, say, with a spiritual person, you're developing mindfulness that's based on the moral foundation, which is to do good, refrain from doing evil. So our mindfulness includes that basis. Report an error in the passage at 24:37 Highlight the passage at 24:37

24:56 Like, say, for a monk or a nun, because we have a certain disciplinary code that we have when we ordain, when we take on this lifestyle, then that disciplinary code we have to take into account in our experience of life, in daily life. We can't, I mean it's not, it's It's not like a layperson who doesn't have, let's say, an elaborate disciplinary code that they've adopted. But this is something we have to learn. Report an error in the passage at 24:56 Highlight the passage at 24:56

25:30 We have to learn how to live within the limitations of this renunciate lifestyle mindfully, not as some act of renunciation as a kind of put-down of life, a condemnation of the world. or of pleasure or anything else. Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All rights reserved. you go to the shopping center or the Sainsbury's, And with our little carts, our big carts, and there we are with option paralysis. What kind of salad dressing? What kind of breakfast cereal? Report an error in the passage at 25:30 Highlight the passage at 25:30

26:30 Which brand? And your mind can go paralyzed just by having to make so many decisions over so many little things, isn't it? And the mind is occupied with having to decide which. Which brand, which kind of chips or with cheese, with onions, with garlic, with pepper, vinegar or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 26:30 Highlight the passage at 26:30

27:07 One's life can be filled with having to make decisions on this level. For a monk or nun or the alms mendicant, we just... level for Report an error in the passage at 27:07 Highlight the passage at 27:07

27:31 to choose the people to the rule you're supposed to walk with the alms bowl in the village people come out whether they're rich or poor they're good or bad uh it doesn't matter if they want to offer you food uh you take what they're giving and And that's what you eat. But here, like on Sundays, as you can see, it's like a buffet, an incredible selection of absolutely delicious foods, which if everybody dropped a bit of each of those delicious bits into our alms bowls, the bowl would overflow. Report an error in the passage at 27:31 Highlight the passage at 27:31

28:18 And we couldn't possibly eat it all. So we've adapted to receiving all the food and then choosing. So sometimes you find option paralysis over on the survey. You can't Report an error in the passage at 28:18 Highlight the passage at 28:18

28:37 get away from it. There's so many possibilities. But in a simplification of life then these options diminish considerably, such as monastic life. To where your life becomes much more simple. Your mind isn't so, isn't obsessed with endless, having to make endless decisions on that level. And we can have much more time for our meditation, spiritual development. That's the idea anyway. Report an error in the passage at 28:37 Highlight the passage at 28:37

29:15 And then this emptiness is, say, it's not like a state of annihilation. It's not like a kind of void of nothingness, a vacuum, a sterile vacuum of nothingness. When Buddhists talk about emptiness, it's like that which contains everything. It's like space. Report an error in the passage at 29:15 Highlight the passage at 29:15

29:45 It includes everything rather than annihilates everything. Now when we think about emptiness the limitation of thought is that thought tends to work in a dualistic way. Report an error in the passage at 29:45 Highlight the passage at 29:45

30:01 when you start thinking about anything, you think and you start, there's love. If there's nothing left, there's no fullness. Report an error in the passage at 30:01 Highlight the passage at 30:01

30:22 If there's a male, there's a female, and on and on like this, to where we see things in, when we think about life too much, we get stuck in a very clumsy way of experiencing life through being very dualistic, seeing things in terms of fixed, polarized opposites. Report an error in the passage at 30:22 Highlight the passage at 30:22

30:45 Now, I was brought up in this style. My cultural background is very dualistic. Good as opposed to evil. Heaven as opposed to hell. And so these perceptions were considered normal and realistic in the terms of my own parents and in my own cultural community, my peers. Report an error in the passage at 30:45 Highlight the passage at 30:45

31:18 But this also seemed to be a kind of, in terms of, of experiencing life didn't seem to be exactly life didn't seem to be exactly like that that how could you fit everything into two opposing opposites and that the strange example of say evil the thing like the more you tried to resist and fight off bad thoughts the more obsessed you'd become with them Report an error in the passage at 31:18 Highlight the passage at 31:18

31:53 There was this kind of attitude, you had to be a constant warrior and fight off the evil forces because they were behind every bush, around every corner. There was danger lying in everything and that mindfulness meant that you just had to be one who was constantly alert to danger because goodness seemed weak and evil seemed like a very strong force. Report an error in the passage at 31:53 Highlight the passage at 31:53

