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- 0:41
So the title today, The End of Death, this is a reflection I particularly found very worthwhile investigating. Because we usually perceive death as the end of life. And to us, say the ordinary person, death is a kind of, it's a mystery, it's a finality. we
- 3:57
This is interesting contemplation. It reads thus, There is an island, an island which you cannot go beyond. It is a place of nothingness, a place of non-possession and of non-attachment. It is the total end of death and decay. And this is why I call it Nibbāna. There are people who in mindfulness have realized this and are completely cooled here and now.
- 8:03
And so in mindfulness is the ability to realize that it's not, when we are really mindful, when there is true mindfulness. Awareness operating, we begin to discover or rediscover or realize that very centeredness, that point where there is no thingness or nothingness, non-attachment, non-possession, that isn't conditioned by language or culture or education. It's the pure awareness of the mind, the pure intelligence.
- 34:07
is there already in the deathless, the place you cannot go beyond, the place of non-attachment, of non-possession, of no-thingness. But we're not aware of it, and we are so caught up into the conditioning of our minds, in the force of habit, in the fears and desires that tend to obsess our conscious experience. And so the meditation process is this willingness to relinquish, letting go, not destroying, not getting rid of, but letting things go, allowing things to go according to their nature.
- 59:13
Read this again, there is an island, an island which you cannot go beyond. It is a place of nothingness, a place of non-possession and of non-attachment. It is the total end of death and decay. And this is why I call it nibbāna. There are people who in mindfulness have realized this and are completely cooled here and now. They do not become slaves working for Māra for death.
Transcript
0:00 Beginning, you know, every year to think up titles, provocative titles or interesting new Report an error in the passage at 0:00
0:11 titles that would stimulate interest. Report an error in the passage at 0:11
0:17 After you've been through Buddhism Today and the usual, the Four Noble Truths and the usual titles and you start thinking up, you start having to become more original. Report an error in the passage at 0:17
0:41 So the title today, The End of Death, this is a reflection I particularly found very worthwhile investigating. Report an error in the passage at 0:41
0:55 Because we usually perceive death as the end of life. And to us, say the ordinary person, death is a kind of, it's a mystery, it's a finality. Report an error in the passage at 0:55
1:13 we And because of that, we tend to either not really want to talk about it or think about it because we find it maybe depressing or frightening in itself. When they wanted to print the book Mindfulness, Path to the Deathless, I remember at first I called it The Path to the Deathless. Then somebody said, nobody will read a book called, with the word death in it. I said, but it's deathless. They said, well, but Report an error in the passage at 1:13
1:52 they said, still it has the word death in it. And so they wanted, at least, so they, we compromised and had mindfulness as the first inspiring word. Report an error in the passage at 1:52
2:07 But it's interesting to see that in the present time, the age that we're in is, death is a subject that, That people are willing to consider, contemplate. We have every year, we have a weekend retreat on death and dying, and it's always booked up in advance. That's always impressed me. People would want to spend a weekend, you know, look forward to a weekend just devoted to death and dying. Report an error in the passage at 2:07
2:43 But that does show a change in people's, many people's attitude and an interest in The great event of our life, because death is something we will all experience. It's an important event. It isn't something to regard as a subject to ignore or to fear, but to look forward to. Not because you're fed up with life or want to kill yourself, but because... Report an error in the passage at 2:43
3:18 It is the culmination of this experience from birth to death. So it is a very important event. It's the ending of this conscious experience within this form that was born and has reached its time to die. And then the end of death is what? What do we mean by that? that in Sutta Nipata, there's a quote that I particularly like, which I will read. Report an error in the passage at 3:18
3:57 This is interesting contemplation. It reads thus, There is an island, an island which you cannot go beyond. It is a place of nothingness, a place of non-possession and of non-attachment. It is the total end of death and decay. And this is why I call it Nibbāna. There are people who in mindfulness have realized this and are completely cooled here and now. Report an error in the passage at 3:57
4:26 They do not become slaves working for Māra for death. They cannot fall into his power. And so it's interesting also to realize Māra, this word Māra, often translated as the tempter or the evil force, is the word for death. Report an error in the passage at 4:26
4:49 And Amara, Amaravati, is deathless, deathless realm. And so contemplating the total end of death and decay, and this realization of this island that you cannot go beyond, this is also a very significant symbol, religious symbol, the island. Report an error in the passage at 4:49
