Breathing Spirit Into Form (1990)

0:00 Ajahn want to welcome you all to Amaravati's afternoon. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

· · · silence, 1 minute

0:37 pleasant occasion in every way when Report an error in the passage at 0:37 Highlight the passage at 0:37

0:54 we're contemplating and reflecting on dharma and to have a title for a talk like breathing spirit into the form gives a kind of beginning point to reflect from because spirit and breath and form all these are Oftentimes words that we can take for granted, that we know the meaning, are quite ordinary common words that we use, and therefore can not really be appreciated in any profound way. Report an error in the passage at 0:54 Highlight the passage at 0:54

1:36 But in the development of profound wisdom and understanding of life, the spirit and the form are... These are very significant words. Report an error in the passage at 1:36 Highlight the passage at 1:36

1:55 Also the breath, breathing, is a focus in Buddhism. We focus on the breath as an object that we concentrate our attention on. It's just the breathing of our own body. And this sometimes seems quite baffling to many people because breathing is such an ordinary thing. And such an uninteresting function. It's not interesting like eating. Eating can be very interesting, but breathing is generally pretty boring for most people. Report an error in the passage at 1:55 Highlight the passage at 1:55

2:37 And the spirit. And spirit is another word for the breath. And we talk about spiritual. And these words relate to that which animates and vivifies life. Report an error in the passage at 2:37 Highlight the passage at 2:37

3:14 as soon as you breathe into a form or put a spirit, put your spirit into what you're doing, if you say you have a spirit or you're spirited person, Report an error in the passage at 3:14 Highlight the passage at 3:14

3:28 means that you there is a An animation, a quality that we relate to something alive, something that gives meaning and purpose to the forms that we're in. Report an error in the passage at 3:28 Highlight the passage at 3:28

3:47 And we can talk about a human being who's lost their spirit, and even though they're breathing, they're going through the motions of breathing and eating, being awake and sleeping, Something has, they've lost that in them which gives their form, their life, a quality. Report an error in the passage at 3:47 Highlight the passage at 3:47

4:14 They're merely going through the motions, just riding on a wave of life, but they're not putting anything into it. We can become dispirited or spiritless through depression, through loss of interest, through failure, through... When life sometimes treats us in a way that we're unprepared for, unwanted, then we can lose our spirit and become really like cowed forms, creatures, human creatures that just kind of drift through a life span and it has no meaning, no purpose. Report an error in the passage at 4:14 Highlight the passage at 4:14

4:56 We give it no beauty, no truth, no radiance comes from it. Report an error in the passage at 4:56 Highlight the passage at 4:56

5:06 But the human spirit is one that we can relate to, something we can call upon, we can will it to appear. The very fact that we have a will, we can choose, we can put attention on something, we can choose this over that, we can take an interest, we can absorb ourselves into a form of... Either a material form or an intellectual form. But when we do that, then something happens. Report an error in the passage at 5:06 Highlight the passage at 5:06

5:46 The form springs to life. It has a radiant quality. The form is a container for the spirit. And when the spirit fills out the form, then you get what we would say a spiritual being, a human being with a spirit. Report an error in the passage at 5:46 Highlight the passage at 5:46

6:08 And a spirit that is relating to something higher than just animal instinct or gross desires of the sensory realm, when we're talking about spiritual development, we're talking about how we relate to divinity or transcendence, such as in any religion. Any religion that is a proper religion is that Those conventions or forms which relate us and remind us of our relationship to a transcendent reality or ultimate reality or the absolute or divinity, whatever words you may choose to express that relationship. Report an error in the passage at 6:08 Highlight the passage at 6:08

7:05 One thing like being a Buddhist monk. One can ordain as a Buddhist monk. Just go through, you mumble the formulas. And you go through the ceremony, and before this all happens, they shave off your hair, you put on a robe, you mumble through the ceremony, then you're called a Buddhist monk. But then you could spend the rest of your life just absolutely being a spiritless, institutionalized Buddhist monk. Report an error in the passage at 7:05 Highlight the passage at 7:05

7:42 You're just going through the motions. You might obey all the rules and do all the things you're told to do, but there's nothing that you're putting into it. You're merely kind of going along with it and there's nothing you're adding to it. And this is what we would refer to in modern terms as institutionalizing a human being, where you just get kind of conditioned to act and think and move like a Buddhist monk. Report an error in the passage at 7:42 Highlight the passage at 7:42

8:16 But there's no spirit, there's no spirit into the form. So sometimes religious forms can be criticized by people. Many people are very critical of religious forms because they see that that's oftentimes what happens to people in religions. They merely become conditioned and institutionalized and converted into another form. Report an error in the passage at 8:16 Highlight the passage at 8:16

