Embracing the Unlovely

0:04 So this is a chance to reflect this way of speaking, the way of observing the way it is rather than being told how it should be or somebody telling you or implying that I know something that you should do or become. It's not meant to be like that. It's meant to be a kind of an awakening to observe and notice and look at yourself rather than just see things in terms of other people or abstract ideas. Report an error in the passage at 0:04 Highlight the passage at 0:04

0:57 Because the Buddha's teaching is an awakening of the mind. It's not a conditioning of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 0:57 Highlight the passage at 0:57

1:10 Like when you condition your mind, then I tell you what you should do, and all of what right and wrong are, good and bad, and what a good Buddhist should be, and on and on like this, and what Buddha taught, and these tend to be put in a context of beliefs that you adopt, so you take them on. Maybe they're very good ideas and good beliefs, but you take them on as things that you try to emulate or try to become. Report an error in the passage at 1:10 Highlight the passage at 1:10

1:52 And so it's like being a Buddhist monk at this time, Buddhist monk in a non-Buddhist country, a Buddhist monk in a country that has become very materialistic and who's... Cultural conditioning is very much based on a sense of individuality, of uniqueness, and of human rights and individual rights. And of course this is the cultural, the attitude of democracy and capitalism, rights that we all can... Report an error in the passage at 1:52 Highlight the passage at 1:52

2:45 And also the attitude toward, say, the deathless or the divine is diminished. It's not given a very important position anymore in the general trend of life. We see our lives very much as a one-off experience that we try to get what we can out of it. And the afterlife remains something that is oftentimes just developed in various views and opinions that people have about it, either that there is or there isn't. Report an error in the passage at 2:45 Highlight the passage at 2:45

3:35 So when I first came to Britain, and there's the accusations that we are here to convert British people, like we're missionaries. Here to bring Buddhism to Britain in order to convert British people to a new religion, different religion, take them away from Christianity. This is the attitude that many people see in terms of religion. When you mention the word religion, they see it as a system of beliefs that you adopt. Report an error in the passage at 3:35 Highlight the passage at 3:35

4:13 And then you kind of take on those beliefs, which... We tend to cause this separation of a divisiveness in the mind and in the society because we can see religion can be a source of great division. Report an error in the passage at 4:13 Highlight the passage at 4:13

4:32 As we adopt, identify with a particular religious group or sect or cult or whatever, that tends to separate us from the rest. We identify with this group. which puts us in a position of separation from those who are not members of that group. Report an error in the passage at 4:32 Highlight the passage at 4:32

5:01 And so there have been many critics, you know, justified criticisms of religion because in many of its aspects it can be very divisive. Report an error in the passage at 5:01 Highlight the passage at 5:01

5:15 But when we're developing this reflective awareness, awakenness, We are moving to a place that is embracing rather than dividing. Now thought itself, thinking, is divisive, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 5:15 Highlight the passage at 5:15

5:34 When I think about myself, I start thinking about me, then the very thought process makes me separate from you. That's just the limitation of thought alone, the way it is. So there's always me, Ajahn Sumedho, and then there's you out there. Or there's monks and nuns, or there's Theravadan Buddhists and Mahāyāna Buddhists, or there's Christians and Jews and Buddhists, and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 5:34 Highlight the passage at 5:34

6:11 And then notice this tends to create a reality of division because thought itself gives that impression. And when we're identified and our soul experience of life is through thinking about it, then we do see life in terms of a critical mind of what should be or shouldn't be. Report an error in the passage at 6:11 Highlight the passage at 6:11

6:38 Because that's how it works. When you start thinking, then you emphasize the differences of one thing with another. And so you can compare a Buddhist with a Christian. Or Christian symbols with Buddhist symbols. Or Christian doctrine with Buddhist teaching. And you can get the impression that they're totally opposite to each other. That one is the reverse of the other. Report an error in the passage at 6:38 Highlight the passage at 6:38

7:15 Because thought is limited to that. And so in reflective awareness, intuitive awareness, We're transcending thought, we're not denying the value of thought, but we're recognizing that in ourselves which isn't thought itself, but which is realized through this awareness, through mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 7:15 Highlight the passage at 7:15

7:46 Now notice in any moment when you're just in the state of awakened attention, pure presence, then in that moment can be just an empty moment with no thought, but there's pure attention, pure consciousness Report an error in the passage at 7:46 Highlight the passage at 7:46

8:08 And that is Report an error in the passage at 8:08 Highlight the passage at 8:08

