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- 7:06
I've been trying to sit like this for years and years, and always used to go numb and bend the needles, till two weeks ago, when I read in a book, a little book, that if you sit coins.
- 10:25
to reflect on the present moment, like to be with the body. mind, here there are various different In an intuitive way, to kind of contemplate the body as experience in the present, as a whole thing, that helps to relax the physical
- 27:21
death and contemplation death. You mentioned that in the Buddhist tradition it's not the case of you see yourself as a soul which at the time of death will merge with a greater soul. Can you tell us a bit more about what is the Buddhist tradition in terms of what you think happens at death?
- 36:35
Meditate. is where there's real joy and where you feel, you know, there is a sense of joy and love and that come from that awakened state where the sentimentality of memory and holding on to, you know, hopes and desires and all that just tend to, especially as you get older, you wear down with it.
- 46:43
And I'm not trying to convince you, but just trying to... Put that suggestion into all your minds to contemplate what it is to be human as a positive experience. And then to learn to trust yourself, your ability to awaken. And as you do that, then you begin to see that you can do that. And that kind of faith, that kind of trust is something that you're transcending your own conditioning of your mind.
Transcript
0:00 Who dares to ask a question? Report an error in the passage at 0:00
0:17 Yes. Report an error in the passage at 0:17
0:28 Well, I found Report an error in the passage at 0:28
0:37 myself in Thailand, didn't I? And I always liked the idea of monasticism anyway. It was something that I was attracted to long before I ever went to Thailand, but I didn't... I was brought up to Christians. I realized I couldn't be a Christian monk because I didn't really believe in Christianity. But when I went to Thailand, I thought, well, because I was a Buddhist by the time I went to Thailand, well, maybe I can become a monk here in Thailand. Report an error in the passage at 0:37
1:23 It's like wanting a way of life that is complete in itself, kind of integrated. This is my... What I dreaded was growing up, I mean living a life where your life is very much fragmented and like your family life, your working life, everything is kind of separate and I thought, you know, I wanted to find a lifestyle or a way to live my life that I felt was integrated, especially on a spiritual level, toward a spiritual goal anyway. Report an error in the passage at 1:23
2:06 And monasticism, we used to have monks, Christian monks, come and stay with us when I was a child. They'd go on teaching missions. I was in the northwest in Seattle, Washington. And so when they'd come to that part of the country, they'd stay at our house. I got to know these Christian monks, and I always liked their... Report an error in the passage at 2:06
2:36 These kind of people attracted to it. I remember when I was doing my master's degree in Berkeley, I was in this studies program for South Asian studies. It was a cultural studies program based mainly on India. so I wouldn't... And when you're a graduate student, you're given permission to have your own private desk up in what they call the stacks of the library. Report an error in the passage at 2:36
3:15 So where I chose was the ninth tier, which had a skylight, this beautiful skylight. And you'd sit up there in the daytime, and this kind of light would pour in. And there was a whole, you know, shelves, hundreds of shelves of books on religion. Report an error in the passage at 3:15
3:35 I'd always gravitate to these ones on yogis and Hindus, you know, covered in ashes and hanging upside down from trees. Report an error in the passage at 3:35
3:50 It always appealed to me. Report an error in the passage at 3:50
4:02 I'm glad I don't have to do that now. Report an error in the passage at 4:02
4:07 And just wearing ashes in England would be a bit cold most of the time. Report an error in the passage at 4:07
4:17 But I think you feel a certain, like Report an error in the passage at 4:17
4:24 Buddhism, things that just kind of very much resonate. Even though I was brought up as a Christian, faith never developed in that religion, where with Buddhism it did immediately. I mean, almost as soon as I heard about it and read about Buddhism, I knew that this was what I wanted to do. I had a strong affinity with it. Report an error in the passage at 4:24
5:07 one is sitting, the radio is sitting. It comes more easy, but it won't even... It sits like that, but it's leaning against a wall or sitting on a chair. Also, it leans with the back straight. It's much harder. Report an error in the passage at 5:07
5:25 Well, how I see it, it's like energy. You get these very... I think with just the energetic system, it's very like the lotus posture is the perfect posture. Sitting, you know, with your... Like you get, once you get the kind of energetic system moving, then it, the whole, it kind of fills out the body, where if you're leaning on things, oftentimes you're not fully energizing the body. Report an error in the passage at 5:25
6:01 Even if one is not leaning against something, but sitting like this, without a backrest, it doesn't happen so easily. It's much better with a little bit of posture. Report an error in the passage at 6:01
6:13 He was just putting the legs up like that. I think it just makes everything work better. Like when you hang your legs down. Like I have this problem with a swollen leg. And if I sit with the legs hanging down, then it swells up. But if I sit like this, it doesn't. I mean, it's swollen, but it won't swell more. Report an error in the passage at 6:13
6:38 But like sitting in a chair for very long, the blood goes down. And oftentimes you... press the veins or, know. Report an error in the passage at 6:38