32:24 Goodness could be, we could be seen as kind of goody-goody, and that always tended to look rather weak and wishy-washy. It had no kind of guts to it, no real force. Where evil had a kind of fascinating quality. And you can see in modern teenage attitudes how they kind of love these evil images, you know, with kind of frightening monsters and... Report an error in the passage at 32:24 Highlight the passage at 32:24

32:54 And power symbols that convey destruction. Because that side of life, the dark side, can be quite exciting. And the good side of life can look rather boring. So when you're looking at life as a fight between two extremes, then sometimes you're quite confused about which side to take. End up in a kind of heaven realm where it's boring forever. Report an error in the passage at 32:54 Highlight the passage at 32:54

33:27 A hell realm where it might be exciting forever. But then the thing is that the hell realm, when you begin to experience hell, then you find it is not something you want forever. And when you begin to experience love, then you kind of think, I'd like to have love forever, have eternal love, where life is full of just love and there's only love and nothing else. Report an error in the passage at 33:27 Highlight the passage at 33:27

33:58 So this is the limitation of thought. Thinking is like this. You can only have one thought in a moment right now when you attach to your thoughts and trying to find solutions to problems and trying to explain life through thinking about it. What happens? You have a position you take through thought. You can only have one thought. Report an error in the passage at 33:58 Highlight the passage at 33:58

34:41 thought, just like A and then B and then C. Report an error in the passage at 34:41 Highlight the passage at 34:41

34:47 notice in an intuitive moment, can kind of intuit A, B, and C in the same moment. Can't you? You can, just like, like, it's... Say, an intuitive ability is the ability we have to, say, without thought, awaken the mind to its natural receptive state of emptiness in the present. Report an error in the passage at 34:47 Highlight the passage at 34:47

35:17 So, intuitive awareness, can you hear me? Report an error in the passage at 35:17 Highlight the passage at 35:17

35:25 Where's my sound technician? Report an error in the passage at 35:25 Highlight the passage at 35:25

35:33 Hello? It's Report an error in the passage at 35:33 Highlight the passage at 35:33

35:54 coming, oh, there. Okay. Now, where was I? Report an error in the passage at 35:54 Highlight the passage at 35:54

36:01 Yes, Report an error in the passage at 36:01 Highlight the passage at 36:01

36:16 yes, yes, okay. Internal awareness is like you can, right now, experiment. Like you can even visualize ABC in one visual moment. But it's not a thought moment, it's more like where images arise and pass away. When you start thinking, Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent. Report an error in the passage at 36:16 Highlight the passage at 36:16

37:14 There's a poised state of attention and awareness, and that's quite empty. Now, this is something you have to really verify for yourself. I don't expect you to just take my word for it, but it's something to contemplate in your own experience of life when your mind, to recognize, to consciously to consciously recognize emptiness as experience rather than experience life only through the ideas of thought and perception. Report an error in the passage at 37:14 Highlight the passage at 37:14

37:51 And there we go again. my sound technician? Report an error in the passage at 37:51 Highlight the passage at 37:51

38:05 This is what we can all begin to... Examine and investigate through meditation is beginning to recognize how our human mind actually works. And what, you know, when we are, when it is empty and when it is, when we are caught up in our own kind of sense of our self-importance, our egos, our emotional states, Report an error in the passage at 38:05 Highlight the passage at 38:05

38:41 because this is what intuitive awareness is about. It's before and it's beyond your conditioned mind. Before you become anybody or be anybody or anything at all, there is this natural state of pure attention, pure awareness, pure intelligence that we begin to recognize, realize as we pay attention to experience in the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 38:41 Highlight the passage at 38:41

39:19 Sound technician. Report an error in the passage at 39:19 Highlight the passage at 39:19

39:26 And maybe it's this thing here. Report an error in the passage at 39:26 Highlight the passage at 39:26

39:38 It's taping. Am I doing something? I'm speaking right into it. There we go. If I put it in. Report an error in the passage at 39:38 Highlight the passage at 39:38

39:57 So can you hear me? No. Report an error in the passage at 39:57 Highlight the passage at 39:57

40:23 How's that? This Report an error in the passage at 40:23 Highlight the passage at 40:23

40:31 is not an easy talk. Report an error in the passage at 40:31 Highlight the passage at 40:31

40:37 Test. Report an error in the passage at 40:37 Highlight the passage at 40:37

40:41 Now Report an error in the passage at 40:41 Highlight the passage at 40:41

40:49 I've often wondered in my life through meditation, because I've been a monk now 33 years, so this is half a lifetime for me. Report an error in the passage at 40:49 Highlight the passage at 40:49