8:14 or not noticed because our education, our cultural condition, everything is just so... The emphasis... the is the obsession with thinking all the time. Report an error in the passage at 8:14 Highlight the passage at 8:14

8:32 to figure out everything, trying to analyze and get the right answers and trying to... Report an error in the passage at 8:32 Highlight the passage at 8:32

8:41 with something and what should be done or shouldn't be done. What should you believe or what shouldn't you believe in? The problems of the society now is going through this incredible and very Report an error in the passage at 8:41 Highlight the passage at 8:41

9:00 through technology we don't know even the moral standards or the moral positions are all questioned now. What standards should we use? Then there's the old kind of fundamentalist view that you should go back time to a pure form or The early period of the golden age that we imagine that existed in some time in history or the ideal that we hold in regards to moral behavior and then try to work from there as a position on just behavior alone and yet these can if we just take morality only on the level of thought And a grasping of ideas in regards to it, then it does become another form of division. Report an error in the passage at 9:00 Highlight the passage at 9:00

10:09 Because we can see those moral, immoral, morality is good, immorality is bad, and we're back in the same old conflict. Report an error in the passage at 10:09 Highlight the passage at 10:09

10:23 Now the subject of the title is Embracing the... On lovely, last week it was embracing the lovely. Well, we can see to embrace what we don't like and don't want. What do you do? How can you do that? Maybe in terms of a mental experience. I don't mean we should go out and embrace physically things we don't like or we find repulsive. Report an error in the passage at 10:23 Highlight the passage at 10:23

11:01 In terms of our own mental experience, because inwardly we experience both that which is lovely and unlovely. There's so much interest now and emphasis on what they call the shadow or the dark side, the Jungian emphasis on the side that is immoral or evil or dark or mysterious. Report an error in the passage at 11:01 Highlight the passage at 11:01

11:30 That is bad in these terms, that we can be very frightened of and we can feel very threatened by it, both when we see it in others and in ourselves, especially when we begin to recognize that force within our own consciousness. So the tendencies to resist, isn't it, to either follow or resist it, Because evil also can be a rather exciting option. As we can see, so many people are fascinated by it. Report an error in the passage at 11:30 Highlight the passage at 11:30

12:10 It's usually more interesting than goodness. And gossip and scandal, corruption, anything like this sells more newspapers than paeans of praise toward the good. Report an error in the passage at 12:10 Highlight the passage at 12:10

12:27 Because there is a certain excitement around it, isn't it? Those evil forces and just the entertainment world loves to prey on the horror movies and these kind of sinister films, a lot of violence and sex and things that stir the mind up into very excited states. states that affect one's consciousness in this excited way. Report an error in the passage at 12:27 Highlight the passage at 12:27

13:00 The Report an error in the passage at 13:00 Highlight the passage at 13:00

13:06 old puritanical ethic was to divide, to resist, fight evil and hold on to the good. And much of our culture is very much based on that perception of fighting the evil forces and trying to find the good one. Align ourselves with the good and resist or kill off the evil forces. So this leads us to the same endless problems that we have because no matter how much we struggle between these two, Report an error in the passage at 13:06 Highlight the passage at 13:06

13:46 it's, you know, being so blinded by our own righteousness can lead us to perform atrocious acts like genocide or Things come from oftentimes very righteous positions, you know, where you're killing the devil or the witches or the satanic forces. And murder is justified. War and even torture in the Inquisition was justified. Report an error in the passage at 13:46 Highlight the passage at 13:46

14:18 That prolonging someone's life by... torturing them and making them suffer enormously before they die is kind of giving them a chance to expiate their sins. Report an error in the passage at 14:18 Highlight the passage at 14:18

14:33 One can even justify the most atrocious acts logically. Report an error in the passage at 14:33 Highlight the passage at 14:33

14:47 But when we start, say, like in meditation, we begin to recognize, you know, when you begin to look inwardly and And you observe the results of your meditation. When you're resisting the darkness or the anger or the fear and all that, when you're merely trying to get rid of it, resist it or deny it, then it seems to be a hopeless task. Report an error in the passage at 14:47 Highlight the passage at 14:47

15:16 It seems to even empower it. Now, I don't expect you to believe this, but you can test it out. I mean, the more you hate somebody, the more you hate, the more you think about that person. You don't think about somebody very much who you neither love nor hate very much. Report an error in the passage at 15:16 Highlight the passage at 15:16

15:39 I mean, if you're besotted with somebody, then you can't think about anyone else. Or if you hate somebody, then you can't think about anyone else. Report an error in the passage at 15:39 Highlight the passage at 15:39