8:45 But it's lacking, it's merely a form without a spirit. Even though the form might be a beautiful form, religious forms usually are quite beautiful in their appearance. But the individual being has not contributed anything to the form. It's merely a form without a spirit. And one just becomes becomes or other. Report an error in the passage at 8:45 Highlight the passage at 8:45

9:20 Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent. Being one who shaves his head, puts on an ochre robe, and takes the form of the Buddhist monk, the bhikkhu, and breathes the spirit into the form. Really using the conventions, developing the conventions, contemplating, putting the breath of life into the conventional forms of a bhikkhu. Report an error in the passage at 9:20 Highlight the passage at 9:20

10:23 Now this is... This is possible also. This is what I hope most of us are doing here. Report an error in the passage at 10:23 Highlight the passage at 10:23

10:40 Sometimes they were the nuns. People talk about, why can't we revive the bhikkhuni order? In our form of Buddhism, Theravāda Buddhism, we lost the bhikkhuni order. The Buddha established a female counterpart to the bhikkhu called the bhikkhuni. And it somehow disappeared years ago. The form disappeared and the spirit along with it. So then we've established what we call the ten precepts, sīla-dhara here at Amaravati. Report an error in the passage at 10:40 Highlight the passage at 10:40

11:20 But what's more important than trying to re-establish a form that no longer exists or nobody quite knows what happened to it is to... Use the form we have and put the spirit into it. If that works, then that is right. That is what will be of value, be of benefit to the individuals involved as well as the people that are in touch, in contact with them. Report an error in the passage at 11:20 Highlight the passage at 11:20

11:54 The same applies to, say, the anegarikas, the eight precepts, novices, men and women, can just become Just go through the motions of it, riding along and not breathe life into the form. Report an error in the passage at 11:54 Highlight the passage at 11:54

12:15 Or they can. And that also applies to lay people, men and women, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, whatever, whatever religion. If we decide, if we realize we have this ability to Breathe life, breathe a spirit back into these forms. Then we are one who is moving toward a transcendent realization, a way out of just attachment to the form itself. Report an error in the passage at 12:15 Highlight the passage at 12:15

12:53 Because the form itself cannot be an end in itself. It's merely a means. And when the form becomes the end, rather than the means, then it... Then it only is a dead form because all forms are transient, impermanent, ephemeral, even as an unsatisfactory. Even the best forms in themselves cannot be an end. Report an error in the passage at 12:53 Highlight the passage at 12:53

13:23 If they are, then it only takes us to death and decay and despair. So the secret to spiritual life is using the forms. But it's our breath. Our life force that we're putting into the forms. We're not expecting the forms to breathe life into us. That's superstition, isn't it? Where I become a Buddhist monk thinking that it's going to transform me into something else. There's some magical ceremony, some kind of outer force. Report an error in the passage at 13:23 Highlight the passage at 13:23

13:58 That's by putting on the yellow robe and going through the ordination ceremony. That somehow forces from outside transform me into something else, into a Buddhist monk. That's a superstition. Report an error in the passage at 13:58 Highlight the passage at 13:58

14:15 That's a believing that the actual ceremonies, precepts and the form that one has chosen is going to bring you to life or transform you into something or transmutation will take place. Report an error in the passage at 14:15 Highlight the passage at 14:15

14:38 In the Buddhist teaching he was very much aware of this, that the whole Buddhist emphasis is on a very deliberate, intentional will, using our will in a very deliberate, intentional way. Report an error in the passage at 14:38 Highlight the passage at 14:38

15:01 And so what we intend is of most importance to us in this life. Say in the holy life, we have to make our intention very clear, very precise. For example, when a monk or a nun takes the precepts, takes the ordination, goes through the ordination ceremony, they are encouraged to make a fully rational intention for their life, to make a very deliberate choice. Report an error in the passage at 15:01 Highlight the passage at 15:01

15:39 To realize nibbāna in Buddhist terms, the realization of nibbāna, or to get beyond all delusion, that I am taking these precepts, I am going through this ceremony, I am doing this thing in order to realize ultimate reality, to be free from all delusion. Now that we make very clear. That's the whole... Report an error in the passage at 15:39 Highlight the passage at 15:39

16:07 and purpose of the actual ceremony. like a public announcement. Report an error in the passage at 16:07 Highlight the passage at 16:07