41:03 These kind of questions have become very dominant, you know, love and emptiness. Because, say, the whole aim, say, when I first became a monk was to With the idea of realizing the truth or realizing Nibbāna, that was the kind of aspiring goal I had to become a monk, was I wanted to realize the truth. Report an error in the passage at 41:03 Highlight the passage at 41:03

41:33 Because I knew that the way I thought and the way I tended to experience life was not exactly right. There was something wrong with it because I was always suffering from everything. And I couldn't actually blame that suffering on anybody or anything in particular, even though I wanted to. I kept trying to find people to blame and other things outside myself to blame for my unhappiness. Report an error in the passage at 41:33 Highlight the passage at 41:33

42:01 But in the long run, nothing really stuck and I couldn't really hold it against anyone. I became aware of it as some kind of distortion in my own way of experiencing life. Report an error in the passage at 42:01 Highlight the passage at 42:01

42:16 And this faith arose in the Buddhist teaching because it was very much a teaching that points to the human problem, the common human problem that we all have, is the experience of experiencing life through not understanding things as they really are. Report an error in the passage at 42:16 Highlight the passage at 42:16

42:42 And that even though I remember... Experiencing moments of love in relationships, I always remember that they would end up in some kind of disaster, like falling in love. I remember when I was 18, I fell in love for the first time. And that was quite one of those things where it wasn't just a kind of... Report an error in the passage at 42:42 Highlight the passage at 42:42

43:15 It was very... It was the first time I really felt more interest in somebody else than in myself. Report an error in the passage at 43:15 Highlight the passage at 43:15

43:30 And so I wasn't used to that. It was quite exciting. Report an error in the passage at 43:30 Highlight the passage at 43:30

43:38 So because it was new and exciting, then one had a whole kind of cultural attitude about falling in love and all its kind of romantic aspects. And being naive and unexperienced, one was expecting a lot from that experience. One was making a lot of it, and it ended up, I mean, you know, disaster. I mean, nobody died or anything, but terrible disillusionment, disappointment. I don't know about her, but me, definitely. Report an error in the passage at 43:38 Highlight the passage at 43:38

44:21 So that was, but then... When I became a monk, became a celibate monk, before that I tended to dismiss it as just youthful frivolity, naivety, and dismiss the experience as just something that happens when you're young and not really look at it in any other way than just in a kind of cynical dismissal. Report an error in the passage at 44:21 Highlight the passage at 44:21

44:54 But then, as I began to understand my own mind through meditation, then I began to realize that actually there was a kind of purity to that in the fact that it was a kind of change in one's experience of life from this self-centeredness to feeling Report an error in the passage at 44:54 Highlight the passage at 44:54

45:51 Naive and inexperienced at that age of 18, what happened was I thought, I like this feeling, I want this person. So then of course you start grasping, you identify with the person and Report an error in the passage at 45:51 Highlight the passage at 45:51

46:19 with the idea of owning and holding on to this person and those are the very things that destroy love, isn't it? Love falls away the minute you grasp. What you, the object of love, because then it becomes attachment. And attachment isn't love. Attachment is suffering. Report an error in the passage at 46:19 Highlight the passage at 46:19

46:45 So, well, I didn't know that when I was 18 years old, but as I started understanding experience through my monastic life, I began to recognize that there was, one could even almost consider it a spiritual experience. Report an error in the passage at 46:45 Highlight the passage at 46:45

47:02 Because it had a purity to it. But it wasn't fully recognized or appreciated because my mind wasn't ready to love in a total way. But it was opening to that possibility, say at that age. And then in monastic life, which can seem to some people like a very Kind of, you know, all rules, discipline, restraints, celibacy, and like you're kind of denying love and the beauties of the sensory world where you're just kind of rejecting the world and all the beauty and goodness of it through a kind of determination to realize the truth. Report an error in the passage at 47:02 Highlight the passage at 47:02

48:02 Which takes you into a state of emptiness or nothingness. Because nirvāṇa is oftentimes described as nothing. Or extinction. Report an error in the passage at 48:02 Highlight the passage at 48:02

48:14 That's one of the common ways of defining nirvāṇa is extinction. Which sounds like you're just trying to get rid of everything in a kind of annihilationist way. Report an error in the passage at 48:14 Highlight the passage at 48:14

48:29 But when you're looking at Buddhism just on the level of a mind that's conditioned through a... Report an error in the passage at 48:29 Highlight the passage at 48:29

48:42 trust your own perceptual habits, if you're not from a Buddhist cultural background, because my mind was very conditioned through... Report an error in the passage at 48:42 Highlight the passage at 48:42

