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- 4:07
We're not trying to... To deny it or destroy it, but recognize it. No longer be influenced, blinded, motivated by ignorance, attachment, desire. That doesn't mean we never have any desires anymore or the conditioned realm disappears into a void, but we see it in terms of jnana-dasana, insight.
- 7:37
The thinking process, this is why I keep emphasizing it, because if you can actually recognize pure consciousness before the thinking process begins, And it's very simple, isn't it? It's awakened attentiveness before you think or even while you're thinking. But you're aware of thought as an object rather than operating from thought itself. So this is what sati sampacanya, these words, sati sampacanya means.
- 25:21
It's very simple teaching, isn't it? So obvious. But the knowing, the knowing is the same. Consciousness is the background for it all. So say the space here in the temple. It's been here before the temple was here. I used to live in this place over here. For nine years I lived in a grotty little room at the end of one of the buildings. This is right in the temple here.
- 34:50
And that's why I emphasize this relationship of the unconditioned to the conditioned. There is the unborn, uncreated, unformed, unconditioned. This is one of my favorite quotes. I got a letter when I got back from Thailand from somebody in Shasta Abbey, a monk in Shasta Abbey in California.
- 39:34
Or anything like that. There is the unconditioned. And therefore it's awakening to that, to reality. Awakening to the unconditioned is the enlightenment of a human individual.
Transcript
0:01 Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Report an error in the passage at 0:01
0:11 [chanting]
0:23 Sambhutasa Aparutade Saṅgha Matasatawara Yesodavantabhamunshantusatam So this evening observance, it's very, I'm pleased to be able to use the temple again. Report an error in the passage at 0:23
0:48 It's my favorite spot on the whole planet, is this spot. So whether you agree or not, you're sitting in the best spot in the whole world. Report an error in the passage at 0:48
1:05 So what you do with it is up to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:05
1:12 We might spend our lives looking for the perfect spot to sit and meditate to become enlightened. And the thinking mind can always conceive of something better or worse. Report an error in the passage at 1:12
1:26 That's what thinking is. It's a function of the mind we develop and it's all about dualism. Opposites. Report an error in the passage at 1:26
1:41 Opposites. The opposites, the extremes, the good, bad, right, wrong, heaven, hell, better, good, better, best, bad, worse, worst. Report an error in the passage at 1:41
1:56 And that's why I keep emphasizing to transcend, to get beyond the thinking process. This is the secret to... Meditation, what meditation really is, is it's non-verbal, non-thinking. But it's not, I mean, and some of you probably believe that if you don't think, you won't exist anymore, or you'll be a zombie, or dead. Report an error in the passage at 1:56
2:25 But that's not the way it is. Consciousness is something we're all experiencing now. It's not divided. It's not mind. My consciousness and your consciousness. But the sense of self is separate, so I have a sense of myself as being this body, this person. And you have your own sense of self as being identity with your body, with your memories, personality. Report an error in the passage at 2:25
2:59 So that's where investigating dharma, we're going to the source, pure consciousness, recognizing it. Because it's something that's here and now. It's not something you create or you lack. It's just you don't recognize it. And you can see the ignorance or avicca is the force of habit, blind habit, conditioning of the mind with grasping identities with the dualisms of the thought process. Report an error in the passage at 2:59
3:35 The conditioned realm is all about You know, it's all divided into male and female, day and night, good and bad, right and wrong, big and little, fat and thin, and all like this. It goes on into endless comparisons, one thing against another, heaven and then hell. And so this is the only way we can get outside this dualism is by being aware of it. Report an error in the passage at 3:35
4:07 We're not trying to... To deny it or destroy it, but recognize it. No longer be influenced, blinded, motivated by ignorance, attachment, desire. Report an error in the passage at 4:07
4:23 That doesn't mean we never have any desires anymore or the conditioned realm disappears into a void, but we see it in terms of jnana-dasana, insight. Report an error in the passage at 4:23
4:42 Enlightened understanding of dharma rather than just operating from conditioned perspectives, from views and opinions, from beliefs, from principles, from any condition, any convention. Report an error in the passage at 4:42
5:02 Now the thinking mind will assume that we're trying to get rid of conventions or deny them or destroy the conditioned realm. We can see conditioned realm as So it must be inferior or bad or lesser than the unconditioned. Because then we have the conditioned, then we have the unconditioned. If we have nibbāna, then there's the saṃsāra. And that's because they're words. Report an error in the passage at 5:02
