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- 2:21
this discussion on On the, say, the, why, say, the use of language, a way of thinking that is a reflective way of thinking rather than just a logical way of thinking. We tend to sometimes regard thoughts in, I mean, our thoughts as almost realities, such as goodness, as some kind of permanent, absolute.
- 8:13
And because of that, you're not mindful. And then you start just feeling very annoyed and irritated, mentally averse to the pain. And then, of course, you try to change your posture or you... Maybe if you have a strong will, you know, I'm going to conquer this. I've got to prove myself. I've got to prove to Ajahn Sumedho I can take it, that I won't move.
- 18:32
Because one thing about the human condition is that it is a humorous one. about ourselves in our group in our way then it's because of the way that we're attached into the to the kind of perception the value that we give it the significance we place on it we don't reflect on it as it relates to other things humor always brings
- 35:39
Because, rather than an extreme kind of human being. So, I mean, this is, and this is, In Buddhist cosmology, in Buddhist symbology, say the king and the beggar would be the extremes in the society, wouldn't they? You have the king at the top and the beggar at the bottom. So there you have the king and the beggar as the extremes.
- 50:38
There is only things as they are. The world is dissolved. There is only dharma. Things arise, cease. Their qualities are exactly that. Red is red and white is white. And pain is pain, but it's no longer grasped as a perception. It's felt, it's known, it's seen for what it is and allowed to change according to its nature.
Transcript
0:01 I wish to welcome you to Amaravati. The Report an error in the passage at 0:01
0:09 technology gets increasing as the years go by. In fact, I was talking to some people this morning about Burmese people, and I was telling them about the kind of primitive technology we had in the forest monastery in Thailand, in northeast Thailand. Report an error in the passage at 0:09
0:40 Everything was very, very simple. Not even electricity, and only wells with... Even having a pump on your well was considered an outrageous luxury, unfit for a monk. We had to draw the water up in buckets on a pulley. Report an error in the passage at 0:40
1:06 And the primitive technology was really quite pleasant, I found. Life was very simple, you could repair anything that broke down, and life was just, in some ways it demanded slightly a little more physical effort, but mentally it wasn't so much of a worry. Report an error in the passage at 1:06
1:33 And then coming to Europe of the late 70s, and where the technology now has really, has an explosion of... fantastic, miraculous technology, it is the most tantalizing, I must say. Report an error in the passage at 1:33
1:55 the new inventions and new, every month there's an improvement on thing you recently acquired Report an error in the passage at 1:55
2:09 last year's tape recorder is really old. This afternoon, Report an error in the passage at 2:09
2:21 this discussion on On the, say, the, why, say, the use of language, a way of thinking that is a reflective way of thinking rather than just a logical way of thinking. Report an error in the passage at 2:21
2:43 We tend to sometimes regard thoughts in, I mean, our thoughts as almost realities, such as goodness, as some kind of permanent, absolute. Report an error in the passage at 2:43
2:58 Quality in the universe or evil as some kind of absolute all-pervading force that operates at all times. Just the way we think tends to be quite linear because modern educated humanity likes to think about life. And the limitation of thought always is that it gives us that kind of linear form because you can't have two thoughts in the same moment. Report an error in the passage at 2:58
3:36 You have to have one thought and then the next one. So, say with the use of paradox, then we can, if we're attached to these more absolutely fixed positions of absolute good, absolute evil, then there is, The idea that something could be both good and evil, or sometimes good, sometimes evil, or sometimes neither. Report an error in the passage at 3:36
4:08 We find this confusing. From my own experience, I remember my background was very much being conditioned into thinking in terms of absolutes, absolute qualities. Report an error in the passage at 4:08
4:27 So that the idea of change and of relativity wasn't so much part of my early way of thinking. I've been brought up in a Christian family where good had the ring of being absolute and evil had also the same ring only not quite as absolute as good. Report an error in the passage at 4:27
4:49 But one could kind of believe in that there was some kind of permanently evil force operating in the universe like the tempter or the The forces of the devil or whatever that were constantly at you to try to pull you into an illusion, try to tempt you and drive you to do something wrong or wicked. And then the kind of fear that came from that, that perception. Now perception, when grasped, has the illusion of being kind of always that way. Report an error in the passage at 4:49
5:28 Take, for example, the perceptions we have of ourselves and of the people we live with. When we perceive that we have a perception of them as being this person with this particular appearance, and then we have a description of them, how we feel about them, whether we find them easy to get on with, intelligent, charming, or if they're difficult and divisive. Report an error in the passage at 5:28
6:04 mind we can hold on to and wherever we go we whenever the conditions for thinking about that person arise though all those associated perceptions arise with it Report an error in the passage at 6:04
6:19 is why we call it pushing the button, you put the modern term for Getting someone going, isn't it? Push their button means that you say the word and then they say, did you know what ever happened to Marianne? And they say, Marianne? She did this and she did that. And so that they, and this we can see is a conditioning of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 6:19
6:54 In reflective thought, notice we're, According to the Buddha's teaching, we're investigating what thought really is, not by just thinking and forming more thoughts about thinking, but really watching what our thoughts do. And in meditation, this is, for example, When we're sitting and pain arises, we can observe, we begin to be aware of a pattern of thinking in regards to the pain, the physical pain we might be having. Report an error in the passage at 6:54
7:42 Because that can become just a pattern of indulgence and suppression. Where if you have the idea, Ajahn Sumedho said, you must totally accept the pain. Do not dwell in aversion on the pain. And so you're thinking, I've got to accept this. Blasted pain. So then you're trying to force yourself to accept it, oftentimes with thinking about it. Report an error in the passage at 7:42
8:13 And because of that, you're not mindful. And then you start just feeling very annoyed and irritated, mentally averse to the pain. And then, of course, you try to change your posture or you... Maybe if you have a strong will, you know, I'm going to conquer this. I've got to prove myself. I've got to prove to Ajahn Sumedho I can take it, that I won't move. Report an error in the passage at 8:13
8:40 I'm tough. I'm a good meditator. And this whole series of associations with just, say, a physical pain in the body. Report an error in the passage at 8:40
8:58 The thinking goes off in two directions, doesn't it? It goes either toward, say, acceptance or to rejection, to praise or to blame. Report an error in the passage at 8:58
9:13 We don't really think neutrally, do we? Or we aren't noticing. Thoughts usually go toward extremities. So that just neutral thoughts or anything don't really affect our lives very much. We think in terms of things being good, better, best, worse, worse, bad, and so forth, in comparisons and ability to compare one quality with another. Report an error in the passage at 9:13