6:56 with this kind of posture, actually at first your legs go numb, but after a while it adjusts that they never get numb. I've been trying to sit like this for years and years, and always used to go numb and bend the needles, till two weeks ago, when I read in a book, a little book, that if you sit Report an error in the passage at 6:56
7:27 coins. Report an error in the passage at 7:27
7:34 And when you get into that position, don't adjust yourself, just slide into it as you are comfortable. just your base, find your equilibrium, like a sandal point. Report an error in the passage at 7:34
7:53 stand up here? Report an error in the passage at 7:53
7:58 All right, because what happens, as I'm interpreting that, like trusting your body to know what to do. Usually we try to control the body. When I try to control and make my body do what I want, then it doesn't work so well. But if you trust your body, it knows what it needs. Report an error in the passage at 7:58
8:25 You know, like trying to find good posture oftentimes, according to your idea in your head about what good posture is, you can pull all kinds of things out of place and create stress. But as you say, just like being a pile of coins, being one thing, this sense of wholeness of the body. And the body, you're giving the body the right to make its own adjustments. Report an error in the passage at 8:25
8:51 And so you notice sometimes it'll go a little... things like this and find its own balance. Report an error in the passage at 8:51
9:26 From just causing so much stress, I think like these Olympic athletes must do that to their bodies. To, you know, make their bodies, you know, have so many ideas of trying to make their bodies do these fantastic things, which the body is really not meant to be doing, but just out of ambition and desire to win. Report an error in the passage at 9:26
9:34 You know what I mean? Report an error in the passage at 9:34
9:57 And they must pay quite a price for that. I know ballet dancers oftentimes have terrible problems. Report an error in the passage at 9:57
10:19 Just Report an error in the passage at 10:19
10:25 to reflect on the present moment, like to be with the body. mind, here there are various different Report an error in the passage at 10:25
10:42 In an intuitive way, to kind of contemplate the body as experience in the present, as a whole thing, that helps to relax the physical condition, then be with the breath, or what's ever happening now, the mood of the mind, just an attitude of total acceptance of the way it is. So even if you're in a bad mood, Report an error in the passage at 10:42
11:15 To totally accept the bad mood in the present or whatever state of mind you're in. It's an attitude that is really helpful rather than a technique. And then an attitude is this kind of total acceptance of what's happening now. It's non-critical and then to... You know, use postures like formal meditation to sit and do sitting, standing, walking, lying down. Report an error in the passage at 11:15
11:53 Mindfulness practices help. But eventually it all integrates into just the flow of life. More and more you just feel this sense of whatever you're doing is your meditation. Report an error in the passage at 11:53
12:10 And then you begin to also... You begin to recognize the silence of the mind, what I call the sound of silence, kind of ringing background sound, kind of restful sound that's natural to the moment. And it's like they call an audible sound stream, kind of background, hardly noticeable by most people. But as you kind of open the mind, then you begin to recognize it. Report an error in the passage at 12:10
12:40 That means your mind is at that point is very open and receptive and you're not caught in and it helps you to reflect on say maybe your own habits of trying to control or make yourself do something or you know whatever positions you're taking on meditation you're more aware of them as just something to accept rather than to follow. Report an error in the passage at 12:40
13:10 And then in that acceptance of the conditions, you're allowing conditions to change. You're allowing the body to develop, to trust, to find what's natural to it. And you as a personality, a personality based on ignorance, not understanding dharma, then that begins to take back seat, to lose its... It's power over your conscious experience. Report an error in the passage at 13:10
· · · silence, 1 minute
14:14 Well, Report an error in the passage at 14:14
14:45 I feel, I don't know, I feel that as individuals, mentioned uh drug problems mean Report an error in the passage at 14:45
14:06 a job, so it can be a bit of a state sold paper. you have a society which Report an error in the passage at 14:06
14:34 Buddhist terms, which can focus on individually. Report an error in the passage at 14:34
14:54 are enlightened or free from delusion. And that has an effect on everyone else. I mean, you can't maybe notice, but you're always sharing. This idea of sharing the blessings of your life with others is very much part of Buddhist practice. So that you're not just, I'm going to get enlightened whether you do it or not. Report an error in the passage at 14:54
15:20 It's not like that. It's more like you're working with the universe and you're using your own practice and recognizing that that's also a field of blessing, a field of merit for the society. Report an error in the passage at 15:20
15:51 I think what it is now is you don't want to impose. The world now is With mass media, because it isn't very big anymore, everything influences everything very quickly now. So what happens in Rwanda or Siberia or something, we're all aware now of so many, of what's going on, that now it's not a matter of trying to impose. Report an error in the passage at 15:51
16:27 impose anything but to awaken and that's where where I think you know so many things go wrong is where you're trying to you know like the arrogance of imposing your culture on somebody else or your ideas or your religion on somebody else is me that I don't want to do that. I don't like the result of that, of going off somebody and then, you know. Report an error in the passage at 16:27
