The World and The End of The World – Q and A

0:08 That's very... So Report an error in the passage at 0:08 Highlight the passage at 0:08

0:26 now is a time where you can, if you have questions, things you want to discuss about awakened awareness or Report an error in the passage at 0:26 Highlight the passage at 0:26

0:43 whatever, it's Report an error in the passage at 0:43 Highlight the passage at 0:43

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1:19 like faith and joy, like doubt is a joyless state. So if you feel stuck, it's probably because you doubt too much. And And faith isn't just like holding on to something, but it's more of a trusting, an attitude of like the Pāli word sadha is more like a trusting, a willingness to accept something even if you don't like it. Report an error in the passage at 1:19 Highlight the passage at 1:19

2:02 And trusting and that by accepting it, you'll liberate you. You'll not be just consumed by it or stuck with it. And then the more you trust in the dharma and just let go, relax, don't try to solve everything or try to analyze too much about, you know, what should I do next or am I doing something, but more or less just kind of... Report an error in the passage at 2:02 Highlight the passage at 2:02

2:37 Encourage yourself to relax and open and accept even your negative states. And then in that, as you trust more and more, then you feel a sense of joy coming from that. Even, you know, you just feel it's like a relief, a sense of not having to solve every problem. problem and every question and try to control and or fear that because you are going through difficult time that there's something wrong with you and it's that you're doing something you shouldn't or Report an error in the passage at 2:37 Highlight the passage at 2:37

3:21 know endlessly try to out what you're doing then and getting caught up on that level just realize that that in in our lives these things things things are that work working themselves out. It isn't always, you know, as fast as we would like it to be, but it's doing it. And by trusting more in your awareness, then you'll begin to experience joy, even when things seem to be falling apart. Report an error in the passage at 3:21 Highlight the passage at 3:21

4:01 Surprising how, I remember years ago a woman, a Thai woman, Report an error in the passage at 4:01 Highlight the passage at 4:01

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4:13 Ajahn Sumedho had terminal cancer and she came here. I invited her to come here and die in the community. And she's a very nice woman. She became a kind of a precept, an Agarikara. And she's kind of 40-ish, 40 years old. She had this cancer. And yet she was so joyful through her experience. You'd go over and the nuns would take care of her and we'd go over and we'd sit with her sometimes or chant and this would always make her feel very happy. Report an error in the passage at 4:13 Highlight the passage at 4:13

4:59 And then she'd feel very, she'd tell us about, and she'd kind of point to this tumor that was growing inside her, almost like She was like, it was something good. She wasn't developing even aversion or fear of it. And then when she died, it was, you know, there's a sadness, a natural sadness that comes, but there's also a joy. Report an error in the passage at 4:59 Highlight the passage at 4:59

5:29 It was a kind of interesting experience because you think one would cancel out the other. But the sadness wasn't like depression, because it was sad, you know, that she was such a good person, someone that still, you know, you would have preferred her to live, you know, we all wanted her to live, but that wasn't to be. Report an error in the passage at 5:29 Highlight the passage at 5:29

5:57 And so the sadness of loss is a natural kind of emotion, but also a joy in the sense that It was right. There was nothing wrong. It wasn't bad. It didn't leave us in the sense of something bad was happening or that we resented it. Report an error in the passage at 5:57 Highlight the passage at 5:57

6:23 And it actually was a very meaningful experience to all of us. To her, you know, she was very well prepared for her. By the time she did die, it was, you know, she was fully present, fully with it, and no fear. And with us, just to be involved in it, to be a part of her death was also kind of a privilege that we all felt. Report an error in the passage at 6:23 Highlight the passage at 6:23

7:00 So it changed my whole attitude around the experience of death. Because before that I'd always, you know, I'd kind of had these ideas about it and that, but death always meant, you know, it always conveyed something bad or, you know, if you've got dying of cancer, you shouldn't be, you know, and it's not right and it shouldn't be like this. Report an error in the passage at 7:00 Highlight the passage at 7:00

7:27 And that it's depressing and that we're all going, if we're going to allow this woman to die in our monastery, we're going to get depressed by it. And it's something, you know, we don't want to see or know. It's oftentimes the kind of cultural attitude that I had. But I, you know, I knew better than that. But the actual reality of the experience was very different from anything I had expected. Report an error in the passage at 7:27 Highlight the passage at 7:27

8:00 And it was through surrendering and accepting and even allowing things to be what they are even if you don't like them to be that way. Report an error in the passage at 8:00 Highlight the passage at 8:00

8:14 And it doesn't mean approving like one approves of glad that she had cancer that she could share it with us. It wasn't anything on that level. It's like changing from this fear ridden conditioned mind, you know, like death, oh, I don't like that. Report an error in the passage at 8:14 Highlight the passage at 8:14

8:50 we find a cure for cancer and we can live a thousand years. Report an error in the passage at 8:50 Highlight the passage at 8:50

8:58 You're set up for a real miserable life. Like Report an error in the passage at 8:58 Highlight the passage at 8:58

9:13 in Dhamma, like the idealism, say, an ideal world is perfect, where everybody stays young and everybody's healthy, everybody's happy, and everything's fair, everything's right, everything's just, everybody's beautiful. if that's what you want. Report an error in the passage at 9:13 Highlight the passage at 9:13

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9:38 Nobody's sick. Nobody, you know, and then you're creating ideals. So an ideal world is a pretty picture, you know. But that's not the way life is. You know, this is not an ideal world we're living in. This is a real world. The reality of this includes the good and the bad, you know. The snake and the garden, the worm and the apple, the fly and the ointment, they all belong, you know, the devils and the angels, the demons and the hell realms and the heavenly realms. Report an error in the passage at 9:38 Highlight the passage at 9:38

10:24 I mean, it's like, it's an attitude of opening to life rather than of trying to control it. So like the ideal, when we're attached to ideals, then we control everything. Report an error in the passage at 10:24 Highlight the passage at 10:24

10:37 You know, we can't allow that woman into the monastery because she dies here and then it's going to be depressing and, you know, we think it won't fit our ideal. So we can't allow it. But in terms of Buddhadharma, you know, the Buddha encouraged us, you know, old age, sickness, death, is to be investigated. Report an error in the passage at 10:37 Highlight the passage at 10:37

11:00 To be, you know, they awaken us. They mature us. The more that you yourselves have had to deal with loss of loved ones or sickness, disease, and you grow stronger through understanding all that, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 11:00 Highlight the passage at 11:00