9:50 Now thinking is this way. Sometimes we become obsessed with our own thoughts so much that we want to stop thinking. And that's a very common request when people first come into meditation. And they'll say, how do you stop thinking? Why do you want to meditate? I want to stop thinking. I think too much. I can't stop thinking. My mind just goes on and on and on. Like to just turn it off, like the radio. Report an error in the passage at 9:50
10:27 But thinking is also sometimes not seen for what it is. Like there's feeling too, where we are... Always feeling is feeling. And feeling is a result of our birth. And when you're born as a human being, that means you're going to feel. Report an error in the passage at 10:27
10:49 And so that we are going to be feeling for the rest of our lives. There's nothing much we can do about that. But when we are obsessed with our thoughts, we aren't really with our feelings anymore, are we? We're not really with... The feelings of the body or the feelings through the senses. We are making endless comments and associations and taking positions for and against or trying to get rid of this or get away from that or hold on to something else. Report an error in the passage at 10:49
11:27 And notice how much our education very much conditions us to grasp the perceptions of our culture. Modern ways of thinking, of modern fashion, of scientific thought, of reason and logic, and even grasping things, the names of people, as if the name of a person was really a person, or the name of something was really the object. Report an error in the passage at 11:27
11:58 For example, they're saying this is a clock, and somehow the clock sometimes has more power than the actual object. object Report an error in the passage at 11:58
12:10 We have to have a name. And of course everybody knows this is a clock. But then if you contemplate, what if you took this to some place where nobody had ever seen a clock? And they could call it anything, couldn't they? They might call it a chair. And then we'd say, this stupid thing is not a chair, it's a clock. Report an error in the passage at 12:10
12:38 Or if you don't know what it is, in fact, when I was in Australia, A couple of months ago, I found out what kangaroo meant. At least this was what an Australian monk told me. That when Captain Cook came to Australia, and he was talking with the Aborigines, and a kangaroo hopped by. He said, what's that? And the Aborigines said, kangaroo. Report an error in the passage at 12:38
13:16 And so ever since then, to the west, those animals have been known as kangaroos. But according to this monk, kangaroo means I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 13:16
13:42 So maybe aborigines didn't have to have names for them. They're just what they are, aren't they? That animal is just what it is. Report an error in the passage at 13:42
13:53 But the kangaroo, to us, definitely, when we talk about them, we all know. We mean that funny looking animal with big feet, hind feet and a pouch that hops about the Australian bush. Report an error in the passage at 13:53
14:13 Well, that's a fair enough measure of communication not to deny the value of having a language in words and ability to use thought. But what I'm pointing at is also the Ability of the human mind to understand the nature of thought without thinking about it, just by the ability to observe and contemplate, reflect on our own ability to think. Report an error in the passage at 14:13
14:46 I've seen this in a community life with my own experience that living with a number of people over a period of time that you are... that you are taking Living in a very fine way, such as in a monastery, Buddhist monastery. So that, of course, we're all trying, putting forth a great deal of effort toward being good and trying to be helpful and cooperative and practice and be honest and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 14:46
15:20 So there's quite a high standard of personal integrity that a monastery generates, at least it should. But still, the perceptions we have about each other can really hang on the mind. I used to watch the perceptions that just the word women would bring into my mind. That word, which is one of the most common words in the English language, men and women. And how just that one word could produce certain kinds of... Report an error in the passage at 15:20
16:00 of associated thoughts that were just habitual associations just from the way I'd been conditioned the mind had been conditioned to whenever that word came into consciousness the things that were associated with it so that one could see how that tended to affect how one related to and looked and saw and reacted to women. Report an error in the passage at 16:00
16:33 Then say somebody's name. It's interesting because we give people Buddhist names here. So they come as John and Harry and Mary and Sue. And then they get more exalted names like Mettā, Karuṇā, Upeka, Upala, Fatima and all that. And then you forget. Report an error in the passage at 16:33
17:05 Their original names, because their perception now is with their Buddhist name. And it's quite interesting how quickly one forgets what their name was before. And so the perceptions, and when somebody says now these names which I have given to them, then, of course, their faith comes into the mind, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 17:05
17:34 Where before, say, like, If you don't mind using your name Upeka. Before Sister Upeka took the precepts, nobody I knew was ever named Upeka. So therefore, whenever that word was used, it didn't have a face connected with it. And now it does. So we say, you must develop Upeka. And even sometimes then you think, develop Upeka means... Report an error in the passage at 17:34
18:08 And somebody's face arises with that word. So this is where the, say, humor and paradox and all the kind of pleasant things of our ability to think can be examined and even delighted in. Because one thing about the human condition is that it is a humorous one. Report an error in the passage at 18:08
18:46 about ourselves in our group in our way then it's because of the way that we're attached into the to the kind of perception the value that we give it the significance we place on it we don't reflect on it as it relates to other things Report an error in the passage at 18:46
19:08 humor always brings The absurd of our own seriousness, the absurdity of our own seriousness. It helps us to let go, to relax when we're trying too hard to become perfect or to always, say, do everything right or trying to be terribly refined all the time or pure or kind and so forth. And then, of course, we find ourselves Slipping and going into all kinds of coarser areas or nasty thoughts or whatever. And if we don't have humor, then we just feel guilty, guilt-ridden, self-condemning, or we blame others. Report an error in the passage at 19:08
19:57 One thing that I found very helpful in the monastic life is to see the humor of it. Because it is absurd in itself, isn't it? Being a Buddhist monk. The kind of, when you observe, they're just shaving one's head and putting on a saffron robe. In the context of, say, European civilization. Report an error in the passage at 19:57
20:27 Meaning that it doesn't really fit in. It's taking something and using it. Say it's taking the human body and... In the terms of, say, Western civilization, making it look like something else, into a totally different perception. Report an error in the passage at 20:27
20:51 And of course, this affects the minds of people who, say, in Thailand, this wouldn't be considered absurd. This is very much a whole integral part of their world outlook. But in, say, European society, Report an error in the passage at 20:51