5:38 Nibbāna is only a word. You know, it's not ultimate truth. It's a word. But it's a word that's... That is to be used for awakeness rather than for attachment. So it's learning how to use language, how to use the dharma language, not for forming views and opinions about Buddhism and what's the true dharma and the false dharma. Report an error in the passage at 5:38
6:10 We get into all the bigotry and divisions of the Buddhist world, just like any other religion. The religious fanatics, the orthodox, the modern, the ones that are right and the ones that are wrong, the great vehicle, lesser vehicle, and on and on like this. These are all words. They're dualisms. If you attach to one, then you have its opposite. Report an error in the passage at 6:10
6:42 If you believe Nibbāna is better than saṃsāra, you've missed the point because it's not about being better. It's being able to see clearly. We can say heaven is better than hell, because heaven usually means one extreme of happiness and pleasure and beauty, and hell means its opposite. When we use the word nibbāla, it's not about heaven and happiness and beauty and goodness. It's ultimate reality. Report an error in the passage at 6:42
7:19 It's the real. And then our relationship to the condition can be seen from that perspective, from reality rather than from blind attachment to positions we take on what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's bad. The thinking process, this is why I keep emphasizing it, because if you can actually recognize pure consciousness before the thinking process begins, Report an error in the passage at 7:19
7:50 And it's very simple, isn't it? It's awakened attentiveness before you think or even while you're thinking. But you're aware of thought as an object rather than operating from thought itself. So this is what sati sampacanya, these words, sati sampacanya means. Report an error in the passage at 7:50
8:19 It's not trying to make oneself mindful. The idea that I've got to become more mindful is still, I've missed the point, haven't I? I've got to practice mindfulness in order to become enlightened. That's the thinking process itself. But if I listen to myself thinking that, I have to be more aware, more mindful in order to become enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 8:19
8:49 That awareness of the thinking process. That you recognize, that's the refuge, that's the dhamma, that's reality. And the sense of I'm this person that needs to become more mindful. This is conditioned phenomena, isn't it? A rising sea scene. You're seeing it as an object. They call it aramana in Pāli. Report an error in the passage at 8:49
9:18 Mental objects. So in consciousness, You're not conscious of consciousness, but you recognize consciousness. It's just this. So when I do this, this recognition of consciousness, I'm not thinking. It's like listening. It's an open attentiveness. That's where the sound of silence becomes very apparent. Report an error in the passage at 9:18
9:49 Then I can create myself in any way I so please. I can still think I'm Ajahn Sumedho and I'm 73, 74 years old and I can still think like that, but it's no longer my reality, the position I take on life, how I see the world through the perceptions of I am a 74-year-old Ajahn Sumedho. Because the refuge isn't in that, isn't in... Report an error in the passage at 9:49
10:22 In those words, those concepts, those memories, but in reality, the reality that is recognized. The real is recognizable. It's a fact. It's not a creation. It's not some precious high state of refined concentration. Report an error in the passage at 10:22
10:46 So, and there's a apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation leading onwards. To be experienced individually by the wise. Report an error in the passage at 10:46
11:01 We chant that every morning and evening usually. So we use the word dhamma and these are words, you know, but they're words to be used to remind ourselves rather than words that we attach to, concepts, viewpoints, opinions we form. About Buddhism. Many of us, you know, in the Buddhist world, whether we're here in England or in Thailand or Sri Lanka or in India or wherever, we can form strong views about Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 11:01
11:45 And people ask me, you know, what is a Buddhist? And then there's a hard line that say, well, you aren't a Buddhist till you take the five precepts. You have to keep the five precepts to become a Buddhist. And others say, well, the three refuges. Then there's the Bodhisattva path and the Arahanta path. Report an error in the passage at 11:45
12:10 Which is better? People ask me still, which should I take, the Arahanta path or the Bodhisattva path? And then there's the Tibetan forms, and then there's different forms of Tibetan. Buddhism and Chinese, Japanese, Korean, modern, old-fashioned, conventional, traditional, variations on all these themes. Report an error in the passage at 12:10
