Automated transcript, estimated accuracy about 92% for this source; report an error.
Words the recogniser was unsure of are underlined with dots. Use “Report an error” beside any passage to tell us what the teacher actually says.
Key passages
The teacher's own words, quoted from the transcript below and chosen automatically as representative.
- 4:16
Personally, you as an individual, your body and your mind has its profound effect on the universe, where we tend to think of ourselves, what I do doesn't matter, I can do what I want, it's none of your business, and if I do evil things, it's my business, not your business, and if I'm not hurting you, why should you care? This tendency in the West to be very strongly identified to a sense of being a unique individual that has no connection with anything else and somehow is outside the whole.
- 8:10
So in the sharing of merit we begin to Understand that what we do, how we live, has its profound effect on the universe we live in. Now this was quite an awakening for myself because before I had very much of this sense of none of your business, I can do what I want.
- 9:13
effect universe, the people I live with, on the society I'm in, and on the country, and on the world, as though all sentient beings suffer. I reflect on this in the monastery, we reflect on this every morning, the attitude of sharing the merit of our lives, living our lives during the day in a way that is
- 11:32
And I say, oh yes, we do. And she says, well, will you pray for my wife? And so we say in our morning chanting and that, the merit of our lives, any grace or goodness that we might gain is... To be shared. Or good actions done, particularly for, say, and the merit of that good action to be shared with that particular person who's ill. So, in Buddhist countries, like, people will come and they'll say, they'll give a dharma, they'll give food to the monks, and they'll say, can this merit be shared with so-and-so who's ill?
- 22:01
equanimity. And this is, say, being able to remain balanced in oneself, no matter what life presents to us. In other words, if we're lacking in upeka in our lives, we tend to be carried away all the time by the qualities we're experiencing through the senses. If you have no upeka at all, somebody says to you, you're absolutely wonderful, you're divine.
Transcript
0:01 This morning we had a chance for reflection on the dharma. And as you've seen during this past week, I had a chance to reflect on the ordinary and the mundane and all the worldly dharmas of Report an error in the passage at 0:01
0:27 greed, hatred and delusion, as well as reflect on the grand kind of visions that have been presented to the mind. Through the talks. Report an error in the passage at 0:27
0:42 And so this is important for you to consider how to use the conditions we find ourselves with. Like yesterday I talked on devotional practice and didn't get really very far into it. But the practice of mettā as a way of learning to be mindful of the unpleasant, Report an error in the passage at 0:42
1:12 That which we find ugly and repulsive that we experience through the mind, the senses. Report an error in the passage at 1:12
1:23 Another practice that is very much a part of the Theravadan tradition is what we call the sharing of merit. And this is greatly misunderstood by Western people because the word merit itself somehow is... not a very inspiring word you think of girl guides and boy scouts Report an error in the passage at 1:23
1:51 In Thailand, or in Buddhist countries, merit is something that is greatly sought after and considered something quite worth pursuing. It's to do good actions for gaining merit. merit for What we mean by this is by doing that which is good in the world, not for one thing, because if you've contemplated karma, you see that to do good you receive good, do bad you receive bad, but also for the welfare of all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:51
2:39 So in the act of sharing of merit, it's a skillful means which Buddhists use. In order to let go of the idea of one gaining through meritorious action. In other words, one does a good action and any merit or grace or goodness or good result or reward or happiness or joy or anything positive that one receives from this good action. Report an error in the passage at 2:39
3:15 is to be shared and given back for the welfare of all sentient beings. Now this conceptual way of talking is a way of letting go of the idea of accumulating merit for oneself in a selfish way. The attitude of doing good for the welfare of others rather than for personal gain. Because the tendency, even in Thailand, is sometimes to think of That you yourself are accumulating great storehouses of merit by doing this. And by even sharing the merit with other beings, you're somehow gaining more merit by sharing. Report an error in the passage at 3:15