15:50 And even though you don't want to hate them or don't want to think about them, just that Denial and resistance increases it, increases this obsession. Report an error in the passage at 15:50 Highlight the passage at 15:50

16:05 So this embracing the unlovely isn't like giving evil forces your approval or surrendering to them, but it's allowing that which arises in your consciousness to be what it is without judgment. Because in the state of awareness, This is a pre-judgment. It is not a critical function, intuitive awareness. Report an error in the passage at 16:05 Highlight the passage at 16:05

16:40 It's not labeling anything or making moral judgments or value judgments about anything that you're thinking or feeling. It's just recognizing it's like this. So this embracing the unlovely allows the unlovely to be what it is. Report an error in the passage at 16:40 Highlight the passage at 16:40

17:02 And this refuge in awareness and mindfulness then is the way that we can embrace both the lovely and the unlovely at the same moment. Report an error in the passage at 17:02 Highlight the passage at 17:02

17:17 Now, if you think about it in terms of a dualistic way of thinking, then it doesn't make sense because you've got to choose. You've got to hold Report an error in the passage at 17:17 Highlight the passage at 17:17

17:39 on to the good and get rid of the bad. But when you begin to recognize the sense of refuge in this Buddhist sense of refuge, the sarana, this sarana or this refuge is in this awareness so that you're actually recognizing or realizing a natural way of being in the present. That we tend to not notice. Maybe occasionally. We might have a mystical experience sometime just by accident. Report an error in the passage at 17:39 Highlight the passage at 17:39

18:17 You happen to go out in the countryside one day and your thinking packs up. You suddenly stop thinking and suddenly you feel this sense of being one with everything rather than Then, you know, you could be out in the same beautiful scenic situation and be completely caught up with anger and hatred and not even notice the beautiful mountain or the swan or the lake or anything because you're wound up tight with this worldly problem. Report an error in the passage at 18:17 Highlight the passage at 18:17

18:55 But then sometimes... This happened to me one time. I remember a mystical experience. Before I started meditating, the thinking mind stopped. I don't know why. I wasn't on drugs. Report an error in the passage at 18:55 Highlight the passage at 18:55

19:13 It just, the thinking stopped for a while and I experienced this state of, well, I didn't understand it then. I had no reference point for it, but it certainly was. blissful, not in a kind of high sense, it wasn't over the top, it was an embracing sense. The self-consciousness had dissolved, and there was just pure attention, pure awareness. And there was none of this self-consciousness, none of this... Report an error in the passage at 19:13 Highlight the passage at 19:13

19:57 You know, trying to figure out, trying to get the answers, trying to, or blame others or blame myself or whatever for anything. All that just ceased. And it was a timeless period because I don't really know how long it was. You know, it didn't, you know, it certainly wasn't just a flash. It seemed to have, linger and stay for a while. But as soon as I found myself back in the, Nitty-gritty of life, of course, all the old habits came rushing back and I was back with the same old me and mine and my view and my thoughts and my sensitivities and what people I like and don't like. Report an error in the passage at 19:57 Highlight the passage at 19:57

20:48 But it did give this intimation, what we call, what generally referred to as mystical experience. It's mystical because Your analytical mind can't really explain it in the terms of the way we're conditioned to think. Like we don't have any in modern science. Report an error in the passage at 20:48 Highlight the passage at 20:48

21:15 It's based on logic and reason. It has this analytical quality but it's dualistic. It sees things in terms of of opposites and dualities, black and white, right and wrong, and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 21:15 Highlight the passage at 21:15

21:43 Intuitive awareness is now, you begin to hear more, this is obviously something that people are beginning to awaken to and recognize and realize in their lives. Because it's not just an abstract idea, it's a reality. Like when we practice meditation, we use this word meditation, which means some kind of mental training, doesn't it? Report an error in the passage at 21:43 Highlight the passage at 21:43

22:16 It embraces every possible kind of mental trickery or mental exercise or whatever. It's a kind of generic term for some kind of more inward mental activity. Report an error in the passage at 22:16 Highlight the passage at 22:16

22:36 Now we can, when I first started meditation, then the mind was still very much trying to achieve and attain, trying to get rid of. Report an error in the passage at 22:36 Highlight the passage at 22:36

22:47 So the unlovely or the dark side or the evil forces, the habit, the way of the cultural conditioning and the way I tended to hear even the Buddhist teaching was that you've got to get rid of these bad things and try to Become this good monk and by disciplining yourself and getting rid of the evil forces, the kilesas or the hindrances. Report an error in the passage at 22:47 Highlight the passage at 22:47