11:26 You mature, you develop a wisdom and a strength that you would never have if life was just ideal, you know, so easy. Nothing bad ever happened to you and there's a bowl of cherries, a bed of roses, everything pink and pretty. Report an error in the passage at 11:26 Highlight the passage at 11:26

11:53 Really boring. Report an error in the passage at 11:53 Highlight the passage at 11:53

12:04 I have this, you know, three years ago I tried to go to Mount Kailash and I was invited with a group, another monk and I and six lay people and when we got to the Nepali border, man. Report an error in the passage at 12:04 Highlight the passage at 12:04

12:23 On Tibet, in Tibet, they didn't want monks. They wouldn't allow monks into Tibet. And so the other monk and I, we were escorted by armed guards out of Tibet back into Nepal. We were kicked out of Tibet. And then my next book is entitled, My Seven Hours in Tibet. Report an error in the passage at 12:23 Highlight the passage at 12:23

12:49 I'm going to make a movie of it. eh? Report an error in the passage at 12:49 Highlight the passage at 12:49

12:55 It was a big disappointment because you kind of really, you know, this going to Mount Kailash has been a kind of dream of my life. But yet it was very, you know, we went through northwest Nepal, right up in the Himalayan ranges, and you had to, and it was quite physically difficult because you were up at very high altitudes. Report an error in the passage at 12:55 Highlight the passage at 12:55

13:21 And I'm not very young anymore. I'm not. Report an error in the passage at 13:21 Highlight the passage at 13:21

13:30 had to kind of train for this, so I a lot of effort in it, and yet it was sometimes so utterly painful, you know, you're having to make yourself climb, and then the air gets thinner and thinner, and you think, why do I do these things, am I so crazy, I put myself in these positions where I'm so physically miserable and in pain and so and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 13:30 Highlight the passage at 13:30

13:57 forth. actually, if I stop thinking like that, you know, something in me really responds to a challenge. And I'm going again next year. Pray for me that the Chinese will let me in this time. Report an error in the passage at 13:57 Highlight the passage at 13:57

14:20 But this is, I'm quite willing to do it again. I wonder why do I want to do these things? But there is like, you know, life too comfortable. Report an error in the passage at 14:20 Highlight the passage at 14:20

14:34 I do like a challenge, something to push me a bit. And so like in monastic life also, you know, the life I live here is challenging. Because you're dealing with so many people and having to, To kind of open and receive and learn from so many unpredictable things that at first I used to find it frustrating and develop kind of aversion to a lot of the time. Report an error in the passage at 14:34 Highlight the passage at 14:34

15:08 But now, you know, just changing the attitude means that it's, you know, from just seeing it as a problem and a difficulty towards Something that you can receive and learn from, even though it is frustrating maybe or difficult. I can actually receive those, you know, I'm quite willing to let life be that way, rather than always try to find the easiest, most comfortable way to live for myself. Report an error in the passage at 15:08 Highlight the passage at 15:08

15:59 I can run along forever trying to give somebody a chance. Report an error in the passage at 15:59 Highlight the passage at 15:59

16:08 I get very long answers too. Short questions. Report an error in the passage at 16:08 Highlight the passage at 16:08

16:16 I'm aware of this. I'm trying to change. Report an error in the passage at 16:16 Highlight the passage at 16:16

16:21 Now Report an error in the passage at 16:21 Highlight the passage at 16:21

16:41 just notice now, no question comes to your mind. There's an empty-mindedness. Report an error in the passage at 16:41 Highlight the passage at 16:41

16:52 Some people tell me, they say, Ajahn Sumedho, I had so many questions when I knew I was going to see you. I had a whole list of questions and I can't think of one right now. Report an error in the passage at 16:52 Highlight the passage at 16:52

17:27 But Report an error in the passage at 17:27 Highlight the passage at 17:27

17:32 joy I find something that is, you know, it is from the emptiness of the mind. It's not like happiness where, like I would use the word happy for, like when I get something I want, I feel happy. Report an error in the passage at 17:32 Highlight the passage at 17:32

17:52 You know, so it's that kind of moment where somebody, you know, you get something that you want and then it makes you feel happy. Report an error in the passage at 17:52 Highlight the passage at 17:52

18:02 But then, of course, it doesn't last very long, you know, you've got to sustain. So you get people getting addicted to shopping, you know, they go and they have to keep buying things they want in order to feel, get addicted to this happiness of getting what you want. Report an error in the passage at 18:02 Highlight the passage at 18:02

18:22 But joy comes from, really from letting go and trusting. Like the faith and joy, that's why they connect in that particular sequence. Report an error in the passage at 18:22 Highlight the passage at 18:22

18:38 This faith isn't like holding to a belief, but more trusting in mindfulness and willing to let the problems or the difficulties be what they are, rather than thinking that you've got... You know, you're getting caught in this urge to solve them or get rid of them. Because that's how we're conditioned, you know, culturally conditioned to try, if something's wrong, we've got to make it right. Report an error in the passage at 18:38 Highlight the passage at 18:38

19:18 And if there's a problem, we've got to solve it. And we've got to have an answer for every question. And if there's something, you know, in the family or in the community or in the country, It shouldn't be this way. We've got to make it right so that it doesn't happen again. And we can get into a very kind of crusading mode. Report an error in the passage at 19:18 Highlight the passage at 19:18

19:47 And I've noticed in my monastic life, trying to, you know, having these ideas about how monasteries should be. You know, like a Buddhist monastery should be, we're all monks and nuns. We're all here to practice the dhamma. We're all keeping a high moral standard, a lot of integrity and so forth. And we should all have mettā for each other. Report an error in the passage at 19:47 Highlight the passage at 19:47

20:16 And, you know, these are ideals. We should all have compassion, karuṇā, and mettā, loving kindness. And we shouldn't fight and quarrel and look down on each other. And we shouldn't, and all these kind of shouldn'ts and shoulds. Report an error in the passage at 20:16 Highlight the passage at 20:16

20:37 So we all, you know, that's the ideal for the community. But then the reality is like this. Report an error in the passage at 20:37 Highlight the passage at 20:37

20:46 You know, people get very, you know, upset and around this or that or somebody doesn't show up on time or somebody doesn't do their chore or somebody doesn't, you know, and we get really, you know, full of... www .muslimcentral.com Not come in late, you know, and make a clatter. And you shouldn't, everybody like this morning, waiting for the monks to come in. Report an error in the passage at 20:46 Highlight the passage at 20:46