16:16 individually, we might feel totally incapable of doing this. as personalities we can feel, oh, who am I to ever think that I ever be an enlightened being? most of us aren't terribly, feel very, you know, feel that we are special Report an error in the passage at 16:16 Highlight the passage at 16:16

16:37 or terribly gifted and outstanding that I could possibly think that I might get enlightened as a personality that is rather frightening in a way because Report an error in the passage at 16:37 Highlight the passage at 16:37

16:52 personally in the western mind we tend to our modern western human beings tend to dwell very much in a critical way towards themselves. Report an error in the passage at 16:52 Highlight the passage at 16:52

17:10 See what I mean? We spend a lot of time remembering our faults and dwelling on our weaknesses and our deficiencies. We make such a point, we exaggerate our faults and our deficiencies so much that we can become completely dispirited in this life, just feel totally incapable of doing anything. Other than just surviving maybe in a benevolent society such as this one, you can kind of ride along in it and get by easy enough until you get old and die because it's a benevolent society that doesn't demand very much of its members. Report an error in the passage at 17:10 Highlight the passage at 17:10

17:59 So in Britain we can just kind of ride along with the least amount of effort because we think that's all we're capable of doing. Report an error in the passage at 17:59 Highlight the passage at 17:59

18:09 If we are emphasizing, exaggerating, becoming obsessed with the faults and weaknesses that we see in ourselves as personalities, as individual beings. Report an error in the passage at 18:09 Highlight the passage at 18:09

18:23 So in the holy life, when a man or woman decide to take on the form of the Buddhist monk or the Buddhist nun, then we want to make that intention the most perfect intention intention that a human being could possibly ever think of possibly make in their lives. Report an error in the passage at 18:23 Highlight the passage at 18:23

18:47 it's got to be very rational, not just from an inspired state of mind in the moment, not after a very successful meditation retreat where you feel very inspired, but from a quite ordinary place in your mind where it's just ordinary daily life and you're not particularly inspired. Report an error in the passage at 18:47 Highlight the passage at 18:47

19:15 In your ordinary way, maybe even thinking of yourself in very negative terms, but you're using your ability to intend toward the ultimate perfection that's possible for a human being. Report an error in the passage at 19:15 Highlight the passage at 19:15

19:33 And then you go through the ceremony, say an ordination ceremony like we've had here at Amaravati for the nuns and at Chitras on the 1st of last July for the monks. Where the community itself, the monastic communities actually make this possible and this announcement is made and many people come, many people participate so that the whole ceremony helps to make this intention very strong in our minds. Report an error in the passage at 19:33 Highlight the passage at 19:33

20:09 It's not just a momentary good idea that we don't tell anyone. And then it tends to fade very quickly if we don't really make a strong determination. So that's what gives those ordination ceremonies their power, because they're quite powerful experiences, even for old hands like myself. You still feel its tremendous power and presence at an ordination ceremony. Report an error in the passage at 20:09 Highlight the passage at 20:09

20:44 And even the lay people tell me they feel it and they sometimes don't even know what's happening. They're just standing on the sidelines. But they're also very much, you as lay people are also very much a part of that ceremony because you're witnessing it. Witnessing a man or a woman that's going forth into the Homeless life away from all the security of the institutions that we depend on as personalities, taking the risk of going out into the unknown with that intention of enlightenment, of perfection, within the limitations of our human condition. Report an error in the passage at 20:44 Highlight the passage at 20:44

21:32 And I find this something that needs to be really considered, reconsidered now. At a time where our world has become very profane, our society now is a very kind of profane, degenerate society. Report an error in the passage at 21:32 Highlight the passage at 21:32

21:54 Modern Western materialism tends towards degeneracy and licentiousness. It's not a beautiful society anymore. Our society doesn't invite us to go up. Doesn't inspire us, doesn't encourage us upwards towards the good, but it tends to just put up with us at some of our worst moments, just going along with our greed and our complaining minds. Report an error in the passage at 21:54 Highlight the passage at 21:54

22:32 So modern governments, modern institutions tend to ride along on a level of mediocrity of the human state rather than... then then point Report an error in the passage at 22:32 Highlight the passage at 22:32

22:50 potential our human condition. this is what religion's function is really for. We can't expect our society to do this for us. It's not the function of a society per se to do that. It's the function of religion to do that. Report an error in the passage at 22:50 Highlight the passage at 22:50

23:10 what religions are for, what the religious conventions are aimed at. that realization. The ultimate realization of our proper relationship to the divine or the transcendent or the absolute or the ultimate truth, God or dharma or whatever symbols you prefer, that's what it means. That which is beyond birth and death, beyond just the limitation of form and beyond the... Report an error in the passage at 23:10 Highlight the passage at 23:10