12:39 Now, the thing that's common about all these forms is that they are forms. They're sankharas. They're conditions. You can include Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism. Report an error in the passage at 12:39
12:56 Jainism, Zoroastrianism, the whole lot, you know. Satanic worship, voodoo. What do they have in common? They're words. Now, when I use Buddhist words, when I use the word, say, just the word Buddha, now what I've developed with that word is that that very word is a reminder. Report an error in the passage at 12:56
13:23 It's a way, be awake. Pay attention. It's not forming a view about Buddha, you know, and Buddhism, and Buddhism is better than Christianity or anything like that, or the pure Buddhism, or the, you know, which is the best kind of Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 13:23
13:51 You know, it's not that I don't, I don't, I'm not interested in that anymore, in trying to Be one up on everyone else or have mine being better than someone else's Buddhism. But the word Buddha then is the one who knows, the putto, puru, the knowing. It's pure conscious knowing from this, you know, awakened here and now. So I like the word Buddha because I'm not attaching to it. Report an error in the passage at 13:51
14:31 I'm not... Taking the word itself, attaching to the word Buddha and forming views and opinions about Buddhism from defining the word and attaching to the concept. But the concept itself is a reminder. Bhutang Sarnanga Chami is a reminder. Here and now, awareness, awakened consciousness is this. Bhutto Tamo Sangho. Report an error in the passage at 14:31
15:02 You see what I mean? It's no longer Theravāda Buddhism or Mahāyāna or anything like that. It's using this particular convention, Pāli Buddhism, but not for attachment or identity, but as a skillful means, expedient means, to use it for awakened awareness, for development of wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 15:02
15:30 Rather than becoming a Theravadan Buddhist, forming opinions from grasping the idea that I am a Theravadan Buddhist monk. Report an error in the passage at 15:30
15:43 So if I start from I am a Theravadan Buddhist monk, Thai forest tradition, then if I grasp that perception without awareness, just operating from grasping that position, then I become that. I become Ajahn Sumedho, Theravāda and Buddhist monk, Thai forest tradition and all the things that go along with that perception. Report an error in the passage at 15:43
16:10 The logic or the associated perceptions that go along with that one. You see what I mean? If I'm heedless and I operate from a position, then I become like that. And then I see other... Even Theravadans who don't agree with me as threats, as wrong, as they've got it wrong. Or I can form views about Mahāyāna Buddhism from a Theravadan Buddhist perspective. Views about Christianity or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 16:10
16:53 I'm quite capable of having views, opinions, prejudices, biases, opinions, just like anyone else. But the difference, The difference lies in the awake and awareness of it rather than a position. Report an error in the passage at 16:53
17:12 But it's still not enlightenment. So just taking the word Bhutto, the mantra Bhutto. And listening to it. I've spent years listening to myself thinking Bhutto. I don't even have to say it with a voice, you know, just think it. Report an error in the passage at 17:12
17:49 Just that mantra, Bhutto. And just observing, you know, I'm listening to myself thinking. Report an error in the passage at 17:49
18:01 And this way, you know, Bhutto then comes and goes, doesn't it? The word itself in consciousness. I'm conscious before I think it, during, and when I'm not thinking. Report an error in the passage at 18:01
18:15 The consciousness is the background of it, of the thinking process. It's as simple as that. There's nothing mysterious or esoteric about it. It's so obvious, plain as the nose on your face, they say. Report an error in the passage at 18:15
18:34 Now, when you deliberately think Bhutto, in order to listen, you know, then, so there's a space. Before I, you know, before I think Bhutto, I notice there's this noting, this empty, there's no thought, there's no word, no thought in consciousness. It's just like this. I notice the sound of silence. It's like the kind of resonating background, consciousness, and then deliberately thinking, put, to. Report an error in the passage at 18:34
19:14 And then after I've said it, after to, there's nothing there, but... Consciousness is recognizing consciousness as the background to your thinking process before you become anything at all. Consciousness has no quality other than its knowing, its discerning ability. But it's not a thinking process. It's not discerning the unconditioned better than the conditioned. Report an error in the passage at 19:14
19:49 Because then we get tangled up with the vocabulary again. Nibbāna is better than saṃsāra. That's rubbish, isn't it? Not about being better than. Nibbāna is discerning. Nibbāna is like this. Then I can see how I can become, if I attach to the sense of Ajahn Sumedho, Theravāda and Buddhist monk, then... Report an error in the passage at 19:49