21:49 You know, lay people were all here, nuns were all here. Where were the monks? Lay people ready to ask for take the five precepts. Where were the monks? I felt this, where are those monks? They should be here on time. I'm going to make a statement. I want you monks to be here, get into my, on a high horse and demand that they fit this ideal. Report an error in the passage at 21:49 Highlight the passage at 21:49

22:20 But I know better than to do that, you know, because it's, you know, just, I can see, you know, how the mind does this, you know, how you can endlessly create a problem around. around things of that nature. So my attitude is much more of embracing it, you know, my own frustration as well as the that I'm frustrated with. Report an error in the passage at 22:20 Highlight the passage at 22:20

22:49 in that way I learn much more than when I'm just always trying to make things perfect and control and make everybody march in step. Report an error in the passage at 22:49 Highlight the passage at 22:49

23:00 Ajahn Chah had these metaphors, Report an error in the passage at 23:00 Highlight the passage at 23:00

23:06 Ajahn Sumedho was in Thailand and we started this Wat Phra Nanachap International Monastery which is still going strong in northeast Thailand. The idea was that I'd be the senior monk and the abbot of the monastery and that I'd run it along the lines of Ajahn Chah's monastery. And I'd never done anything like this before. Report an error in the passage at 23:06 Highlight the passage at 23:06

23:38 And so I, you know, I had ideals. I mean, I was even going to improve on Ajahn Chah's. Because there's certain things I didn't particularly like about Wat Pa Po and Ajahn Chah's. I was going to make them perfect for Wat Nanachat. And so full of this enthusiasm and youthful enthusiasm and idealism and then the realities of trying to establish that monastery. Report an error in the passage at 23:38 Highlight the passage at 23:38

24:06 monastery It was so frustrating and I just became so depressed by it. And so I remember going, you know, just because I was trying to create this really, you know, exemplary monastery. We foreign monks, we were going to show the Thai monks what a really good monastery is. Report an error in the passage at 24:06 Highlight the passage at 24:06

24:33 Very arrogant. Report an error in the passage at 24:33 Highlight the passage at 24:33

24:39 And we'd let them know where it's at, you know, exemplary monks. And so trying to put this into a practical situation didn't work. Report an error in the passage at 24:39 Highlight the passage at 24:39

24:54 And I just became totally frustrated because I was trying to, you know, force it, control it, make everything fit according to my ideas. And of course... Report an error in the passage at 24:54 Highlight the passage at 24:54

25:08 People resent that. You know, so you're having to live with people who don't particularly agree with my ideas. If you don't agree with my ideas, get out. I just want the ones that... I realize that's not right, you know. So then more and more I began to fully appreciate Luang Por Chah's style, which before I was critical of, then I began to realize there's a lot of wisdom there. Report an error in the passage at 25:08 Highlight the passage at 25:08

25:33 And he gave me this example. He says, you know, he says... Imagine, he says, you know, you have these monks, you know, so you ask them to lie down in a row and then you look and you look at all their feet and some feet are up here and others are down there and they're all over the place and it looks so messy. Report an error in the passage at 25:33 Highlight the passage at 25:33

25:54 You know, it's not beautiful to see because it's all helter-skelter. So you straighten out all the feet so that all the monks' feet are in perfect alignment. You look down and you think, oh, isn't that beautiful? You know, they've got the beautiful, Report an error in the passage at 25:54 Highlight the passage at 25:54

26:32 feet. Report an error in the passage at 26:32 Highlight the passage at 26:32

26:35 This was his way of saying it. Report an error in the passage at 26:35 Highlight the passage at 26:35

26:39 Life is like this, you know, nobody's going to fit the, there's no, you know, the different sizes and qualities and that are just the way life is and not to try to make it into something that it can't be. Report an error in the passage at 26:39 Highlight the passage at 26:39

27:04 Yes? I Report an error in the passage at 27:04 Highlight the passage at 27:04

27:20 can dump, the Buddha said when he was dying and His attendant Ananda asked, what are we going to do without our teacher? And he says, I leave you the Dhamma Vinaya. So this is the inheritance, you know, according to the scripture. Dhamma Vinaya was Dhamma and discipline. And then liberation comes through. Report an error in the passage at 27:20 Highlight the passage at 27:20

27:51 And this is the interesting thing. It's like Dhamma is letting go and Vinaya is attachment, like discipline. And so Luang Por Chah used to point this out. He says, you know, when you're practicing dharma, it's all about letting go. And then when you're talking about Vinaya, it's all about discipline, attaching. Report an error in the passage at 27:51 Highlight the passage at 27:51

28:15 You know, you can't do this, you've got to do it this way, and you can't do it that way. And it gets very nitpicky too. You can get really kind of refined rules and precepts. That one can get very, you know, fussy about. But the whole thing is, you know, like this play between attachment and non-attachment. Report an error in the passage at 28:15 Highlight the passage at 28:15

28:47 And so he would say, at first when you're learning the Vinaya, like when you're a new monk or nun, you attach to it, you know, really learn it in all its kind of details. Report an error in the passage at 28:47 Highlight the passage at 28:47

29:01 And refinement, really, you know, to do that you have to get very attached to it and really take an interest in it. And then, but then that's because then it's like a, the result of it, if you do it in the right way, is it's like learning how to play a musical instrument. You know, you have to... ...to do these boring exercises over and over again, you know, to get skill, you know, to be able to play the piano, you have to do quite boring things over and over and over again for hours, for days, for years. Report an error in the passage at 29:01 Highlight the passage at 29:01

29:41 And because it's through that skill that you're able to let go of those exercises, because in it you've developed a sense that... You can let go of the exercises and then the variations on the themes and the liberation comes through having trained in a way that you, you know, you're no longer just all over the place, you know, have no, can't do anything. Report an error in the passage at 29:41 Highlight the passage at 29:41

30:19 You don't train as a musician, you know, to play the piano properly. You can pound it or do like some modern musicians, take a sledgehammer and break up the piano and have a new kind of form of music that is called annihilation. Report an error in the passage at 30:19 Highlight the passage at 30:19

30:43 But if you want to play variations on themes, then it's to gain the skill to where you can let it go. And then it's much more like dhamma is knowing time and place. It's developing wisdom and satipanya, satisampacanya. Report an error in the passage at 30:43 Highlight the passage at 30:43

31:11 Then you feel this freedom in your life to adapt, to be able to... Report an error in the passage at 31:11 Highlight the passage at 31:11

31:21 Be aware of the time, the situation, the people you're with, so you're not rigidly trying to bend the world into the limitations of monastic rules, but you can more flow. You have guidelines. You have a freedom that you can enjoy without kind of just breaking the rules and just going over the top. You have a sense for and place and how to adapt, how to move and flow with the situation. Report an error in the passage at 31:21 Highlight the passage at 31:21

