Who Needs Enlightenment When I Have My Opinions

0:31 So welcome everyone. A lot of people today. And Report an error in the passage at 0:31 Highlight the passage at 0:31

0:44 I think many of you from Ajahn Majiro's retreat. Your minds all cleansed from defilements. Report an error in the passage at 0:44 Highlight the passage at 0:44

0:54 So Report an error in the passage at 0:54 Highlight the passage at 0:54

1:01 the title of today is Who Needs Enlightenment? When I have my opinions. I don't think up these titles. But it's just like investigating concepts, words, because we're so bound and limited by our attachment to ideas and definitions, perceptions that we operate from and seldom question or investigate. Report an error in the passage at 1:01 Highlight the passage at 1:01

1:39 So that's why, you know, the ignorance, avicca, in this Buddhist term, of not knowing and not understanding dharma, is the way the world is. It operates from its own concepts, ideas, perceptions, cultural attitudes, opinions and views. And religions do this. Nations and tribes and classes and movements, political movements and everything operates from this kind of conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 1:39 Highlight the passage at 1:39

2:17 And then we incline one way or another, taking sides with, if we're for something or against something. And this is, pointing to this, enlightenment of course is a word Another word which can be, you know, what do you really think enlightenment is? The word the Buddha was enlightened, what do you think that really meant? Report an error in the passage at 2:17 Highlight the passage at 2:17

2:44 And it's when somebody gets enlightened, can you get enlightened? Can I get enlightened? What is enlightenment? And of course it is an English word. Report an error in the passage at 2:44 Highlight the passage at 2:44

3:01 It means different things to different people. Usually it means like you've made the final step to be free from all delusion, or you're completely free from suffering and pain, misery, or it means that you're caught in a state of total bliss forevermore. Report an error in the passage at 3:01 Highlight the passage at 3:01

3:24 And just investigating the use of the English word, enlightenment. Because we say the Buddha was enlightened. Now if any bhikkhus, you know, if we claim to be enlightened and we're not, then we have to disrobe. Report an error in the passage at 3:24 Highlight the passage at 3:24

3:44 So any bhikkhu that goes around saying he's enlightened, beware. Report an error in the passage at 3:44 Highlight the passage at 3:44

3:55 And then sometimes in the process of meditation, we go through stages where we think we're enlightened. You know, I think all of us have period moments, momentary feelings of knowing everything and being free from all delusion through meditation. Report an error in the passage at 3:55 Highlight the passage at 3:55

4:15 And then we can assume that I'm enlightened because of that precious moment or insight. But when you really examine the conditioned realm, You know, the point of the Buddha's teaching is not to operate from the conditioned position, but from the unconditioned. So it's, you know, it's not to take sides if there's enlightenment or there isn't, or I'm enlightened or I'm not enlightened, or was the Buddha fully enlightened or not enlightened, and all that, because then we can only speculate, guess, because we're caught in the Usually operating from the sense of an ego, a separate self, a person, a perception of something with an ideal of enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 4:15 Highlight the passage at 4:15

5:17 And of course that's what the world is. It's all this illusory perception that we are convinced is our reality, the real world. And in Vipassanā meditation you really... Report an error in the passage at 5:17 Highlight the passage at 5:17

5:34 Exploring, investigating reality, you know, not just operating from doctrinal positions, Buddhist positions, or, you know, a teacher or a guru's statements or religious teaching, but when you really appreciate the teaching of the Buddha, it's not about doctrine or dogma or Or metaphysical truths that we operate from, but it's very what they call a priori style of investigation from the here and now. Report an error in the passage at 5:34 Highlight the passage at 5:34

6:12 And that's what mindfulness is. It's the only escape hatch we have in this realm as human individuals to break out of the realm of conditionality, to get beyond it, to see through it, to understand it. To know it in a direct way. So then that is, so we're not operating from a belief or disbelief enlightenment or that the Gautama the Buddha of ancient India was enlightened and there was Sāriputta Moggallāna and according to the scriptures and the legends and the history. Report an error in the passage at 6:12 Highlight the passage at 6:12

6:55 But the teaching is not about Gautama the Buddha, it's about dharma, the way things are. It's not kind of worshipping the Buddha as a historical sage, even though we feel his gratitude and respect. And the more you understand dharma, the more respect and trust you have in the teaching of the Buddha. But it's not a condition sine qua non for. Report an error in the passage at 6:55 Highlight the passage at 6:55

7:30 Being a Buddhist or for practicing meditation, you believe in the Buddha. The first thing is to get the attitude of attentive attention, awareness. Report an error in the passage at 7:30 Highlight the passage at 7:30