20:17 I get carried away with grasping that perception, that saṃsāra. I'm a person again. I'm somebody separate. I'm, you know, I'm 74 years old. I'm Theravāda and Buddhist monk. I'm on and on like this. I can remember all kinds of things from my life, 74 years. Lots happened to this old man in 74 years. Recently had a chance to... Report an error in the passage at 20:17
20:47 Go back to Sabah in Malaysia. Was there 44 years ago. A lot of memories come back. Now I remember when we were at Mount Kinabalu back in 1965. That kind of thing. Fair enough. It's a memory that arises, you know, due to the conditions. I noticed when I was in Seattle the last time. When Janice Clark took me on a tour of the places I used to live in, I noticed the first house I lived in, which wasn't there anymore, by the way, but I could recognize the spot. Report an error in the passage at 20:47
21:37 For the first six years of my life, we lived in this house, which no longer exists. They built a bigger, better house than the one we had. But I could recognize... Because those were the very formative years, first six years of your life. You're learning, you're awakened to things, you know, that are quite ordinary, which maybe you would never notice as an adult. Report an error in the passage at 21:37
22:08 But as a little child, baby learning, notice the cracks in the pavements and things like that. Some of those pavements are still there. I still remember the... positioning of them and you know even though the place when when i lived there this was in the 30s 1930s it was it was a relatively unbuilt up area you Report an error in the passage at 22:08
22:34 know there wasn't one house sitting next to another now it is it's just you know suburbia and with rows of houses but i could it still brought up memory from When I was only five years old. That's how memory works, isn't it? It's like in Proust's book, you know, the remembrance of things past. Just the taste of a piece of cake brings back all these memories. I mean, that's how it is, isn't it? How the light, you know, sometimes the way the light shines in through the window will bring back memories from some faraway place, distant in time. Report an error in the passage at 22:34
23:19 Time, in time. Report an error in the passage at 23:19
23:24 look into a crowd and see somebody and they'll remind you of somebody else. the way they maybe move, or the shape of their nose, or whatever, this is how the conditioned world operates. When things come together, then I feel like this. When... When it's sunny and beautiful and all the positive conditions come together, then I feel happy. There's a sense of happiness. Report an error in the passage at 23:24
24:03 When things aren't going so well, when there's complaints and problems and crises and depressing news and storms and that, then the conditions that come together make me feel like this. I don't feel happy anymore. I feel threatened or anxious. Now the awareness of that is the constant factor, whether you're feeling particularly happy or miserable at this moment. Report an error in the passage at 24:03
24:39 The awareness is your refuge, not the condition. You can't find permanent happiness in this realm. This realm is conditioned. Report an error in the passage at 24:39
24:51 And happiness is a condition dependent on other conditions. It has no independence. It has no consistency. You can't sustain happiness as an ongoing emotional experience. Because when the conditions arise for happiness, then one feels it. And when the conditions arise for misery, then it feels like this. Report an error in the passage at 24:51
25:21 It's very simple teaching, isn't it? So obvious. But the knowing, the knowing is the same. Consciousness is the background for it all. So say the space here in the temple. It's been here before the temple was here. I used to live in this place over here. Report an error in the passage at 25:21
25:45 For nine years I lived in a grotty little room at the end of one of the buildings. This is right in the temple here. The space. Report an error in the passage at 25:45
25:57 The same space, but the conditions have changed. Instead of a grotty little room, we have a nice big temple now. So the grotty little room, I remember, I have a perception of it, but the space, it's the same. The things in the space are different. Report an error in the passage at 25:57
26:22 And so this is a way of investigating the reality of consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 26:22
26:32 Now this universe is a conscious universe. You know, it's alive, it's conscious, it's intelligent. But then we bind ourselves to ignorance and the conditioned realm. So even if we're highly educated, reasonable, rational type human beings, even that is... It's still being bound and deluded by conditioned phenomena. We've not awakened. We're not aware. We don't know reality. Report an error in the passage at 26:32
27:13 We're operating from conditioning, from the sense of me, from what I think, what I feel, what I know about the world, what I've read, the perceptions, the cultural biases, the definitions. The opinions I've acquired through cultural conditioning, through education, that's why the world is such a mess. Report an error in the passage at 27:13
27:47 Because Report an error in the passage at 27:47