32:01 So, you know, I've seen some monks, you know, trained very strictly with the Vinaya and then they, you know, they can't adapt to anything until it just has to be like this, otherwise it's wrong. And so they blow up, you know, like... you know like One of the customs in Thailand was, in the forest tradition, you have this receiving cloth. Report an error in the passage at 32:01 Highlight the passage at 32:01

32:28 You have a little cloth. You're not supposed to receive directly from a woman. Even though, according to Vinaya, it's all right. Report an error in the passage at 32:28 Highlight the passage at 32:28

32:40 You receive something. Like if a man or woman wants to offer you something, you can receive it. But you're not supposed to touch. much and touch the body Report an error in the passage at 32:40 Highlight the passage at 32:40

32:54 So then this cloth, the Thais have kind of refined this rule so that you put out this cloth and then the woman's supposed to put the thing onto the cloth. And you're supposed to be within a forearm's length. So this from the elbow to the hand, tip of the finger is like a forearm's length. And so the ideal situation is I'm sitting here and a woman wants to come. I put out the cloth. She's supposed to come in within a forearm's length and raise this object and put it down on the cloth while I'm holding the cloth. Report an error in the passage at 32:54 Highlight the passage at 32:54

33:32 Now that's the perfect form. Report an error in the passage at 33:32 Highlight the passage at 33:32

33:38 So that's the ideal. Then in terms of the realities of life, you just do the best you can. You can't. Now you have to know time and place. Like in Thailand, for example, this perfect form is generally, especially people that go to forest monasteries, they know this, so this is what they expect. And so they get very rigid about it. It has to be like this, otherwise it's wrong. And so both monks and lay people get very kind of upset. Report an error in the passage at 33:38 Highlight the passage at 33:38

34:20 You know, if this doesn't happen perfectly, you know, so that if the woman is too far away, it's wrong. And that if she's, you know, she's standing too far away and offering it from a distance, and it's, come closer! By this time she's shaking, you know, and frightened out of her, and you absolutely ruined her day by yelling at her. And all she wants to do is offer you something nice. Report an error in the passage at 34:20 Highlight the passage at 34:20

34:49 Well, that's kind of, it's losing the point, isn't it? So, you know, in a place where people are trained to do that, then that's fine. But then I tell you, in other places where, like in Sri Lanka, they don't use a cloth. So then, you know, you put out the cloth and they don't even see it. dude. It's offered. Report an error in the passage at 34:49 Highlight the passage at 34:49

35:20 And then I'm like, I didn't receive it on a cloth. And then people get very upset, where to me it's more like I'm honoring the gesture and recognizing it within the limits of offering, so that I'm willing to adapt to a situation. Rather than kind of tyrannically make everybody do it in a way that they're not ready for that yet. Report an error in the passage at 35:20 Highlight the passage at 35:20

35:55 You know, they're not said, I want to be trained to do things in this perfect way. If they don't ask, then, you know, why should we, you know, it would be wrong to force it. Because your sense of, say, being a monk is... Report an error in the passage at 35:55 Highlight the passage at 35:55

36:13 It's to be someone who's easy to take care of, you know, someone whose needs are minimal, easy to take care of, and who has gratitude for the generosity that's extended to them. So these are the guidelines, you know, to have this sense of appreciation and respect and gratitude for the generosity and the offering. Report an error in the passage at 36:13 Highlight the passage at 36:13

36:43 And to try to convey it so the person offering isn't left with a lot of guilt and fear. Maybe he did something wrong. And so these are ways of learning how to use the discipline as a guideline and as a standard or a criteria. Report an error in the passage at 36:43 Highlight the passage at 36:43

37:12 But it can't be absolute. You've got to allow for time and place, for different situations, for different cultural conditions and so forth. And this takes satipanya then, mindfulness and wisdom. And that's the dhamma then. So like for a monk, like the Vinaya training in it is like going through boot camp or... Report an error in the passage at 37:12 Highlight the passage at 37:12

37:44 Going to play the piano, going to a good musical school and getting that kind of training. But then for one's life, you have to be able to trust in awareness and satipanya, to be able to adapt, to move, to flow with the conditions around that you can't control, are beyond your control. Report an error in the passage at 37:44 Highlight the passage at 37:44

38:13 Does that answer the question? Report an error in the passage at 38:13 Highlight the passage at 38:13

38:18 It's like being a monk, like being a Buddhist monk is a kind of, it's like a dance almost, you know, it's an art form, you can look at it, it's something you're learning, like the whole idea is to live in a way that you're not conveying an aggressive presence, like shaving head. hand in our Like in tropical countries, you go barefoot. You don't wear socks or shoes. You wear little flip-flops and take your shoes off or your flip-flops off when you go in. Report an error in the passage at 38:18 Highlight the passage at 38:18

39:04 And you're wearing these robes, a kind of very impractical garment. You can't run in or anything. You can't swing from the trees. The other one, we've got a... You always have this sense that it's going to fall off anyway. You're wearing very impractical kind of clothing. And then you learn to present yourself in a way that doesn't convey the body language. Report an error in the passage at 39:04 Highlight the passage at 39:04

39:35 It's not supposed to be aggressive. I remember when I first ordained, you know, In Thailand and walking out and I was walking in my American style, very aggressive style, because when I was a teenager, about 13 years old, I deliberately cultivated what I thought was a really macho walk. Report an error in the passage at 39:35 Highlight the passage at 39:35

39:59 Because when you're in puberty and you want to be a man, and so I developed what I thought was really aggressive, like a cowboy, walking with stiff shoulders. Report an error in the passage at 39:59 Highlight the passage at 39:59

40:14 So anyway, when I became a monk, this didn't look very good. Report an error in the passage at 40:14 Highlight the passage at 40:14

40:23 And in Thailand, they didn't like it at all. So I tried to find a different way of moving. Things like this are quite subtle, but they do have an effect on the mind, even how you move yourself. Report an error in the passage at 40:23 Highlight the passage at 40:23

40:45 and then in the idea of the Developing this awareness so that the monastic presence, say Buddhist monasticism in England, is given, even in its body language, in its presence, a sense of peaceful composure rather than of aggressive, you know, threatening, divisive behavior. Report an error in the passage at 40:45 Highlight the passage at 40:45