16:58 on them, you know. You'd rather wake them up, you know, help, you know, set up situations where, not that I'm going around trying to wake up people, but you're creating conditions where that can be, can happen. And I feel that is of great value. And like just, you know, you notice the... Report an error in the passage at 16:58
17:30 The way that the, like in Russia, places like that, people now coming from Russia, from Poland, places, countries that you would have thought never would have even heard of Buddhism or didn't, you know, wouldn't have had any interest in Buddhist meditation. And then you get, you realize that there's an awakening going on on a worldwide level. Report an error in the passage at 17:30
18:01 Meditation now isn't an oddball thing to be doing here in England or in the States. Report an error in the passage at 18:01
18:11 There's more... I've never seen Christianity so open as it is now. It used to be, you know, so arrogant, you know. The kind of Christianity I grew up with was arrogant, you know. We are right and everyone else is wrong. But now they don't say that, except they kind of... States. Report an error in the passage at 18:11
18:32 Basic fundamentalists. Report an error in the passage at 18:32
18:46 It's not politically correct even to go around and say, you know, not that that's always a good sign, but it is, you know, the signs are. I mean, I can imagine with the world's population, which is, you know, more than it's ever been known to be, you know, one can look at it as kind of in the doom, destruction, death, decay. Report an error in the passage at 18:46
19:17 scenario, is a talk I'll give later. Report an error in the passage at 19:17
19:25 It also can mean that there's so many more vehicles for enlightenment and for wisdom on the planet. You're trying to bring humanity into an awakened state of the value of being human. Report an error in the passage at 19:25
19:47 And the gift that we have, that people are not aware of. They're human, but they don't realize the value of their humanity. Or they get all these overpopulation, or like now, say, here in the UK, the idea of the next century, there's going to be enormous old population. Report an error in the passage at 19:47
20:17 Old people, it'll be a drain on the society that will not be economically productive and young people will have to take care of all of us. And that sounds pretty dreary, doesn't it? And you look at a lot of old people complaining and wanting things and not doing anything. Report an error in the passage at 20:17
20:43 And past their prime and you're just waiting for them to die off, you know, put them in nursing homes and that. That's depressing. But then if you start looking at human beings more as, you know, their potential for enlightenment, start kind of encouraging that attitude, that weakened attitude, you know. Report an error in the passage at 20:43
21:11 I think we'd all be surprised, pleasantly surprised, that how things could change. Once we started changing our way from thinking about ourselves always in terms of vanity or personality, seeing ourselves in terms of like the common humanity, once you see yourself with the common humanity, then how can you go around killing anyone? Report an error in the passage at 21:11
21:41 Or, you know, being arrogant and prejudiced and all that. You know, it just kind of knocks that whole thing out. You know, if you're seeing the common humanity that we share. And you read about these right-wing, you know, racist movements and things like that, the Aryan race and... And these theories that were back in the 30s and 40s here in Europe, racist theories about superior race and the white race being superior and so forth, that sounds so stupid now. Report an error in the passage at 21:41
22:28 It's pure idiocy that anyone, any intelligent person could have ever believed in it. And yet they did. That was 50 years ago, 60 years ago. A lot of people believed in it. And then when you think of What makes, you know, if you're talking about superiority, it's really, you know, the good heart. You know, if you're going to measure something in terms of good or bad, you're not talking about race is not the measure, but the heart, the awakened state of the person, of the individual. Report an error in the passage at 22:28
23:06 And that's not, that has nothing to do with class or race or sex or anything like that. So then you're pointing to something that is truly awakened and compassionate, where, say, we would feel more concerned about the poor, because we recognize their potential for enlightenment, rather than just feeling sorry for them because they don't have nice things to live with. Report an error in the passage at 23:06
23:43 And, you know, we're feeling guilty because we do and they don't, or whatever. You're actually recognizing the potential, you know, what's there. You think of all these street children, you know, like in Rio, De Janeiro, or places like that. You hear about Bucharest and places like this where children and teenagers just are like rats in the sewers and running around, you know, just nobody loves them and they just... Report an error in the passage at 23:43
24:12 ...vermin, like pests in the society. And that's how they become when those kind of suggestions are given to them. But when you give them that sense of the importance of their humanity, the gift of humanity, it's awakening them to that. Because the human state, even though in English... We tend to use the word human as a kind of justification for weakness and sloppiness. Well, I'm only human. Report an error in the passage at 24:12
24:47 It justifies all our failures. I'm only human. And so that means, you know, I'm not perfect and don't expect me to be. But then that's how we tend to use the word. But in the Pāli word, we have the manusia. The word manusia probably comes from the same... Stem, the word man in English, probably comes from the Sanskrit or Pāli. And it means a mental, you know, it has to do with the mind, the heart. Report an error in the passage at 24:47