48:56 and Christianity. So, say, the basic cultural patterns and perceptions were highly influenced through... Those kind of teachings that were oftentimes given not from the highest level of those religions but from oftentimes distortions of those religions or very limited examples of those religions. Report an error in the passage at 48:56 Highlight the passage at 48:56

49:25 So it became apparent that one had to transcend one's own conditioning. I had to find a way to get beyond just my thinking mind and my emotional habits. And this, how do you do that? How do you get beyond or transcend or free yourself from those limitations? Because at first it seemed impossible. It seemed like an impossible task because I was so identified with my thoughts and my emotions that there didn't seem to be any room for any escape from them. Report an error in the passage at 49:25 Highlight the passage at 49:25

50:06 It just seemed like they would just go on and on. One thing after another. But through the Buddhist meditation practices, I began to experience gaps in the mind, silent places, silent experiences, a sense of emptiness where our self-consciousness was gone, where this obsession with myself and me as a person seemed to vanish. Report an error in the passage at 50:06 Highlight the passage at 50:06

50:39 And beginning to recognize and realize these more and more, I began to increase my faith in the Buddhist teachings because I could see a lot of hope that there was a way out of this trap, that I wasn't just hopelessly caught in a cycle that would just go on forever. Can you hear me? Report an error in the passage at 50:39 Highlight the passage at 50:39

51:09 I'll see if I... No. No, didn't work this time. Report an error in the passage at 51:09 Highlight the passage at 51:09

51:18 Can you hear me? Report an error in the passage at 51:18 Highlight the passage at 51:18

51:29 Hello, hello. Report an error in the passage at 51:29 Highlight the passage at 51:29

51:38 Ah, can you hear me? Report an error in the passage at 51:38 Highlight the passage at 51:38

51:45 Can you hear me now? Report an error in the passage at 51:45 Highlight the passage at 51:45

51:55 Hello? Report an error in the passage at 51:55 Highlight the passage at 51:55

52:00 I'll keep this one too. Report an error in the passage at 52:00 Highlight the passage at 52:00

52:05 So Report an error in the passage at 52:05 Highlight the passage at 52:05

52:12 this is just for our own contemplation for this afternoon of love and its relationship to emptiness. Sometimes in the spiritual life one gets... Report an error in the passage at 52:12 Highlight the passage at 52:12

53:06 liking It's much more profound than that. It's not liking, but it's respecting, it's embracing everything. So that the sense of discrimination, of wanting, of taking sides begins to fade away and you begin to see things things in in a a much much more more real and understanding and profound way than you would expect the And I can also recognize that this That at this time, it's interesting, just here in Britain for the past 25 years, the amount of, more and more people are awakening to this kind of teaching. Report an error in the passage at 53:06 Highlight the passage at 53:06

54:11 Where they, before they, I remember when I lived in California before becoming a monk, back in the early 60s, there were very few people. Report an error in the passage at 54:11 Highlight the passage at 54:11

54:27 in Buddhism in Buddhist meditation, not to mention emptiness or nibbāna. I was at the university, and of course universities tend to attract skeptical, critical people. Maybe that was the problem. I wasn't moving in the right circles. But now, if you go to Berkeley, University of California in Berkeley, there's Buddhist groups all over the place. Yoga groups, Buddhist meditation, Report an error in the passage at 54:27 Highlight the passage at 54:27

55:02 stress reduction groups, all kinds of spiritual groups that are now, I mean, probably too many. It's option paralysis. Report an error in the passage at 55:02 Highlight the passage at 55:02

55:25 Right, but there wasn't any possibility for option paralysis back in 1960. There were very few options. And that's why I went to live in Asia, trying to find a teacher. Report an error in the passage at 55:25 Highlight the passage at 55:25

55:41 But to me, this is the great sign of the time with all the other kind of problems that we face. Report an error in the passage at 55:41 Highlight the passage at 55:41

55:59 problems that we've created, the human population is probably the most, the greatest pests of this planet. We've, you know, much worse than the rats or the cockroaches or the what we call pests, because we've managed to eradicate forests and... And pollute the oceans in just a few years because of our cleverness. But we can also direct this cleverness with wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 55:59 Highlight the passage at 55:59

56:34 And this is very much what the Buddha was doing, was directing human intelligence in a way that was not denying the world to us but was pointing to a reality. That we would forget if there was not this teacher pointing to it. The teacher being the Buddha, of course. So this one feels a tremendous gratitude and a privilege of having this teaching because through this very simple teaching of the Lord Buddha, one does begin to realize these truths for oneself. Report an error in the passage at 56:34 Highlight the passage at 56:34