23:20 In Theravāda Buddhism you have these nice lists of five hindrances, ten fetters and this word kilesa. And then a western intellect very much sees it in that way. You get rid of that and you become the other. But then the key word in the Buddhist approach is sati or mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 23:20 Highlight the passage at 23:20

23:51 And that always comes first. This is the essence of the teaching. Just this one word, mindfulness, which is Something that I'd never developed before and which I must have used but didn't really consider it. Even the word mindful didn't really make that much sense to me. Mindful. Then they talk about the empty mind. Mind empty. Report an error in the passage at 23:51 Highlight the passage at 23:51

24:29 Or they say mindless. Report an error in the passage at 24:29 Highlight the passage at 24:29

24:34 That doesn't sound right. Report an error in the passage at 24:34 Highlight the passage at 24:34

24:41 So what is the mind? When we talk about these words are so ordinary in the English language, we just don't even know, we just use them. We think we know what they mean, but in meditation you're beginning to observe. You're using this mindfulness to observe the way things are rather than operating from assumptions or cultural positions or ideas. Report an error in the passage at 24:41 Highlight the passage at 24:41

25:10 So with, say, Report an error in the passage at 25:10 Highlight the passage at 25:10

25:39 emotions like anger, for example, this was, from my experience, cultural background and family background this was not an emotion that we were allowed to express so it was something you were supposed to resist at all costs and not show so that a conditioning process of feeling this emotion but denying it and rejecting it led to of course Report an error in the passage at 25:39 Highlight the passage at 25:39

26:17 periods where you were overwhelmed with anger or it would just kind of explode out like the last straw situation where I could be nice and affable and pleasant up to a certain point and then the last straw and then this nice guy turned into a monster really frightening rages could occur because Because of the, you know, just if you hold something back and suppress it, you can only do that so long and then you can't do it anymore. Report an error in the passage at 26:17 Highlight the passage at 26:17

27:00 And one weak moment, one little thing can trigger it off. The people around you sometimes are absolutely, you know, don't get over it, never forgive you for the rest of their life. Report an error in the passage at 27:00 Highlight the passage at 27:00

27:18 Because... They feel they can never trust me again. I've never been prone towards violence. I've never murdered anybody. Report an error in the passage at 27:18 Highlight the passage at 27:18

27:33 Occasionally in my younger days I have taken to fisticuffs. Not anymore. Report an error in the passage at 27:33 Highlight the passage at 27:33

27:50 So then in a monastic form, which is a non-violent form, the whole idea of the bhikkhu is, but you know... Report an error in the passage at 27:50 Highlight the passage at 27:50

28:01 is a way of living that is non-violent. So, in terms of action, now this is where I found the Buddha Dhamma so helpful, was that action and speech were the moral limits. Report an error in the passage at 28:01 Highlight the passage at 28:01

28:21 Where before, I was taught to think that even you could have immoral thoughts, and that that was, you know, this idea of President Carter, when he said that he actually looked at another woman other than his wife with lust and he committed an immoral act, he didn't do anything. Report an error in the passage at 28:21 Highlight the passage at 28:21

28:46 But this is very much how I was conditioned to regard morality. So it did seem like a hopeless situation in terms of you have some level of control in action and speech. Report an error in the passage at 28:46 Highlight the passage at 28:46

29:03 But until you really understand your mind, you don't have that much control about what you think. As you understand yourself better, then you do. You know how to even think in the right way. But until that point comes, then we don't. We find ourselves thinking unwholesome thoughts or Report an error in the passage at 29:03 Highlight the passage at 29:03

29:31 We can, you know, be very angry or resentful or jealous or whatever and we tend to get caught in either believing these thoughts and indulging them or in trying to get rid of them and suppress them. Report an error in the passage at 29:31 Highlight the passage at 29:31

29:46 So say with anger, this, the, say the alignment with the monastic life where you wouldn't, anger was, you know, was allowed Report an error in the passage at 29:46 Highlight the passage at 29:46

30:02 In terms of a mental experience but not in terms of action or speech. So I found this helpful in the fact that I could, you know, I was encouraged to actually look at this emotion and to recognize it in terms of what it really is as a condition that arises and ceases in consciousness. So this is a very honest and direct way of looking at something. It's not judgmental and it gives one this realization that all conditions are impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 30:02 Highlight the passage at 30:02