27:51 everybody's operating from, you know, ignorance and their own particular world that they create, their own bias view, their own sense of separation and self and me and mine. Report an error in the passage at 27:51
28:08 And right and wrong and good and bad and what should and shouldn't be. Report an error in the passage at 28:08
28:16 Recognizing pure consciousness, that's one. That's not a division. It's not mine. I don't create consciousness. I can create myself in consciousness, though. I can create a sense of myself, my unique personality, my position. Report an error in the passage at 28:16
28:42 My identity, I create that. But if I don't create a self, there's still consciousness. It's alive. I don't go into a kind of zombie state. I don't go unconscious and drop dead. It's very simple. It's reality. And it's recognizable. You don't find it as an object. You recognize it. It's like suddenly, this is it. Report an error in the passage at 28:42
29:18 Right now, rather than where is it? What's he talking about? And then you'll get into your, you know, views about consciousness. Is it anicca dukkha nata or is it... Because, you know, you read the books, you get ideas and views about... People say you have to, you know, consciousness is anicca dukkha nata. So then you cling to the idea of consciousness because we think... Report an error in the passage at 29:18
29:49 Vinyan, Sanya, Vedanā, Rūpa is all Anattā, So then the logic is that the consciousness is impermanent as a position we hold to. But the reality of this moment, the reality of awakened attention is conscious. Report an error in the passage at 29:49
30:20 And it's recognizable. So, like in the third noble truth, this is the nirodha satcha, realizing, realizing the end of conditioned phenomena. Not the final end, all conditions cease, and there's just an empty void, you know, forevermore. That's a concept. Report an error in the passage at 30:20
30:45 But in terms of this moment, the reality of now, you know, This is real, you know, there's no, there's nothing left after to, but consciousness, this is conscious. Report an error in the passage at 30:45
31:06 And it's receiving whatever comes into it, you know, so somebody says, Ajahn Sumedho, somebody, important message from Queen Elizabeth on the phone has to speak to you right away. Then I get up and go. Report an error in the passage at 31:06
31:27 Gordon Brown wants to consult you about the plans for the future. Report an error in the passage at 31:27
31:35 Barack Obama's on the phone. Report an error in the passage at 31:35
31:43 Whatever, I can still operate. But it's different than if I'm just operating from the sense of I am Ajahn Sumedho all the time. So the reality of now is its recognition. So the third noble truth is... Report an error in the passage at 31:43
32:04 Realizing or recognizing this pure consciousness with non-grasping of any condition is like this. And then to realize this, and then the bhavana, the fourth noble truth is called bhavana, or developing, cultivating this, this pure conscious awareness. You recognize it, it's real, it's the path you cultivated in your daily life. So I say over the years of monastic life, this is what I've been doing, cultivating this, or bhavana, developing, cultivating, using the life that I have here, or wherever I am, so I remember this. Report an error in the passage at 32:04
33:02 And some of you have known me for years. You've seen me, you know, the different crises and difficulties and personal things arise. Report an error in the passage at 33:02
33:13 Changes, disappointments, success, failures, different emotional reactions. But behind all that, there's been a determination to cultivate this awareness no matter what happens to me or... Report an error in the passage at 33:13
33:39 that's like... Noble Truth, Samaditi, Samasangapo. Right understanding, right attitude, right intention. And it doesn't mean right as opposed to wrong. I mean, this is a limitation of language. Or you can translate as perfect understanding. In the 22 Indriyas, you know, you have... Report an error in the passage at 33:39
34:12 dan yasami din teriyang, anyin teriyang, anya dawin teriyang. These last three indriya faculties, knowing this, cultivating this, this knowing of, and this refuge in reality, the real world, or what is ultimate and really real. The world that everybody calls the real world is not ultimate reality, it's just conventional reality. Report an error in the passage at 34:12
34:50 And that's why I emphasize this relationship of the unconditioned to the conditioned. There is the unborn, uncreated, unformed, unconditioned. This is one of my favorite quotes. I got a letter when I got back from Thailand from somebody in Shasta Abbey, a monk in Shasta Abbey in California. Report an error in the passage at 34:50
35:32 And there they have it. Monks are both male and female. This one's name is Serena. It sounds female. Anyway, she was saying that she... She was turned on to Buddhism through listening to this particular quote. There is the unborn, uncreated, unformed, unconditioned. And because there is the unborn, uncreated, unformed, unconditioned, there is escape from the born, the created, the formed, the conditioned. Well, what is that? Report an error in the passage at 35:32
