Suffering Should Be Welcomed (page 65)

0:01 back on my tour. Report an error in the passage at 0:01 Highlight the passage at 0:01

0:09 [chanting]

0:22 Sambhutasa Aparutade Sangamatasa Taurayesodavantabhamunjanthusadam One Report an error in the passage at 0:22 Highlight the passage at 0:22

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:05 of the epithets for the Buddha when we chant is loka vidu, knower of the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:05 Highlight the passage at 1:05

1:18 And so this, of course, we can say this is a quality of the Buddha, but this also is something much more practical than just chanting. Report an error in the passage at 1:18 Highlight the passage at 1:18

1:33 You know, the positive qualities of somebody called Buddha. So Report an error in the passage at 1:33 Highlight the passage at 1:33

1:45 that's like reflecting on what is the world, you know, the situation that we're experiencing now. This is to contemplate or reflect on life as experience rather than describing how life should be. Report an error in the passage at 1:45 Highlight the passage at 1:45

2:08 if we're just then we have theories about how things should be. in awareness, we're noticing how things are. Report an error in the passage at 2:08 Highlight the passage at 2:08

2:29 not wholly not saying you should breathe a certain way there's some standard of breathing that is ideal that we must all strive for or contemplate The experience of sensitivity is like this. Report an error in the passage at 2:29 Highlight the passage at 2:29

2:45 we begin to notice the fact that the human body, this body that in with its eyes, nose, tongue, body itself, this is Report an error in the passage at 2:45 Highlight the passage at 2:45

3:02 sensitivity is like this. then we look inward, what is it, you know, just being sensitive. Report an error in the passage at 3:02 Highlight the passage at 3:02

3:12 that we're now looking at Noticing what it is to feel or to see or to hear or smell, taste, touch, to think, to remember. So Report an error in the passage at 3:12 Highlight the passage at 3:12

3:35 we can have ideas about being sensitive, you know, sensitivity, or we can try to make ourselves insensitive because we might see it as a weakness. To be too sensitive to some people is a sign of weakness. Report an error in the passage at 3:35 Highlight the passage at 3:35

3:53 But we're not placing any judgment on sensitivity, but it's just noticing it's like this. Report an error in the passage at 3:53 Highlight the passage at 3:53

4:08 And noticing the world that we live in, the environment, the way it is. It's, you know, the experience of the... We refine it more towards just noticing the impermanent nature of our conscious experience, how things rise and cease, begin and end. Report an error in the passage at 4:08 Highlight the passage at 4:08

4:31 And so it's... knowing the world which is not a judging you know judging the world according to some standard but the world is like this the world is sensitive the world is about birth and death about meeting and parting coming and going about good and bad about right and wrong beauty and ugliness and all the various Report an error in the passage at 4:31 Highlight the passage at 4:31

5:22 even though this seems an obvious kind of reality when you recognize it, yet many people really aware of the world, you know, in terms of experience? Report an error in the passage at 5:22 Highlight the passage at 5:22

5:37 We interpret it usually in a personal way. Report an error in the passage at 5:37 Highlight the passage at 5:37

5:43 The habit patterns is to interpret it all in terms of personal limitations or personal feelings, personal ideas. So in noticing the way the world is, we're seeing that it's not a personal thing. A person is a kind of creation of the mind that we're bound to if we don't awaken, if we just operate within the... Report an error in the passage at 5:43 Highlight the passage at 5:43

6:15 Conditioning, emotional conditioning that we have, then we see it in terms of this is happening to me or I am good or bad or whatever accordingly. Report an error in the passage at 6:15 Highlight the passage at 6:15

6:43 This is very important to recognize and to know the world is the world because it's a very strong experience. Having a human body is... is you know a continuous kind of experience of being irritated that when you contemplate what consciousness is in such a form as human a human body with four elements earth fire water and air and just from birth to death from the time you're born when you cry the moment you're out of the your mother's womb you start screaming and then Then the sensitivity and impingement and the irritations that come through this sensitive form till it dies. Report an error in the passage at 6:43 Highlight the passage at 6:43

7:43 So it is encouraging to encourage you to contemplate what it is rather than to judge it according to ideals or ideas that you might have. Report an error in the passage at 7:43 Highlight the passage at 7:43

8:02 And this is then called the awakened. State of awakened awareness. So when we, to wake up means to know the world as it is. Report an error in the passage at 8:02 Highlight the passage at 8:02