7:44 Learning to tune in to the present moment and reflect. This reflective capacity that all human beings have is what the Buddha was pointing to in his teaching. It's a reflective style of teaching. Now then, opinions, we can have good opinions, bad opinions, right opinions, wrong opinions, stupid opinions, very intelligent ones. Report an error in the passage at 7:44 Highlight the passage at 7:44

8:20 But these are conditions. All opinions are conditions. Even the best opinions are still, you know, what they are in reality is a condition. Report an error in the passage at 8:20 Highlight the passage at 8:20

8:35 And not to mention the worst, the most stupid and whatnot of opinions have the same characteristic of impermanence and not-self. So this is a way of, because in the Buddhist world, in any religion, probably you all had experience with the strong views, religious opinions that people have. About who's right, who's wrong, what's sin and what isn't. And what's the real true way and what isn't. What is pagan and satanic and what is God's true way. Report an error in the passage at 8:35 Highlight the passage at 8:35

9:16 Or the opinions about there isn't any God. Christopher Hitchens and so forth loves to rattle on about making fun of... Roman Catholics or whatever, because it's, you know, seeing that anyone who believes in God is a bit stupid, but he's operating from the same position, grasping opinions. Report an error in the passage at 9:16 Highlight the passage at 9:16

9:46 so this very grasping is what we're able to witness to in Mindfulness And this word mindfulness is... This is the essence, is the key to the door, is the escape hatch from birth and death, from the realm of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 9:46 Highlight the passage at 9:46

10:07 When this point really sinks in, when you really begin to get it and trust it, because it isn't anything at all, it's like no thing, nothing. It's not giving you a position to take or a doctrine to believe in or to prove or disregard, but to examine. Report an error in the passage at 10:07 Highlight the passage at 10:07

10:35 And we have various opinions, you know, like in the Theravāda school of Buddhism that we use here. I mean, we have our own conventional style, our own, you know, the... The traditional forms that we inherited from the ancient times. It's a tradition that carried on from, we believe, from the time of the Buddha to the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 10:35 Highlight the passage at 10:35

11:05 And so it's a tradition. Now examine this word tradition. Because we're living at a time where tradition is usually mistrusted or Or resented or criticized. Because this is an age here in modern day Britain where we're kind of throwing out all those things, old traditions, old customs and that. And the important emphasis is on self-expression, independence and human rights. And everybody's opinion is equal. Report an error in the passage at 11:05 Highlight the passage at 11:05

11:42 You know, it's my opinion. I have a right to give you my opinion. And this is a free country, democracy. And so, you know, it was Irving that was giving opinions about there wasn't any Jewish Holocaust, you know. He said, I have a right to my opinion. Well, he's right. You know, right is right when we're right to any opinion you want or have. Report an error in the passage at 11:42 Highlight the passage at 11:42

12:16 But to know an opinion as an opinion is different. When you take idealism to its ultimate absurdity, then being free and asserting oneself and being free and having rights and everybody being equal, it's an ideal that we hold to. And then we operate, then we, when we attach to an ideal, like an enlightenment can be an ideal. Report an error in the passage at 12:16 Highlight the passage at 12:16

12:57 It can be so high, so good, so wonderful, that we, you know, when we think about it as something so high that it's only special for special people, or maybe only the historical Buddha, maybe only, Gautama Buddha was the, I've heard people say he was the only enlightened human being. All the rest weren't somebody's opinion. Report an error in the passage at 12:57 Highlight the passage at 12:57

13:27 So this is an opinion that some people operate from. I've heard even in Thailand monks say it's impossible to get enlightened these days. One time I witnessed this myself. Some monks that was with Lungpho Cha and some monks from this opinion. Report an error in the passage at 13:27 Highlight the passage at 13:27

13:50 Town of Ubon came to see him and they said, well, you know, you can't really even attain stream entry these days. You can't even, not to mention being fully enlightened. And Lungphacha said, well, then why are you a monk? You just want free meals, don't you? Report an error in the passage at 13:50 Highlight the passage at 13:50

14:13 He was good at making it, with a smile on his face. But it was a good reflection, you know, is the tradition just an end in itself? Or is it how to use the tradition for enlightenment, for breaking through delusion? Not to become institutionalized or become Theravadan Buddhists or become Buddhist monks or nuns or anything on that level. Report an error in the passage at 14:13 Highlight the passage at 14:13

14:45 It's not about becoming anything, but using. using conventions for investigating reality. So then we have traditional forms that are part of the scriptures, scriptural discipline, the Vinaya discipline. That has been able to carry the tradition through 2,553 years. So this tradition then has it, you know, a lot of it has managed to survive, such as the tradition we try to operate from here at Amaravati, working within the structure, within the limitation of this very ancient tradition. Report an error in the passage at 14:45 Highlight the passage at 14:45