36:04 How does that affect you? Does that do anything to you? But as a reflection, you know, something, sometimes it will. Suddenly resonate. Something in the Buddhist formula, something kind of reaches you in a way that isn't just intellectualizing or defining in terms. Now this particular teaching reached me years ago when I was a Samanera. There is the unborn, uncreated, unformed, unconditioned. Report an error in the passage at 36:04
36:42 Therefore there is the escape from the born, the created, the formed, the conditioned. There's a way out of this realm, a way out of saṃsāra. We aren't just hopelessly trapped in this vortex of conditioned experience. Report an error in the passage at 36:42
37:04 Because I remember when I first, when I was 30, you know, I felt I was trapped. I was in a trap, like in a whirlpool. Just going around and around and I couldn't see any way out of this whirlpool. This vortex, 30 years, what a disappointment. You know, when I was 20, I had great hopes for myself. Report an error in the passage at 37:04
37:32 When I was 20 years old, the world was mine and I was going to really live, make it work for me. I wasn't going to end up like my mother and father, paying off a mortgage the rest of their lives. I was going to make myself into something. By the time I was 30, what a disappointment. Report an error in the passage at 37:32
37:58 It's like being caught in this whirlpool, just going around and around. It got faster and faster. And it was just, you know, meaningless. Life had no meaning, no purpose. You're just caught in a trap, like in a sticky web, like waiting for the spider to come and eat you, like a fly caught in a spider web. Report an error in the passage at 37:58
38:26 So then... This statement, there is the, and then of course I was brought up as a Christian, so you have, I'd given up on God and all that kind of thing, that dualistic way of thinking. Report an error in the passage at 38:26
38:41 But something really, you know, somehow reached me on a different level than the intellectual one when I came across Buddhism. Now this particular quote, there is the unborn, uncreated, unconditioned, unformed. Therefore there is an escape. Report an error in the passage at 38:41
39:03 From the born, the created, the conditioned, the formed. Well, that gave me great hope. There is a way out because there is this uncreated, unconditioned. Now, following that, now that's the paradigm. Notice the relationship, the unconditioned to the conditioned. It's not destroying the conditioned. It's not annihilation. You're not trying to commit suicide or destroy your mind or make you into a zombie. Report an error in the passage at 39:03
39:34 Or anything like that. There is the unconditioned. And therefore it's awakening to that, to reality. Awakening to the unconditioned is the enlightenment of a human individual. The unconditioned is this reality. This is real. The condition comes and goes and changes accordingly. me. Report an error in the passage at 39:34
40:07 So in Vipassanā practices, they often emphasize all conditions are impermanent. And so we endlessly contemplate impermanence of the condition. But to awaken to the unconditioned, this is the whole aim of the Buddhist teaching. Awakened bhutto tammo sankho, we say it. These aren't just ceremonial formulas that we recite. Report an error in the passage at 40:07
40:40 There are skillful, expedient means to remember, to awaken, to pay attention, to investigate. So these teachings then, Four Noble Truths, Paticca Samuppada, There is the Unborn, Uncreated, all these can be used skillfully or they can just be memorized and chanted like a parrot. Report an error in the passage at 40:40
41:08 Or you can take positions about What unconditioned means? Now, what do you think the unconditioned is? Let's have a discussion around the unconditioned and the conditioned. Let's talk about the unconditioned and the unborn. Try to carry on any conversation about the unconditioned, unborn, see how far you go. Report an error in the passage at 41:08
41:34 It becomes absurd, doesn't it? Because you can't imagine it. Is it nothing? Is it true or false? Is there such a thing as the unborn, uncreated? Well, I don't, you know, where is it? Can you prove it? Report an error in the passage at 41:34
41:57 And the Buddha meant that, you know, all conditions are impermanent. Five khandhas are, means everything's impermanent. I attach to the teaching that everything is impermanent. And so we take a position from the conditioned position. Report an error in the passage at 41:57
42:17 I believe that everything is impermanent. Buddha said so. It's in the scripture. Now that is still operating from the condition, isn't it? Taking Buddha's teaching in the Pāli scripture and attaching to it. It's not investigating. It's not yoniso manasikara. It's not going deeper. It's just taking a viewpoint from the scripture and grasping it. Report an error in the passage at 42:17
42:51 Now in terms of awakened awareness, Buddha's emphasis on satipanya, satisambhajanya. Now this is conscious. And then the three fetters, first three fetters, before you see the path, sakya-ditti-thilabhata-bhara-masa-vijji-kiccha. Report an error in the passage at 42:51