41:12 Because here in Britain there's so much of that already, so many kind of threatening things and ways of presenting yourself in class preferences and identities and trying to look better than somebody else or be powerful and impressive or important. Where the idea of the Buddhist Samana is not that. It's like a mendicant, one who has joy in their life, but who's not a Report an error in the passage at 41:12 Highlight the passage at 41:12

42:00 divisive force, not a contending force, not something here to create more problems, more divisions in this society, but something that can... Bless the society, help the society, enhance the British society rather than harm it. That's what I hope we're doing. Yes? Well, Report an error in the passage at 42:00 Highlight the passage at 42:00

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43:56 it's an interesting question because you're dealing with celibacy, celibate lifestyle. anyway. Report an error in the passage at 43:56 Highlight the passage at 43:56

· · · silence, 2 minutes

44:10 And it's very strict, this celibate lifestyle of a Buddhist monk and nun. So it's just a protection from temptation. And especially when you're young, young monks, and you've got the life energies, the lustful forces, the sexual desires, and that are very overwhelming for many men. And so physical contact with women can be very arousing to them. And so this is just a way of trying to prevent that. Report an error in the passage at 44:10 Highlight the passage at 44:10

44:59 Sometimes modern women take it personally, like we think there's something wrong with them. It's not that. It's because women are so attractive, really. Report an error in the passage at 44:59 Highlight the passage at 44:59

45:16 It's not. Report an error in the passage at 45:16 Highlight the passage at 45:16

45:38 They're very refined, really. Their etiquette, social etiquette, is incredibly refined. And when you're living there, you develop the way they move. They have lovely gestures and ways of moving the body that are very beautiful and quite refined. So they tend to refine. define the discipline even more than it needs to be. Report an error in the passage at 45:38 Highlight the passage at 45:38

46:12 then it gets almost like, then it becomes, it has to be like this, you know, otherwise it's wrong. So like sometimes... get very upset when you receive something directly because they think you've done something wrong. Report an error in the passage at 46:12 Highlight the passage at 46:12

46:29 according to the Vinaya, in the scriptures, you can receive something directly from a woman. There's nothing... There's no prohibition against that. It's not like it's wrong according to Vinaya, but it put to this Thai sense of Vinaya. The refining of it makes them feel very uncomfortable when that happens. And this is just to show how the more refined you get, the more you suffer too. Report an error in the passage at 46:29 Highlight the passage at 46:29

47:02 Because if you want life too refined, then it... Then you feel very threatened by the coarseness of anything. Report an error in the passage at 47:02 Highlight the passage at 47:02

47:18 When Thai Report an error in the passage at 47:18 Highlight the passage at 47:18

47:32 monks come to the West sometimes they find it quite difficult to deal with because the mindset is so developed around the way you do it there. anything it's Report an error in the passage at 47:32 Highlight the passage at 47:32

· · · silence, 1 minute

47:48 And then it takes a while to be able to, I mean it's like to change, to trust in this awareness to me is the important thing, rather than trying to do everything right according to the discipline. Report an error in the passage at 47:48 Highlight the passage at 47:48

48:05 Because if I take that perspective, then I become very controlling and very threatened by things when they get out of my control. Report an error in the passage at 48:05 Highlight the passage at 48:05

48:19 like it. If I get very attached to a certain way of doing everything, and it has to be like this, then I feel very threatened when I can't control it anymore. And so a lot of that fear and resentment arise. So just noticing that, how I said, it's been I here to make life more difficult. Report an error in the passage at 48:19 Highlight the passage at 48:19

48:46 threatened, or is it to help me towards mindfulness? I decided, I'm going to use this mindfulness, not to just some kind of perfect Buddhist monk Report an error in the passage at 48:46 Highlight the passage at 48:46

49:01 try to hold myself within a rigid standard of ideal form and not be able to adapt to necessity, the conditions. feeling threatened or guilty. It's a kind of an awakening process where you begin to know that I trust the Buddha's wisdom is for liberation, not just to bind us to a disciplinary system. And this makes us feel guilty and threatened all the time. Yes? Report an error in the passage at 49:01 Highlight the passage at 49:01

· · · silence, 1 minute

50:29 Well, I mean, it's not that the older monks do that. I mean, the ones that get very hold on to the system a lot. Well, Report an error in the passage at 50:29 Highlight the passage at 50:29

50:51 it wasn't like... No, it was... Because they weren't like... It wasn't a real negative thing. It was more... It was more amused. Report an error in the passage at 50:51 Highlight the passage at 50:51

51:08 And I was the first Westerner they had to deal with. I'm pretty big. And they found that very amusing. And you did have to develop humor. I mean, I learned to laugh at myself because I could have allowed myself to be offended or I could just laugh with them. And basically I trusted them because they were incredibly good to me. Report an error in the passage at 51:08 Highlight the passage at 51:08

51:44 Well, you've got to recognize Thailand is a Buddhist country, so there's a lot there that is culturally attuned. So it's not like when you come from a non-Buddhist country or from a European country, Western country, and you're going into the Thai system, you're not attuned to it. So you're... Report an error in the passage at 51:44 Highlight the passage at 51:44

52:16 because you don't quite know what to do. with them, they flow with it. It's the way they think, the way their cultural values are. And Thailand is a country that is Report an error in the passage at 52:16 Highlight the passage at 52:16

52:44 small and don't have that much presence in the society they're not you know they're not particularly noticeable and so there's a lot of homogeneity in the in the culture and because of that then it's easy to just take it for granted you see you're not getting challenged that much by different groups where in Sri Lanka, for example, where they've had to deal a lot with the Christian missionaries, it's very, the attitude's very different, where they've, there's a lot of, and they have quite a large Muslim population, and Tamil, and Christian, so that you, you know, they've been challenged much more on how to, you know, how to deal with other influences. Report an error in the passage at 52:44 Highlight the passage at 52:44

53:38 And then as you, you know, as you are more sophisticated, you know, you find you can adapt to, you know, like I've been living in so many, you know, in foreign countries and that I can move with whatever quite easily because I, you know, I know how, I know how to adapt. But some people who are very, you know, live in a very small place, then they go, Like I took a group of English people in the early 80s to Thailand and some of them had never been out of England before and suddenly they were in tropical country and they didn't understand the language and they were in a Buddhist monastery in northeast Thailand and several of them just freaked out. Report an error in the passage at 53:38 Highlight the passage at 53:38