15:41 But it's not to just be kind of like one who worships antiquity or tries to breathe life into a corpse. But it's actually a practical convention for reflection, for investigation. So one time, this was years ago, in the early years with Lungphat Chah, I was walking with him. Report an error in the passage at 15:41 Highlight the passage at 15:41

16:09 And he said to me, Sumedho, you must find it confusing, you know, sometimes, because dharma, it's all about letting go, not attaching to anything. And vinaya is all about attaching. That's the discipline. You know, because we have this very strict discipline where you can do this, but you can't do that. Report an error in the passage at 16:09 Highlight the passage at 16:09

16:30 It gets very fussy sometimes. It gets almost to absurdity, where you have to have, we have... If you get involved with monastic life, you have morning sugar and afternoon sugar. I mean, that sounds absolutely ridiculous. But you can't mix morning sugar with afternoon sugar. I mean, that's how detailed it can get. And then, of course, those are the more kind of minor, those are the very minor rules, but you get into the more heavy, heavy rules about. Report an error in the passage at 16:30 Highlight the passage at 16:30

17:07 You know, saying that you're an enlightened Buddha when you're not, that's disrobing. You know, if you think you are and you're misguided, you're not trying to delude people, you just maybe have this delusion. It's not a disrobing offense. But if you're using, deliberately lying people to get their praise and get them to follow you, then that would be You'd have to disrobe. Same with killing another human being and stealing. These are disrobing offenses. Report an error in the passage at 17:07 Highlight the passage at 17:07

17:46 Sexual intercourse is a disrobing offense. So this is what they call the heavy things, where they separate you from the song. The rest are all remedies to deal with them. But the point of it is, you know, how do we use convention in a religion? And I think this is very apropos to this time because in all like a Church of England, the Anglican Communion and Roman Catholicism, we're all in the same boat, really, trying to make sense out of our traditional forms in a society that is so drastically changed from in over a hundred years. Report an error in the passage at 17:46 Highlight the passage at 17:46

18:37 From the expectations, assumptions we people made a hundred years ago to the attitudes that we find common everywhere through the mass media, the internet, and countries, you know, even the most remote countries now in parts of Africa or Central Asia. We're all connected now in communication. And of course the values, the ideals, The West have a lot of influence and affects people very strongly, no matter what part of the world they live in. Report an error in the passage at 18:37 Highlight the passage at 18:37

19:16 As well as the learning to live together on a planet that is now crowded. You know, how are we going to live together? You know, there are about, what, six billion human beings now. And this, I imagine, is the most this planet has ever had. And when you look at charts of population growth, you realize that the baby boomers, what they call after the Second World War, there's a noticeable increase of births all over the world, all over the planet. Report an error in the passage at 19:16 Highlight the passage at 19:16

20:00 And before that, up through the 19th century to the... First part of the 20th century, it was pretty, you know, the population of the world was pretty much on the same level, births and deaths and things like that. It wasn't that much. And then after that, suddenly in the last hundred years, it's just escalated. And then we have, and then due to modern media, mass media, transportation, everything brings us all together. Report an error in the passage at 20:00 Highlight the passage at 20:00

20:34 So we're not just isolated in our little kingdoms or countries, our little tribal areas. You know, whether we like it or not, we're forced to live with each other. And yet it's a time where everybody's claiming independence, self-assertion, rights, and democracy, and opinions. Report an error in the passage at 20:34 Highlight the passage at 20:34

20:58 My opinions count just as much as yours do, and so forth. So then, how do we deal with this? I'm not criticizing this. I'm just pointing it out, as I see it, from my point of witnessing. Report an error in the passage at 20:58 Highlight the passage at 20:58

21:17 How do we come to terms with human individuals that are attached to ideals? And then, Report an error in the passage at 21:17 Highlight the passage at 21:17

21:36 of course, this gives us all the sense that there's something wrong all the time because life isn't ideal. This is not about idealism, this realm we're living in. It's about the way things are. And so the dhamma teaching of the Buddha is pointing at the way things are. And this expression, the way things are, operate from the ideals, know, and then Report an error in the passage at 21:36 Highlight the passage at 21:36

22:02 It has no critical emphasis whatsoever. It's not saying it should or shouldn't. When you get into should or shouldn't, then we get into wanting something. If it isn't the way we want it now, we know how it should be. And if it is the way we want it, we know we would like to keep it this way and not let it change. Report an error in the passage at 22:02 Highlight the passage at 22:02

22:28 So this is what we can actually know through mindfulness, through awareness, through investigation of dharma, not in terms of analysis or right or wrong or views or opinions of various individuals or religions or cultures. Report an error in the passage at 22:28 Highlight the passage at 22:28