43:19 Sakya-ditti, you know, that is, I create myself as a person. My memories, I was born in Seattle, 1934, 27th of July, in Roman Catholic Hospital, to Helen and Clarence Jackman. It's even a birth certificate that states this. This is Sanya. It's not that I have to deny that, but it is what it is. I can attach to it. Report an error in the passage at 43:19
43:54 I've never investigated the fact that I can prove I was born because I have a birth certificate. And strangely enough, the irony of my life is my feet. Because on this birth certificate is my footprint when I was born. And I'm known in Thailand as Bigfoot because I've got big feet and they're swollen. Report an error in the passage at 43:54
44:22 Now this is my unique sign. People keep wanting to cure my particular ailment, but I think you wouldn't recognize me if my feet went back to normal. Report an error in the passage at 44:22
44:40 I'd lose my unique self, wouldn't I? Bigfoot. So this is, that's Sanya, Sanya Kanda, Sankara Kanda, these we create. This is cultural conditioning. You know, your class identity. Report an error in the passage at 44:40
45:04 You know, working class, middle class, whatever. These are conditions. Identity to condition. To male and female. Men and women. Young and old. Black and white. Race. All of this is conditions. Phenomena. Pure consciousness is indifferent to it. It doesn't matter. matter, one, you know, it's not anymore, but consciousness has room for everything. whether it's good or bad, right or wrong, it still and goes in consciousness, or false. Report an error in the passage at 45:04
45:49 where are you going to have your refuge? What can be the refuge? Can it be in being male or female or in being... Working class or middle class or upper class or being Buddhist or Christian, any of these as a refuge is not going to be enlightening for you because those identities come and go and change according to other conditions. Report an error in the passage at 45:49
46:23 They're not sustainable. And they're always divisive. They're always creating divisions. And when we live in that division, then we always feel threatened and anxious. Jealous or frightened or envious, whatever, you know, this emotional trap of being in the separate form, identity, isolated in some identity, some definition, is always going to create fear. Report an error in the passage at 46:23
47:01 It's frightening to be, you know, separate, isolated, because then there's always... The enemy is out there in some form or another. Just contemplate, what is anxiety? Why is anxiety one of the problems of modern life here in England? Why is there so much anxiety and stress in this society? Because, you know, even at its best, it's still divided. Report an error in the passage at 47:01
47:37 There's always the enemy. There's always those out there, the immigrants. The foreigners, the criminals, the drug addicts, the crazy people, there's always something out there to fear, isn't there? There's always something threatening me in my separateness, in my identities. So then they awakened attention to the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 47:37
48:11 there is the unborn There is the uncreated, there is the unformed, unconditioned. There is consciousness. Now, after the end of Puto, if I don't create anything into it, just recognize it, realize this is it, this is reality. Report an error in the passage at 48:11
48:41 And then, you know, you can actually create yourself in any way you want, just to see it come and go and change. I used to... Have fun just creating myself in all kinds of ridiculous scenarios and watching it arise and cease. Report an error in the passage at 48:41
48:59 You know, just to experiment, to, you know, really don't think you shouldn't create yourself or you shouldn't have an ego or if you're really mindful you'll have no sakya ditti and all that will completely disappear forever. Report an error in the passage at 48:59
49:18 It just means you know it. You know what it is. Where when you don't know this, then you become whatever you create. You're always limited by your own creation. So you're stuck in that vortex of dualism, of change, birth and death. Report an error in the passage at 49:18
49:42 Because there's birth, there's death. If you create something, then it's going to die. It's going to end. If there's something born, it's going to die. Report an error in the passage at 49:42
49:56 But since there is the unborn, uncreated, unconditioned, unformed, what is that now? What can that be? What is the reality of now? And don't look for an answer with words. Just trust yourself to recognize. This is reality. I'm not imagining this. This has no image, no form. It's not... Depending on sitting here in this particular ideal spot, this Buddhist temple, Amarbati Buddhist temple, I can do it anywhere. I did it in Sabah, Thailand, Portugal, wherever. Report an error in the passage at 49:56
50:46 In London, even. In the underground in London, still, it doesn't disappear because of crowds of people and noise. If I get irritated, Report an error in the passage at 50:46