23:51 Beyond the limitation of just the conditioned cause and conditionality. Report an error in the passage at 23:51 Highlight the passage at 23:51

24:10 In modern Western Europe, there's a tendency to be quite cynical and negative. It's easy to really put this kind of thinking down as just being kind of altruistic or optimistic or unrealistic. Report an error in the passage at 24:10 Highlight the passage at 24:10

24:35 We emphasize what's wrong. What's wrong with the neighbors? What's wrong with the people that rule the country? What's wrong with the other countries? We're so good at criticizing and we tend to expect mediocrity anyway as a kind of way of just getting by. When any one person kind of makes some effort to go beyond that, oftentimes they're criticized or made fun of our society doesn't expect us to rise up Report an error in the passage at 24:35 Highlight the passage at 24:35

25:24 it tends towards being cynical towards those who still might have that inclination. So it's easy to think, oh, it's all just hocus-pocus, it's all just foolishness. Report an error in the passage at 25:24 Highlight the passage at 25:24

25:41 Look at the history of religions. Look at the history of Christianity. You can have a whole list of terrible things that you can say the Christians are responsible for. You can do that to the Muslims. You can do that to the Buddhists. You can say, look what's happening in Sri Lanka and Tibet and all these different places where in those Buddhist countries, Cambodia was really Buddhist. Report an error in the passage at 25:41 Highlight the passage at 25:41

26:08 How could such a terrible thing have happened? We can just look at the failure and the faults of our religion. We can emphasize the corrupt members. Report an error in the passage at 26:08 Highlight the passage at 26:08

26:26 We can see corruption in the saṅgha or in the priesthood or whatever. It's very common, like in Thailand, to scandals about monks and to make that kind of big news and gossip. To emphasize the monk that's gone off, that's gone wrong. And then we can say, see, that's Buddhism for you. That's it. Report an error in the passage at 26:26 Highlight the passage at 26:26

26:58 And put it all down because one monk happens to do something wrong and you can reject the whole lot because of that. But that's not right, is it? Because the form is still all right. It's like with, say, in the Theravāda school of Buddhism. The form is a very good form. It still works. It's still a realizable, practical form. Whether any monk in the Theravāda school of Buddhism breathes life and spirit into the form is something else. Report an error in the passage at 26:58 Highlight the passage at 26:58

27:41 It's not because anything's wrong with the form. It's maybe because the people that are using the form Report an error in the passage at 27:41 Highlight the passage at 27:41

27:54 It's easy to misuse for us. Report an error in the passage at 27:54 Highlight the passage at 27:54

28:00 mean, one can take a Buddha Rūpa and kill somebody with it, somebody over the head with a brass Buddha image. not the fault of the Buddha image, is it? It's a misuse. Report an error in the passage at 28:00 Highlight the passage at 28:00

28:15 an image. It wasn't made for that. The Buddha image wasn't made as an instrument for murder, but it still can be used for that. Report an error in the passage at 28:15 Highlight the passage at 28:15

28:28 So we reflect in this way, and then we see that, say, the Buddhist monk, even though we might see faults and dwell on the failures and the corruption of various monks, it still doesn't make the slightest bit of difference in regards to, it doesn't hurt the form at all. The form is still good. And we still... Report an error in the passage at 28:28 Highlight the passage at 28:28

28:51 As individual beings have the right and the opportunity to breathe our spirit, our life into the form so that that form is then being used in the right way. The Buddhist monk, the Buddhist nun is then a form being used for what it was intended for. It has the right intention. Report an error in the passage at 28:51 Highlight the passage at 28:51

29:20 Now this applies to even Report an error in the passage at 29:20 Highlight the passage at 29:20

29:26 Everything in our life, even the, say, ordinary worldly conditions of our life, in modern society, the conventions, social conventions are now even profaned. Like marriage, for example, tends to be something that is lightly regarded or not regarded as necessary, just a kind of legal contract. of legal contract. Report an error in the passage at 29:26 Highlight the passage at 29:26

29:56 That you sign in order to get legal rights if you want to get divorced. Report an error in the passage at 29:56 Highlight the passage at 29:56

30:04 It can be a form that is just, you know, not, and it's worse, to be a legal contract. Report an error in the passage at 30:04 Highlight the passage at 30:04

30:20 But then when you contemplate, say, the ideal of marriage, what the intention of it is, ha, ha, ha. Report an error in the passage at 30:20 Highlight the passage at 30:20