30:46 So evil is impermanent, just like good is impermanent. Or anger is impermanent. Or not-self, the anattā teaching, where before the anger was very much identified as my problem. Report an error in the passage at 30:46 Highlight the passage at 30:46

31:04 It was my fault, one of my faults. It was something bad about me. And so this was, you know, the whole sense of myself and judging myself according to this experience of anger. They were enmeshed with each other. They were bound to each other. So... In order to do it in the Buddhist way, I had to look at anger in a different way, rather than on the personal level, just see it in terms of its energy, as you feel it in the present. Report an error in the passage at 31:04 Highlight the passage at 31:04

31:46 So you begin to awaken, just to notice, to pay attention, to just the energetic experience of an angry moment as you feel it in your body. Report an error in the passage at 31:46 Highlight the passage at 31:46

32:03 So this is embracing the unlovely. Report an error in the passage at 32:03 Highlight the passage at 32:03

32:10 So this embracing is not judgmental. As I said last week, when you embrace somebody, you're embracing the whole being. Report an error in the passage at 32:10 Highlight the passage at 32:10

32:24 It's not a matter of just embracing the parts you like, but it's a recognition of the whole of somebody. And so this word I found very useful as a way of referring, to remind myself in the present, to embrace life rather than to just try to control it. Where before it was very much a system of controlling everything, trying to get rid of this, resist the bad and get hold of the good. Report an error in the passage at 32:24 Highlight the passage at 32:24

33:07 There's a lot of, I remember back in the 50s when people started talking about going to psychiatrists and psychoanalysts. I remember this subject became quite, in an American university, quite a big thing. It was always so expensive, I could never afford it, going to a psychoanalyst. In America in those days was, you know, you'd have to devote your life to working to pay. Report an error in the passage at 33:07 Highlight the passage at 33:07

33:48 But also there's a fear of it. I thought, well, I might find out something about myself that I don't really want to know. You know, if I look too hard, I might, you know, there might be something deep down inside that's really bad. And as long as I don't know about it, I'm okay. Report an error in the passage at 33:48 Highlight the passage at 33:48

34:12 And I remember feeling this. Thinking this years ago, just not wanting to know, afraid to know, look deep, because there was a sense that there could be something, you know, some evil force, something I hadn't really come to grips with that was so awful, so horrid, that if I went to one of these psychoanalysts, I might go crazy. Report an error in the passage at 34:12 Highlight the passage at 34:12

34:44 And I might be caught in a hell realm forever. Of course, back in the 40s, we saw this movie Jane Eyre, you know, where this madwoman was chained to the wall. I'll never forget that image. When you're a little boy and you see one of these films with this woman chained to a wall and, you know, shrieking and screaming. Report an error in the passage at 34:44 Highlight the passage at 34:44

35:10 That's madness. That's insanity. And if you look... You know, that's something to be frightened of. But that's what happens if you're evil or if you're bad. Report an error in the passage at 35:10 Highlight the passage at 35:10

35:25 So these are the background for that kind of thing. But also the unknown itself is frightening to us, isn't it? We like certainty. Certitude is a kind of demand we make on life. We live in a society that tries to provide us with certainty. A lot of certainty. So, like living here in Britain, there's a lot of certainty that we just take for granted. Because the uncertainties are too, you know, really, you wouldn't want to elect a prime minister who seemed uncertain about anything. Report an error in the passage at 35:25 Highlight the passage at 35:25

36:14 Like having the American election. And they all have to be really, you know, I'm going to give you this. I mean, they have to speak, you know, like Al Gore, I'm my old man. And be certain about everything because this is such an attractive quality. When I think back, when Mrs. Thatcher was prime minister, one of her great gifts was certitude. You know, she never seemed to... Report an error in the passage at 36:14 Highlight the passage at 36:14

36:48 She always knew what was the best for all of us. I Report an error in the passage at 36:48 Highlight the passage at 36:48

36:56 never saw her waver one bit in front of the European Union or in front of anybody. And that was, in one way, very attractive to people because very few people are that confident. Report an error in the passage at 36:56 Highlight the passage at 36:56

37:16 There's so much uncertainty or doubt that permeates our life. life, that we don't know, mysteries or this endless What should I do next? Am I doing it right? What's going to happen to me when I get old? What's going to happen to our relationship? What's going to happen to this country, to this society? Report an error in the passage at 37:16 Highlight the passage at 37:16

37:47 And then we love to go to fortune tellers and astrologers and try to get some certainty, try to find out what the future will provide me with wanting to know, hoping that it will be a good future for me. Report an error in the passage at 37:47 Highlight the passage at 37:47