4:02 Now this is an act of devotion which becomes quite significant in your life when you realize that you... Personally, you as an individual, your body and your mind has its profound effect on the universe, where we tend to think of ourselves, what I do doesn't matter, I can do what I want, it's none of your business, and if I do evil things, it's my business, not your business, and if I'm not hurting you, why should you care? Report an error in the passage at 4:02
4:44 This tendency in the West to be very strongly identified to a sense of being a unique individual that has no connection with anything else and somehow is outside the whole. And so what I do is my own business, not yours. And this has reached, in the West, I think its peak of of selfish development in the recent years to where our identities are so limited to this body and our desires that we have we're sometimes very very insensitive and irresponsible to the people we're living with and the society that we're in and to the world because you think none of your business and we think of our parents Our mothers, fathers say, that's not a very nice thing. If you've done something very insensitive and cruel to your mother and father, and you say, shut up, it's none of your business. Report an error in the passage at 4:44
5:56 It's my life. I can do what I want. I'm over 21. Report an error in the passage at 5:56
6:04 How dare you interfere with my life? Trying to possess, hold on, keep the strings, and so forth. And we think, Report an error in the passage at 6:04
6:37 body. Like in Thailand, Thai people tend to identify more with the family unit than with There's stronger identity in the sense of being a person is very much a part of a family where I can see in my own life, I'm speaking from my own experience, is that one's identity with a family is very little nowadays, at least in my life. Report an error in the passage at 6:37
7:09 I don't feel any great strong identity with my parents or with a class. Report an error in the passage at 7:09
7:47 You feel so isolated and alone and so unable to communicate or understand or have communion with another being because your conditioning is one of which you tend to cut off and separate and live in your own world which doesn't include anyone else really. So in the sharing of merit we begin to Understand that what we do, how we live, has its profound effect on the universe we live in. Report an error in the passage at 7:47
8:29 Now this was quite an awakening for myself because before I had very much of this sense of none of your business, I can do what I want. And then through, say, meditation and beginning to understand, What the universe really is, I began to see that I had to be responsible for how I lived, because not being a mean and nasty and evil person by nature, I never have really wanted to be responsible for causing unnecessary misery and suffering to other beings. Report an error in the passage at 8:29
9:04 And I could see that if I lived foolishly and stupidly and selfishly, that this has its effect. effect universe, the people I live with, on the society I'm in, and on the country, and on the world, as though all sentient beings suffer. Report an error in the passage at 9:04
9:31 I reflect on this in the monastery, we reflect on this every morning, the attitude of sharing the merit of our lives, living our lives during the day in a way that is Trying to be as skillful and as sensitive as possible are actions to be done not for, say, our own desire to be enlightened, but for the welfare and concern for all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 9:31
10:06 When people ask me, what are you doing for the third world? hire. Sharing my merit with all beings in the third world, second and first, making no preferences. Report an error in the passage at 10:06
10:28 And when we think, if we reflect that if we live foolishly and stupidly, we're adding that much more momentum and power to all that is heedless and stupid and foolish in the world. And there's already so much of that. Anyway, we don't need to feel obligated to add to that. What is there seems to be a lack? Report an error in the passage at 10:28
10:52 Particular now is concentrated effort in doing good and living mindfully. And then the merit, any merit to be shared, to do this not for one's own sake but for the welfare of all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 10:52
11:11 Then in the practice of sharing of merit we reflect on, it's like a Buddhist way of praying for somebody, like somebody's ill. Christians will come and say, my wife has cancer and she's not expected to live much longer. Do you Buddhists pray? And I say, oh yes, we do. And she says, well, will you pray for my wife? And so we say in our morning chanting and that, the merit of our lives, any grace or goodness that we might gain is... Report an error in the passage at 11:11
11:53 To be shared. Or good actions done, particularly for, say, and the merit of that good action to be shared with that particular person who's ill. So, in Buddhist countries, like, people will come and they'll say, they'll give a dharma, they'll give food to the monks, and they'll say, can this merit be shared with so-and-so who's ill? Report an error in the passage at 11:53