22:54 So this is like within this human... limitation, we're able to awaken. awaken-ness is the, this word is very, just contemplate this sense of awakening. And this is the very meaning of Buddha, the word Buddha itself, Sanskrit Pāli word, means awakened, a human individual awakened. Report an error in the passage at 22:54 Highlight the passage at 22:54

23:26 that's why, you know, you can have the historic Buddha. Go to Mother Buddha who was born just like we were, you know, had a human mother and father and wasn't, you know, descended from deities up in the sky and brought down by a stork. Report an error in the passage at 23:26 Highlight the passage at 23:26

23:49 Even though some of us were told we were brought into the world by a stork. But I don't think my mother ever meant me to take that seriously. Because she definitely made it clear that she was my mother. But this is, notice that this human form that we're experiencing, the gift of it, the blessing of our humanity is our ability to awaken to it, to learn from it. Report an error in the passage at 23:49 Highlight the passage at 23:49

24:23 From whatever conditions we find ourselves in. You know, we don't need to have the best. Report an error in the passage at 24:23 Highlight the passage at 24:23

25:03 That certain race is enlightened and the others aren't. That's an opinion, isn't it? Like anti-Semitism, isn't it? Based on, you know, the prejudice against Jews is opinion based on a cultural attitude or opinion that people hold. Without realizing what they're doing. Any kind of racial prejudice, or like at this time in Britain itself, the problems around Islamic terrorists and these kind of issues, you know, where we form opinions about Muslims and prejudice against Muslims. Report an error in the passage at 25:03 Highlight the passage at 25:03

25:52 We can create, you know, you can create a kind of anti-Muslim Prejudice easily in this country. Because people are gullible. Most people don't really know. They aren't awakened, so they operate from fear and what they're kind of conditioned, programmed to hear and take sides with. Report an error in the passage at 25:52 Highlight the passage at 25:52

26:19 And, you know, this is speaking for myself. This is why, you know, one of the reasons I became a Buddhist monk was because I could see, you know, just this heavy conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 26:19 Highlight the passage at 26:19

26:33 It wasn't bad, you know, I've come from good family and so forth, I'm not complaining about it. But it was based on a sense of how things should or shouldn't be, on ideals, and what's right and wrong, kind of fixed in cement, you know, so this is right and this is wrong, absolutely right, absolutely wrong. Report an error in the passage at 26:33 Highlight the passage at 26:33

27:00 And, you know, everything was spelled out. In terms of absolute opposites, and good and bad, and heaven and hell. And yet, in all of us, through that conditioning, there's a sense, a kind of sense of something more to life than just this program that we're instilled, that gets installed in our consciousness through the conditioning process. Report an error in the passage at 27:00 Highlight the passage at 27:00

27:28 process, know, through the The cultural conditioning, the social conditioning, religious conditioning. And then we judge others. We tend to form opinions about, like in the Buddhist world, we can say, you know, Buddhists can be as opinionated as anyone else. Report an error in the passage at 27:28 Highlight the passage at 27:28

27:49 Theravāda Buddhism is the real teaching. chain. Report an error in the passage at 27:49 Highlight the passage at 27:49

27:55 And, you know, you ask, if you go to Sri Lanka or Thailand, I'm sure you ask some monks, they'll say, it is the other stuff, Mahāyāna is not the real stuff. Report an error in the passage at 27:55 Highlight the passage at 27:55

28:05 And then, and then Mahāyāna says, we're the higher teaching. And that makes Theravāda look like it's, you know, lower teaching. Report an error in the passage at 28:05 Highlight the passage at 28:05

28:22 And so it goes on. Just notice how these words affect and influence how we see things, you know, higher, lower, the original, the right teaching, the wrong teaching, the Buddha's teaching, direct from the Buddha, the other just came after the Buddha, it's not his real teaching. We're right, you're wrong. What is that, you know, then you can observe that in yourself, who's right and who's wrong. Report an error in the passage at 28:22 Highlight the passage at 28:22

28:52 And, of course, then in terms of Finding out what's right or wrong, we begin to give up trying to find out what's right on the condition plane, but to observe, to be mindful of conditions, to know them, to operate from a higher level of conscious awareness where we can respond to the conditions we're experiencing in skillful ways. Report an error in the passage at 28:52 Highlight the passage at 28:52

29:22 We can still have perceptions of right and wrong, good and bad. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm not denying the validity of conceptualizing or pointing to this is good, this is bad, this is right, this is wrong. Report an error in the passage at 29:22 Highlight the passage at 29:22