38:13 So this darkness, when you think of darkness, the black hole, when you go into a dark room, You can be frightened by it because you don't know what's in it. A black hole, isn't it, where you can't see to the bottom. Report an error in the passage at 38:13 Highlight the passage at 38:13

38:36 There's no limits to it. It just goes on and on. And that's like being afraid of the dark, isn't it, because we don't know what's in this room with us. It has, it doesn't have any. Report an error in the passage at 38:36 Highlight the passage at 38:36

38:51 And you could imagine anything. When you're living in a forest at night, when you lived in Thailand out in the forest, you could feel when it got dark. You didn't know what was out there. And you heard little rustling of the leaves or the wind blowing. And, of course, the Thai people all believe in ghosts. Report an error in the passage at 38:51 Highlight the passage at 38:51

39:14 They interpret it as ghosts and things like this. this where but I I wasn't conditioned to think of it in terms of ghosts, but I could certainly feel fear of you don't know what's out there. It could be some snake or tiger or anything. I remember one time I lived in this place where I lived in a grotto of rocks where at night it was just pitch black. Report an error in the passage at 39:14 Highlight the passage at 39:14

39:51 The villagers built me a platform in this kind of cave grotto. It wasn't a real cave, but it was like cliffs that hung over and gave a shelter. And anyway, I was sitting there and if I kept a candle going, or they gave you these little paraffin lamps, there is some sense of light and it gave you confidence. Report an error in the passage at 39:51 Highlight the passage at 39:51

40:22 net my candle. Report an error in the passage at 40:22 Highlight the passage at 40:22

40:52 Blow the candle out, you can't see anything. And there's no boundaries, there's no limits. And then the mind can start creating out of fear, possibilities. Report an error in the passage at 40:52 Highlight the passage at 40:52

41:10 So just noticing, like being able to be mindful of that. I had a practice in those days of contemplating darkness. And so I kept, you know, like... Because it wasn't, you know, this was part of the practice. At night, I'd sit there in this cave grotto and just open my eyes and look at blackness. Report an error in the passage at 41:10 Highlight the passage at 41:10

41:43 And I could contemplate this because I could see the darkness or the blackness. But if I started to think about it, then I would get, I could get very frightened by it. Because the mind will start creating kind of possibility, frightening images in the darkness. don't we create and things like that? Report an error in the passage at 41:43 Highlight the passage at 41:43

42:24 In our logic, we tend to perceive things like ghosts or goblins or horrible animals, monsters that can come out of this darkness and destroy me. Report an error in the passage at 42:24 Highlight the passage at 42:24

42:45 Then, getting beyond just the visual object of darkness, the question came, well, what is it that can see the darkness? So darkness was in consciousness. When you take it back to just mindfully observing the very act of seeing, then you recognize that the light is in the consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 42:45 Highlight the passage at 42:45

43:17 And the darkness is what you're witnessing through consciousness. But when you just identify with... On the emotional level, conditioned emotional level, then you just see, oh, you start creating things out in the dark, monsters or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 43:17 Highlight the passage at 43:17

43:42 But if you take it back to the point of mindfulness, where you're embracing the darkness, consciousness is light, isn't it? Being conscious is that we're in the light when we're conscious. So even if you can't see, if you're blind, there's still light, which is consciousness. The function, the organic function of sight doesn't work, is not working at that time. Report an error in the passage at 43:42 Highlight the passage at 43:42

44:20 We live in a society that is electrified, so we don't have to stay in the dark very much. We can switch on the light any time. It does get frustrating, doesn't it, when the electricity goes off. And if you're used to having that instant light appearing, where you just press the switch and then the electricity goes off. Report an error in the passage at 44:20 Highlight the passage at 44:20

45:00 So we have, you know, we want... This sense of everything is going to, when the electricity is on, then we can see. If we're in our room, we can see into the corners and dispel any possibilities of anything that shouldn't, you know, that is frightening in that room. Sometimes when you get really tired, you start hallucinating. When you're really physically exhausted and you start, you go into these states where you see faces on the walls. Report an error in the passage at 45:00 Highlight the passage at 45:00

45:56 of that you can I'm quite good at it, like looking into a forest or into bushes and seeing faces in the bushes, or animals, things like that. Or when I was a child, my sister and I used to imagine the clouds in the sky, like camels or elephants or giraffes. Report an error in the passage at 45:56 Highlight the passage at 45:56

46:22 That's what the forms suggest, various forms, various... Combinations suggest certain icons or imagery to us. When Report an error in the passage at 46:22 Highlight the passage at 46:22