57:19 It's a teaching that is realizable. It's based on assumptions or on theories of any sort. It's based on the human experience of suffering, its causes and the way to free the mind from creating suffering and through understanding life as you experience it in the way that each individual human being has to experience life because each one of us is different. Report an error in the passage at 57:19 Highlight the passage at 57:19

57:51 And we all have to learn from our own experience and use that as our path. So I offer this as a reflection for this afternoon. And there's tea now on the survey. And so I'll let you have your tea and then in about 20 minutes we can all, or those of you who wish to, can come back and we can have further discussion on this subject. Report an error in the passage at 57:51 Highlight the passage at 57:51

58:26 I don't know enough about that yet. I know that you shouldn't be looking at it directly, they say. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 58:26 Highlight the passage at 58:26

58:48 Well, it's like... I find, just in terms of experience, when my mind's empty, then my relationships to things are more... Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. rather Report an error in the passage at 58:48 Highlight the passage at 58:48

59:31 you can trust in this emptiness of the mind, then it... It will include all of that. So this unconditional love is like a natural inclusion. Everything belongs. It's not preferring one thing over another. Where on a level of personal preference, when that goes into operation, then I prefer this person to that one or this thing to that. Report an error in the passage at 59:31 Highlight the passage at 59:31

1:00:00 But in this intuitive awareness, when... I'm no longer operating from preference, but from intuition. And that has an embracing, non-critical experience that tends towards, say, relating compassionately, you know, relating to others' suffering through compassion. Or joy. Joy comes from that emptiness also. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:00 Highlight the passage at 1:00:00

1:00:36 The sense of joy of life comes through emptiness rather than through trying to find happiness. When I used to try to be happy, looking for happiness, sometimes I would find happiness, but then happiness doesn't last very long and then you feel like you want to find more of it. But joy is more the experience that comes through emptiness where you're not trying to hold on to anything but you're in tune, you're in touch with the reality of beauty as it manifests in the present. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:36 Highlight the passage at 1:00:36

1:01:24 And you're in touch with the reality of misery as it manifests in the present without being caught in aversion and rejection of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:24 Highlight the passage at 1:01:24

1:01:37 It's a kind of magical state in a way which you have to know for yourself. This is an attempt at describing something indescribable. This is where you have to realize this for yourself to really understand it. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:37 Highlight the passage at 1:01:37

1:02:14 Well, it contains everything. So it's not like a kind of annihilation. Well, thought is also contained, but you're not caught in the thinking process. You know, so you're not... Otherwise, we tend to be very much bound into our thinking. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:14 Highlight the passage at 1:02:14

1:02:40 Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:02:40 Highlight the passage at 1:02:40

1:02:48 not moral judgments, but more... It's like when you... You know, your actions then come from... You know, you find your mind moving toward, say, acting on what is good, like you still have, you're still presented with occasions where you have to do something or say something. And, or you can, you're also presented still with your own karmic habits which might bring up hatred and aversion towards somebody. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:48 Highlight the passage at 1:02:48

1:03:30 But in the emptiness of the mind, then you have a perspective. So if, say, when the conditions arise for being generous, kind, helpful, considerate, compassionate, then we act on that. They put that into action or speech. Or if states of mind come in where there's resentment, anger, then you don't act on that, but you accept it. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:30 Highlight the passage at 1:03:30

1:03:57 But you don't speak or act on those negative states. So it's like a guideline. But you're not trying to suppress the negative because then you create more karma through trying to resist it. It's through understanding that you're liberated. So morality is the kind of cutting edge of life as a human entity. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:57 Highlight the passage at 1:03:57

1:04:22 So where we do good and refrain from doing evil. But it doesn't mean we always have good thoughts or good emotions. Because we get what we, you know, we can't always choose. We get what, when the conditions for this are present, then we feel like this. So you find, like in your life, you, like I found, like being a monk all these years. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:22 Highlight the passage at 1:04:22

1:04:54 And suddenly you'll be faced with feeling really a kind of rage or aversion to somebody. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:54 Highlight the passage at 1:04:54

1:05:05 But Report an error in the passage at 1:05:05 Highlight the passage at 1:05:05

1:05:14 then your relationship to your own feelings is like when you're trying to love something as an idea, you can't do it. But you can learn to be more patient and accepting of your own resentment. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:14 Highlight the passage at 1:05:14