29:42 But in the process, we're not told to awaken. We're merely told to grasp what's right and try to resist and get rid of. Annihilate what's wrong. And then in the realm that we're living in is a conditioned realm. Your body is conditioned. Your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, the physical body is a totally sensitive condition in a sense universe. Report an error in the passage at 29:42 Highlight the passage at 29:42

30:14 We have to live in this realm of relentless, inexorable sensitivity for a lifetime. And it's not all about wonderful sensations and beauty and beautiful melodies and wonderful taste, is it? So much of our life is dealing with pain and loss, with discomfort, with growing, with sickness, with loss of loved ones, with changing conditions, with weather changes, with cultural, social changes, with wars and peace. Report an error in the passage at 30:14 Highlight the passage at 30:14

30:51 and fears and Report an error in the passage at 30:51 Highlight the passage at 30:51

31:07 this is just the way it is. it all into one package like that, pointing to the conditioned realm, is non-judgmental, just pointing to its limitation, as long as we Don't understand and operate from habits, from conditioning, from our own opinions about things, then we're always going to feel frustrated and unhappy and ill at ease with life. Report an error in the passage at 31:07 Highlight the passage at 31:07

31:40 Because, you know, that's the way it is. That's the result. Because the conditions we're attached to, you know, you can't control the conditioned realm. Right now, you know, you hear in the news this terrible flooding in Pakistan. And, you know, that poor country seems to have nothing but bad luck. And, you know, thousands of people drown, villages. And imagine what that would be like when we're sitting in this sunny day here worrying about whether it'll rain tomorrow. Report an error in the passage at 31:40 Highlight the passage at 31:40

32:22 But then in Moscow, you get these warnings about all these polluting smoke clouds that hover over, infiltrate the city. They're even warning people in Moscow not to go out into the street because of all the forest fires and the drought. How can we control? Now we have to get a committee together to control so that there won't be any forest fires or floods, earthquakes, tsunamis. Report an error in the passage at 32:22 Highlight the passage at 32:22

32:52 Typhoons, hurricanes, we can't do it, can we? We can't outlaw those things. Even none of us, all of us, all of us don't want any of those conditions. Report an error in the passage at 32:52 Highlight the passage at 32:52

33:06 Yet that's part of living on this planet. That's the way things are that are beyond our ability, isn't it? And so it is frightening for us. Report an error in the passage at 33:06 Highlight the passage at 33:06

33:17 Because we do feel helpless in a realm that we have very little opportunity to control for our own safety and benefit. Report an error in the passage at 33:17 Highlight the passage at 33:17

33:31 And then during this past century, just in my lifetime, I've seen the Second World War. Fortunately, I was living in America at the time, so it didn't affect us like it did here. Report an error in the passage at 33:31 Highlight the passage at 33:31

33:47 You know, we were aware of this horrible war and of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We had photographs of Europe after the Second World War. You know, Europe was just a field of destruction. And the civilized people had been doing the most ridiculous, horrible things to each other. Because of opinions and views. Not through wisdom, not through understanding dharma, but through holding to their opinion. Report an error in the passage at 33:47 Highlight the passage at 33:47

34:30 On both sides. Whatever side you happen to favor, they both operate from the same ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 34:30 Highlight the passage at 34:30

34:41 So this is why we have such things happen. Why we have war. And why there doesn't seem to be any end to it. You know, even when one war ends, another one starts somewhere else. So, because of this ignorance of dharma and people just operating from the conditioned process, being programmed by various societies, political ideas or cultural attitudes or religious biases. Report an error in the passage at 34:41 Highlight the passage at 34:41

35:24 And then if you don't agree with me, then you're wrong. So then if we get into the absolute tizing, absolutism of right and wrong, then logically it makes sense. If I'm right, you're wrong, then I should either convert you, force you, compel you, or shoot you. Report an error in the passage at 35:24 Highlight the passage at 35:24

35:49 I mean, there's certain logic there. Report an error in the passage at 35:49 Highlight the passage at 35:49

35:54 You know, we get rid of the past, don't we, or the enemy. To kill the enemy, destroy, is a part of the logic of right and wrong, good and bad, good and evil. Now, awareness brings us beyond transcending good and evil, right and wrong, true and false. Report an error in the passage at 35:54 Highlight the passage at 35:54

36:18 And this awareness brings us, is the way that we have within these very limitations we find ourselves are Report an error in the passage at 36:18 Highlight the passage at 36:18

36:57 Have more interest in mindfulness meditation. Because this is quite in now in societies like this one. People talk a lot about mindfulness. It's the word of the time. I mean, it's a good sign. Because that is beginning to, maybe there is more awakening going on. Human beings are. You know, we're no longer expecting our governments to solve all our social, economic, political problems. We don't expect David Cameron to make everything right, unless you're a bit stupid. Report an error in the passage at 36:57 Highlight the passage at 36:57