46:46 you get beyond that to the pure attention, pure awareness, then of course you're no longer creating anything, but you're open to, your mind is totally receptive to that which is present, good or bad, pleasant or painful. Report an error in the passage at 46:46 Highlight the passage at 46:46

47:11 And if you learn to, like in the Buddhist practices, it's this learning to trust in that pure awareness that is cultivating the Eightfold Path. We talk about the Eightfold Path, it sounds complicated. Anything with eight in it, it's complicated. And so you, you know, it does sound like it's, you know, like quite a First you develop right understanding and then right intention and then you've got a right speech, right action, right life. But remember it's eightfold, it's not in tandem, is it? Report an error in the passage at 47:11 Highlight the passage at 47:11

47:53 It's not in a sequence, but it's at one point really. So this one point is this pure attention in the present, present moment, because that's all there ever is. The certainty, is in this refuge, not in any guarantees about your future. Because the future is the unknown. And of course the Buddha emphasized in his teaching what awakened Prince Siddhartha. Report an error in the passage at 47:53 Highlight the passage at 47:53

48:32 What is it that awakened Prince Siddhartha who led a very kind of privileged and indulgent life? When he was a prince was old age, sickness and death. And so these are the things that we don't want. These are the evil forces or the negativity, the ending of life, isn't it? A corpse. We don't like to look at corpses, human corpses or any corpses because they remind us of what's going to happen. Report an error in the passage at 48:32 Highlight the passage at 48:32

49:10 In the future. And yet, these are the very messengers that awaken us when we start opening our minds to embrace the unlovely, the old age, sickness, disease, madness, death. And then, of course, the fourth one is the... Report an error in the passage at 49:10 Highlight the passage at 49:10

49:42 The seeker, the religious seeker, or the monk or the nun, which is like an archetype, really, that in this monastic style is almost like a, this is how I see it anyway, like an archetype. It represents that which is opening to the deathless. You know, not that every monk or nun is doing it, but it's hard to get them to do it, actually. Report an error in the passage at 49:42 Highlight the passage at 49:42

50:24 Because they're more interested in their dark sides. Report an error in the passage at 50:24 Highlight the passage at 50:24

50:32 But these are, they have a special science called eschatology, where this is the main subject of investigation. The ending of life. The cessation. And of course this will reflect your own fear and anxiety and insecurity. Your fear of the unknown, the fear of death, the fear of the dark. All of that is then seen in the light of conscious awareness and recognized as... Report an error in the passage at 50:32 Highlight the passage at 50:32

51:21 As an emotional habit rather than as something more than that. Report an error in the passage at 51:21 Highlight the passage at 51:21

51:37 So in embracing the lovely and the unlovely. Like in the embracing the lovely is also something that we need to do through awareness rather than through just preference. Report an error in the passage at 51:37 Highlight the passage at 51:37

51:55 Now like when we talk about embracing the lovely we tend to see it as something external to us. We see it as somebody else or some place or some thing. But embracing the lovely is also cultivated in terms of recognizing what is lovely. And not in terms of wanting it or desiring it, but appreciating, recognizing it. Report an error in the passage at 51:55 Highlight the passage at 51:55

52:30 Because in our lives, We do experience a lot of beauty and goodness within ourselves, within the society, on the planet that we live on. Like living here at Amaravati, it's a treat for the eyes. You've seen all these roses blooming, flowers, and blue skies for the past week, and temple, and all these, so much loveliness just to... Report an error in the passage at 52:30 Highlight the passage at 52:30

53:02 To live in visually. And yet one can live here and not see that. It can just be totally lost in your own, in a realm that you've created that doesn't allow loveliness to be fully accepted. It merely, maybe just flashingly notice, oh isn't it a nice day? And that's the most you get. But when you open And embrace the lovely and the unlovely, then we're in a state that is, say, natural to us, that is what we call the gate to the deathless, and that allows us to see through the conditioning, the cultural conditioning, the selfish conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 53:02 Highlight the passage at 53:02

53:57 The deluded conditioning that we tend to identify with most of the time. Report an error in the passage at 53:57 Highlight the passage at 53:57

54:11 So contemplate, like in this, just contemplate in your own experience when you start thinking, you know, how thinking, like you can observe yourself thinking, like to really observe thinking, then deliberately think something. Report an error in the passage at 54:11 Highlight the passage at 54:11

54:31 Because when you just try, when you grasp the idea of observing thinking, you're still thinking. And you've got the idea, but it's an abstraction. So then get out of the abstraction, deliberately think, but kind of listen to yourself thinking. Report an error in the passage at 54:31 Highlight the passage at 54:31