1:05:37 And hatred. Because, you know, like with emotions like resentment and hatred, when we have them, we actually want to get rid of them because we don't want to be like that. We don't want to be people that hate and resent things. So there's a strong aversion and resistance. So your unconditional love, then, is relating to those emotions, meaning you're accepting them for what they are. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:37 Highlight the passage at 1:05:37

1:06:06 In the present, when they're present. And then you can let them go. Then you can, and then you're actually through that, you're resolving those emotional habits. Yeah, so eventually the condition that used to bring up rage and resentment won't anymore as you're more accepting of your own karmic reactions to it. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:06 Highlight the passage at 1:06:06

1:06:31 Because the ideal, ideal is not to, is to love everybody equally. But in terms of experience, then we have to deal with our own emotions, which are not reasonable things. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:31 Highlight the passage at 1:06:31

1:06:54 Yeah, it can be, but also it can be just, you know, just so strong a kind of unreasonable feeling. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:54 Highlight the passage at 1:06:54

1:07:09 Like righteous indignation, seeing that the... The rage at injustice, like I've seen, just being so angry, indignant over some unfairness or something that's wrong and that shouldn't be and getting carried away with that emotion is a very strong feeling and also you feel you're right. So it's very... Powerful, you know, very convincing. But when you really look at it, you're also suffering from it. Because it's a very strong kind of sense of self-involvement. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:09 Highlight the passage at 1:07:09

1:07:59 And so like this emptiness and unconditioned love then is more willing to be patient and accepting of even your rage. And be patient and letting it... be what it is. And then through that, this, this, this has Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:07:59 Highlight the passage at 1:07:59

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:09:01 let's say it's not an absence, but it's like space. resolve itself. And then you'll feel much more confident in dealing with unfairness and difficulties through wisdom rather than just through anger and resentment. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:01 Highlight the passage at 1:09:01

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:09:10 It's immeasurable, like space or silence. It's like what holds everything. So in terms of a direct realization of it, just like contemplating space, for example, just visual space, you know, through eye consciousness, then you're aware that... That the space is really the important thing at this moment. That space allows us to come together in this room. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:10 Highlight the passage at 1:09:10

1:09:51 But it doesn't stand out. The things that stand out are the people or the building or the things in the room. And we give our attention to all the things. And even what is most obvious we may not even notice. The same in your own mind, for example. We give so much importance to our thoughts, our emotions, that we aren't aware of the spaciousness or the emptiness of the mind until we start really paying attention to the present moment, where you begin to realize the true nature of mind is empty. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:51 Highlight the passage at 1:09:51

1:10:32 And then the thoughts come and go and the feelings come and go. Yes? Report an error in the passage at 1:10:32 Highlight the passage at 1:10:32

1:10:53 It was absolutely essential. Being human is, if you take it too seriously, it's deadly. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:53 Highlight the passage at 1:10:53

1:11:08 And this is where, because it, you know, like being, say being a monk and being moral and being, essential. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:08 Highlight the passage at 1:11:08

1:11:04 Deadly. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:04 Highlight the passage at 1:11:04

1:11:19 Having rules on a religious path, these are all very serious things. So you can get very tense and very humorless in a spiritual path if you don't see the absurdity of it. So like Ajahn Chah, the teacher in Thailand, he had a very wonderful sense of humor. And Thai people generally have a good sense of humor. They have a... Like the English, they can kind of laugh at themselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:19 Highlight the passage at 1:11:19

1:11:57 Like English can do that. They make fun of themselves a bit and see the absurdity of their own Englishness and all that. And Thai people can do that. They can kind of laugh at their own foibles. and humanity and that is a quality that I think appealed to me a lot because I found in monastic life that that humor made it work for me because I tended to my kind of tendency would be to take it too seriously and then get myself in a very tense state where I would just feel just so kind of Report an error in the passage at 1:11:57 Highlight the passage at 1:11:57

1:13:14 It's a kind of absurd thing to be, you know, shave your head. And, you know, it's a bit of a, you know, you're going around with an alms bowl and it can seem, you know, sometimes wonder why you're doing it. But it has its point and it has its value. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:14 Highlight the passage at 1:13:14

1:13:42 you also need to be able to laugh at yourself as a monk or a nun. Otherwise, you can't really take it very long. You get too burdened by it, by putting yourself in such a kind of position, especially living in a non-Buddhist country where you're fringe person. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:42 Highlight the passage at 1:13:42

1:14:07 Yeah, yeah, Report an error in the passage at 1:14:07 Highlight the passage at 1:14:07

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:14:45 it's more... Well, I like the word. It's an interesting word because it's used in so many ways. And of course, oftentimes it means just liking somebody or being infatuated with them, being attached. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:45 Highlight the passage at 1:14:45