12:17 Or with some, with parents who have departed? Report an error in the passage at 12:17
12:25 specify the name of that person then add all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 12:25
12:35 that even though this particular, say, food might be offered for the welfare and and enlightenment of one's mother, Report an error in the passage at 12:35
12:51 Only for one's mother, but for all sentient beings. So this is the Buddhist way of developing the devotional side of religious practice. It's an expanding of the heart in this way to include all without preference, without distinction. distinction the The finest, say, to one's, say, the man, say, to the upacaya, the preceptor that ordained us, to all the teachers who have taught us, to parents and husband, wife, brothers, sisters, good friends, the king and queen, the rulers of the country. Report an error in the passage at 12:51
13:42 We share our merit every day at Chithurst with the The Prime Minister, the Members of Parliament. Report an error in the passage at 13:42
13:59 With all the animal realms, all the animal world, and all those in various stages of anguish and despair, such as criminals and people locked away in mental institutions, all those who are sick and weak. Report an error in the passage at 13:59
14:48 could possibly exist from the highest like the deva kind of ...ethereal, refined beings to the coarsest and most evil and all gradations in between. Now this act of devotion is a way of developing the heart. It is not to be a rational, sensible kind of thing in which you have to be guaranteed that you give so much food, you'll get so much... Report an error in the passage at 14:48
15:33 that, you know, offering merit every day for criminals in prisons and drug addicts is really solving their problems, is not a rational kind of thing where you're weighing on a scale amount of goodness you're doing the effects that you can see within. It's an act of faith. And so this devotion is faith. Report an error in the passage at 15:33
16:02 And faith is action in the world. It's how we live and relate within the human form to the other human or sentient beings that surround us and that we are part of. Report an error in the passage at 16:02
16:21 This is what we mean by devotion. Now, we find within Buddhism itself, and in Britain, a sense of not understanding the value of devotional practice because it's connected with kind of blind faith, kind of smarmy, sweet sentiments that only foolish people tend to reiterate. And if we consider ourselves one who doesn't fall for all those silly kind of sentimental things, we tend to feel an aversion arising in our mind toward devotional practices like bowing or lighting of candles and incense, chanting, offering of merit, spreading mettā, and all this kind of thing we can all lump together and say superstition. Report an error in the passage at 16:21
17:23 Foolishness. I want the pure teaching of the dharma, the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, and give me a practical kind of meditation practice that makes sense, and that I can accept, and then I'll do it. But I don't want any of that other stuff. Report an error in the passage at 17:23
17:56 Now, in practice of meditation, you say that compassion and joy joy Report an error in the passage at 17:56
18:09 Now these arise, these are developed in one's life. As we tend to, they learn to give out rather than to take. So much of the time people say, what did you get out of that meditation retreat? When you heard his talk, did you get anything from it? You went to this Buddhist center somewhere, what did you get out of it? This sense of, What are we getting from all this? What this Buddhist society, what are we getting out of it? Report an error in the passage at 18:09
18:50 This attitude is the attitude of one who still does not understand karma or rebirth and who still goes at things with the idea of getting something. And so when we change that to, say, giving, Rather than taking, when we come here to the Buddhist Society Summer School, what are we giving to it? Can we give anything? Report an error in the passage at 18:50
19:20 How can we help it? How can we give to it? Rather than, what am I getting out of it? Now this attitude of giving takes a lot of humility and patience. And yet this very attitude is the attitude which is the path to enlightenment. What can I give? How can I help? And if we can just give ourselves to the summer school to be one who's content with the things as they are rather than complaining about this or that. Report an error in the passage at 19:20
20:01 Reflecting on what's being said without demanding that things be said that we agree with but being able to accept even Those things that baffle us or that we don't agree with, with patience and humility. Being grateful for the things offered, for the talks given, rather than being critical and saying, oh, I didn't like that, no, I don't agree with that. Report an error in the passage at 20:01