54:34 This went, you know, screamed and just couldn't cope with the mosquitoes or the heat or because they had no, you know, they just couldn't, they didn't know how to adapt to it and they just felt threatened and that all the things they depended on for security weren't there anymore. So it's very frightening. It's like with the internet and Mass media, there is a kind of more, you know, the world is becoming more, you know, the information flows much more quickly and so people are much more sophisticated now than they were, say, 50 years ago. Report an error in the passage at 54:34 Highlight the passage at 54:34

55:54 You know, I like challenges. Because it makes life interesting, you know. I used to sometimes want that because a part of me, there's a kind of desire to just feel safe and secure in a very controlled situation where I never have to stretch. Everything is done perfectly and I never have to question or doubt anything. And so that is one kind of part of me. Report an error in the passage at 55:54 Highlight the passage at 55:54

56:49 But then Ajahn Chah was one of these people that would never let me go that direction. So he was always kind of throwing me into situations that challenged me. And I used to feel quite resentful of it, you know, but I had a lot of, basically I trusted him, so I would do what he wanted, because I did have a basic trust and respect, even though I didn't particularly agree or want to do that. Report an error in the passage at 56:49 Highlight the passage at 56:49

57:31 But now, looking back, I'm grateful, because it has stretched me to... To be able to feel at ease in situations that 30 years ago I would have been totally unable of accommodating. Report an error in the passage at 57:31 Highlight the passage at 57:31

57:52 Well, it's, you know, he was only one man, and so it, and he, but he was very good. I was, since I was the first Western disciple, I got a lot of attention and a lot of... A lot of personal attention. But he did, he was, you know, his whole attitude was a kind of exemplary one where we took our cues from his style. Report an error in the passage at 57:52 Highlight the passage at 57:52

58:24 And even though we have different characters, but Luang Por Chah would always allow, you know, like a monastery also changes according to the character of the head monk. So, I mean, you have, like you go to Chithurst and Ajahn Sajjito's character is very different from mine. So it has, that influences a lot. But that's allowable. I mean, because we can't help that. Report an error in the passage at 58:24 Highlight the passage at 58:24

58:53 It's not like we're trying to, you know, do things, trying to make everything follow my way, but it just happens that way because we're basically using the same tools, but the same. Report an error in the passage at 58:53 Highlight the passage at 58:53

59:07 But it's like in Buddha Dhamma there's room for everything. So there is room for the hermits and the, you know, the people who bark in the little monasteries that never challenge and there's room for the ones that move out and challenge life or here in the West it's, you Report an error in the passage at 59:07 Highlight the passage at 59:07

59:34 know, for me it's just very interesting to be In such a position where you're also so aware of the other religions, where Buddhism isn't the dominant form here, where it's a very minor religion and on the edges of everything. everything, where you're, and where you, you know, the, the... You're a kind of anachronism in the society. You don't fit. You're kind of an oddball on the freaky fringe of the society. Report an error in the passage at 59:34 Highlight the passage at 59:34

1:00:17 But I like that. It's not something I can't cope with. And it's interesting because you feel like Buddhism does offer a perspective. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:17 Highlight the passage at 1:00:17

1:00:32 That is helpful in this society. You know, I feel like I'm really here to help, to be a benefit to this society, rather than here just to manipulate the society and make everybody into a Buddhist and to contend with the other religions. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:32 Highlight the passage at 1:00:32

1:00:52 I wouldn't be here if that's what I was expected to do. Like I think with Buddhism, it's a sense of of helping to bring harmony and peace and unity rather than becoming competitive and converting people, causing more divisions. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:52 Highlight the passage at 1:00:52

1:01:43 Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:01:43 Highlight the passage at 1:01:43

1:01:50 my gratitude is just lovely for its own sake, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:01:50 Highlight the passage at 1:01:50

1:02:00 You know, in terms of directing it towards, you know, just life itself or Buddha or dharma or God, you know, it doesn't matter really. But it is, you know, when you have that feeling of gratitude, your heart's very open and it's its own reward really. Because you, you know, like being grateful, what do you mean by expressing gratitude to God? Report an error in the passage at 1:02:00 Highlight the passage at 1:02:00

1:02:31 Is it where God is, yeah, is the unknown, isn't the thing we can conceive of, is there anything, but it's a presence that we feel. And that presence, what do you call it, dhamma or God or whatever, it doesn't need a name. And you can give it a name if you want, but oftentimes by naming it, then you're limiting too much. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:31 Highlight the passage at 1:02:31

1:03:04 But if you see God as an expression of the universal, rather than as some kind of patriarchal figure, then that's more how I would see it. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:04 Highlight the passage at 1:03:04

1:03:32 Well, it's like at first, we talk about going inwards, because most people are pulled out. You're always looking away towards something. So we talk about... Looking inwards, but actually it's one thing. You're getting beyond that sense of inward, outward. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:32 Highlight the passage at 1:03:32

1:03:57 But it's just an expedient way of talking to stop yourself and just looking for God and things out there, something, you know, to start being more centered here, more aware of what you're actually feeling and your habits and your... Emotions and other than, say, how we're mainly culturally conditioned is looking for something in a distant place so we don't see what's right here. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:57 Highlight the passage at 1:03:57

1:04:38 One of the biggest problems with us in meditation, we try too hard. You know, Western people, they just, we're so goal-oriented and so, you know, we put a lot of effort and we just try too hard. We miss the point. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:38 Highlight the passage at 1:04:38

1:04:56 There's learning like with Westerners, trying to get them to not try so hard. Relax more. Trust more. You know, these words like this. You have to use words like relax, take it easy, trust, you know. Okay, now really concentrate your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:56 Highlight the passage at 1:04:56

1:05:19 And then everybody goes, contracts like this. You know, they get really into a... Report an error in the passage at 1:05:19 Highlight the passage at 1:05:19

1:05:56 You're never going to get anywhere, but if you really get in there and concentrate your mind, you're going to get something. And then, you know, what does that do? Well, for me, you know, speaking for myself, I mean, I'm quite, you know, I've done that. I've tried meditation as an attack, and it doesn't work. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:56 Highlight the passage at 1:05:56

1:06:28 You know, I just get a headache and I begin to hate meditation. So, you know, the result was terrible. And because, you know, like from my background, you're very, like the American way of thinking is very aggressive, very competitive. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:28 Highlight the passage at 1:06:28

1:06:54 So I've had to develop more, like, relaxed trust. And part of me doesn't want to relax, trust. I want to really apply myself and get something, is how I used to see it. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:54 Highlight the passage at 1:06:54

1:07:17 And sometimes I'd really do that, and I'd get something. I'd get some real good concentration by doing a lot of ascetic practices. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:17 Highlight the passage at 1:07:17