54:48 So I would do this exploration. I call it the paying attention to the gaps between the thoughts. So I take a simple sentence like, I am a human being, or something that's totally innocuous. It doesn't bring up any strong emotional reaction. And that doesn't, you know, I'm a human being, totally neutral, and I deliberately think it, but I'd listen to myself thinking it. So I could be aware before I thought there's a gap. Report an error in the passage at 54:48 Highlight the passage at 54:48

55:22 There's not a thought there. So you're consciously noticing, you're noticing before the thought arises. I, another gap. Am, another gap. A, gap. Human being. Report an error in the passage at 55:22 Highlight the passage at 55:22

55:49 Nothing. And so this is an exercise just to get perspective on thought as experience. Because usually you don't notice the gaps, do you? One thought goes on to another. It's like the wandering mind. You start with this thought and it'll connect and just associate and you can wander. Report an error in the passage at 55:49 Highlight the passage at 55:49

56:26 you but you just weren't you never paid attention to that you would never notice it until you decide to Report an error in the passage at 56:26 Highlight the passage at 56:26

56:40 do things like the space between people in a monastery, you know, you're living with... With monks, and so you know this monk, and this monk's like this, and that monk's like that, and this is a good monk, and that's not such a good monk, and that's a really intelligent monk, that's a stupid one, that's a senior one, that's a junior one, you're always, you know, you're going around. Report an error in the passage at 56:40 Highlight the passage at 56:40

57:09 So I started, instead of giving so much attention to the person, to the person or the The monk himself, the space between the monks. So when we sit there in the sala, I just consciously notice the spaces rather than, just as a kind of mental exercise, noticing the space between monks rather than, and seeing how, it seemed like nothing, you know, because the thinking mind doesn't like that. Report an error in the passage at 57:09 Highlight the passage at 57:09

57:43 It likes to It's more interesting, isn't it? The space between people is not interesting like this person and that person. And when you write a book, you write about personalities, don't you? I was looking at the Sunday Times this morning. It's all about personalities and what they like to eat for breakfast or what they wear when they go to bed or don't wear, all that kind of thing. Report an error in the passage at 57:43 Highlight the passage at 57:43

58:15 All the little gossipy details and intimate things that humans do, but the space between them is never mentioned. But in terms of developing this perspective, it does give you that perspective. It helps you to see space as a reality, rather than the conditions in the space as being... You know, giving your soul attention to that. Or the silence in the mind rather than the thinking or the emotional habit. Report an error in the passage at 58:15 Highlight the passage at 58:15

58:57 And so to do that, then you have to pay attention. You have to be in the moment, be fully present in the state of poised attention, listening. Report an error in the passage at 58:57 Highlight the passage at 58:57

59:16 Before thought arises. So it's a poised state of embracing the present moment. It includes everything. Everything now belongs here. Whether we like it or not, it has nothing to do with it. Everything now, whether you're feeling good or bad, happy or sad, it belongs. The whole thing. Everything belongs here. Report an error in the passage at 59:16 Highlight the passage at 59:16

59:46 Where in your discriminative mind you think it shouldn't be like this and that shouldn't be like that. I don't want to think like this. I don't want to feel like that. I don't like that person. I don't like this. And then you're going around thinking in terms of what you approve or disapprove of. That's the thinking. You have to think to do that. But intuition is transcending thought, embraces thought itself. So you're going to a deeper level. Report an error in the passage at 59:46 Highlight the passage at 59:46

1:00:15 Through intuition, which embraces good thoughts and bad thoughts, embraces the angels and the devils, the light and the dark, right and wrong. It's interesting how attached we are to being right, how righteous we can get through being attached to that which is right, and yet... And what's wrong shouldn't be, isn't it? If it's wrong, it shouldn't be here. Only right should be allowed. And yet in an intuitive present moment, right and wrong exist together. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:15 Highlight the passage at 1:00:15

1:01:04 They belong to each other. So we begin to transcend or begin to recognize the way it is in a way that we can't possibly Understand through conceptualization. It's only through intuition that we can do this. So the tea has now appeared on the servery. Kulada, as usual, has manifested this out of thin air. She's got magical powers. And before it gets cold, we can stop here. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:04 Highlight the passage at 1:01:04

1:01:47 And then in about 20 minutes, if you're... Those who wish to pursue this any further, please come back and we can have a discussion. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:47 Highlight the passage at 1:01:47