20:31 That is an attitude of feeling gratitude for people who have taken the time to come in and offer some kind of experience or knowledge or information or help that they have experienced or that they can give us Report an error in the passage at 20:31
20:53 we accept with gratitude Thank you very much. Whether we agree or not, whether it's been absolutely fantastic or very minimal, we don't care anymore. We're not concerned about the amounts or how much we get. get. Even if we get just A little bit, or even if nothing, be grateful for that, because then you're approaching more what was talked about last evening. Report an error in the passage at 20:53
21:26 So Report an error in the passage at 21:26
21:43 this, say, compassion and joy, karuṇā muditā, and upekha, we're going to discuss mettā. Mettā is, upekha is the equanimity. And this is, say, being able to remain balanced in oneself, no matter what life presents to us. In other words, if we're lacking in upeka in our lives, we tend to be carried away all the time by the qualities we're experiencing through the senses. Report an error in the passage at 21:43
22:23 If you have no upeka at all, somebody says to you, you're absolutely wonderful, you're divine. And you jump for joy. Hooray! You get very high. That's a really wonderfully sensitive person. Report an error in the passage at 22:23
22:48 Then someone else comes along and says, you're so stupid and disgusting. And you become terribly depressed. You want to kill yourself or kill the person. And this is A genuine lack of equanimity. In other words, what other people say seems to overwhelm you. If it's positive and good, you're very happy. If it's insulting and unpleasant, you'll become depressed. Report an error in the passage at 22:48
23:21 Same applies to, say, good fortune and bad fortune. You inherit a million pounds, you jump for joy. And you lose a million pounds and you... Start thinking in ways of killing yourself. No upeka, no equanimity. You succeed or you fail. You become a great worldly success, acclaimed, the greatest human being since somebody. And you feel joyful and happy and wonderful and then you're humiliated and despised by the world and you feel depressed. Report an error in the passage at 23:21
23:49 Since somebody. Report an error in the passage at 23:49
24:04 No upeka, no equanimity. So in developing equanimity, it's in seeing the equal value of both praise and blame, success and failure, good fortune and bad fortune, happiness and suffering, by seeing that both praise and blame, they come and they go, they change. One feels good, one doesn't, but you begin to see that it's not so. You begin to... Report an error in the passage at 24:04
24:45 your lives your daily lives if you start looking at your own mind than trying to say uh transform yourself into the ideal Report an error in the passage at 24:45
24:57 feeling that you more or less have been given a bad kind of deal in life and you have to more or less live in in a miserable state of what you think you are begin to penetrate the very feelings of happiness happiness and and suffering, suffering success and failure, fortune. Report an error in the passage at 24:57
25:40 the meditation, Wisdom arises through this kind of investigation, which is not a judgmental investigation such as analyzing the conditions by saying one kind of happiness is better than another, or you're not trying to figure yourselves out according to theories that you have about what you should be or shouldn't be, but you just observe, be content with The moment as it is, meaning whatever it is, you're aware of it as it is and see how long it lasts. Report an error in the passage at 25:40
26:24 Be one who has courage to investigate things, even the most unpleasant and painful situations are filled with every possibility for enlightenment if you make the effort to do so. Report an error in the passage at 26:24
26:41 So in wisdom, you see, wisdom is... is where there is no thing and in compassion we have compassion for everything. So in these two seemingly opposed things where everything and nothing we find our balance because we're not making preferences anymore. We're not seeking annihilation or an idea of emptiness as a place that we should be identified with. Report an error in the passage at 26:41
27:18 Nor are we seeking our identity among all the myriad manifestations that we experience through the mind. But we begin to be at peace with the arising and passing of conditions and with the emptiness. In other words, there's no attachment to either extreme. No effort to identify with greed, hatred and delusion nor with Report an error in the passage at 27:18
27:49 No greed, hatred and delusion. In this practice of meditation, the Buddha was, I think people, it's very hard for Western people to realize that the Buddha was not in any way philosophizing about the nature of existence or theorizing or creating any doctrines about the nature of things. Report an error in the passage at 27:49