25:20 And that human then is one who has this reflective mind, a Buddha mind. We can be enlightened beings. Within the limitations of physical forms on this planet, this is the potential for humanity. So you're holding that up rather than, say, just fair economic system and political system in which you can, you know, free market and everybody can have a car and everybody can have a fridge and everybody can go on holidays to Spain and all that kind of thing. Report an error in the passage at 25:20
26:11 Well, everybody has a car now in England. Look at the mess we have. Report an error in the passage at 26:11
26:20 I was in Calcutta a few years ago, and this Indian man I was with, he was talking about all the poverty and problems that exist in that city. And they still have terrible traffic problems then in Calcutta, and they didn't have all that many cars. And so I suppose you're really anxious, really eager to have the time when each person in Calcutta has their own car that they can drive. Report an error in the passage at 26:20
26:55 You're stuck in a traffic jam. Report an error in the passage at 26:55
27:03 Wouldn't it be nice when everybody in Calcutta has their own car? Report an error in the passage at 27:03
27:11 You can hardly wait. on it. Report an error in the passage at 27:11
27:21 death and contemplation death. You mentioned that in the Buddhist tradition it's not the case of you see yourself as a soul which at the time of death will merge with a greater soul. Report an error in the passage at 27:21
27:36 Can you tell us a bit more about what is the Buddhist tradition in terms of what you think happens at death? that's where the silence is the answer. Report an error in the passage at 27:36
27:51 Because, I mean, I'm not being... I'm not really being facetious, but actually when you go silent, what is that like? And it's intelligent, it's pure. Report an error in the passage at 27:51
28:06 To me that's deathless. And it's not like a silence that is blank. And so you're really beginning to... To, you know, recognize the deathless before your physical body dies. So it's like, you know, when it's time for your body to die, then that die, that's normal. Normal for, it's supposed to do that. But that's all. It's not, you don't really die, you know, in terms of, the body dies. Report an error in the passage at 28:06
28:49 And that's because the conditions for it to continue have ceased. And it's... The Report an error in the passage at 28:49
29:02 deathless. The silence. You can't name it. Report an error in the passage at 29:02
29:10 But like Buddha, he called it Nibbāna is the highest happiness. But then he did give in to kind of trying to make it sound attractive. But when you're really... But actually, you know, it's a... real, it's a nut. You have to give up trying to think about it and trying to describe it or define it. So it's just like, that's where, say in meditation, you're noticing the gaps or the spaces. You're beginning to awaken to where thinking is present, where it ceases. Report an error in the passage at 29:10
29:55 And so you're noticing the cessation. the space of the mind, and that space is like it's infinite, it's measureless. Report an error in the passage at 29:55
30:17 Remembering his of Report an error in the passage at 30:17
30:21 the ages, how did you know it was him incarnated? What was that he that was incarnated? Report an error in the passage at 30:21
30:37 know. Report an error in the passage at 30:37
30:47 like in this life, if you... Report an error in the passage at 30:47
30:52 Notice your, you know, like you assume, I think you assume anyway, that in your life, all the memories you have, there's a kind of, you are the same person from the time you were born, through your childhood, teenage, youth, and so forth. So there's a sense of continuity of a self that comes through. Report an error in the passage at 30:52
31:22 through that assumption you know and and so we you know like we people love to write their autobiographies or have their have have their biographies you know recorded about i did this and that because we we see this as a kind of reality of ourselves as a kind of continuous person personality from the time we're born to the time we die so Then in meditation you're actually beginning to recognize it. That's not really the way it is. That's how we believe and that's how we perceive. Report an error in the passage at 31:22
32:01 But in terms of experience, there's the, you know, the sense of our self is dependent and arises and ceases all the time. And that the memories we have, we don't remember Most of what happened to us, even in this life, we have selected memories. You remember the more extreme things, the successes and failures, the good times and bad times. Report an error in the passage at 32:01
32:35 We have special memories. Report an error in the passage at 32:35
32:41 Like what you had for lunch ten years ago on this very day. Things you couldn't remember. that those Report an error in the passage at 32:41
32:51 But on July 18th, this is July 18th, isn't it? 19th. July 19th. 1988. Report an error in the passage at 32:51
33:09 No, no, I mean, if you try to, you couldn't, you know, where most of us remember where we were when President Kennedy was assassinated, or when Princess Diana. 1988. Report an error in the passage at 33:09
33:30 When she died, I can remember things like that. Where I was when I first heard the news of Princess Diana's death. Things like that. But then now, say in meditation, you're looking at this more neutral side rather than the extremities and making it more conscious. Because how many of you really are conscious except through extreme experience? Report an error in the passage at 33:30
34:03 You know, we can live in a world of just kind of vagaries and absent-mindedness and just being caught up into things for much of our life. And so, you know, and then we tend to experience through extremity, you know, like being really interested. When our life loses that kind of quality, like real, you know, Report an error in the passage at 34:03