51:04 I don't like the noise, London's too noisy and polluted, and I grumble, grumble, whinge, whinge, and then I get carried away. Then I become somebody who doesn't want the world to be like this. I can imagine a better place to be. Report an error in the passage at 51:04
51:25 Then I become that kind of a person, complaining person that wants something that I don't have. But if I take refuge in Buddha Dhamma Saṅgha, in Buddha, it doesn't matter where the physical body happens to be. Report an error in the passage at 51:25
51:46 That isn't the issue. It's the awareness, that awakened attentiveness, here and now, pachubana dhamma. So this winter's retreat, this is an encouragement to really use this time. Wonderful opportunity we have here at Amaravati during the three months to just investigate this till you really see it. You have to keep working at it, you know, just keep penetrating no matter how you're feeling, whether you're sick or healthy or happy or miserable or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 51:46
52:30 It doesn't matter how you're feeling if you're willing to Trust in awareness of the feeling. Be the awareness, not the feeling. So under the conditions that we have here, try to, you know, have supportive conditions. But supportive conditions can also, if we get dependent on supportive conditions, we've lost it. So sometimes we learn best when the conditions aren't supportive. Report an error in the passage at 52:30
53:05 I've learned some of them. supportive Report an error in the passage at 53:05
53:08 Most important lessons when the conditions weren't supportive at all, when there's everything I didn't want was happening to me. And still take this suddenly. There is the unborn. And at one point I remember feeling totally anguished and despairing. And yet I knew that that was a condition arising and ceasing. Sometimes I didn't want to believe. Report an error in the passage at 53:08
53:38 I wanted to indulge a bit sometimes. To feel sorry for yourself sometimes is rather pleasant, fun to do. The world hates me and nobody appreciates me. Report an error in the passage at 53:38
53:53 But you train to recognize this awareness behind all, behind that despair and anger and rage is this. This is the refuge, not that. So that's where, you know, or in Report an error in the passage at 53:53
54:14 As I talk about using airports or whatever, London Underground, all of it is good for practice. I hear some of you, you know, that people get upset with the lawnmower because it makes a noise. And we become precious. You know, here at Amaravati, we want supportive conditions, we want it like this, we want... Report an error in the passage at 54:14
54:39 Peace and quiet when we're practicing meditation. We don't want that bloody lawnmower going around cutting the grass. And we want, when I'm giving a retreat over here in the retreat center, no cutting grass while I'm giving a retreat because it'll disrupt people's practice. Report an error in the passage at 54:39
55:02 Because I want supportive conditions for people. But it's that, when I listen to that, that's... That's not a pleasant mental state to follow, it? I'd rather aware of the annoyance. You know, rather than trying to control the world to fit my ideal. Knowing what I know now, I'm not about to have somebody mow the lawn all time, but things happen. Report an error in the passage at 55:02
55:36 Airplanes fly over things, know. Noises come and go and change, but our awareness is a refuge, not idyllic conditions, supportive conditions, tranquility and peace and a harmonious community. When the community is totally out of harmony, it's still good practice, because we don't want that. We want peace and harmony, tranquility. Report an error in the passage at 55:36
56:08 And then when we do have those conditions, then when the opposite happens, we get angry and upset, disillusioned. So this is a sign of attachment to the condition realm. Report an error in the passage at 56:08
56:23 When the world isn't what I want it to be, then I'm very upset, despairing, angry. But whatever way the world goes, and it goes according to its karma, it's not up to me to control it. Report an error in the passage at 56:23
56:41 Then my relationship to the world is knowing it, not controlling it. Knowing the world is the world. When I use this word, the world, it's a Pāli word, loka. It's what we create out of ignorance. Each one of us lives in our own world, don't we? You know how I experience life as a person, and that is different. Report an error in the passage at 56:41
57:08 It's not going to be exactly the same as you. So the world is a different world. My world against your world. But consciousness is one. This is where the world's no longer the issue. I'm not trying to make you conform to my world, but to awaken to the deathless, the reality, unborn, uncreated. Report an error in the passage at 57:08
57:41 Because then the problems resolve themselves. There is escape from the born, the created, the conditioned, the form. So I offer this for your reflection. Report an error in the passage at 57:41
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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