21:13 It's an anachronism, isn't it? It doesn't fit into the perceptions that have developed in the European situation. So it tends to startle, to shock, to upset, or to interest, or to fascinate. And yet when you contemplate the appearance, reflecting on the appearance of a Buddhist nun or a Buddhist monk, if you're just reacting to it, Today, just from surprise, if you contemplate it, this is what its purpose is. It is a form to be contemplated. Report an error in the passage at 21:13
21:57 A society, in Western society now, where even the Christians have tried to look like the common person. You find priests going around in jeans. Report an error in the passage at 21:57
22:15 And bishops and cardinals and whatnot, I don't know about if they do that. Nuns, it's difficult to tell, Roman Catholic nuns, this look like ordinary lay women, ordinary people, don't they? Sister Mary, down in the village, determined to look like a Christian nun, but I met quite a few the past few months. Report an error in the passage at 22:15
22:42 They have to tell you that they're nuns because you would never know by the way they look. And in a society I find that the religious symbols are something that I find very helpful and inspiring and comforting. This is one reason why I particularly like to go to Thailand because they're the That whole Buddhist symbolism pervades the whole country, wherever you go. There is a stupa on the crest of the hill. Report an error in the passage at 22:42
23:25 Now that is a beautiful sign, isn't it, to me, when I see, you see this in India also, where a stupa or a chedi, the form, is on the top of the hill or the crest, against the horizon. Report an error in the passage at 23:25
23:42 And that to me is a, It's a very religious, inspiring sign. When I was in India, and we used to go on walks, just to walk through the countryside and see these little ashrams on top of the hills. I found something very lovely about that. In Thailand, where every morning you see the monks in their saffron robes going out into the villages or the towns. Report an error in the passage at 23:42
24:15 Or even busy, overdeveloped cities like Bangkok in the morning. It's quite something else. It has a whole different atmosphere, different feeling in the morning when the monks are out on their alms round. And so you see this in acts of devotion, acts of giving, generosity, quite publicly in countries like that, in Thailand where people, Thai people, lay people actually, Maybe spend the night before preparing food and putting in nice little plastic bags and wrapping things up in nice paper and so forth and then waiting at dawn in some place where no monks will come by and often. Report an error in the passage at 24:15
25:05 It's a beautiful custom to the eye, something kind, something generous. And these acts of I find, Report an error in the passage at 25:05
25:27 this is how it affects me, a rather bleakness or blandness, a kind of dreariness of materialism, the square buildings, the grey pavements, the busy streets, and people just zooming along. And imagine in New York City. religious generosity, and these forms and symbols. Report an error in the passage at 25:27
25:24 we're in a society without them, then I find... Report an error in the passage at 25:24
25:48 Wouldn't it be fantastic to see an orange road bitu walking mindfully along the street and some New Yorkers suddenly stop rushing about and go and put some hamburgers. Report an error in the passage at 25:48
26:06 If that would ever happen, you know there's hope for New York City. Report an error in the passage at 26:06
26:24 Because we are feeling insensitive. This is where these very things do affect us. On the rational plane, they can seem irrelevant. And what good is that? Not necessary. We have a welfare system. If they want some food, they can go to the kitchen, welfare kitchen. They can go on the door. Why do they have to walk through the street begging for their food? Report an error in the passage at 26:24
26:50 Why do they have to wear those orange robes and shave their heads? Why do they have to look different? Why can't they be like anyone else? Because rationally, maybe it's absurd, isn't it? It doesn't make sense according to what we think is sensible or realistic or practical. But yet, as a feeling, these acts can be very moving to us. If we can just get out of our heads for a moment and making comments about it, if we can just open to that, Report an error in the passage at 26:50
27:27 Then it's a totally different kind of experience. We're feeling this generosity. Through the eyes, we're seeing it. We're seeing somebody, two people, one who's devoting his life to living as a Buddhist monk, the other a lay person who has, or maybe a family in the profession. Report an error in the passage at 27:27
27:52 And the encounter that they have is done with kindness, And generosity and gladness. Now that, there's only goodness in that encounter, isn't there? And there's mindfulness, isn't there? You have to stop rushing about. You have to, in fact, the offerings should be done in a very mindful, respectful way. Report an error in the passage at 27:52
28:20 You don't just say, hey there, I've got something for you and throw a hamburger at you. Report an error in the passage at 28:20
28:29 In America, they probably do that. Report an error in the passage at 28:29
28:34 But you ask, like the lay person would say, please, venerable sir, may I make an offering? And then you stop. And then you're not supposed to kind of look around and say, what do you got? Report an error in the passage at 28:34
28:53 You stop. And then when you see that they're ready to offer it, then you open the bowl and they... They put the food into the bowl. And so that is just a kind of pure and graceful and gracious thing to do. And you can see this actually done in a city like Bangkok, which has all the problems of the modern overcrowded metropolises of the world. Report an error in the passage at 28:53
29:26 And yet it still manages somehow to take the time. To do this. Bangkok is one of the best places for getting alms food, in fact. Entirely. Report an error in the passage at 29:26
29:46 Ceremony itself. When people say, we don't want all those ceremonies. We don't think, we just want to meditate. Because now Western people would really like to, they would like to develop calm and serenity and stop thinking and have peaceful minds. And get rid of their fears or anxieties. And somehow ceremonies and all this seem like hocus-pocus to a society where ceremony and ritual are no longer really an integral part of it. Report an error in the passage at 29:46
30:24 We've kind of thrown it out. We don't even... I notice in Britain there's always a bit of a negative attitude towards even... Any form of, any kind of ceremony, one tends to make fun of it a bit or make jokes about it or feel embarrassed about it. Report an error in the passage at 30:24
30:49 In America, it's the wisecrack. You make wisecracks about things, about serious things. So that when you go and bow or get pulled into any of these Buddhist ceremonies and that, you... I always feel embarrassed and then the embarrassment is you make a joke about it and then you do it in a kind of fully self-conscious and embarrassed way so that the whole value and beauty of the ceremony and ritual is lost because it has to be it's not to be made fun of it's not to be something that we do just for Just because we feel we have to. But all ceremony and ritual, if used in the right way, then is a way of slowing down and of concentrating your mind on something. Report an error in the passage at 30:49
31:52 And it's where a group of people can perform a ceremony together, a ritual together, in which we're all involved in that mindfulness, that respect. Ajahn rather virtuous qualities can be generated in a... Report an error in the passage at 31:52
32:36 Trying to impose these kind of Asian customs on people or we're superstitious about it. But because we find that it is a way of moving and speaking and living together which isn't highly personal anymore. Report an error in the passage at 32:36