34:34 a purpose or a romantic affair or an adventure or something like this that gives meaning to life so we feel very much alive then then in terms of but then those moments don't last and then we get stuck in this kind of perfunctory habitual ways of doing things and trying to maybe who may be be Report an error in the passage at 34:34
35:03 You know, have holidays that we look forward to and things like that, but as a continuous, really conscious experience, it takes a cultivation for most people, this developing or cultivating this path. Like, say, in Buddhist monasticism, the whole aim of that is to cultivate that awareness. In ordinary things where there's nothing exciting happening, it's just like monastic life is quite routine, it's not, you know, you're kind of forbidden to do extreme actions. Report an error in the passage at 35:03
35:44 Your life is much more, you know, your freedom to go out and do extreme things is much more limited. To just a monastic situation and the boundaries that we have as Buddhist monks. So you're developing this awareness in that kind of smaller space, which to the world looks quite boring. You know, like, what do we do on Saturday night? Go to the temple. What do you do on Saturday night? Report an error in the passage at 35:44
36:22 Or... Things like, when we have a holiday, what do we do? Do we go to a five-star hotel and lie out on the beach and go to discos? No. We meditate. Report an error in the passage at 36:22
36:40 And so you're developing that. But in that you find, you find a, you find a, you know, it's like the awakened state is where we Meditate. Report an error in the passage at 36:40
36:59 is where there's real joy and where you feel, you know, there is a sense of joy and love and that come from that awakened state where the sentimentality of memory and holding on to, you know, hopes and desires and all that just tend to, especially as you get older, you wear down with it. You get, Depressed, you get disappointed by it all, and increasingly more cynical with a lot of people, unless you, you know, you manage to kind of find interesting things to do. Report an error in the passage at 36:59
37:42 Like, you know, when we lived in, we lived in Hampstead the first two years, 1977 to 1979, on Havistock Hill. And we lived right across the street from the Havistock Arms, a pub. Report an error in the passage at 37:42
38:03 And so, you know, and that pub used to have some pretty wild things going on over the weekends. And you'd sit there and watch the drunks coming out of the pub, and it's loud music, and people are supposed to be having a good time. And I'd sit there, oh, I'm glad I don't have to do that. I'm sitting here, it's Saturday night, and meditation. Report an error in the passage at 38:03
38:40 Then it was a four-story building. One time, for several weeks, I lived on the very top floor of this building in Hampstead. Then you'd hear horrible sounds, people screaming, you know, and crying, because the sound rises up. You'd hear screams, things like this. You didn't know what was going on. Report an error in the passage at 38:40
39:14 And, you know, why... In, say, Report an error in the passage at 39:14
39:21 Russia or countries like that, or like Ajahn Virdhama talks about Latvia, you know, he's pointing to a society that's been really badly suppressed for a long time and been very materialistic, you know, in the sense of just, you know, those kind of spiritual qualities encouraged, no... in, Report an error in the passage at 39:21
39:49 Nothing uplifting, but just a grinding kind of dreariness that comes through what we refer to as communism as it existed there. And the mind is very affected by that. And you get people just, you know, a lot of alcoholism, things like that. Because the human being were meant for much better than that. Report an error in the passage at 39:49
40:16 You know, the potential for our lives has not been appreciated or acknowledged. Or it tends to be just dismissed as a lot of hocus pocus and religious exaggeration. You know, it's dismissed. And yet, you know, if you just live your life mainly as a job and family and that, all those things can, you know, the family life might... Report an error in the passage at 40:16
40:47 you know that has its moments of joy but generally things tend to to sink into a dreariness of unless we have unless we can you know we have the money to be able to kind of brighten it up with new things and exciting holidays or or an interesting profession but if we don't have but if they if we don't but yeah very few people can do that You can afford to do that or have the opportunity. Report an error in the passage at 40:47
41:19 And even they suffer a lot. So this is where the spiritual path is where we fulfill our human state, where you feel that this is definitely, this human existence is worthwhile and you feel a lot of gratitude for having had this opportunity. Report an error in the passage at 41:19
41:46 So that you, you know, you see that, and then you begin to recognize this in all humanity rather than, you know, just see that I'm a special case of some sort. So you see that potential in all human beings. Then you see the waste that goes on and the exploitation, which is, you know, real compassion when you see just how blind Report an error in the passage at 41:46
42:17 And misused humanity is at this time. Report an error in the passage at 42:17
42:27 You read about all these purges in Stalin's Russia, sending all these different groups off into Siberia. They sent the Latvians off to some horrible place in Siberia and just exploited human beings in the most... Cold-hearted way, you know, without any respect for them, like slave labor and so forth. And this has just happened, you know, fairly, not only, you know, 50 years ago. Report an error in the passage at 42:27
43:06 So this century, the concentration camps and various ways that human beings were just brutalized and used and totally disrespected, you know. And just for some kind of megalomaniacs or psychopathic personalities who wanted to, you know, were so caught up in their own view of life that it was totally distorted. Report an error in the passage at 43:06