1:15:02 Say the difference between liking and loving. Like in Christianity, they say love your enemy. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:02 Highlight the passage at 1:15:02

1:15:13 And I used to go, how can you love your enemies? Somebody wants to kill you, how can you love them? But I saw love as a kind of extreme form of liking. But then just examining the experience of liking and disliking, those kind of emotions, not before they get into anything. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:13 Highlight the passage at 1:15:13

1:15:48 nasty to you, when somebody's being abusive or nasty to me, then the conditions for liking aren't there. But in this empty state of mind, then there's a thing that's Then one experiences, say, unconditioned love, which will embrace the dislike of that person without making a problem. So it's more like a natural state of being, which is transcending the conditioning, the conditions that are present, or embracing the conditions that are present, because it's non-discriminative. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:48 Highlight the passage at 1:15:48

1:16:27 So it doesn't mean like... Report an error in the passage at 1:16:27 Highlight the passage at 1:16:27

1:16:31 Love in a romantic sense, but it means non-aversion, non-harming, being patient, learning to accept something for what it is rather than with conditions, like I've found living in a monastic community, learning to accept people the way they are rather than... Report an error in the passage at 1:16:31 Highlight the passage at 1:16:31

1:17:01 which doesn't mean I approve or like the way they are but if I come from disapproving of them and putting conditions on them then the relationship gets very difficult and I suffer and they suffer but as I'm more willing to accept and be patient and not Report an error in the passage at 1:17:01 Highlight the passage at 1:17:01

1:17:55 I as I kind of Trust it more. It's like in Buddhist terms, like mettā is loving kindness. And so we translate that. At first, when I first started, when I became a Buddhist, then this word loving kindness, that sounded like, you know, on a very positive thing, like you've got to like somebody and be kind to them. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:55 Highlight the passage at 1:17:55

1:18:28 And so it... It was, and you start towards yourself, you always start this mettā practice towards yourself. And I found that I didn't really like myself very much. So I found that the hardest thing to do was to accept myself, even in, I mean, my faults and my weaknesses without hating them and being averse to myself and being critical. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:28 Highlight the passage at 1:18:28

1:18:59 I found that more difficult. Than towards others. And that surprised me because I didn't realize how critical, self-critical I'd become. And this mettā was always starting with yourself. But I found that I resisted that. It's easier to have unconditioned love towards all sentient beings or like a billion Chinese are living in China than for myself. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:59 Highlight the passage at 1:18:59

1:19:33 Or for an annoying monk that sits next to me. That's funny, isn't it? With a billion Chinese in one moment, I could have a metaphor. But none of those billion Chinese are directly threatening me at this moment. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:33 Highlight the passage at 1:19:33

1:19:58 So in terms of mettā, it's easier sometimes to spread it to... Or to categories. When it gets down to individuals, then you find some resistance. Because then you're getting into emotional problems, emotional reactions. And then the mettā is like I was saying before, the mettā is then more, or the unconditional love is more willing to accept your own emotional reactions without criticism. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:58 Highlight the passage at 1:19:58

1:20:33 And that's not easy for most of us. I experience emotions I don't like. And I'm embarrassed. I'm frightened of some of them. So those reactions are strong. So this unconditional love is working more on that level, too, of non-aversion and patience with frightening emotions. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:33 Highlight the passage at 1:20:33

1:21:01 If someone starts, say, cursing me right now, that would be very threatening. And then that would bring up the feeling of fear or embarrassment or resentment. And what do you do when those emotions arise? You know, before I would try to just cover it up, you know, get very kind of aggressive myself and get kind of, you know, maybe abusive back and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:01 Highlight the passage at 1:21:01

1:22:05 But then that's not the way to solve the problem. That just exacerbates the problem. But this mettā practice, patience is learning to be willing to feel those emotions and with patient acceptance of them. And then that seems to really, once you realize how to do that and develop that, then you feel much a confidence that comes in that you don't have if you just... Report an error in the passage at 1:22:05 Highlight the passage at 1:22:05

1:22:49 like the... emotion is... Report an error in the passage at 1:22:49 Highlight the passage at 1:22:49

1:22:57 It's like emotions that come from the purity of the mind are like compassion, love. then in terms of emotions that are... Coming out of the distortions of ignorance, then they tend to get trapped into a very self-reactive manifestation. So we become jealous or we become angry or resentful or outraged and things like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:57 Highlight the passage at 1:22:57