28:23 Pointing away only that is very practical, it's not a denial nor an affirmation, but a pointer. And so therefore when we talk about the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, three characteristics of existence, we're not saying to be a Buddhist you have to believe in anattā, or you have to believe in karma in reverse, or you have to believe in the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 28:23
28:56 It's not a matter of belief at all. It's not saying to believe or disbelieve, but to find out through your own direct experience of it. Report an error in the passage at 28:56
29:11 In, say, in the Theravāda tradition, there is a very simple kind of Buddhist teaching. Report an error in the passage at 29:11
29:26 Nothing much is taught other than the Four Noble Truths in their full power. And then people tend to criticize Theravadans because they have these ideas about there's something more than that. Report an error in the passage at 29:26
29:49 So that you start thinking, well, you know, you want something like one would like to read Shakespeare rather than start learning the ABCs. Report an error in the passage at 29:49
30:07 you think how Hamlet and Macbeth are much more interesting than A, B, C, D, E, F, G. But you can't very well start out, unless you have incredible barometers from previous lives, reading Hamlet. We have to start out with a simple A, B, C, D. Now once you learn the basic skills, what you do with them is up to you, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 30:07
30:43 Once you learn how to read, this is a book, I am a man, you can begin to read more complicated literature than that. Report an error in the passage at 30:43
31:00 But that's up to you on how far you want to go and what you want to do with it. So let's say in teaching meditation, it's just a way of teaching basic skills. Report an error in the passage at 31:00
31:15 Developing some skill in a way of seeing things clearly. And then the rest becomes quite clear about shunyata or things of that nature. That becomes quite obviously real if you already have penetrated the fact that the things that we think, feel, see, experience through the senses. are not cells, are just the impermanent conditions arising and passing. All that begins ends, all that arises passes away. Report an error in the passage at 31:15
31:58 And as I said once before in the very first sutta, the Dhammajaka Sutta that the Buddha gave in Badir Park in Benares to the five disciples, was just this basic exposition. of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Then at the end of it, the disciple Kandanya understands. Report an error in the passage at 31:58
32:28 And the Buddha praises him. He says, oh, Kandanya understands. He knows, Anya Kandanya. And what does Kandanya understand? All that arises passes away. Report an error in the passage at 32:28
32:46 So this is why in our practice, rather than trying to have the God-like vision from the heavenly realms, the celestial view, and understand everything in all its complexity, we content ourselves with understanding the mundane, the ordinary, and penetrating the ordinary, just like the breath, the inhalation, the exhalation, just walking, sitting, standing, lying down. Report an error in the passage at 32:46
33:18 ordinary conditions of our daily lives, there's Dhamma, the profound Dhamma in all these actions that we experience in our lives be enlightened with. Report an error in the passage at 33:18
33:36 you're trying to seek to understand on the grand view, would be terribly difficult. because that's not the lesson we're doing that's not our That's not what we need to do in this lifetime as human beings, because we can only understand the grand through understanding the most humble, the most ordinary. Report an error in the passage at 33:36
34:01 That's why meditation is always here and now, with whatever is as it is, no matter what its quality might be, high or low, good or bad, and the act of giving out rather than of getting. How much can we give? Report an error in the passage at 34:01
34:22 Let's make our lives one of giving rather than of taking. Because in this outward giving, in that very motion of going out like this, there's an act of opening, just like your body is opening up, isn't it? Where grasping or taking is closing off, shutting ourselves off. The act of giving, just like opening the palm, giving out, physically it's even an opening out to others. Report an error in the passage at 34:22
34:53 Would it be possible to say a little more about cultivation? Report an error in the passage at 34:53
35:06 Like in the Theravāda school, there are ten Barhamitas. The last two listed are Mettā and Upeka. And those are also the first and the last of the Brahma-Viharas, if you've noticed. The two Karuṇā and Muditā are not considered Barhamitas. Report an error in the passage at 35:06