43:39 But this awakened state, you couldn't do that. It's not, it's like the, we only want to respect each other, help each other from this position rather than In any way, abuse or take advantage or misuse somebody. Report an error in the passage at 43:39
44:13 Yes? Report an error in the passage at 44:13
44:25 Yeah, Report an error in the passage at 44:25
44:29 that's one of the saddest things. Report an error in the passage at 44:29
44:37 I mean, like, I look back at my life and I've had quite a fortunate life. And still, life has not been particularly easy going. It's not like it's all that smooth a ride, even with the best conditions. But then you meet people who really had horrible, especially in the early part of their lives, no love and just abuse and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 44:37
45:20 And the thing is that they don't have trust because the basic, you know, that period, that early period of when you're first born to when you're, you know, the first six, seven years of your life forms, Report an error in the passage at 45:20
45:42 you know, pretty much how you're going to look at things and whether you can trust or not. But I have confidence that if you can, the more trustworthy we are, the more we begin to trust ourselves. Because even I found it difficult to trust myself because the society that I'm from is very self-critical. Report an error in the passage at 45:42
46:07 So you're always exaggerating your weaknesses and your faults. And what they think is kind of being honest about yourself. You're always holding up where you fail or where your weaknesses are and making that what you really are. And this is why it is important to emphasize, this emphasis I'm making of the good fortune of being human. Report an error in the passage at 46:07
46:43 And I'm not trying to convince you, but just trying to... Put that suggestion into all your minds to contemplate what it is to be human as a positive experience. And then to learn to trust yourself, your ability to awaken. And as you do that, then you begin to see that you can do that. And that kind of faith, that kind of trust is something that you're transcending your own conditioning of your mind. Report an error in the passage at 46:43
47:14 You can get above. above even the basic conditioning of your mind through this. How did Report an error in the passage at 47:14
47:32 you come across people with the impression of being awakened, people who are awakened, who have no contact whatsoever with meditation, even religious ideas, and they go through life being trusting, being compassionate? Report an error in the passage at 47:32
47:54 Where does that come from? Well, it's like it's a completely natural state. The enlightened mind is... It's not like a created state. So it's not something that... You know, it's quite... It's completely normal. And so it's not special. It's not like being talented and having a special gift to... I don't want to play the violin or something, but it's... And so, you know, I realize there are people. Report an error in the passage at 47:54
48:37 It is naturally that way. In Buddhist terms, it's that they have very good karma, that they have very few delusions or that from the beginning. Report an error in the passage at 48:37
48:52 be a death plane, Report an error in the passage at 48:52
49:13 of a realized person without ever having, spite of all this, they can scar one, but don't scar them. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 49:13
49:34 That's one way of doing it, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 49:34
49:39 That, you know, they say like maybe this lifetime, or you hear, you know, like somebody, some child is born and he's very pure, he or she is very pure and then dies very young and the parents are, you know, anguished over this death and then... Then somebody says, well, their karma's ended. That's all they needed to do. And then it suddenly seems all right. Report an error in the passage at 49:39
50:12 You know, like these Down syndrome, you know, which look kind of like a disability, but they have a kind of purity, don't they? Purity of heart. Report an error in the passage at 50:12
50:32 But in a society that's very much into IQs and being clever, they don't. right. Report an error in the passage at 50:32
50:38 They're not clever like that, but they have purity of heart. Things like this. You're looking at things in a different way. Maybe it's not bad karma, the down syndrome. I don't know. To me it's better to think of it in a positive way than to just go along with the assumption that this is a great misfortune or this is bad. Report an error in the passage at 50:38
51:10 Oh, that when this child dies young, it's terrible, you know, when he was so good and would have always seen it in the negative terms. One can, you know, as you learn to use your mind, you feel more capable of using your mind. You can look at it, look at the same thing from different angles rather than just, say, from a particularly cultural view or a... Report an error in the passage at 51:10
51:41 The way you, you know, your group look at life, you begin to feel free to look at things from different, the same thing from a different angle. Report an error in the passage at 51:41
51:52 Like the Buddha always encourages malleability, this flexibility of the mind, where, you know, and I remember before I started meditating, I felt my mind was rigid, as I felt like I was in a straitjacket of my own thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 51:52
52:11 And yet intuitively I knew there was more to life than just this kind of very dualistic way of looking at everything. It's either right or wrong, good or bad, absolutely. Good was absolutely good and bad was absolutely bad. A very simple, dualistic way of interpreting experience. And this is what, when this intuition is what brought me into Buddhism, because Buddhism isn't that way. There's no absolutes on the conventional level. Report an error in the passage at 52:11