5:22 Not in the sense of an island that is isolated, that you're cutting yourself off from everything, going off to a place where nothing can contact you again, but it does symbolize the way things are as a spiritual realization of going to the very center, to the Maybe the axis mundi, or the place that you cannot get beyond. And that, say, within yourselves, each one of us is a separate individual entity. Report an error in the passage at 5:22
6:04 When we're born, then we spend our lifetime always within the confines of this human shape, this human body. And for us, then, life is experienced as The objective world comes to us, impinges on this form, on its senses. And so in actual, the reality of our existence lies the fact that each one of us is an island unto ourselves, just physically. Report an error in the passage at 6:04
6:37 And that each one of us has to live in somewhat isolation, in this lonely state of being one separate individual entity. And we oftentimes look outward to seek union or companionship or relationship with other beings, hoping to maybe stem this sense of loneliness or isolation that we have in this form. Report an error in the passage at 6:37
7:09 But the Buddha pointed the way towards a realization that was taking us away from that desire. To find something out there. Because when we follow the desire, all we get is maybe temporary companionship. Now and then, maybe we can distract ourselves from our loneliness and our isolation through becoming interested or infatuated or caught up into the life's emotions. Report an error in the passage at 7:09
7:47 And the relationship with other beings. But in the long run, we're left, say, with ourselves, with just this, this conscious experience within this limited form. Report an error in the passage at 7:47
8:03 And so in mindfulness is the ability to realize that it's not, when we are really mindful, when there is true mindfulness. Awareness operating, we begin to discover or rediscover or realize that very centeredness, that point where there is no thingness or nothingness, non-attachment, non-possession, that isn't conditioned by language or culture or education. Report an error in the passage at 8:03
8:46 It's the pure awareness of the mind, the pure intelligence. ...of being that we begin to realize. And it is there at that point that there is the island. You can't get beyond it. You can't get beyond the island and see the island. You can only be there and observe and witness and know that all that comes to the island and leaves it, all that arises ceases. Report an error in the passage at 8:46
9:22 The meetings, the partings, the arrivals and departures, they're the guests, the things, the possessions that come and go, that impinge, that affect us, that affect this conscious experience, but we're no longer looking at it in the way that we used to. The way of ignorance is to... Report an error in the passage at 9:22
9:51 Want to hold on to the good things, isn't it? Those things that come to us that are very pleasant, beautiful, attractive, desirable, pleasing to us. When they come to us, we want to hang on, grasp them. And then we live in a lot of fear of having to put up with things coming to us that are unwanted, painful, disgusting, repulsive. Report an error in the passage at 9:51
10:22 We can spend our lives in a constant state of anxiety about, even when we have, maybe we're able to maybe control our lives enough to supply enough of the good things to kind of give us a sense of ownership and possession, but there's always, related to that possessiveness, a fear of losing it. Report an error in the passage at 10:22
10:46 When you love somebody and you're attached to them, there's always, going along with that, The fear of losing them, that's a part of the deal, unless you're a wise being. Report an error in the passage at 10:46
11:03 So this is pointing it out as even when we, you know, at the best moments of our life, where maybe the peak experiences, where we manage to maybe get all we want, all that is desirable, along with that is what we call the dark side or the shadow. Which means the kind of intuitive awareness that it will be taken away, will be separated. Report an error in the passage at 11:03
11:36 In Report an error in the passage at 11:36
11:50 modern society, we've lost our appreciation, say, of the way of deathlessness or the realization of immortality. Report an error in the passage at 11:50
12:09 Even the religions tend to ignore this. We tend to think of it as something that we hopefully will realize when we die. Report an error in the passage at 12:09
12:23 So we think, well, maybe if I live a good life and do all the right things when I die, I will find some kind of eternal place of heavenly state where there's a kind of eternal happiness. we die. Report an error in the passage at 12:23
12:40 Because in our minds, when we try to conceive deathlessness or immortality, we tend to make it into eternity. Some kind of thing or state of being which goes on and on and on, either eternally pleasing, pleasant and comfortable, or eternally painful, like eternal hell. is also something that we have those kind of perceptions in our Christian conditioning, that some people who are so bad, they're condemned to eternal hell, unmitigated misery forever, Report an error in the passage at 12:40
13:32 which is about the most horrible thing you can think of. Report an error in the passage at 13:32
13:41 the Then the opposite is eternal happiness, where we're just happy forever and ever. And that happiness oftentimes is like having everything you want, isn't it? Being with everything you like and love at its peak, where everybody's attractive and young and happy and loving and delicious. Report an error in the passage at 13:41
14:10 Everything's just at its best. The peak of all the sense realm forever, eternal peak moment, is maybe a description of eternal heaven. Report an error in the passage at 14:10