32:58 It's not each one doing what they want to do. It's not each one of us doing what we feel like, but it's each one of us surrendering to a designated, a traditional form, a ritual, a ceremony, a way of doing things that is to be done mindfully, sincerely, not just a kind of conditioning, reconditioning ourselves to do things the way they do them in Thailand, but it's to be something that gives us the The occasion to live as one community, doing one thing, focused all on the same thing, doing the same thing together in an act of devotion, of respect, of generosity, giving. Report an error in the passage at 32:58
33:55 Now these are what makes life rich and meaningful and significant. A life without ceremony and ritual and And that is only based on personal convenience and privilege and efficiency and comfort. When that's all receding from life, it is depressing. Life gets depressing. That's why there's so much depression in modern secular society. Report an error in the passage at 33:55
34:29 It's depressing. You find people depressed and living in the midst of comfort and privilege. Report an error in the passage at 34:29
34:41 Because there's no one to love, nothing to live for, nothing to give yourself to. There's only me and mine, and how do I feel, and what I think and want, and so forth, and my views and opinions. Now Report an error in the passage at 34:41
35:04 anything, when taken to an extreme, is absurd. So that if we establish the Buddhist monk, Not so much as an extreme form, and this is just a reflection for you, not to see the Buddhist monk as an extreme. Report an error in the passage at 35:04
35:24 Like, it looks like an extreme, doesn't it? Like I'm an extremist of some sort. But, now just contemplate the Buddhist monk as what is, say, the middle way. Report an error in the passage at 35:24
35:39 Because, rather than an extreme kind of human being. So, I mean, this is, and this is, In Buddhist cosmology, in Buddhist symbology, say the king and the beggar would be the extremes in the society, wouldn't they? You have the king at the top and the beggar at the bottom. So there you have the king and the beggar as the extremes. Report an error in the passage at 35:39
36:12 Then the monk and the samana, or the one living the holy life, is between those two extremes. This is just a contemplation. Now, the beggar and the king are a paradox, aren't they? We could say that we could look at somebody as a kind of permanent king and permanent beggar, as if they were totally fixed in those positions. Report an error in the passage at 36:12
36:47 And of course, a beggar symbolizes someone Who doesn't have anything at all but wants everything. They'll take anything because they don't have anything. So they'll take a crust of red or an apple core or anything. The meanest beggar going to the most extreme. Report an error in the passage at 36:47
37:15 Nobody wants them. Nobody respects them. They're just the end. The bottom of the society, even outside the society. Then take the king who is the symbol for the one who has everything, has all the power, all the privilege, has palaces and has jewels and gold and wives even. Now they don't have wives, they have wives. Modern kings can't have wives. And they can have All the best that life has to offer. And everybody respects them. Take it to its extreme. They're there at the top. Report an error in the passage at 37:15
38:05 There's nobody beneath them. Nobody is higher than the king. Nobody is lower than the beggar. So these are the two extremes. So then the greedy mind tends to say, I don't want to be a beggar, I want to be a king. And the closer we get to the king, the better we are. The closer we move toward the beggar, the worse we are. If we're close to the king, we're considered successful. If we're close to the beggar, we're a failure. Report an error in the passage at 38:05
38:39 You know, the self-view, of course, feeds on this, doesn't it? Name-dropping, you know, I had, we can say, you know, I have a friend that knows Queen Elizabeth. Report an error in the passage at 38:39
38:55 And somehow, and maybe I'm saying, you know, I'm just not a... Just anyone. But I have a friend that knows. He met Queen Elizabeth. Report an error in the passage at 38:55
39:08 We can name drop about all the important people we've met. But we don't tend to talk about, you know, I have a friend that knows the worst beggar. Report an error in the passage at 39:08
39:20 Unless we're in the modern kind of hippie mode of bragging about all the criminals and the degenerates. I know somebody who's more degenerate than you could ever know. But anyway, even on the extremes, there's a certain amount of pride and conceit, isn't there? Of course, there's attachment to those extremes. Because even a beggar can be proud of it. I'm the poorest beggar. Report an error in the passage at 39:20
39:57 I'm the most miserable beggar of them all. As Report an error in the passage at 39:57
40:04 positions and as perceptions, these... If we attach and hold on to these, then most of us fit in between these two extremes, don't we? We're neither beggars nor kings. And the Buddhist monk is the symbol for the human being who has the best of both. A human being that has the best of both worlds, of both the beggar and the king. Now, what do I mean by that? Report an error in the passage at 40:04
40:36 Now, let's say the beggar... It's better off than the king in this one way, that he doesn't have anything, isn't he? So he doesn't have to worry about it. I mean, he doesn't have a lot of wives and children and palaces and wealth and people wanting it and people after his money and all these jealous wives and grasping situations and plots to kill. Report an error in the passage at 40:36
41:02 The beggar, nobody wants to kill, nobody cares. Nobody's jealous. Doesn't have anything. Nobody wants his ragged robes or anything like that. So that, say, the beggar is in one way more privileged than the king because he doesn't have all those problems. Doesn't have anything that anybody wants. But he's worth, and the king, say, is better off than the beggar in the sense that he has everything he wants. Report an error in the passage at 41:02
41:36 So he doesn't, say... He shouldn't really want anything because he's got everything. He doesn't have to go around thinking about what he wants. He has everything he wants. Then the beggar is less fortunate than the king because he wants everything. Report an error in the passage at 41:36
42:03 And the king is less fortunate, is better off than the beggar because, or is less fortunate because So the king doesn't want anything because he has everything. And the beggar doesn't have anything so he wants everything. And the monk doesn't have anything and doesn't want anything. So that is the purest, where the best of both extremes meet, in the ideal form of the Buddhist monk. Report an error in the passage at 42:03
42:42 Not wanting, not having. Now the Buddhist monk is allowed to have what we call what he needs. Now this is important. It's not a position of asceticism. So it's not to deprive yourself of what is needed. But the needs of a Buddhist monk are very small, like one meal a day, a robe to wear, shelter for the night, medicine for illness. Report an error in the passage at 42:42
43:18 For requisites. And so those requisites are easy to provide. But needs are different, aren't they, than say what we want or what greed itself. Report an error in the passage at 43:18
43:31 Need is something that we have to accept, that we need things in the form we're in. We need food. We need clothes. We need shelter. We need medicine. It's not greed, is it? To want something to eat isn't greed, is it? It's a need we have. To want to have a shelter isn't greedy, is it? It's necessary. To want medicine for our illness isn't greed. It's necessary. So these are necessities. Report an error in the passage at 43:31
44:09 But the needs, the necessities are placed on a very, for the Buddhist monk, on a low level so that they're not They're not excessive. We're not wanting the best doctors, the best shelters, the best clothes, and the best food. So, say, the Buddhist monk goes for alms food, which could be anything from the best to the worst food, isn't it? Some people cook well, some people are not very good cooks. Report an error in the passage at 44:09