8:19 It's not judging the world. If we have ideas about how the world should be, then the way it is oftentimes is seen through our critical mind. It shouldn't be. You know, when you see how countries should be, governments should be, or parents, or... Ajahn then we're coming from ideals. Report an error in the passage at 8:19 Highlight the passage at 8:19

9:10 They're kind of, wonderful in their way, but they're not sustainable, the flow and movement of our life is around the changiness of the conditioned realm that impinges, we're involved in, that we're immersed in, in this form. Report an error in the passage at 9:10 Highlight the passage at 9:10

9:36 so, just notice how irritating it is to, you know, just to be able to see. Report an error in the passage at 9:36 Highlight the passage at 9:36

9:46 You know, that isn't quite right, Report an error in the passage at 9:46 Highlight the passage at 9:46

9:52 that it's too cold or too hot or we have a headache or a backache or unwanted noises, odors and things like this impinge or come in contact with this form and then we experience its beauty, its ugliness, pleasure and pain. Report an error in the passage at 9:52 Highlight the passage at 9:52

10:20 But even pleasure is irritating when you think of it. I mean, we like pleasure, but just having a lot of pleasure is also very exhausting and irritating. So Report an error in the passage at 10:20 Highlight the passage at 10:20

10:44 this is not a criticism, it's just noticing that having a human body is like this, breathing is like this, consciousness is like this. Report an error in the passage at 10:44 Highlight the passage at 10:44

11:02 How sensitive we are just with words and thoughts, you know, or tone of voice. You know, one can say things and upset everybody just through a certain tone of voice or using words, certain words can be very distressing. Report an error in the passage at 11:02 Highlight the passage at 11:02

11:25 Or we remember, you know, remember things of the past that are pleasant or unpleasant. And so we can obsess our minds with... with about things we shouldn't have done in the past. You know, so we have guilt, a lot of guilt and remorse or self-aversion because of mistakes, failures or unskillful actions in the past that we remember. Report an error in the passage at 11:25 Highlight the passage at 11:25

11:58 So we can get really neurotic because we, in the present moment, we can be totally obsessed with the thing we shouldn't have done 20 years ago. Report an error in the passage at 11:58 Highlight the passage at 11:58

12:11 And we can drive ourselves into a real state of depression and despair. And Report an error in the passage at 12:11 Highlight the passage at 12:11

12:22 so this, you know, being born as a human being is a real challenge in terms of how to use this experience of our human birth, human experience, this sensitive state that we're living in. Report an error in the passage at 12:22 Highlight the passage at 12:22

12:48 Some people think of committing suicide, just, you know, get it over with. It's just too hard to bear, too much to stand in a lifetime of this continuous irritation and guilt and remorse and fear of the unknown and so forth. It can be just so utterly depressing and despairing that we think we're better to just... Report an error in the passage at 12:48 Highlight the passage at 12:48

13:17 kill ourselves, commit suicide. Or, Report an error in the passage at 13:17 Highlight the passage at 13:17

13:28 as the Buddha encouraged us, to wake up to it, learn from it, see it as opportunity, as challenge, as something to learn from. Report an error in the passage at 13:28 Highlight the passage at 13:28

13:44 So developing wisdom in terms of the conditions and the experiences that we have in this life, which could be, you know, which are... Report an error in the passage at 13:44 Highlight the passage at 13:44

14:08 disillusionment, Report an error in the passage at 14:08 Highlight the passage at 14:08

14:19 of course, if we take that personally, it does, it is, you know, one wants to just end it all very quickly. Report an error in the passage at 14:19 Highlight the passage at 14:19

14:28 if you put it in the context of the world is the world, Then we can, we can take anything. We have incredible abilities to learn from even the most unfair, the most miserable, painful and nasty conditions. Report an error in the passage at 14:28 Highlight the passage at 14:28

14:50 So these are not the obstructions to enlightenment. It's whether we awaken or not. Report an error in the passage at 14:50 Highlight the passage at 14:50

15:06 Some people think it's good karma to just have an easy ride, you know, to be born into wealthy... With wealthy parents in high stages, beautiful parents, intelligence, easy life, just all the benefits, all the blessings, all the good things is great. It's a lot of merit. Good baramees. But I would tend to think sometimes I look at my own life and think incredible challenges have come to me. Report an error in the passage at 15:06 Highlight the passage at 15:06

15:43 you know, who have shaken me, have really upset me, disappointed me. I just want to get this over. I don't want to spend more and more years just in this realm. I can't take it. But then awakening, through that I realize that I can. I'm quite willing to take what life So that's the challenge. It's, you know, seeing that this is an opportunity that we have as human beings, as conscious beings. Report an error in the passage at 15:43 Highlight the passage at 15:43