52:49 Whether good is never absolutized or evil is never absolute. So then you can work with life then. You can look at things. You know, you think like the devil. Like Māra in Buddhism is the Satan or satanic force or evil force. And then, you know, since I said, well, the devil's my best friend. You know, Māra the tempter is my best friend because Māra will never let me be content with anything less than perfect enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 52:49
53:34 One way of looking at it. enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 53:34
53:42 Well, you know, many of us would have settled for less. We could go, you know, maybe worldly happiness or something like that. But Māra won't let you be happy that long. Report an error in the passage at 53:42
54:16 The other thing I find very dangerous is, like, this awakening people is good, you know. And it's not, you know, a command. It's not like you... You know, it's not tyrannical, it's encouraging. But with this idea of telling people who they are, what they are, I find that very, very dangerous. Report an error in the passage at 54:16
54:47 Because, like in my position too, where I'm sitting on this high seat, you know, whether you know it or not, you're giving me some authority. And what I say has a lot of impact. So it... Tell people, you are this kind of person and you are that kind of person. That's giving the wrong message. Because that's Report an error in the passage at 54:47
55:21 not a person. But this is a way of people grasping these ideas. Like many people do have. person that's Report an error in the passage at 55:21
55:36 You know, parents say, you are this kind of person and you'll never be able to do this or that. And children grasp these kind of views and then they limit themselves through the views they have about themselves. Report an error in the passage at 55:36
55:59 So it's like in Buddhism, it's anattā. Whatever way you are, whatever you think you are, that's not what you really are. Report an error in the passage at 55:59
56:12 And that's not to, you know, I'm telling you that you're not that, but it's reflective. Are you really permanent this or that? And when you really look at it, I can't find anything permanent in the mental world except the silence of my mind, the purity of it. And then the... Report an error in the passage at 56:12
56:36 The conditions are always changing, you know. Sometimes they're happy, sad, they're feeling bright and feeling dull and that. These are changing. Report an error in the passage at 56:36
57:03 What I Report an error in the passage at 57:03
57:14 mean by those words is, like your thinking mind is one, say if you're thinking in a rational way, then you start with some premise and you work from there. And you have a rational way of thinking. And so that's a very linear experience of life, where you think about life. You get a sense of a linear progression, and it's very dualistic. Report an error in the passage at 57:14
57:54 But reflection and contemplation, in this sense, means being able to observe. And to contemplate something means to observe your body right now. Not with your eyes, but as experienced now. What is it like? So you're more... When you're thinking now, you're doing it in a contemplative way, not an analytical way. Report an error in the passage at 57:54
58:22 You're not trying to decide whether your body at this time is good or bad, right or wrong, but it's like this. And so suddenly you're aware then of... Report an error in the passage at 58:22
58:32 ...of any feelings, or maybe, you know, if you're up and thinking analytically, you can forget all about what, where your body is. And so people that think all the time, you know, sometimes totally unaware of the most obvious things that are going on in their bodies, till they get so bad that they, you know, they have a lot of pain or something happens. Report an error in the passage at 58:32
58:56 But in meditation, you're observing, just like things like the feeling of, Pressure of your clothes, touch, of sitting on the seat, of how you feel, like you're feeling hot, cold, warm, cool, where your feet are right now. You're just noticing the way it is. And it's not critical, you're not criticizing, you're just noticing like this. Report an error in the passage at 58:56
59:28 So right now my feet are like this. I can feel it kind of tingling in my... feet, things like that and then you or if you're applying it to Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced Or if you reflect on it, then you're reflecting on the kind of mood of feeling this sense of being upset. It's like this. Report an error in the passage at 59:28
1:00:15 I feel upset, I feel really hurt or offended by the person insulted me. It feels like this. You're watching, you're not judging and you're not blaming the person. You're just noticing the state of mind that exists. And then as you do that, then... That state of mind, you're aware of it, it tends to fluctuate, move, kind of like that, at least that's how I experience it. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:15
1:00:49 It has no core to it, but certainly you can observe it. And then your relationship to it is you're aware of it in terms of experience rather than in terms of... What should and shouldn't be and who's at fault or blaming yourself. You can say, I shouldn't be so sensitive and you can start criticizing yourself for being upset or start blaming the other person. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:49
1:01:17 But dropping all that tendency to just observe this is what it's like to feel upset. Or loneliness. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:17
1:01:30 I used to feel a lot of loneliness. And so then I started just observing this sense of loneliness is like this, you know, and so changing my attitude towards a reflection on loneliness rather than seeing it as some kind of personal problem or something, you know, that I was resisting or trying to get rid of. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:30