44:40 It goes into your bowl. You can't even go and ask... You're not even supposed to go to the good cooks all the time. You're supposed to take whatever. Report an error in the passage at 44:40
44:53 I mean, that's greedy. If I only went with my own bull to the police people that were the good cooks, wouldn't I? But in the need for food, we're allowed to accept food. We're allowed to have cloth. Report an error in the passage at 44:53
45:11 But the standard is put at its lowest form of just rags, rag robes, so that we can pick up rags that nobody wants and make a room. Report an error in the passage at 45:11
45:39 Every day reflecting that the place we're living in is a shelter for one night rather than our house or our room. We don't hold the perception, or if we have the feeling that this is my room, we're looking at that. Perception as something we're grasping, that we can see it, rather than doing everything to hold on to that. Report an error in the passage at 45:39
46:10 Now, not having anything, or having just what is necessary, and then not wanting anything. Now that comes through reflection and contemplation of how things are, not wanting anything. Report an error in the passage at 46:10
46:25 Now, our society very much wants... It conditions us to want things, doesn't it? Capitalism depends very, very much on increasing our greed. Because if people only bought what they needed, the economy would collapse, Report an error in the passage at 46:25
46:48 wouldn't it? We couldn't keep this high standard of affluence and luxury going on. We'd have to do something else. So the system depends very much on Making you as greedy as can be. So in the Western world, we're conditioned, programmed, encouraged in every way to be greedy. Report an error in the passage at 46:48
47:17 And we don't even know what we need anymore. What used to be considered luxuries now are necessities, aren't they? The standard of living here in Britain. In just, say, 50 years, people now have... We have luxuries that have things now in their homes that are no more luxuries but would have been luxuries 50 years ago. Report an error in the passage at 47:17
47:51 Who's bleeping? Now Report an error in the passage at 47:51
48:03 what I suggest doing is in our attempts to try to understand our existence and understand the way things are, we need to really investigate how things are affecting us. Not from the judgmental position of saying I'm bad, I shouldn't be greedy, I shouldn't feel like this. But just beginning to notice how your mind works. Report an error in the passage at 48:03
48:33 So that you're not making a problem about the habits you have, the conditioning you have. You're not saying I shouldn't be like this and passing judgment on it. But beginning to just notice how one thing will condition another. Report an error in the passage at 48:33
48:54 In Western societies, the conditioning process is very much one which increases and encourages the sense of me and mine in regard to everything. In fact, just like hunger for food can be taken as personal greed. I'm greedy for food just because you're hungry, rather than the body needs food. Report an error in the passage at 48:54
49:21 Even beginning to think in more proper ways, less personal ways of thinking. For example, in reflection on the noble truth, we start saying, I'm suffering. I suffer a lot. I have a lot of suffering in my life. And then we change that to, there is suffering. Because we're realizing that there is suffering. Report an error in the passage at 49:21
49:46 It comes and goes. It's not the kind of... But when you say, I suffer a lot, That always gives the illusion that I, as a person, am suffering all the time, that I'm a great sufferer and almost all the time I'm suffering, rather than the truth of the situation is that there is suffering. When we just react and get confused and lost in the sensory world without understanding it, then we create suffering around it. Report an error in the passage at 49:46
50:20 It creates suffering about the world. And in this sense, the world is the creation of our mind. When we see things in the right way, through wisdom rather than through ignorance, then there is no suffering. There is only things as they are. The world is dissolved. There is only dharma. Things arise, cease. Their qualities are exactly that. Report an error in the passage at 50:20
50:49 Red is red and white is white. And pain is pain, but it's no longer grasped as a perception. It's felt, it's known, it's seen for what it is and allowed to change according to its nature. Report an error in the passage at 50:49
51:08 And therefore, we understand, we see and realize dharma rather than interpreting this whole realm of sensual feeling, sensitivity as in this highly personal Report an error in the passage at 51:08
51:24 An intellectualized way. Now in modern society with educated people, there's a strong attachment to ideas, opinions, views, thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 51:24
51:39 And that attachment oftentimes doesn't allow us to be fully sensitive. So a lot of our sensitivity is suppressed, repressed out of consciousness. We don't accept it. Report an error in the passage at 51:39
51:56 Because we are so bound into ideas of the shoulds and shouldn'ts and the fixed perceptions and views that we hold. Regarding that is truth and reality. Where in meditation, one of the main emphasis is on the willingness to be open to the way things are, to the sensitivity. That having eyes and ears and a nose and a tongue and a body and an intelligence and a mind, the whole thing is sensitive, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 51:56
52:36 This whole realm of earth, fire, water and air, a planetary life, it's all sensitive. There's nothing insensitive. It's to be felt and known for what it is. But when we take it personally, we become frightened, threatened by the possibilities of being hurt or damaged or humiliated or mistreated or taken advantage of or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 52:36
53:10 But when we stop that, when the self-view falls away, then the sensitivity, even the pain, the misery of life is seen for what it is. ideas. the, the, the... The magnificence of it is that we can bear with pain. We can endure misery. We can be patient and allow things to be, to change according to their nature. Report an error in the passage at 53:10
53:44 Because when we see them as they are, then this conceit of I, of me and mine is no longer operating. So that our responses, To the sensory world are from wisdom and openness, sensitivity. Report an error in the passage at 53:44
54:06 It manifests as compassion, joy, kindness. When there is no self, then all that remains is dharma, truth. So when Buddhists talk about the world, it's not the world that we perceive. I hold the perception of as the United Kingdom and EEC and Africa and Asia and USA. Those are all, those are just clocks and chairs and names that we put on the things for communication. That's not the world that the Buddhists let go of. Report an error in the passage at 54:06
54:51 The world is the belief in The conditions as being more than what they are. This is from ignorance, isn't it? From not having really understood suffering and the end of suffering, we tend to create a world always that we project onto the way things are. And that world is very personal world, very filled with me and mine and you and what should and should not be. Report an error in the passage at 54:51
55:26 What I like, what I don't like, and fear and desire. And when that world is seen for what it is, it dissolves. That's the creator of the world, is the desire that comes from ignorance. And when that dissolves, when that ends, fades out, then there is dharma. Report an error in the passage at 55:26