14:25 But the Buddha avoided those kind of perceptions and spoke in terms of nibbāna. This is why I call it nibbāna, a place of no-thingness or nothingness. And yet that can sound... To the average person, there's a kind of annihilation, a Report an error in the passage at 14:25
14:50 dead place where everything just disappears into a vacuum, a void, a kind of sterile void of total wipeout is one interpretation, a place of no-thingness, or it is non-attachment or non-possession. Report an error in the passage at 14:50
15:19 Because our minds easily tend to absolutize, to fix, and to see things in extreme ways, and this is our culture, the way of the mind is conditioned to take things to extremity, that it's interesting to observe that the Buddha's emphasis was on the middle way rather than on extremity. Report an error in the passage at 15:19
15:51 And the middle way, oftentimes interpreted in Britain here, is a kind of endless, kind of mediocre compromising, where you're just kind of trying to be, you know, not extreme, but always in a state of kind of never Report an error in the passage at 15:51
16:18 being committed to anything, but I just follow the middle way. And so, which means that I wouldn't dare do anything or commit myself to any extremity. But the middle way of the Buddha is not mediocrity. It's not just being wishy-washy, but it's transcending the extremities. It's where the extremes, we begin to see the complementariness of the extremes. Report an error in the passage at 16:18
16:50 We're no longer looking, aimed at our life at the extremities and being attracted or repelled by the conditions in their extreme form because we find the place of non-abiding or of no-thingness or non-attachment. And that isn't a place as an external place or it's not a fixed position. We're not trying to live a life where we where we don't feel we don't experience we don't have to put up with anything we just go into a state of nothingness non-attachment and and just it's like shut down and and and not be impinged on anymore not have to participate in life as a human being not have to feel or experience anything but just find a nice little mental state that we're totally protected from the sensitivity that frightens us. Report an error in the passage at 16:50
18:01 But that is why sometimes the Buddha was accused of being a nihilist or an annihilationist. Because logically if you take the extremity, if you use anattā as an extremity or emptiness or desirelessness or no-thingness, As the opposite of somethingness, if you look at it as two opposites polarized, then, of course, the logic is an annihilationist teaching. Report an error in the passage at 18:01
18:36 One ends up thinking the Buddha was teaching extinction, nibbāna as a kind of total wipeout and destruction of everything. Report an error in the passage at 18:36
18:45 And that is because the... Report an error in the passage at 18:45
18:51 Awareness, the kind of intuitive awareness that the Buddha pointed to is not recognized and we're just following the logic of our logical conditioned mind. Report an error in the passage at 18:51
19:13 Now I've been talking a lot about intuition as a mental experience. That is Not really acknowledged in Western civilization. We don't trust it. We don't regard it as being anything all that worthy. It's kind of maybe an aside. We talk about it as a kind of feel something or women are very intuitive which is a way of kind of even saying it's not terribly important. Report an error in the passage at 19:13
19:54 Dismissing it because intuition isn't. You can't really get it and deliver the goods, can you? It's not intuitive awareness. It's baffling to a human being who's very caught up in wanting to think about life and figure it all out in rational terms. Have it all kind of organized with perceptions, A, B, C, D, on to Z. Report an error in the passage at 19:54
20:24 All neatly computerized, arranged, and this is everything. And this we would really feel very, we would tend to, at least temporarily, maybe be quite comfortable with the fact that we own all the knowledge in the world. Even though we may not ever use it, the fact that we have it in a computer or something, we might be able to, for a few moments, feel that we're okay. Report an error in the passage at 20:24
20:53 That everything is alright. Because we do value very much our ability to create images, to perceive things, to use language, to remember. All this function of the mind has been highly developed in the past few centuries and highly regarded. And it isn't not to be critical of it or to dismiss it or to despise it in any way, but to recognize That as long as our attention is caught in the attachment to the conditioning of the mind, to the perceptions, to views, to opinions, to no matter how good they might be or high-minded or altruistic, the attachment itself to these conditions of the mind creates this sense of worry and despair in our lives. Report an error in the passage at 20:53
21:55 Because no matter how clever we are, our cleverness can delude us. We tend to fool ourselves with our own intelligence and Report an error in the passage at 21:55
22:08 not be able to relate to the actual flow of our lives because we're always projecting onto life something that isn't really there, something of our own desire, our own fear. We project it onto the moments of our life. Report an error in the passage at 22:08
22:25 So intuitive awareness is the ability to reflect and observe, to contemplate, to ponder. What is life all about? What is the meaning of life? Why were we born? What is death? What happens when we die? And these are, we're not trying to find answers, these are kind of nice little answers from a book, but these are the questions that really interest us. Report an error in the passage at 22:25