1:01:56 And then you'll find that by doing that, then you're really awakening to what you are experiencing and where wisdom then can operate. You'll find a lot more wisdom and understanding coming about yourself and then naturally you'll understand others much better too when you understand yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:56
1:02:22 But when you're trying to find out who's to blame, that's just hopeless, isn't it? You have to apologize to me because what you said to me the other day was so terrible. That, you know, it upset me so much that I'm not going to have anything to do with you unless you apologize to me. Then see what happens. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:22
1:02:50 But then if you observe that feeling, you know, I'm really hurt and I'll never forgive you for what you said. And then observe it as a feeling. Then you, you know, it's much more, then you're kind of... Freeing yourself from believing it and acting on it and making it into some kind of obsessive attachment that can ruin your life. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:50
1:03:23 People ruin their lives over how somebody hurt their feelings or did something bad to them just through not knowing how to resolve those kind of emotional problems. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:23
1:03:46 Like reflection, like in a mirror, like more, when you look into, you see a mirror reflects. So like the mind itself is like a mirror, the unconditioned mind, and then it reflects these conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:46
1:04:10 So by being mindful, you're kind of like tuning into this unconditioned state, pure awareness. And which gives you, in which you can see the conditions for what they are. You know, and you're not, you're not, and your relationship to the condition now isn't personal. It's more as a Buddha observes the dhamma. So you're observing that all conditions are impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:10
1:04:40 They're not self. Whereas you are conditioned, culturally conditioned, to take everything personally. Every experience is highly personal and oftentimes seems permanent. You are a permanent personality. You are a permanent woman, a permanent English person, or a permanent... We make things permanent in terms of perception through not understanding. And then we pay the price through these attachments. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:40
1:05:20 That we've made into permanent conditions for ourselves. And inevitably they'll lead to some kind of frustration or feeling offended or whatever, angry. It's Report an error in the passage at 1:05:20
1:05:42 like about Northern Ireland, isn't it? It makes you wonder, you know, the orange men and their insistence on this. Because they're permanently, they have this sense of permanence. We are orange men permanently. And this is our right and our custom, a permanent right and permanent custom, to walk through this community of Roman Catholics that don't want them. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:42
1:06:17 And then they create a hullabaloo over it. This is how ignorance operates. Or any of these, like, you know, genocides or anything like that comes from that same delusion. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:17
1:06:39 Yes? Report an error in the passage at 1:06:39
1:06:57 To Report an error in the passage at 1:06:57
1:07:05 really contemplate thinking, I found I have to think deliberately. Because thinking is so habitual. And it's so fast. I mean, thought moves very quickly, where emotion kind of lingers and, you know, hovers and it kind of hangs on you, your emotional state. But your thoughts go, you know, thought moves very quickly through the mind. So that's why, you know, thinking deliberately. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:05
1:07:40 Like I developed this technique where you just... I just take a neutral sentence, like, I am a good person, something like that. Or I am a neutral person. Good is rather extreme. I am neutral. Whatever. Or I used to use, I am a human being. And then I deliberately, you know, something that I never, I wasn't questioning or wasn't trying to prove or... Report an error in the passage at 1:07:40
1:08:19 Criticize or analyze, but just use it as a thought or a sentence to use to observe the space before you think it. So before you think it, you observe. There's this kind of blank I, then there's a space M, another space A, another space human, another space being. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:19
1:09:05 your thoughts helps to to notice the thinking process then then also also pay attention to how like when you're in a mood how what thoughts do arise like if you're Report an error in the passage at 1:09:05
1:09:24 you are If you're feeling angry and upset by something, then the thoughts that come from that emotion tend to be very negative all the time. So you just feel anger and then you come in here and you see something and you say, they aren't doing that right. Maybe you're angry at somebody at home, but the anger will also influence what you pick up here. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:24
1:09:55 Or when you think of somebody who you're angry with, try to think of the good things about them. It's very difficult, isn't it? When you're really angry and a strong feeling and you're caught in this feeling and then you try to think of their good qualities. You're really going against this emotion. man. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:55
1:10:25 That emotion, then the thoughts that come out of that feeling will be like that. But there's a part of you that can observe that too. So that's what your refuge is in, in awareness. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:25
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Talk by Ajahn Sumedho. Original at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ajahn-sumedho-dhamma-talks. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.
Talks of Ajahn Sumedho, archived on Internet Archive. More from Amaravati