55:53 And this is the point the Buddha emphasized. All dharma is not a person, not an entity. Dharma is truth. It's pure, it's intelligent. It's where wisdom arises, where compassion arises. When we see dharma, then even the most unskillful dhammas are seen with wisdom rather than Reacted to with fear and desire. Report an error in the passage at 55:53
56:35 Because just in investigating and understanding the nature of your own mind, you begin to see that when you let go of self-view, that everything ceases in your mind. That all that, the world that one creates dies away. And there is, what's left is awareness and knowing and intelligence. Report an error in the passage at 56:35
57:04 Purity, wisdom, which is not a person. As soon as I grasp that it's something that's mine, I've created the world again. Report an error in the passage at 57:04
57:24 But when left to be as it is, then it's dharma. And the trust in that dharma, the refuge in that dharma, in dharma, then allows us to live in these forms and learn from them, so that our lives within the restrictions and Limitations of the human form with all its karma and its problems and that is only for us an opportunity to reflect and observe and to learn and to respond appropriately. Report an error in the passage at 57:24
57:59 So Report an error in the passage at 57:59
58:05 now I'll end my talk and we can allow time for questions. Any discussion? Yes? Report an error in the passage at 58:05
58:46 Right, Report an error in the passage at 58:46
58:52 but I mean that tends to be a tradition. But what I'm pointing to is it almost becomes just an ornament to a society rather than an actual participation. I mean, of course, that depends on the individual watching it. But I notice that That oftentimes, I mean, people, even British people will speak kind of sarcastically about it. And even though in many ways, maybe it makes them, you know, there's a certain amount of pride in such customs and in such ceremonies. Report an error in the passage at 58:52
59:38 But in, say, in, I mean, this isn't true for everyone. My criticism wasn't that everyone feels that way. But generally, it's an age where ceremony and ritual have been kind of, their value, their real significance is no longer realized or known by most people. They see it as superstition. People tend to look at all that as hocus-pocus, as superstition. And maybe we've had to reject it. Report an error in the passage at 59:38
1:00:16 You know, I'm looking at it also as that Maybe we had to throw it all out because a lot of, it easily becomes just superstitious, doesn't it? A ceremony can be easily just go into thinking, well, I'm going to, doing so many bows to that Buddha image, I'm going to make a lot of merit and the forces above that are watching are going to favor me. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:16
1:00:40 It can, we can do these things for very selfish reasons or for superstitious reasons, yes. And that's, And I think that's one reason why I say especially northern European people and in the modern new world countries that oftentimes ritual and ceremony were considered kind of on a lower level. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:40
1:01:09 But I also see that the results of it leave us with a society that is lacking in grace. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:09
1:01:22 People, we don't have that graciousness and that which brings us together in very skillful ways. I mean, in modern materialist countries, oftentimes you come together for like mobs and for football matches or things like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:22
1:01:46 Sometimes in very inspiring ways, such as the marriage of Prince... Charles or Report an error in the passage at 1:01:46
1:01:55 It's a truly joyful experience and one begins to appreciate that. Like I can see in just the Christian Eucharist, that, you know, when the ceremony that goes into, say, a high church Eucharist, as something that is, if you're really with what is happening, you know, and everybody's in it together, that is a very beautiful experience. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:55
1:02:50 My memories of Christianity when I was a child, Well, I remember that as always being extremely beautiful, that feeling in the high church Anglican, high church Anglican, where that particular, where the beautiful masses were said, and you had a sense of the whole community together in this act of devotion. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:50
1:03:20 And that was the beautiful part of Christianity. Then, once that was over, devotion. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:20
1:03:27 Then in the church I was brought up in, everybody started squabbling. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:27
1:03:34 At least it wasn't a total squabble because at that moment, at least everybody was not. Everybody was at their best. And it brought out that sense of devotion and respect. This ennobles our lives. I feel very strongly we need, you know, we're not just... Report an error in the passage at 1:03:34
1:04:00 Animals that just run on instinct. We have aspirations and we have a noble side we need to encourage. Here in Britain that very much needs to be encouraged in the youth. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:00
1:04:20 I don't know how true all these reports are about the delinquency and drug problems and violence that goes on in big cities. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:20
1:04:33 and this is because youth aren't presented anymore with anything to aspire to that I can see even, I mean at one time at least you were aspiring to get an education so you could get a good job but even that seems to be Report an error in the passage at 1:04:33
1:04:52 not, you know, any more possible. And the idea of... But that's not terribly inspiring anyway, just to have a good job. But one can connect with, in a human being, that aspiration of their life towards something higher and something better. And if you take that to its fullest, then that is the human spiritual aspiration for liberation, for... Report an error in the passage at 1:04:52
1:05:28 Realization. I Report an error in the passage at 1:05:28
1:05:43 remember studying psychology in the university years ago. In the university I was in, it was known for its, it was very strong on behavioral psychology. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:43
1:05:58 And they had this lecturer who just detested clinical psychology. He'd sneer whenever he said clinical psychology. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:58
1:06:09 Floyd. Nothing, no one. Behavioral psychology was the thing because, you know, you could actually have these experiments and prove things. And at least that's what they thought. And so they had the idea that, say, for modern education, all you did was provide little kind of rewards and punishments to people, to children, and that would get them through the system. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:09
1:06:40 As if... As if a human child was just a kind of a rat that you rewarded when they did what you want and they punished them when they didn't. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:40
1:06:54 But then, you know, from my own memories of my childhood, I found that if teachers appealed to my noble sign, I'd sacrifice my life. Nearly. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:54
1:07:13 When people, I noticed this in a community of monks and nuns, If you give people a chance to rise up to situations, they do it. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:13
1:07:24 Now, if I should think that the monks and nuns were so stupid and hopeless that I just had to kind of browbeat them into obedience and get on their necks all the time and kind of make them totally kind of unconfident and unsure, that would increase all their fears and desires. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:24
1:07:46 That wouldn't help them, would it? And even with people who are, say, who are incompetent and can't do anything very well, if you express a trust that they can do it, they oftentimes can, that they can do something that they think they can't do because human beings rise up to things. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:46