37:46 And President Obama, you know, remember when he was elected, everybody was so glad. And then thought that he could right all the wrongs. And now that he really can't do that much, everybody criticizes him. The fickle public. Report an error in the passage at 37:46 Highlight the passage at 37:46

38:07 But it's because you can't just make laws and try to, you know, make everything right. You know, that's one of the things that we all find rather difficult about this country is that the last government made so many laws. Report an error in the passage at 38:07 Highlight the passage at 38:07

38:26 You know, it's hard to hold a family camp here. Report an error in the passage at 38:26 Highlight the passage at 38:26

38:34 Or to even touch a child, you know, you could be sued. So you've got to get all kinds of insurance and kind of put people through all kinds of examinations and fear of everything, of pedophilia, of child abuse. Report an error in the passage at 38:34 Highlight the passage at 38:34

38:56 Everything going wrong and then trying to pass laws to make it right. And of course it just becomes very bureaucratic and dictatorial and frightening for us. Report an error in the passage at 38:56 Highlight the passage at 38:56

39:11 So in this way, mindfulness is the way that we begin to awaken individual human beings. You know, rather than just make more rules to try to control the population, So there'll be no more murders, no more child abuse, no more this, no more that. Because it seems that no matter how many laws one makes, it still goes on. Report an error in the passage at 39:11 Highlight the passage at 39:11

39:40 And it's just like trying to what they call herding cats. The more you kind of force them to move, the crazier they go. go. Report an error in the passage at 39:40 Highlight the passage at 39:40

39:56 Make them go in the direction you want them to. So this is the age where we are beginning to recognize there must be something more to life than just trying to seek happiness in this one and being rewarded in the next one for being good. Or believing that there's nothing in the next life. When you're dead, you're dead. This is an opinion, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 39:56 Highlight the passage at 39:56

40:25 What happens when we die? You know, when a human being dies, what happens? We have our opinions. We all have opinions about what happens after death. Report an error in the passage at 40:25 Highlight the passage at 40:25

40:37 You know, so it can be, you know, from the Christian perspective or through believing in reincarnation, rebirth or, you know, Muslim heaven or... Or going to live with Lord Krishna or whatever Hindus believe when you die, get reincarnated. But the very fact is that we don't really know at this moment. Report an error in the passage at 40:37 Highlight the passage at 40:37

41:06 But we know we don't know. And not knowing, you're aware of not knowing. When the opinions drop away, then there's this gap, this space. And through that space, through that gap, you begin to connect to pure conscious awareness. You know, you begin to recognize it, rather than just going around, Ajahn Sumedho says, Ajahn Amaro says this, and the Christians say that, and the Muslims don't believe that the Christians have the right attitude. Report an error in the passage at 41:06 Highlight the passage at 41:06

41:44 They've got another one, then the Hindus, Zoroastrians, the Jews, who's right? There is Christopher Hitchens, Dawkins, atheists, there's nothing, Big Bang Theory, Creation Theory. Report an error in the passage at 41:44 Highlight the passage at 41:44

42:04 You know, we might be prone towards favoring, we can see that, favoring one opinion over another. You know, like some opinions I hear in my own mind or from others I favor, you know, I'm inclined to, and others I don't. And I'm aware of that. That awareness is what we call mindfulness. Awareness of my own preference for something, for some idea, for some way of doing something. Report an error in the passage at 42:04 Highlight the passage at 42:04

42:36 Or my aversion, my resistance to somebody's opinion that I don't like and don't agree with is like this. The way things are. That awareness, then, is this great gift of our humanity. This is the great gift we have, an opportunity within this human lifetime to understand in a profound way, not just through believing a scenario given to you by Buddhist monks, but by actually seeing for yourself, realizing. Report an error in the passage at 42:36 Highlight the passage at 42:36

43:15 This word realizing is an important word. Report an error in the passage at 43:15 Highlight the passage at 43:15

43:24 We use the words, have you realized what you've just said? or talk But realization, what's real? What's reality? And any opinion about reality is not reality. It's an opinion. It's a preference, maybe, or a bias, a viewpoint. But that which is aware, realizes, recognizes the opinion as an opinion, that you can trust. Report an error in the passage at 43:24 Highlight the passage at 43:24

44:02 And that's... Sati sampacanya, satipanya. That is totally trustworthy. But recognizing it, realizing it, because we are very strongly conditioned to operate from views and opinions, from the force of habit, from fears, from prejudices. Report an error in the passage at 44:02 Highlight the passage at 44:02