1:07:32 I'd fast. I would do a lot of concentration practice. I wouldn't talk to anybody. And then I'd get very concentrated, but then I'd lose it. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:32 Highlight the passage at 1:07:32

1:07:50 Like Linpoche charge, I was always saying, whatever you get, you're going to lose. And he was right. So through hard work and an enormous amount of effort and control, I could get some good result. But then I'd lose it. So I began to see that he was pointing not toward that, not towards gain, but towards a sense of trust and openness that I felt very threatened by. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:50 Highlight the passage at 1:07:50

1:08:24 You know, like the self is very protective. You know, I've got to protect myself because I don't know about you. You might want to harm me in some way. And this world is a very threatening world, and there's a lot of dangers out there. And if I don't protect myself, I expose myself, I'm open and vulnerable. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:24 Highlight the passage at 1:08:24

1:08:47 That's very frightening from my personal way of looking at life. And then in becoming a Buddhist monk, what do you do? You make yourself even more vulnerable. You put on a funny looking robe, shave your head, and then walk down the street and people look at you as if you're mad, or they think you're Hare Krishna, or they think, you know, they've got all these different ways of looking at you in a way that you, you know, partly would like to just put on a decent pair of trousers and just... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:47 Highlight the passage at 1:08:47

1:09:35 just fade into the crowd than stand out. But in this kind of vulnerable state where you stand out, you're not supposed to carry any dangerous weapons or anything like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:35 Highlight the passage at 1:09:35

1:09:53 then, these are the cues. I found that this also tends to have You know, that it's true. If you begin to trust and have faith in the dharma or in God or whatever, then Report an error in the passage at 1:09:53 Highlight the passage at 1:09:53

1:10:25 you're willing to let go of all your defensive habits and your suitable armor you can throw away. You can be quite vulnerable, open and be vulnerable. And then the result of that, I find, is an increasing sense of joy and compassion and love come from that. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:25 Highlight the passage at 1:10:25

1:10:54 When I was in the suit of armor, you know, protecting myself, and people talked about love, I didn't know what they were talking about. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:54 Highlight the passage at 1:10:54

1:11:11 You can't love anything, even yourself, if you're in this state. And joy is not a part of your life. You just have no joy at all because your whole effort is on controlling and protecting. So it's just an interesting experiment like with becoming a Buddhist monk and as an alms mendicant where you depend on Report an error in the passage at 1:11:11 Highlight the passage at 1:11:11

1:11:42 For survival, on the goodness of other people, you're in a very vulnerable position in every way. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:42 Highlight the passage at 1:11:42

1:11:53 And meditation isn't, you know, shut the world out and control everything and leave me alone. It's more and more this sense of opening to everything and trusting and relaxing. And then the result is liberation, the sense of being liberated. Very Report an error in the passage at 1:11:53 Highlight the passage at 1:11:53

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:13:10 good question. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:10 Highlight the passage at 1:13:10

1:13:14 Well, I'd say this attitude is for the liberation. And then from that, you can do what you need to do in the world. world. you know, what... And so you can apply yourself to what you need to do in a worldly way. If you've got to organize something, then you've got to do that in a way. You can't just relax and let things organize themselves. So you apply some kind of effort. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:14 Highlight the passage at 1:13:14

1:13:58 But that's towards, say, worldly conditions. So you know what you're doing. themselves. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:58 Highlight the passage at 1:13:58

1:14:04 But you're not binding yourself to it anymore. You can let it go. And so when you need to apply and you need to put that intense effort into something, you can do it. And much better because you're not just overloaded with it anymore. You've got space. I find, like, when university students come here, they're so oftentimes stressed with passing exams, and there's so much having to learn and do things to get through the system, to get the good grades and pass the examinations. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:04 Highlight the passage at 1:14:04

1:15:05 And so I keep encouraging them to practice meditation, too, because it's a balance. The one thing, they're just getting so tense through just trying so hard to get through the system, to pass the exam, get the degree. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:05 Highlight the passage at 1:15:05

1:15:23 But, you know, I see a balance point if they can let that go and meditate. It gives them even a better perspective and better skills to deal with the necessities of university life. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:23 Highlight the passage at 1:15:23

1:15:43 So it's like a balancing thing. You find a sense of having a way of being in the world without carrying it on your back all the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:43 Highlight the passage at 1:15:43

1:16:05 I've been able to put it down. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:05 Highlight the passage at 1:16:05

1:16:34 Because the world is very intimidating, you know, it's very, yeah. It's, you know, it's really, you've got to, you know, it's got these hard lines. They're very, very intimidating. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:34 Highlight the passage at 1:16:34

1:16:53 And that's why you need to realize that it's not really that important, you know. What's really important is your Report an error in the passage at 1:16:53 Highlight the passage at 1:16:53

1:17:20 sense of doing the best you can rather than, I've got to do the best to improve and get it into an obsessive state. And so many people, you know, break down. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:20 Highlight the passage at 1:17:20

1:17:34 They destroy themselves through trying too hard. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:34 Highlight the passage at 1:17:34

1:17:45 Yes, it was. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:45 Highlight the passage at 1:17:45

1:17:52 I couldn't have done it if I hadn't. remember when we moved here, you know, and we were chit-hursts, Report an error in the passage at 1:17:52 Highlight the passage at 1:17:52

1:18:05 I really, you know, I was very attached to that place and was just becoming livable, you know, this derelict house was just becoming... Quite nice place to live in. And then I had to move. And then I had to start living in these kind of buildings, barracks. It looked like an army camp or something. And the winter, that winter was really cold and nasty. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:05 Highlight the passage at 1:18:05

1:18:36 And it was so depressing here. And I was sitting in here. I had a fireplace back here. Everybody cold and gray. I had these lights outside. I had this kind of yellow, sickly yellow light. And then it snowed that winter, this kind of Siberian freeze. And you got there and there's ice and snow, this sickly yellow color on the... This is the most depressing place I've ever been in. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:36 Highlight the passage at 1:18:36

1:19:12 And then all the plumbing froze. And there's so many toilets and things in this place. The monks had to crawl under all the buildings and try to rescue the plumbing. It was a disaster. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:12 Highlight the passage at 1:19:12

1:19:33 But Report an error in the passage at 1:19:33 Highlight the passage at 1:19:33

1:19:38 basically, because of the meditation, and we didn't know what to do. When we first came here, it was all these buildings, and we didn't know what we were going to do with it. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:38 Highlight the passage at 1:19:38