1:08:12 And the worst thing you can do to a human being is to condition them to think that they're stupid and hopeless and that they can only Report an error in the passage at 1:08:12
1:08:22 Do things not very well and nag them and derive them. And then they tend to just be like that. Don't they? They tend to just get stuck on that level of I can't do it, I'm not good enough. So this is where, because we are sensitive and when there's not enlightenment and you don't know the truth of the way things are, one needs to encourage. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:22
1:09:03 we use, the forms we use, teachings we use, ceremonies we use, they're all meant not to just condition them to be ciphers in a system, to... To help, to give some kind of supportive conditions and encouragement towards realizing their spiritual aspiration. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:03
1:09:32 Like in, say, the Kalyanamita, the noble friends. Buddha praised this. We need these Kalyanamita, noble friends. Because noble friends support each other. If you're really a noble friend to somebody, you're not going to drag them down. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:32
1:09:54 And pull them into things that are wrong and deride them and take advantage of them and exploit them. Oh, that's not a noble friend. It's an ignoble friend. But a noble friend is, say, in... I contemplate this in living in a monastic community. How to be a noble friend. So how to try to encourage, to point, and to... Report an error in the passage at 1:09:54
1:10:40 other words, all the, or junior monks, junior nuns, and so forth. You're trying to just fix them into a role. to also... When you see, for them to work out there, to be able to release their fears and desires, rather than to suppress them. And then to be able to rise up to situations and encourage them to do that, rather than judge them. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:40
1:11:13 Or if they don't do it so well, then you reflect on it rather than condemn it. That's what we try to do. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:13
1:11:29 Because they're trying to work out a way of living that is truly benevolent and supportive to the holy life. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:29
1:11:46 In the holy life also, because it is, you're dealing so much with mental factors, this is where we need that patience. This is not like physical world where you can, say, learn to be patient while waiting for the bus or learning to be, you know, doing... Playing the violin or something like that. But when you're dealing with the mind, it fluctuates and thoughts change so quickly that one gets very confused by it. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:46
1:12:23 So an attitude of being very patient and to bear with the way the mind can race on and to learn how to just... The one who is accepting and patient with a frantic mind, rather than trying to make it stop. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:23
1:12:53 So in teaching meditation, people ask, well, what do you teach? What a method. What method? Something to grasp, a nice technique of some sort. I have this kind of super technique. But techniques cannot work if you don't have the right attitude. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:53
1:13:13 The attitude is most important. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:13
1:13:18 If you have the best technique with the wrong attitude, it's not going to help. Getting the right attitude, then even lesser techniques can be helpful. The techniques are not all that important. It's really an attitude that is important to have. And this attitude of the Buddha. We take the attitude of the Buddha, the awakened attitude. The Buddha is compassionate, wise, patient, reflective, non-judgmental. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:18
1:14:10 And if we take this attitude more and more towards our own mental state, then let's say true refuge in the Buddha. Bhutan's Air Nanga Charming. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:10
· · · silence, 1 minute
1:14:58 Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:14:58
1:15:09 this is where they had just, because there needs to be so many clashes that come from that sort of identification to get forced on you, and it's divided clashes because everyone's trying to get away from it, and they're ever so far down to bits. when do you say it That's different, and it seems to me that, and I feel quite a transition, it's quite different, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:15:09
1:15:11 To understand the language, what language is, because, like just the word I can mean egotistical, or it can mean no ego. So that usually the word I is connected with what I think, what I feel, what I want. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:11
1:15:37 But in the Buddha's, after his enlightenment, in the first The person he met after his enlightenment, the Buddha said, I am the enlightened one, self-enlightened one. Now that wasn't an I from an ego. That was an I from the pure mind as just a means of communication. But then the man listening to it was egotistical. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:37
1:16:07 So he thought, Buddha was saying, I am the all-enlightened one, this body here, you see. I don't believe it. I get lost. But the Buddha was right. The statement was accurate. And that was the truest teaching. But the person listening wasn't pure enough in his own life to understand it. So he just took it from an egotistic... Report an error in the passage at 1:16:07
1:16:44 An egotistical view of that, of the Buddha. So then the Buddha, when he went to Benares, to Saranath to teach the five disciples, he said, there is suffering. He didn't, you know, and that is, that's what the, what we know as the Buddhist religion is based on that. There is suffering. There is the origin. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:44
1:17:06 There is the cessation. There is the path out of suffering. And then the whole sense of of I and me and mine is investigated and Report an error in the passage at 1:17:06
1:17:18 then of course we is a collective term for I and of course we can be very much an attachment what we feel and our group my family and our country and so forth that these things are fraught with all kinds of biases and views and But to see that when, say in Saṅgha, when we refer to Saṅgha, the attempt is to use it no longer from that sense of attachment, because the Saṅgha is a symbol for non-attachment, human non-attachment. And yet... Report an error in the passage at 1:17:18
1:18:14 Living fully as a human being where the personal demand has been investigated. So it's not a group to attach to as a perception but it's a symbol and it's a practical relationship of a group of people who all Come together for the same purpose, the same reason, for seeing things clearly. So then we is, because saṅgha always implies more than one person. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:14
1:18:59 It's a collective, a collection of people. And the Buddha, we say, which implies the singular. And then dhamma has no personal It's where Saṅgha and Buddha merge into dhamma, you see, so that dhamma is everything, is truth. So it's not to be personified. You can't put a robe on it and make rules for it. You can't make images of it. You can't make like a... Report an error in the passage at 1:18:59
1:19:36 You know, they use a symbol like a dhamma jakka, a wheel. That's obviously only a symbol that they... They can't make a personal form for Dhamma because there's Buddha, Dhamma Saṅgha. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:36
1:19:51 And the idea of a Buddhist monk and nun is once you, you see, just the fact that we all shave our head, put on robes and that, the emphasis on personality, status, all that, even sex and gender and all this is diminished in the Saṅgha. You're not emphasizing Report an error in the passage at 1:19:51