30:30 One sees that it is, say, at its very best, a form in which a man and a woman join their lives together in order to, say, where they put each other first, where we have to grow up when we get married, we have to put somebody else in our lives, in our minds. When you're living alone, on your own terms, you can be first and you're second. Report an error in the passage at 30:30 Highlight the passage at 30:30

31:02 I want to go where I want to go and do what I want to do. If I get married, that means I have to think of somebody else. So some of us don't get married. Report an error in the passage at 31:02 Highlight the passage at 31:02

31:19 When we do decide to get married, then sometimes we still think of ourselves first. Or I say, ideally, it's the opportunity to put somebody else first. Report an error in the passage at 31:19 Highlight the passage at 31:19

31:30 We put the other person, the spouse, first. right. Report an error in the passage at 31:30 Highlight the passage at 31:30

31:35 Copyright © 2020, Report an error in the passage at 31:35 Highlight the passage at 31:35

31:47 New Thinking Allowed Foundation the ideal of marriage and then when the children come then the children are first the husband and wife second in some ways it's Report an error in the passage at 31:47 Highlight the passage at 31:47

32:03 Desires, to fulfill all my own desires, has become one-pointed of living life only for myself. Or, in maturing as an individual being, you tend to open your mind to include others. And that means you have to let go of yourself as being the most important. And that's very good for us, to be able to do that, to put somebody else, to think of somebody else first. Report an error in the passage at 32:03 Highlight the passage at 32:03

32:32 It brings us joy. It's a joyful experience to love somebody and to put them first. And I think we all find great joy when that happens, when we can actually put somebody else first in our lives and ourselves relate to that person, that somebody else, through love, through respect, through joy, joyfulness. Report an error in the passage at 32:32 Highlight the passage at 32:32

33:06 So then the family, the marriage relationship, the family are placed in a position that is very respectful, beautiful, rather than just legal rights that you're going to, you know, if we happen to not like each other after a few years, well I want to make sure that I get the house, I have custody of the kids and all the rest to make sure that we We're not going to be left behind in case the person we marry suddenly puts themselves first and us last. Report an error in the passage at 33:06 Highlight the passage at 33:06

33:44 Maybe they put somebody else first besides me. This is probably the human mind. We can be very fickle and very disloyal to ourselves and to others, to everything. We just follow impulse and immediate kind of impulses and preferences of a moment. Report an error in the passage at 33:44 Highlight the passage at 33:44

34:07 momentary passionate feeling. Report an error in the passage at 34:07 Highlight the passage at 34:07

34:15 In using monasticism then as a form for one's life, you're putting, the idea is you're, as a monk or as a nun, as a monastic, you're using saṅgha as your family. So saṅgha is first, rather than yourself. So like in a monastic community here in Amaravati, Then the reflection for our lives is the community's first and we're second as individual persons. Report an error in the passage at 34:15 Highlight the passage at 34:15

34:51 We don't put ourselves first. And this applies to, say, from the most senior member to the most junior member. Myself being the most senior member of this community, the community's first before myself. Welfare of the community is more important than my own welfare as an individual. And then the newest member, the newest anagarika that joins the community, also, they might not particularly feel that way much of the time, but that's the ideal that we put into the mind as a reflection. Report an error in the passage at 34:51 Highlight the passage at 34:51

35:35 That even the most junior... Report an error in the passage at 35:35 Highlight the passage at 35:35

36:09 With each one of us is putting the community first and ourselves second to the welfare of the community. And we can do that. In our minds we can actually do that. We can include one other person or we can include a community. We can actually bring that to all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 36:09 Highlight the passage at 36:09

36:31 Like in the practice of mettā, mettā pavana, in the Buddhist practice of mettā pavana, your... your, your... including all sentient beings in your mind you're bringing into your consciousness as a perception the possibility of all living sentient creatures and their welfare and you as your relationship to that totality of being. Report an error in the passage at 36:31 Highlight the passage at 36:31

37:04 So Report an error in the passage at 37:04 Highlight the passage at 37:04

37:08 this is now then to contemplate this further we see that for each one of us We have to be the subject of this experience of life, don't we? Each one of you are the subject of your lives. Report an error in the passage at 37:08 Highlight the passage at 37:08

37:24 You have to experience life from your form, from the way you are, the way your body is and where it is and its state, whether it's healthy or not, whether it's young or old, male or female. Report an error in the passage at 37:24 Highlight the passage at 37:24

37:45 Whatever state it is, it's where you have to acknowledge that you have to abide within it for what it is. It's our karma, in other words. Like this body is, I can't, you know, one can be critical of it and think, you know, with vanity how much one would have liked to have maybe had nicer something or other, better looking or... Report an error in the passage at 37:45 Highlight the passage at 37:45