23:00 And which we can only maybe use as an opportunity to open up our mind to its, say, its intuitive function or its intuitive ability. Report an error in the passage at 23:00
23:16 And so asking oneself questions like this that has no answer in terms of a rational answer, but it allows us to ponder, to wonder about the meaning of life, Report an error in the passage at 23:16
23:33 Which means that we're opening the mind. We're not fixing on a neat little answer to the question. But it keeps kind of working inside you. And it oftentimes is quite bothersome because we can feel quite ill at ease with not knowing things and not having really good answers to all the important questions. Report an error in the passage at 23:33
24:01 Sometimes we feel very ill at ease when we... With that doubting state, that uncertainty, that insecurity, that not knowing. And so the immediate reaction is to either dismiss it, ignore the question, not bother with it, or to settle for somebody else's answer. Go to the priest, go to the monk, read the philosophy, get the answer from somebody, and maybe settle for what somebody tells you. Report an error in the passage at 24:01
24:33 And what the Buddha was asking us to do was to trust. Put our faith in that intuitive openness that's not fixed, not attached to anything. It's no-thingness, nothingness, non-attachment, non-possession. Report an error in the passage at 24:33
25:03 There's a Shakespearean sonnet, probably many of you are aware of, that I'll see if I can recite it. Report an error in the passage at 25:03
25:18 Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth, fooled by those rebel powers, the array. Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth, painting thy outward walls so costly gay? Why so large cost, having so short a lease, dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend? Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end? Then so feed thou upon thy servant's loss, and let that pine to aggravate thy store. Report an error in the passage at 25:18
25:51 By terms divine, In selling hours of dross within be fed, without be rich no more. So shalt thou feed on death that feeds on men, and death once dead, there's no more dying then. Report an error in the passage at 25:51
26:12 Sometimes you think Shakespeare understood. Report an error in the passage at 26:12
26:22 And the last line, and death once dead, isn't it? And so in our own practice of meditation, We're actually allowing death to happen inside us. And this is sometimes the kind of fear and terror that come in our meditation practice because we're willing, we have to be willing to let things, let that which we like and are attached to and possess. Report an error in the passage at 26:22
26:57 We're not trying to get rid of it, we're just trying to... to say. Report an error in the passage at 26:57
27:03 or to just all our feelings we're willing to let them go, which means we're willing to let them inside our minds. is, when look, especially when you're letting go of something you really like, you really want, really strong desire. Report an error in the passage at 27:03
27:30 you're letting go of it. That means you're not suppressing it. You're not just... You know, running away or distracting yourself into something else. You are willing to bear the feeling of it and recognize this desire and to let it be until it ceases, until it naturally ceases. And that takes, of course, tremendous faith in the dharma practice and patience. And in the process, there's also a feeling of great loss and of death. Report an error in the passage at 27:30
28:05 As you're still alive. Report an error in the passage at 28:05
28:09 And this I found, you know, in my, just from my own practice, I noticed how some things were so, like, it was easy to, you know, many things, one quite willing to let go of, and were quite pleased when they were, you know, and they think, well, I've let go of that, and thank goodness, these kind of bad things, and unwanted things, but there's also a lot of really nice things. Report an error in the passage at 28:09
28:36 Interesting, fascinating things that we keep wanting to hold on to and not give up. And to really let them go and to trust in that feeling that comes, that sense of dying inside yourself. And I remember when I was a younger monk, I used to have these kind of experiences of terror where I'm dying, I'm dying. This monastic life is terrible. It's all about dying and death. And I want to live. Report an error in the passage at 28:36
29:15 The kind of desire mind would go amok inside. You'd feel, I've got to get out of here. This Buddhism is demonic. Report an error in the passage at 29:15
29:30 Because... You could feel this dying going on and you felt you were dying and that you shouldn't be, that meditation should be maybe something that makes you happy all the time. You should be, you know, meditating and just feeling bliss and joy and love and union with the universe and all the best, all the most wonderful inspiring concepts. Report an error in the passage at 29:30
29:59 And perceptions you can have about, you know, that the poets write about, that the positive thinkers keep thinking. Report an error in the passage at 29:59
30:19 But then in the process of developing this path, the middle way of the Buddha, then there is this death once dead, there is no more dying. It's like Lungpho Chah used to... He used to say shocking things to people when they'd first come to the monastery, like Western people. And they'd be, this is a great meditation master. Report an error in the passage at 30:19
30:42 Ajahn Chah is one of the really great meditation masters, very wise, enlightened master in Thailand. And they'd be sitting in front of him, you know, expecting some kind of marvelous, inspiring dharma talk. And then he'd say, did you come here to die? Report an error in the passage at 30:42