44:33 Now we all have a lot of fear in life. Because this is a fear realm. This realm is all about fear. And this sounds rather morbid maybe, doesn't it, about love and happiness, because love is not to be dismissed, but just contemplating the conditions that we have to live in, you know, with the human body, with its changing conditions, with its tendencies towards sickness and pain. Report an error in the passage at 44:33 Highlight the passage at 44:33

45:08 You know, and risks and, you know, we now, you know, we try to live in a society where it's minimized, where we have a sense of security. Report an error in the passage at 45:08 Highlight the passage at 45:08

45:22 But we all know that it's possible to walk out into the street and a lorry run over you after this talk. It's not probable, but we recognize that any of us, no matter how young and healthy we might be, our lives are. security. Report an error in the passage at 45:22 Highlight the passage at 45:22

45:39 Not guaranteed, you know, old age is not a guarantee. That we are delicate, vulnerable creatures in a universe that seems vast and powerful. Report an error in the passage at 45:39 Highlight the passage at 45:39

45:56 It's so powerful of what the Pakistanis must be experiencing now. Relentless rain, floods, loss, inability to do anything about it. Some people can't even save their families. You know, it's so sudden, so intense that they can't even rescue their children or their wives or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 45:56 Highlight the passage at 45:56

46:24 That's scary, isn't it? That's really frightening, and yet it's nobody's fault. You know, you can't... Immediately we want to blame somebody. It's India's fault, maybe. Or the Americans. Report an error in the passage at 46:24 Highlight the passage at 46:24

46:45 Or the tsunami a few years ago. Sri Lanka was hit badly by the tsunami. And whose fault was it? Report an error in the passage at 46:45 Highlight the passage at 46:45

46:58 And so then we realize that we can blame God. I've lost my trust in God because he wouldn't have allowed tsunamis or this terrible flooding of Pakistan. It's because our opinion of God is such. Isn't it? We don't know what God is. We just have an opinion that if he's all-powerful, he shouldn't allow such things to happen. Report an error in the passage at 46:58 Highlight the passage at 46:58

47:26 But in awakening to dhamma, it's not about asking favors from the divine or from the heavens, but a kind of humbling willingness to learn from the way life is for you in the moment. Report an error in the passage at 47:26 Highlight the passage at 47:26

47:47 No matter what state you're in, in healthy, sickly, young, old, successful, failure, whatever, the awakened consciousness is available to us all the time. It's timeless. Report an error in the passage at 47:47 Highlight the passage at 47:47

48:11 So this talk this afternoon is merely a reflection, an encouragement. Report an error in the passage at 48:11 Highlight the passage at 48:11

48:23 For you, you know, because we do need encouragement because it's so easy to be intimidated and caught up into the fears and problems of modern life, family life, worldly life. Report an error in the passage at 48:23 Highlight the passage at 48:23

48:39 We find ourselves programmed for that. Our emotional life is conditioned, is programmed for reacting to praise and blame, success and failure. Report an error in the passage at 48:39 Highlight the passage at 48:39

48:51 We all have what they call buttons that you can push, something that somebody says and you immediately kind of have an overreaction. Report an error in the passage at 48:51 Highlight the passage at 48:51

49:04 So we find what your button is. What can I say that you'll just fly into a terrible reaction when Report an error in the passage at 49:04 Highlight the passage at 49:04

49:21 you're living in a monastic community? You learn a lot. community. Report an error in the passage at 49:21 Highlight the passage at 49:21

49:30 About people's buttons. Report an error in the passage at 49:30 Highlight the passage at 49:30

49:36 And Report an error in the passage at 49:36 Highlight the passage at 49:36

49:40 your own, too. I remember when I first, when it started, you know, coming to England in 1977. You know, that's very, very, still quite naive and inexperienced. You never, I'd had just 10 years as a bhikku. And so I... Buttons. Report an error in the passage at 49:40 Highlight the passage at 49:40

· · · silence, 1 minute

50:04 All my buttons hadn't been pressed yet. But over the past 34 years, there's probably a few left to be pressed. Report an error in the passage at 50:04 Highlight the passage at 50:04

50:21 But there is a confidence in being able to notice that. Where do I lose it? What is it that really threatens me or frightens me? What is it that somebody says or does that really I have an abnormal kind of reaction, a kind of overreaction to it. What is it? Then I take an interest in that. What is it in me when somebody looks at me like that or says something like this that I just go into a kind of overreactive mode? Report an error in the passage at 50:21 Highlight the passage at 50:21

51:03 And so then I can actually use that for cultivate, for the reality, because that's what my karma is like. You know, certain words, certain tones of voice, certain attitudes can, you know, you feel. Somebody says something, even something inoffensive in a kind of unpleasant tone of voice of a reaction. Or the way somebody walks. Report an error in the passage at 51:03 Highlight the passage at 51:03