38:17 So, you know, we can always, with our critical minds, we can berate and despise these particular forms we're in, but then that only leads to depression and misery. That doesn't lead to transcendence and liberation. Because the form, it doesn't matter whether it's male or female or attractive or unattractive or young or old or black or white, this is not important towards Say, that intention, ultimate intention of realizing ultimate reality. All you need to do is accept the form for what it is. Report an error in the passage at 38:17 Highlight the passage at 38:17

38:59 Even if it's a sickly, crippled, hunchbacked form or leprosy or cancer, these are not obstacles to spiritual development. Report an error in the passage at 38:59 Highlight the passage at 38:59

39:12 Blindness or whatever, these are not obstacles to spiritual development. Even if one is... Report an error in the passage at 39:12 Highlight the passage at 39:12

39:29 you still have the ability to reflect and contemplate, if that still operates normally, then have that potential for perfect enlightenment, perfect understanding. Report an error in the passage at 39:29 Highlight the passage at 39:29

39:44 so then we learn, we use the position we're in, the way it is from this subjective position, to reflect from... From what happens to it, the way life happens to impinge on it, and we're contemplating that what happens to it is always just impermanent, whatever contacts this form through the eyes, through the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, the way the mind's been conditioned, the way you're... Report an error in the passage at 39:44 Highlight the passage at 39:44

40:22 to perceive is conditioned by your family, your cultural background, education and so forth, of that is then witnessed longer from the critical mind, judging it in terms of being good or bad, but merely Report an error in the passage at 40:22 Highlight the passage at 40:22

40:42 your intuitive capacities for seeing the impermanence, way the way it it is. is, whatever it is. On the sensory plane, this experience of sensitivity is an experience of transiency, of change, of flux, of flow. Report an error in the passage at 40:42 Highlight the passage at 40:42

41:05 And that implies that what flows can be infinitely variable. The qualities can be various. We can have pleasure, pain, beauty, ugliness, happiness, suffering, good health, bad health. the very best to the very Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Report an error in the passage at 41:05 Highlight the passage at 41:05

41:42 No part of this recording may be reproduced witness and observe mindfully Report an error in the passage at 41:42 Highlight the passage at 41:42

42:00 To see and know things as they are in whatever the qualities might be. Qualities can be anything, aren't they? Sane, insane. You can have thoughts that are totally mad, trivial, foolish, stupid, dull. You can have very rational, sensible, intelligent, bright thoughts. But when there is the Buddha operating at full capacity, then that Buddha knows that whatever is subject to rising is subject to ceasing. Report an error in the passage at 42:00 Highlight the passage at 42:00

42:44 The Buddha is merely reflecting on the way it is, not reacting to the quality that it's presenting to us. So this is why the refuge in Buddha is such an important realization in our lives, because that gives us This impetus to really look at and watch and observe how things are rather than merely to try to react and control and manipulate the conditioned world out of fear and out of desire. Report an error in the passage at 42:44 Highlight the passage at 42:44

43:17 Fear Report an error in the passage at 43:17 Highlight the passage at 43:17

43:25 and desire, we tend to be easily identified with those two forces. They're very strong, they're very powerful emotions. Tendencies in this form as a human being. So they can be very overwhelming. And this is where it's so important to actually see, Report an error in the passage at 43:25 Highlight the passage at 43:25

43:54 reflect on, observe that desire, whatever it is, whatever quality or type or whatever it might appear to be is that at least it's impermanent. If you really examine And investigate desire, you see that it is. It's something that's in flux. It has no permanent quality. Report an error in the passage at 43:54 Highlight the passage at 43:54

44:25 Fear is the same. Fear, when we really look at it objectively, is just that. It's just a condition of the mind. And when there's that kind of understanding, then fear loses its power. Desire loses its ability to delude us. They're merely what they are in the moment. They're that way. They arise and they cease. There's a feeling of understanding, of knowing the true nature of things. Report an error in the passage at 44:25 Highlight the passage at 44:25

45:16 Now sometimes we can be very cynical because we see that so many human beings living on this planet at this time, not very many seem to be enlightened at all. Report an error in the passage at 45:16 Highlight the passage at 45:16

45:33 We tend to hear about, especially about the worst ones seem to get in the news. The worse they are, the more news they tend to make. Report an error in the passage at 45:33 Highlight the passage at 45:33