31:05 This is very hard to translate because I had to translate this stuff sometimes. And you felt, you know, this isn't exactly what you wanted to be saying to these people. At those days, I wanted to inspire them so that they'll stay and maybe practice. This is going to frighten them away. That's a direct question, confrontation. Report an error in the passage at 31:05
31:29 Did you come here to die? But it is a startling question, isn't it? It's shocking. Because they would never have come to a monastery like that to die. They came to find the answers for eternal happiness or liberation, enlightenment, to be able to solve their personal problems or whatever. They're all coming to get something and to be able to increase the quality of their life and be happier than they are. Report an error in the passage at 31:29
32:02 But this is a... is a question that kind of shocks you. Did you come here to die? But it does, it's a question you never forget either. It sticks in your mind. And something that sticks in your mind is something you can reflect on. And sometimes, even though maybe initially you were shocked and repelled by the question or frightened by it, it has its power over your lifetime to suddenly, you know, Maybe begin to ponder that, not just react to it, to consider it, to contemplate it. Report an error in the passage at 32:02
32:45 Now the results of a life of meditation, say, so far from my own experience, is that more and more the sense of death is something that you realize is only the ending of what was born. And even though... This is quite obvious on the intellectual plane. It's not so on the emotional plane. It takes a while for this to really sink in and to appreciate it. Report an error in the passage at 32:45
33:21 Because then the words like deathlessness or no thingness, emptiness, or anattā, non-self, or nibbāna, these kind of words that that one was quite bewildered by in the beginning because one was interpreting it from a logical mind suddenly these words are very significant because they're pointing to the island that you cannot go beyond and you're not looking for it but you realize that's what you really are in terms of the realization of the way it is at this moment each one of us is is there already in the deathless, the place you cannot go beyond, the place of non-attachment, of non-possession, of no-thingness. Report an error in the passage at 33:21
34:23 But we're not aware of it, and we are so caught up into the conditioning of our minds, in the force of habit, in the fears and desires that tend to obsess our conscious experience. Report an error in the passage at 34:23
34:41 And so the meditation process is this willingness to relinquish, letting go, not destroying, not getting rid of, but letting things go, allowing things to go according to their nature. And abiding, trusting in just that attentiveness of mind, the willingness to just listen and watch, pay attention, ponder. Report an error in the passage at 34:41
35:10 Consider, contemplate, reflect upon. And so when the internal dying takes place, you're reflecting on it. You're willing to experience death before your body dies. And the insight of that is that you realize all that dies is what was born or what begins. Report an error in the passage at 35:10
35:38 So death, once dead, there's no more dying then. Report an error in the passage at 35:38
35:46 feed thou upon thy servants loss and let thy at that pine to aggravate thy store by terms divine in selling hours of dross be fed without be rich no By letting these internal things, these attachments, these obsessions, these desires, fears, both on the positive and negative side, not to annihilate, get rid or destroy, but to Let them nourish you. Let them go. Not to hold on. Not to identify or to be frightened and repress them. Report an error in the passage at 35:46
36:28 But to allow them to go their natural way. Let them cease. Let them die. Let everything die within you and what is left. Report an error in the passage at 36:28
36:42 In Thailand where when somebody dies they always ask the monks to chant very brief passage in Pāli, two lines, and I remember when I first went to a kind of funeral in Thailand and we chanted, and we chant that three times. It translates as all conditions are impermanent. They arise and they pass away and in their passing is peace. And this is the reflection, a monastic reflection on death in a Thai Buddhist funeral. Report an error in the passage at 36:42
37:33 Now that's a very profound reflection actually. All conditions are impermanent. They arise and they pass away and in their passing is peace. So in that reflection we realize You know, we apply that maybe to the death of somebody, a person who died. So that might be comforting the fact that they're now peaceful. Report an error in the passage at 37:33
38:05 But apply that also to the experiences of your own mind, in your own feelings, your own desires and fears. When you let them pass away, all that arises ceases, comes and goes, and in its passing is peace. So when... Report an error in the passage at 38:05
38:23 Death once dead, there's no more dying. And the result of letting go of the mortal realm of attachment and identity with the mortal realm is the experience of peace or the realization of nibbāna or the realization of the deathless or no-thingness. Report an error in the passage at 38:23
38:51 And it's not a sterile void. of nothingness because that's not the way things are recognize that this experience that we're right now involved with in this sense realm on this planet it's a dynamic vibrant energy that we're all experiencing we're not in a static material realm or a We're not petrified. We're not stuck in anything. There's nothing that isn't. All the conditions are continuously in the process of change. Report an error in the passage at 38:51