1:20:14 wealthy family or poor family or you're beautiful or ugly male or female or whatever they all these things are are not emphasized anymore everybody looks know attempting to to diminish their individual appearance conform in in a way that isn't Report an error in the passage at 1:20:14
1:20:42 is humbling to us rather than exciting to But Report an error in the passage at 1:20:42
1:20:51 we need to investigate. I like to reflect on things like just being American and just contemplate what that is, that perception. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:51
1:21:07 What does it really mean? Are you American? I say, I'm an American. What does that mean, really? Rather than just being a kind of... Conditioned response. Now I see it just means that it is just conditioned. You're born in that country and you have educated. So you have these ways of thinking that are American. That they aren't, you know, certain attitudes, certain ways of thinking that other people don't have who weren't born in America. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:07
1:21:45 The same applies to any other. Then you have with your family. My family isn't exactly thinking like every other American family. And race or European. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:45
1:22:04 For example, Americans never think of themselves as Europeans. And yet, to many people, all white people are Europeans. When I left America and went to Asia, people say European. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:04
1:22:22 The perception was that I'm not conditioned from America because Americans see Europeans as people that are born and live in Europe, you see. Born in Europe. These are, you know, relative to culture. But these are all conditioned into the mind. When you take away all those perceptions, what's left? Just like the one that used to first seem... Report an error in the passage at 1:22:22
1:22:55 A bit strange was Ajahn Chah used to say you're not a man or a woman. He used to tell the lay people that. Strange thing to say. One thing I'm sure of is I'm a man. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:55
1:23:14 That seems very obvious. But then I could see that that's because you perceive the body as yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:14
1:23:25 So as long as you're perceiving the body as yourself then you're a man or a woman. But when That perception of the body itself falls away. Then you see that that knowing isn't male or female. Because the male-female perception arises with the body. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:25
1:23:46 The identity with the human body. And therefore, you know, then we can get into all kinds of arguments about rights and privileges and who's better than who and so forth. All the problems that men and women create with each other. Over that attachment to that perception. Or we do it with nationality. You know, French or English or Italian and German. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:46
1:24:17 Or race, so forth. Or class. Whatever we attach to that perception. And that if we don't see that it's merely something that is not self, it's merely a condition that comes from a certain cultural pattern. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:17
1:24:36 Or it's instinctual, like having a male body, then you have certain things in common with all males all over the world, whether they're Aborigines or in Australia or Zulus or Prince Charles or whoever. There's a common ground of masculinity you can relate to. It's like with women all over the world can relate to each other on a certain level, can't they? Report an error in the passage at 1:24:36
1:25:07 You can understand, say, motherhood and what that's like, whether it's an aborigine woman or Princess Di. So Report an error in the passage at 1:25:07
1:25:23 there's a way of contemplating that. But if we identify with motherhood, with femininity, with fatherhood, with masculinity, with culture, and then we become... blinded by those perceptions. We take positions on those issues. We lose perspective on it. It becomes obsessive or blinding to us. So then we argue and fight about it. But when seen as dharma, then one accepts the fact that the male situation is this way and the female situation is this way. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:23
1:26:06 And rich and poor and things like this. One isn't going to be filled with envy and resentment and bitterness and attachment to the condition anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:06
1:26:20 When you're not bound by that, then you can respond appropriately in whatever situation you're in, whether you're the princess or the beggar or the boss or the... Slay for the master of the servant. So the responses are appropriate rather than just full of ego and self or ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:20
1:26:51 As contemplating being a servant. Because Americans, we are from a society that doesn't have servants. And we look down on servants. That's demeaning. To be a servant is a demeaning thing. And when I went to live in Borneo in the Peace Corps, I had servants for the first time. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:51
1:27:22 And I felt so embarrassed. I didn't know what to do with them. And I just felt so uneasy about them. Being an American, I didn't know how to treat them, so I tended to be very friendly, overly familiar. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:22
1:27:43 And they became very confused with me. I tried to treat them like my brothers and sisters. Americans like the idea that everyone's your brother, everyone's your sister. So that sense of service, I didn't understand it. Then going into the monastic life, Report an error in the passage at 1:27:43
1:28:15 There's a lot of service expected of you. And then I began to understand how joyful it is to serve. And being a servant would be rather nice. I like being a servant. It's really difficult to always try to think everyone should do everything for themselves and you should be self-sufficient and take care of yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:15
1:28:43 And you don't have to wait on anyone because you're nobody's slave. I'm not anyone's servant. And everyone can look after themselves. And in the monastic life, so much of it, like Buddhist monasticism, is in serving each other. And this was quite a revelation to me. Because being American, I was very much filled with that. I'm independent and self-sufficient. I don't need anyone to wait on me. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:43
1:29:12 I can do it myself. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:12
1:29:16 And then I used to apply that to everyone. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:16
1:29:22 two hands. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:22
1:29:32 then... then... Report an error in the passage at 1:29:32
1:29:36 in the monastic life, like in a forest monastery in Thailand. They used to serve Ajahn Chah like I've never seen. People just... Report an error in the passage at 1:29:36
1:29:50 The monks are very keen on serving. They used to do it to absurdity. They'd have 20 monks washing his feet and about 10 monks giving him a bath. Imagine 10 people bathing you. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:50
1:30:19 And then he had false teeth and there's always somebody ready to take his false teeth and wash them. We would never do that in America. We'd wash our own false teeth. or something. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:19
1:30:32 Anybody does. To wash the false teeth. But it just seems so natural. And I began to appreciate when a monk's sick or the other monks that really serve them. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:32
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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