45:47 They can be quite interesting. Sinners and gangsters and killers and madmen and adulterers and sex maniacs and all these are Somehow very interesting to us. You look at gossip columns or little tidbits in newspapers and popular magazines, they're all about people doing pretty sleazy kind of things. And why is it that we find that so interesting? Why is it that if you wanted to make lots of money selling a magazine or a journal you have to probably aim it on that level The more kind of refined and sacred your journalism or your writings might be, the less popular they become. Report an error in the passage at 45:47 Highlight the passage at 45:47

46:55 Why is that? Report an error in the passage at 46:55 Highlight the passage at 46:55

47:00 Maybe it's because human beings are just that way. We have no potential for Maybe we are, maybe we're just being terribly optimistic and very idealistic about everything. Maybe the ultimate reality is that we're really just sleazy mediocrities, because Report an error in the passage at 47:00 Highlight the passage at 47:00

47:30 that is a really cynical statement, isn't it? But there's something in us that knows that that is not true. At least in myself I know that there's certainly something that easily goes towards sleaziness and mediocrity. I mean it's certainly not something that I'm that has never that I can't understand because I certainly feel a pull in that direction a lot of the time. Report an error in the passage at 47:30 Highlight the passage at 47:30

48:01 But there's also something that is that knows something beyond that and that really that kind of spirit into the life where you rise up above that kind of downward pull, that force of just pulling you down into just drifting along without any effort, just getting by. Report an error in the passage at 48:01 Highlight the passage at 48:01

48:35 go into the motions of life till you die. Report an error in the passage at 48:35 Highlight the passage at 48:35

48:42 something that, within myself, that... That realizes the potential for transcendence. That aspires. That has aspiration. And is willing to sacrifice all those other strong pulls. Willing to try to keep working on oneself to transcend or rise up beyond just what is impulsive or immediately tempting or what's the easiest thing to do with one's life. Report an error in the passage at 48:42 Highlight the passage at 48:42

49:22 putting any effort into it. one feels lazy. I mean, I tend towards laziness. Report an error in the passage at 49:22 Highlight the passage at 49:22

49:34 problems. Report an error in the passage at 49:34 Highlight the passage at 49:34

49:38 Sometimes one just doesn't want to be bothered putting forth effort into anything just kind of on, get along, float along. Report an error in the passage at 49:38 Highlight the passage at 49:38

49:51 If one does that, if that's what one tends to do, there's something in one that really is very strongly saying, stop this, rise up, get beyond this. You can be better than this. And that I trust. That seems right. That seems beautiful. That seems worth following. Report an error in the passage at 49:51 Highlight the passage at 49:51

50:23 Because when you do it, then you do. You begin to trust in that which is truly good and truly beautiful, worthwhile. You begin to realize that more within your own experience of life. It's a realization of it. It's not just a nice idea in the brain. It's not just being altruistic. But the more you rise up, And breathe, put that spirit into the form that you're in, and really live your lives to that perfect potential, then you have that realization. Report an error in the passage at 50:23 Highlight the passage at 50:23

51:08 And in that realization is liberation, freedom, joy, true happiness, is our natural state, in other words. That sleazy mediocrity is not where we really belong. Report an error in the passage at 51:08 Highlight the passage at 51:08

51:28 Even though that's the easiest for us to kind of sink into, that's not where we are really at home. That's not where we can really feel contented or feel respect for ourselves or respect for anything. That sinking into just sleazy mediocrity only leaves us with a sense of despair and depression in our minds, in our hearts. Report an error in the passage at 51:28 Highlight the passage at 51:28

51:59 Because there's something as though we've wasted the opportunity. We've wasted a life. We've settled for something that's not very worthwhile, that we can't respect, that we're not really content, even in just riding along in what's easy to do. What is wonderful is how that so many, that as you trust in that direction, In that intention for perfect enlightenment, for perfect understanding and freedom from delusion, even though on a personal level you might feel quite unworthy and incapable, that whole personal reference falls away. Report an error in the passage at 51:59 Highlight the passage at 51:59

52:53 That way of thinking about yourself, that personality view becomes increasingly more illusory and less real. That in you which is always criticizing yourself or emphasizing or exaggerating your flaws and weaknesses, that which disparages and bags in you, that eventually, when seen and understood for what it is, it loses its power and its grip in our lives. Report an error in the passage at 52:53 Highlight the passage at 52:53

53:27 It falls away, fades away from us. And more and more there is just the purity of pure intelligence. The purity of the heart, the mind and the heart that is receptive, sensitive, open, all-embracing, free and liberated, rather than this conditioned personality with all its neurotic problems. We Report an error in the passage at 53:27 Highlight the passage at 53:27