39:42 And the only constant that is able to observe this is the intuitive awareness within our own human state. The way of realizing this It's not through believing in the ideas, but in actually being aware, allowing this intuitive awareness to operate. That stillness of being, that sense of silent watching, silent listening. Report an error in the passage at 39:42
40:30 Now we can also contemplate this in different, in just the kind of mundane experiences of, of daily life. When we contemplate the relationship of form to space, isn't it, just on visual conscious experience, Report an error in the passage at 40:30
40:55 we begin to observe just using, say, the day, the light of the room and the space and the forms, the things that inhabit it. Report an error in the passage at 40:55
41:09 And this is to ponder the relationship of forms to the space therein. Have you ever thought of doing that? You know, just contemplating it and asking yourself questions about, you know, how do you do it? The space, can I see space or do I just see the form? Because space doesn't have a, it's not something you can see as a thing, is it? Report an error in the passage at 41:09
41:43 But it's something you're aware of in the relationship to the forms that The forms that are in the space. So we begin to see the forms which come and go. Just in this room, we can contemplate the fact that we all came in this room, we'll all leave this room. And so the things, like all of us, because we came in, we'll eventually leave. Report an error in the passage at 41:43
42:16 The space was always here, even before the room was here. Report an error in the passage at 42:16
42:24 And when this building falls down, the space will still be there. Actually, the building comes and goes in the space. So that the space is the constant. Report an error in the passage at 42:24
42:41 And it is deathless, in other words. It's not something that begins and ends. But the conditions that come and go, the room itself, the building itself, Report an error in the passage at 42:41
42:57 are the things that come and go. This is just using visual consciousness as a reflection. Report an error in the passage at 42:57
43:10 Contemplate it in terms of sound and silence. How many of you listen to silence? Or do you just hear sounds? So this is another thing to ponder, to investigate in your meditations. You can listen, like with listening, you can hear yourself thinking. At least I can. Report an error in the passage at 43:10
43:35 I can hear, you know, I can kind of turn my, like my hearing ability, so I'm not just, you know, trying to pick up sounds external, but I can hear my own thoughts, my feelings going on. I can listen to the grumbling mind or the complaining or the worrying mind. Report an error in the passage at 43:35
44:03 And in that listening, one is paying attention, one isn't judging. As soon as I start judging and saying, oh, here I go again, worrying, grumbling again, I shouldn't, I should be grateful for all the good things in my life and here I am, you know, complaining about this and that, then I'm condemning the condition. Report an error in the passage at 44:03
44:25 That's not, and I'm very good at that, being very condemning. But then I'm just caught in the condemning tendency of the mind and not listening to that either. So listening inwardly I found very helpful kind of practice of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 44:25
44:51 In Thailand I used to just spend so much time listening to my mind because I had a very active mind. very kind of obsessed. Report an error in the passage at 44:51
45:07 It seemed like I never had a moment's rest from the kind of negative states of mind that seemed to, in the early years of practice, seemed to be foremost in my conscious experience. Once in a while they'd kind of fall down and you'd get a few moments of bliss. I wish I could keep this. As soon as you think that, you've lost it. Report an error in the passage at 45:07
45:35 You're wanting it, and then you're trying to get it, and then you can't get it, and then you go back into the old negative mode again. Report an error in the passage at 45:35
45:50 So the silent listener, silent watcher, listening to the silence. And I've taught, I talk about and teach using the sound of silence, the kind of background ringing sound, the kind of... Report an error in the passage at 45:50
46:11 That one can pick up. If you pay attention, there's a kind of almost electric pitch in the mind, or wherever it is. You can hear it even when you plug your ears up. Or you can hear it when you're Report an error in the passage at 46:11
46:39 underwater, swimming underwater. Whatever it is, it's not to, don't make anything out of it, but it is a useful... Realization, to use that as something to pay attention to, and it will help you to be able to put into perspective your own kind of thinking mind. Report an error in the passage at 46:39
47:08 Listening to the space between words and thoughts, so that you begin to see that thoughts are very quick, very fast, they come and go. You're concentrating, you're noticing, paying special attention to the space between thoughts or the beginning, before you think and after you've thought something. So you're acknowledging, you're kind of training, you're informing your consciousness with the way things are, the relationship of form to space, the relationship of sound to silence, the relationship of words to... Report an error in the passage at 47:08