1:23:34 So these emotions, it's like energy that gets That gets filtered through the habits we have. And as those habits are resolved more and more, habit patterns are relinquished, then that energy seems to come through in a more direct way, from the purity of the mind, which relates to the suffering of others with compassion, or relates to the beauty of others with joy, or can be... Report an error in the passage at 1:23:34 Highlight the passage at 1:23:34

1:24:07 can realize equanimity. loving-kindness, the natural flow of energy through the human consciousness then is manifest as what we call the Brahma-viharas, Report an error in the passage at 1:24:07 Highlight the passage at 1:24:07

1:24:28 is loving-kindness, compassion, joy. When the energy of life ...is flowing through this consciousness through the distortions of greed, hatred and delusion, then that manifests in all different kinds of ways which tend towards creating more problems and even acting and doing things that are very cruel or harmful to others or oneself. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:28 Highlight the passage at 1:24:28

1:25:01 Well, this realm is energetic, it's all energy. And this is an energetic form, it's a changing form, you see, so it's like conscious, like when you contemplate your own existence as a conscious being, you know, like right now you're experiencing consciousness, so you're feeling everything, you know, if you're unconscious you wouldn't feel anything, but because you are a conscious being, then whatever contacts your... Report an error in the passage at 1:25:01 Highlight the passage at 1:25:01

1:25:36 whether it's pleasant or painful, feel it. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:36 Highlight the passage at 1:25:36

1:25:47 And then emotions are dealing with fear. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:47 Highlight the passage at 1:25:47

1:26:09 Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent. growing beyond it but because we're not the conditions then we have a way of of developing maturing using wisdom uh spiritual realization is possible for for humans so Report an error in the passage at 1:26:09 Highlight the passage at 1:26:09

1:27:03 I would Report an error in the passage at 1:27:03 Highlight the passage at 1:27:03

1:27:36 spread method to them, which doesn't mean you have to, you know, you have to... ...associate with them even, but your attitude is more of forgiveness and acceptance rather than of just dwelling on how much you dislike them. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:36 Highlight the passage at 1:27:36

1:28:13 No, no. I mean, sometimes you have to because the conditions are there. But then a relationship is one of doing good and not doing bad to them. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:13 Highlight the passage at 1:28:13

1:28:29 One can, you know, be kind, even though you may not like somebody, you can be kind to them. Or if they're, you know, this is part of the unconditioned love. It doesn't mean that if somebody is really nasty and trying to do you in or insults you and demeans you, then the conditions for liking are not there. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:29 Highlight the passage at 1:28:29

1:28:57 But the ability for you to learn from that and understand yourself better is also there at that time. I've learned a lot from conditions that I didn't like at all or from unfortunate circumstances or feelings of being... Report an error in the passage at 1:28:57 Highlight the passage at 1:28:57

1:29:27 and it's not that these things are not obstructions to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:27 Highlight the passage at 1:29:27

1:29:55 you've got to be careful about, because the languages get all confused, because like in love and desire are English words, oftentimes convey the profundity, say, of like... Socrates' original language. They get translated into English words, but sometimes English lacks the subtlety in that. For example, the word desire itself in English usually is a kind of pejorative word. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:55 Highlight the passage at 1:29:55

1:30:45 It's like... Even though you can have good desires, you know, you can desire the good, yet oftentimes the word desire has a slightly negative feeling about it, and it's not very nice. And so yet you can, you know, have desires to help somebody. Where in, say, the Pāli language of Theravāda Buddhism, Buddhism, you have Desire, the word dhanha, is always related to avicca or ignorance of the dhamma or the truth. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:45 Highlight the passage at 1:30:45

1:31:29 So where there's ignorance, there's going to be desire. So avicca and dhanha are connected always. And then somebody would ask, well, is the desire for nirvāṇa, is that a desire? Report an error in the passage at 1:31:29 Highlight the passage at 1:31:29

1:31:47 And then in Pāli, when you talk about desire for nibbāna, you don't use dhanah. You use words that more would translate as aspiring rather than desiring, or chanda, or the aspiration, which isn't coming out of ignorance, but out of awakening. So then the aspiration to nibbāna is... is from the... Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:47 Highlight the passage at 1:31:47

1:32:46 All Rights Reserved. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:46 Highlight the passage at 1:32:46

1:32:50 movement of human beings to want to understand and be free from ignorance so just recognizing our humanity has both its its ignorant aspect that just comes from from identifying from not paying attention from being heedless and from being caught in conditions without any understanding of what's happening but then we have this awakening Report an error in the passage at 1:32:50 Highlight the passage at 1:32:50