35:34 Because these paramitas are perfections that one develops. And therefore karuṇā muditā tend to arise quite spontaneously when there is mindfulness, when the other paramitas have been established in one's life. Now upekā is... Report an error in the passage at 35:34
36:04 People tend to translate that as kind of indifference or equanimity. Sometimes they'll use the word indifference, which means not being concerned with anything. Report an error in the passage at 36:04
36:20 Many people feel upeka is just kind of shutting oneself off and saying, and as you see, some maniac comes into this room and starts slashing away at everybody, I'll just say. In permanent condition, not self. Report an error in the passage at 36:20
36:41 I'd be some kind of monster myself, wouldn't I? Not being totally indifferent to what's going on. But the upekā is that in ourselves, it's a way of not being overwhelmed by the qualities. Report an error in the passage at 36:41
37:08 of success or failure good fortune or bad fortune happiness or suffering praise or blame that we experience. Now that doesn't mean we're indifferent in a sense of insensitive to praise and blame. You're not just say repressing any kind of feeling that arises and saying oh I shouldn't feel happy if I'm praised and I shouldn't feel depressed if I'm Report an error in the passage at 37:08
37:42 It's not that, because then one tends to repress and ignore or look away from. But bhaupeka means to maintain a cool, calm centeredness towards praise and blame so that we can be aware of the habits we already have. Like, it's natural and I personally Speaking from my own knowledge of my own character, is that when somebody says, you're absolutely wonderful, I like that. Report an error in the passage at 37:42
38:26 And when somebody says, you're rotten and disgusting, I don't like to hear that either. No, it's not that I should like to hear the true facts. that. Report an error in the passage at 38:26
38:44 despise hearing the untrue fact that I'm absolutely wonderful. not playing games with your mind at all. But it's awareness of the feelings of liking and disliking that arise, and knowing them just as they are, knowing feeling is feeling. Report an error in the passage at 38:44
39:04 in that you become equanimous with it. You can accept praise and... Listen to blame without repression or indulgence. Because sometimes in praise there's a lot of truth. Sometimes we are absolutely wonderful, all of it. And at other times we're absolutely rotten. And sometimes people are just being nasty. Report an error in the passage at 39:04
39:31 They're just saying you're absolutely rotten because they're angry with you and they want to hurt you. And sometimes people are being obsequious. Report an error in the passage at 39:31
39:40 Trying to get something from us by saying you're absolutely wonderful. But we can listen, you know, and in that awareness is the ability to respond appropriately because we're not blaming others, we're not reacting to what's being said in a foolish and heedless way. So in... Ajahn Chah, he was always, one of his great points of stress, stressing in teaching when he was in England last year, was see all conditions of equal value, success or failure. Report an error in the passage at 39:40
40:29 Now, say like, we all like to feel that what we're doing is successful. It was a successful summer school. Oh, yes. And then somebody says, it was a failure. It was really the worst summer school I've ever seen. Oh, I don't think I'll even go next year. You see, we're reacting. But when we hear, you know, it was a really successful summer school, we can accept that without trying to deny it. Report an error in the passage at 40:29
41:06 Because, you know, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. It's a matter of opinion. Or if it's the most miserable one that one's ever been to, that's a matter of opinion. But one can accept and learn from both success and failure, from good fortune and bad fortune, good health and bad health, from whatever conditions we experience in our lives. Report an error in the passage at 41:06
41:34 They all take us to the same place. place to end of the death birth. see, there is... In the sutras they say, what is the essence of all conditions? The Buddha said, deliverance is their essence. So all conditions, no matter what those conditions might be, good or bad, if you're aware of them, deliver you from delusion. Report an error in the passage at 41:34
42:07 And where do all conditions merge into the deathless? When we are patient and humble and equanimous, then we can allow everything to teach us and merge into the deathless. Report an error in the passage at 42:07
42:35 Does that answer your question? Report an error in the passage at 42:35
Related talks
Talk by Ajahn Sumedho. Original at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ajahn-sumedho-dhamma-talks. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.
Talks of Ajahn Sumedho, archived on Internet Archive. More from Amaravati