47:55 Thought to non-thought. Then the relationship of self to, of atta to anattā, or self to non-self. To note when there is a sense of me and mine and myself, and to be able to realize when there is non-self. Report an error in the passage at 47:55
48:19 And so this way, this is what we call developing the path or the middle way of the Buddha. So the relationship, the death, is the door to the deathless. Rather than death is the ending of everything, blank, death is a frightening thing because you'd rather hang on to the misery that you know than go and die. Report an error in the passage at 48:19
48:52 When you're taking a risk, you don't know what's going to happen then. Maybe because you stole an apple. In the neighbor's orchard when you were five years old, you might have to do a time in purgatory or something. Don't know. Or reincarnation. You might get reincarnated in some awful thing. Remember when I was in Australia a few years ago, I met a man who had very strong views about reincarnation. Report an error in the passage at 48:52
49:22 He says, we don't believe that once you're a human being, you could ever be reincarnated in anything lower than that. Some people believe that you can be reincarnated into some lower form, like an animal. But we believe that once you've made it into the human state, then your reincarnations will always be human or above that, into the realm of the gods. Report an error in the passage at 49:22
49:49 And so he made this very strong statement about what he believed in. Report an error in the passage at 49:49
49:58 And I said, well... I think it's always good to reflect, you know, you could be reborn as a toad or some awful creature, just because the possibility of that makes you, you know, maybe, you know, if you think about it, you're going to try to adapt your behavior on a higher level. Where if you think, you know, I'm made to be a human being, I can do anything now. It's like going to confession, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 49:58
50:31 Whatever you've done, you just confess it and then it's okay after that. And so you feel, well, I can do anything and then always confess it and get away with it. Don't have to pay a punishment because maybe confessions become kind of perfunctory. Report an error in the passage at 50:31
50:49 But when you, you know, when you're just trying to, say, understand the way things are, it's not a matter of deciding whether it's possible to be reborn as a frog or as a human or as a deva in the next life. Report an error in the passage at 50:49
51:11 it's true, but what actually is the rebirth process now? If I think on a level of a frog, or if I start acting like a frog, then that's like a rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 51:11
51:34 If I just live in the animal state as a human being, and if I just sleep, eat, procreate, survival of the fittest attitude, and live in the kind of wild animal realm, then that kind of mental state to me is being born in that realm. Report an error in the passage at 51:34
51:58 When we can, say, develop... concentration to where we find conscious experience, to its more radiant forms, such as the Brahma lobe. We can radiate, we can develop the radiant qualities that we have. Then that is very refined, very beautiful, very precious experience. Report an error in the passage at 51:58
52:26 But we can also, we can experience those states. In this form, in this state we're in now, just through our minds, we can experience demonic hatred and the desire for revenge and jealousies and wanting to destroy and kill. Report an error in the passage at 52:26
52:50 And we can see what's going on so much of the world. There's a lot of demons that look like human beings. They look like... Men and women, but they don't, their actions are demonic. Report an error in the passage at 52:50
53:08 And the human realm is a realm of, say, in terms of rebirth, is the realm which we take on responsibility for action and speech. Report an error in the passage at 53:08
53:23 We're not just, we have the ability to choose, to refrain from doing bad things. We have the ability to choose to do good. That's what I call rebirth in the human realm. It's not just physical, is it? It is a deliberate choice we make as a mental experience, a choice to be responsible for actions and speech. Report an error in the passage at 53:23
53:52 And this is the miracle of our humanity, is that all of us have this ability. We can all choose. We aren't just helplessly caught victims of the conditioned... and karmic effect. We can reflect on them. We can say no to the bad tendencies and yes to the good ones. Report an error in the passage at 53:52
54:21 So the human is, in terms of the Buddhist teaching, at least this is how I interpret it, is a rebirth that we choose. Report an error in the passage at 54:21
54:37 It's like taking the five precepts and really intending to follow them. Not just taking them like a parrot, but actually being quite sincere and using them as a guide for action in speech. Report an error in the passage at 54:37
55:01 Then the human ability, the human birth, in Buddhist terms, is the best opportunity for realizing the deathless, realizing nibbāna. Why is that? Because in this state we're in, with these... Physical forms, these bodies and the sensitivity and the pain and the suffering we all have to experience in this form. Report an error in the passage at 55:01
55:30 We can't delude ourselves with a lot of happiness for very long. Life for us is not going to be just an incredibly continuous happy experience. We have to in this form and say on this planet and the way things change and the human In the human conditions that we have in this sense world of the four elements, it's quite coarse realm compared to, say, brahma realms with its radiances. Report an error in the passage at 55:30