51:36 There used to be one monk, he's not here anymore, and he had the most disturbing walk I've ever seen. And I used to sit in the reception room, you know, and waiting for the meal, and looking out that big window, and this monk would come kind of slinking in, you know, this kind of slimy, slinky way. Report an error in the passage at 51:36 Highlight the passage at 51:36

52:03 And every time I felt this incredible aversion arise towards him. Not that he did anything or said anything. Report an error in the passage at 52:03 Highlight the passage at 52:03

52:16 That's sensitivity, isn't it? It's like, we are, we pick, you know, body language or tones of voice. That's what being sensitive is all about. You know, it's just, this is what we learn from. Report an error in the passage at 52:16 Highlight the passage at 52:16

52:36 There's nothing wrong with it, it's just... To be able to see the package we have to live with, it's like this. And this package I call Ajahn Sumedho's like this. Report an error in the passage at 52:36 Highlight the passage at 52:36

52:52 You know, it's not defending it, justifying it, but just accepting it. It's not saying I shouldn't or shouldn't have felt aversion to the slinky monk. Report an error in the passage at 52:52 Highlight the passage at 52:52

53:06 Because ideally I didn't want to feel aversion, you know. Ideally, I want to have love and kindness towards everything. But emotionally, I felt this incredible aversion arise when I see this monk coming towards me. And so that's just the way it is. Now, I couldn't do anything about the monk, but I could do something about myself and beginning to recognize that, learn from it. Report an error in the passage at 53:06 Highlight the passage at 53:06

53:38 Then I could actually let go, instead of just trying to feel guilty like I shouldn't feel such aversion, he's a good person, good monk, and I'm wrong for feeling this way, would be one reaction. Because the ideal Sumedho loves everybody equally and just accepts everybody the way they are without, you know, preference. Report an error in the passage at 53:38 Highlight the passage at 53:38

54:03 That's the ideal Ajahn Sumedho. And then... In the moment, this is what I'm feeling. It's not ideal, but it is the reality of the moment, a condition, an emotional reaction is like this. Report an error in the passage at 54:03 Highlight the passage at 54:03

54:19 And that which is aware of the reaction, that's it, that awareness. Now, putting that in the context of this superb paradigm of the Buddha, like the noumenon. And phenomena, noumena phenomena. When you're mindful, you are this noumenon. It's impersonal. Report an error in the passage at 54:19 Highlight the passage at 54:19

54:49 It's reality itself, but it has no quality that you can't claim it, but you can trust it. So it's intelligent, there's discernment, there's wisdom coming from this, enabled to discern. The conditions we find ourselves in and learn from our own reactions to them, our own tendencies, preferences, biases, opinions and views. Report an error in the passage at 54:49 Highlight the passage at 54:49

55:21 So one can say this is enlightenment, seeing things clearly from this pure light of awareness. It's not a light that's filtered through distortions of perception. Consciousness then, you can say, is light itself. Consciousness, light, wisdom. Now, these might sound very philosophical and theoretical, but in terms of the reality of this moment, the conditions are this. Report an error in the passage at 55:21 Highlight the passage at 55:21

56:03 This body, this emotion, this feeling, the seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, thinking is like this. And when I reflect in this way, then I have more and more, I can see things from this perspective, from awareness, rather than from just, you know, rearranging all my views or condemning them or blaming others or trying to suppress them or trying to change them or feel guilty about them or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 56:03 Highlight the passage at 56:03

56:43 I have a way of just seeing them. They are what they are. And through this wisdom ability to discern, then our responses to life move toward good action rather than bad. Report an error in the passage at 56:43 Highlight the passage at 56:43

57:00 You know, we're not basically evil, selfish, nasty little creatures. You know, we all, you know, there's this love, this universal acceptance and totality. That we can tune into, that we can recognize from this very vulnerable position of our human limitation, human body and karma. Report an error in the passage at 57:00 Highlight the passage at 57:00

57:31 So, you know, what I encourage you to do, like encouragement is, you know, my intention for these kind of talks is encouragement. Because we need, I need encouragement, we all need encouragement. Report an error in the passage at 57:31 Highlight the passage at 57:31

57:51 Because it's not a matter of making any problems about yourself or your particular situation or condition. It's encouraging you to notice, to awaken. I can't make you. And if I had a magic wand and could do it, I'd do it. Tap every one of you. But I can't do that. that. Report an error in the passage at 57:51 Highlight the passage at 57:51

58:22 The best I can do is encourage you. So the tea is now manifesting on the servery. So I invite you all to have some tea, and then afterwards, in 20 minutes or so, we can have a discussion. Report an error in the passage at 58:22 Highlight the passage at 58:22