1:19:51 And we went through a lot of trial and error. But now, the result's very good, you see, so, you know, we're enjoying the results of it now, as a place, as a place to live, a place to train, a place to teach. It's excellent, you know, really good, wonderful place. But, I mean, it's, the meditation was always the essence of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:51 Highlight the passage at 1:19:51

1:20:30 And I never saw it otherwise. I've always had that sense. Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:20:30 Highlight the passage at 1:20:30

1:20:52 things change. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:52 Highlight the passage at 1:20:52

1:20:56 Well, in building this temple, that was the idea of building a temple. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:56 Highlight the passage at 1:20:56

1:21:07 And then I'd never built anything. And when the architect told me what it was going to cost, I nearly... anything, or you know, just... Report an error in the passage at 1:21:07 Highlight the passage at 1:21:07

1:21:21 I nearly ran away. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:21 Highlight the passage at 1:21:21

1:21:25 I did have faith, though. Something in me trusted in it. And the thing of it was that it all went very well. And the people donated, and we didn't have to hardly ever fundraise or anything. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:25 Highlight the passage at 1:21:25

1:21:55 Because everything's free will. You don't charge. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:55 Highlight the passage at 1:21:55

1:22:09 people or you know pressuring them and so it just seemed to flow and by the time it was built there was no debt there's no debt and uh... just seemed to be the appropriate thing to do Report an error in the passage at 1:22:09 Highlight the passage at 1:22:09

1:22:28 Judging it from a limited personality, it was very worrisome. Because my personality couldn't really see things in a very... What if it fails? What if it's a mess? What if it's a disaster and everybody's blaming you? And if it all fails, you're going to be the one blamed for it. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:28 Highlight the passage at 1:22:28

1:22:58 and it's horrible. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:58 Highlight the passage at 1:22:58

1:23:23 probably the best place on this planet for meditation, me anyway. no... mean, when I enter that... The temple is just like the world drops. It's just so easy to sit there and go into stillness. It's the easiest place to meditate I've ever been in anywhere. Yeah? Right. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:23 Highlight the passage at 1:23:23

1:24:21 You should have kicked him out. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:21 Highlight the passage at 1:24:21

1:24:35 Say, I'm going to tell Ajahn Sumedho. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:35 Highlight the passage at 1:24:35

1:24:47 In Report an error in the passage at 1:24:47 Highlight the passage at 1:24:47

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:25:51 Hempstead, it was... Report an error in the passage at 1:25:51 Highlight the passage at 1:25:51

1:26:01 Ajahn that needed a lot of work. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:01 Highlight the passage at 1:26:01

1:26:32 so it... It's one of those Georgian townhouses, you know. One monk described it as like living in a cupboard. Four floors, you know, little rooms. And it was a good place to begin, you know, to start out. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:32 Highlight the passage at 1:26:32

1:27:00 And we had Hampstead Heath, so we used to, you know, walk up in the morning on Hampstead Heath. And it was always enjoyable, happy memories of waking up there. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:00 Highlight the passage at 1:27:00

1:27:17 it's on Hempstead Heath that we met the gentleman who gave us the property down in West Sussex. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:17 Highlight the passage at 1:27:17

1:27:27 then we're from the Thai forest tradition, which is, you know, we live in forests, so... Report an error in the passage at 1:27:27 Highlight the passage at 1:27:27

1:27:49 away Report an error in the passage at 1:27:49 Highlight the passage at 1:27:49

1:27:53 when we when we arrived in England we didn't know that's all we had was his house in Hampstead we didn't you know we've we just didn't know what what was going to happen we during that that for the first year at the end of the first year we We met somebody who gave us the forest in Hammerwood in West Sussex. It Report an error in the passage at 1:27:53 Highlight the passage at 1:27:53

1:28:29 was two years. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:29 Highlight the passage at 1:28:29

1:28:35 I mean, it had been a Buddhist mihara from 1960, I think. From the 70s or something. But it had never really... It had kind of gone through various stages of... of where there were monks and there wasn't anybody and by the time I came there was it had been really there was nobody living in it and they just more or less closed the doors and were waiting for something else so Report an error in the passage at 1:28:35 Highlight the passage at 1:28:35

1:29:18 so when I came then they were quite the English Saṅgha Trust was invited me to come and live there And they came to Thailand to see Ajahn Chah. And then we came in 1977. We came together and he asked me to stay on at that place. But within two years we could move from there. It Report an error in the passage at 1:29:18 Highlight the passage at 1:29:18

1:30:00 used to be an interesting place because you had... I mean, sometimes you'd get people shooting up heroin. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:00 Highlight the passage at 1:30:00

1:30:14 Get drunks from across the Report an error in the passage at 1:30:14 Highlight the passage at 1:30:14

1:30:21 Haverstock Arms, the pub across the street. And then there's Haverstock Hill, right across. We call ourselves the Haverstock Arms. And then there's the Haverstock Arms. Arms. And Report an error in the passage at 1:30:21 Highlight the passage at 1:30:21

1:30:46 the Haverstock Arms used to have live music sometimes. It was horrible. It was used to... really be challenging to our mental practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:46 Highlight the passage at 1:30:46

1:31:02 Ajahn Chah was visiting and it was a hot day, you know, so we had the windows open in the shrine room and there were quite a few people there and Ajahn Chah was sitting there and we were practicing meditation and then the Havastak alms ...across the street this rock band was playing, and they were playing this horrible music. It wasn't even good rock music, it was terrible rock music, kind of cacophonous, loud, unpleasant, and everybody was sitting like this, and they were all looking really tense and upset, and Lungphacha was sitting there. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:02 Highlight the passage at 1:31:02

1:31:52 And anyway, we were very distressed by this, and... And he kept sitting there and didn't ring the bell, you know. When's he going to ring the bell? This is horrible, you know. So we waited and waited and waited, and then finally he did ring the bell. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:52 Highlight the passage at 1:31:52

1:32:10 And somebody said, Ajahn Chah, we're very sorry for that noisy music. It comes in, it annoys us. And his great reply was, He says, you think the music annoys you, but you're actually annoying the music. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:10 Highlight the passage at 1:32:10

1:32:36 That whole insight, that was really quite, I saw that. I saw how I was annoying, I was so annoyed with the music. I was creating the suffering, not the music. I saw that as a real, you know, how those kind of things, if they catch you at the right time, you really can see it. Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:32:36 Highlight the passage at 1:32:36

1:33:04 I think it's time to sit here all evening and million Report an error in the passage at 1:33:04 Highlight the passage at 1:33:04

1:33:30 pounds. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:30 Highlight the passage at 1:33:30