56:08 So we have to bear with the coarseness and the inconvenience, the difficulties of our human bodies with their aging, with their sicknesses. With the... We've seen the death and decay of those things around us, the loss of the loved, the death of our parents. This is a part of our human experience. Report an error in the passage at 56:08
56:35 But we ponder, we contemplate, we learn, and then we realize, say, when we do this in the right way, that nobody ever really was born, so nobody ever really dies. Report an error in the passage at 56:35
56:51 Things change, what begins ends. But what we perceive as a person is merely a perception in our mind. Even the perceptions of ourselves, the me and mine conditioning of our minds is only a condition that arises and ceases in the mind. So we're letting these things resolve themselves. They're dissolving in the mind. Report an error in the passage at 56:51
57:26 They come, they go. And that which is aware, that which is purely aware, that is your refuge. So when we say mindfulness, the path to the deathless, mindfulness, mindfulness is the path to the deathless. Report an error in the passage at 57:26
57:53 Heedlessness is the way to death. So heedlessness is not knowing this, not understanding things as they really are. So we're caught in just the force of habit of our mind. We're just caught in the reactions we've developed, some good, some bad, but they are reactions. And we can't see beyond them until we use our intuitive abilities, our reflective abilities, Report an error in the passage at 57:53
58:26 to To open, to feel, to note, to pay attention to the way things are. Not from the way things should be, not comparing the way things are, how we think it is to the way it should be, but recognizing the pattern of the relationship of the condition to the unconditioned, the presence of passion and the absence of it. Report an error in the passage at 58:26
58:57 That ability to note and pay attention to that, that is the real refuge, the island that you cannot go beyond. Read this again, there is an island, an island which you cannot go beyond. It is a place of nothingness, a place of non-possession and of non-attachment. It is the total end of death and decay. And this is why I call it nibbāna. Report an error in the passage at 58:57
59:33 There are people who in mindfulness have realized this and are completely cooled here and now. They do not become slaves working for Māra for death. They cannot fall into his power. So this is a Buddhist statement. There are people. This is not just proclaiming something that... We can't do. The Buddha's teaching is not aimed so high that we can't do it. It's not dharma for devadas and angels. Report an error in the passage at 59:33
1:00:15 It's also for them, but it's also for us. And this is where, and also we realize that because it is about the way things are. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:15
1:00:33 us, learn from the way we are. not trying to learn from the way somebody else is. so this is why this reflective of the way things are, you're contemplating your own Report an error in the passage at 1:00:33
1:00:53 own body, your own tendencies, whatever they might be. Not judging. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:53
1:01:03 Judging, criticizing, or comparing them to anyone else, but recognizing them as dhammas, what arises ceases, is non-self. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:03
1:01:16 So this way, when you really appreciate this, you begin to realize and you begin to even feel grateful for the way you are. Even where before I used to think, why do I have to be this way? Report an error in the passage at 1:01:16
1:01:30 I used to think this. Why couldn't I be like somebody else who seems much better off than I am? Remember when I was a teenager, I used to think, why did I get such a dirty deal? Why couldn't I be like so-and-so? He's really got everything, all the brains, the looks, the whole lot, and here I am. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:30
1:01:58 Not fair. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:58
1:02:03 Then you find out that that person isn't all that pleased with what he has either. there. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:03
1:02:13 And so then one is more grateful for what you have and the opportunity that we have to hear the Dharma and to practice it. This is where gratitude really becomes very strong. It's that all of us now have this opportunity. Here in Britain we can. Buddhism isn't some remote philosophy that is unavailable, is it? We're now listening. We're now... Report an error in the passage at 1:02:13
1:02:41 It's now available. There's so many books. There's so many opportunities for listening to it, for reading, for study, for practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:41
1:02:53 Then the real thing is to do it, to apply it, not to just accumulate knowledge about Buddhism. Probably better than accumulate knowledge about other things, but that's not really going to liberate you until you apply it. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:53
1:03:13 The way you are, your experience, the emotions you're feeling, the habits that you have, the fears, the desires, the tendencies that you're experiencing, that is your path. But you're seeing that now in the right way rather than in the way of the critic, the way of vanity, the way of... Report an error in the passage at 1:03:13
1:03:45 So I offer this a reflection for this afternoon and we can have a tea break, 3 o'clock now, and in about 15 minutes we'll reassemble for further discussion on this subject. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:45
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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