54:15 talk about the spiritual life, the breath, we have will, we have aspiration. All these things imply Our potential as spiritual beings. If this was not possible, we wouldn't be able to even conceive of it. Report an error in the passage at 54:15 Highlight the passage at 54:15

54:39 If it was just being idealistic and it's just a fantasy world and not being realistic at all, I doubt seriously we would even be able to conceive of it. Report an error in the passage at 54:39 Highlight the passage at 54:39

54:56 Like the animal kingdom can't conceive, can it? Transcendence. Not to put down the animal kingdom, but I've noticed that they don't seem to, in my experience of them, to have that aspiration in their lives. Report an error in the passage at 54:56 Highlight the passage at 54:56

55:22 But they're intelligent. They're conscious beings like ourselves. They have intelligence and they're conscious, but they don't aspire to anything. They are what they are. A cat is just what it is. It's an honest creature. Report an error in the passage at 55:22 Highlight the passage at 55:22

55:50 Our Report an error in the passage at 55:50 Highlight the passage at 55:50

55:53 problem is that we aren't really what we are at all until we are enlightened. Because we can't be just creatures. Because we have this aspiration, we have an intuitive mind. Report an error in the passage at 55:53 Highlight the passage at 55:53

56:11 We're in touch with something transcendent, ultimately real and perfect, so that we can't just be content as creatures, animals, or even refined creatures. We can't find real contentment even with being the most sensitive and refined creature. Report an error in the passage at 56:11 Highlight the passage at 56:11

56:37 That's still unsatisfactory for us. And why is that? Because That's not our true nature, that in this form, this human form, we can only find true contentment through enlightenment, through ultimate realization, through seeing things clearly, honestly, perfectly. And this is our potential, this is our possibility in this human form. And this needs to be emphasized again and again. Report an error in the passage at 56:37 Highlight the passage at 56:37

57:08 We need to remind ourselves of this, because we forget. Report an error in the passage at 57:08 Highlight the passage at 57:08

57:32 it's so easy to be stuck in those kind of attitudes. In an opportunity like this afternoon to present this particular reflection for you, to remind you, to Report an error in the passage at 57:32 Highlight the passage at 57:32

57:51 try to encourage you, or to, if you have this kind of aspiration and intuition, sometimes you don't realize how, what a great gift it is. Report an error in the passage at 57:51 Highlight the passage at 57:51

58:05 Sometimes you think maybe you're a bit off, or you're not, there's something a bit strange about you, because You think the profane human being, the sleazy mediocrity, is normal behavior. And because that is not satisfying to you, maybe you think you're abnormal. Report an error in the passage at 58:05 Highlight the passage at 58:05

58:32 So in a time and place, opportunities that we have now, we tend to be drawn to places like this, or to things that are possible for us, where we can remember, where we can... Find other people, friends, that have that same intuition, that same aspiration, because it helps us to remind, to remember what our true nature is and how important it is to trust in that and to continually try to get above, to rise up to life, to do the good, to put... Report an error in the passage at 58:32 Highlight the passage at 58:32

59:22 That energy into your life, to live it, with that tremendous spirit and aspiration, that perfect intention, and this human state is to, this rising up is the most important reflection. Because if we don't rise up, what happens then is we sink down. We tend to, we don't stand still. Either you rise up, Report an error in the passage at 59:22 Highlight the passage at 59:22

59:54 Or you sink down. And so there's no static point in this position of our humanity. You kind of float along in a kind of tasteless porridge of mediocrity for a while, but eventually it goes into depression and despair, into real unpleasant mental states. Report an error in the passage at 59:54 Highlight the passage at 59:54

1:00:26 So that the... Report an error in the passage at 1:00:26 Highlight the passage at 1:00:26

1:00:33 Aspiring human mind with its intuitive abilities, intuition is a unitive function of mind, isn't it? It's through our intuition that we realize unity and oneness. It's not through our conditioned discriminative capacities, is it? Your education, your intellectual mind is very much conditioned to make you feel very separate. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:33 Highlight the passage at 1:00:33

1:01:03 Being isolated and identified with the discriminative things, being a personality, being a man, being a woman, being English, being American, being young or old, being rich or poor, being worthwhile or worthless, all the discriminative identities, perceptions we have of ourselves, that's one function of our mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:03 Highlight the passage at 1:01:03

1:01:32 But in a spiritual aspiration we're opening toward intuitive, mindful, reflective capacities of our human state in which we transcend these discriminations and we no longer identify with the separative functions of our mind or our bodies. We're free from that delusion. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:32 Highlight the passage at 1:01:32