16:44 Now the teachings of the Lord Buddha are teachings pointing to this. You know, they're not there to awaken you rather than to condition you. So you're not... Report an error in the passage at 16:44 Highlight the passage at 16:44

17:01 They're not to grasp them as kind of doctrinal positions to take, but expedient means to use to develop, to encourage, awaken awareness, mindfulness, intuition, to not fear sensitivity, really open to it, be fully sensitive rather than just try to kind of... Ajahn from possible pain or misfortunes. Report an error in the passage at 17:01 Highlight the passage at 17:01

· · · silence, 1 minute

18:11 studying and taking an interest. Investigating, examining experience and willing to really look at and feel the negative side of experience, not just seek pleasurable sensory pleasures or just pleasurable experiences, but seeing even your most disappointing ones, your worst failures as opportunity. To learn, as Report an error in the passage at 18:11 Highlight the passage at 18:11

18:51 awaken, as a chance to awaken, we can say as devaduttas or messengers that tap us on the shoulder and say, wake up. Report an error in the passage at 18:51 Highlight the passage at 18:51

19:05 So that's why in Buddhism we like getting old. Sickness, disabilities, loss are not seen as things to fear or despise, but as devaduttas or heavenly messengers. Report an error in the passage at 19:05 Highlight the passage at 19:05

19:27 Like this word devadutta is a Pāli word which is like dutta. Dutta means like a messenger of some sort. And deva is like heaven, heavenly, angelic messengers sent to warn us. Report an error in the passage at 19:27 Highlight the passage at 19:27

19:52 Somebody asked me one time, a Christian asked me about if we had angels in Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 19:52 Highlight the passage at 19:52

20:02 And they said, we have angels. In Christianity, they're all, you know, white and beautiful, play harps, and they're very radiant, light beings. I said, well, Buddhist angels are not that way. They're old age things. Report an error in the passage at 20:02 Highlight the passage at 20:02

20:24 And then the fourth devadutta is the samana, or the human being who's seeking, who's... Report an error in the passage at 20:24 Highlight the passage at 20:24

20:35 On realizing, having the spiritual realization. So that always interested me because I thought that was quite amusing. Seeing an old person as an angel or a sick, the sick, or the mentally sick, or the corpses and monks and nuns as deva tutors. We look at each other as David Dutas rather than as, that's Ajahn Majiro and that's Sister Ananda Bodhi. Report an error in the passage at 20:35 Highlight the passage at 20:35

21:17 Then they become personalities, don't they? We see each other, like I remember with Ajahn Ananda when the word Ananda became so identified with Ajahn Ananda that Venerable Ananda and I ordained him, Gary Thompson. Report an error in the passage at 21:17 Highlight the passage at 21:17

21:38 It was to challenge that perception because the word ananda had become so fixed under a person, a personality. Report an error in the passage at 21:38 Highlight the passage at 21:38

21:55 But in, say, looking at like the shaven head and the saffron robes and this has seen them in terms of devaduttas rather than as, you know, when you put it into terms of monks and nuns and this senior and junior and... And all this, and it gets into a kind of personality view, sakayaditti. Report an error in the passage at 21:55 Highlight the passage at 21:55

22:26 Or, using your mind in a different way, looking at this as devaduttas, rather. So when we see each other actually helping each other to awaken. Report an error in the passage at 22:26 Highlight the passage at 22:26

22:39 Or when we look at each other, do we see each other as a person? You know, think of... This monk is like this, and that nun, she's like that, and on Report an error in the passage at 22:39 Highlight the passage at 22:39

22:54 and on. We can do it in the very worldly way, or just changing the perspective to the David Dutta. Report an error in the passage at 22:54 Highlight the passage at 22:54

23:06 Old people we can see as David Dutta. You can see, like me, I'll be 67 in a few days. Not only a David Dutta on the level of a summoner, but an old man. Report an error in the passage at 23:06 Highlight the passage at 23:06

23:23 And then as I get sick and senile, and I'm even more of a David, three David Dutas in one. And then when I'm dead, four, four all in one. Report an error in the passage at 23:23 Highlight the passage at 23:23

23:54 I'm just reflecting in this way to see, you know, how to use life. The malleability of our human mind is endless. We can be so set and conditioned by just dualistic thinking, the kind of thing you get from your cultural background. For example, I was brought up in a very dualistic way of looking at everything from a Christian background. Things were absolutely right or wrong or good or evil. Report an error in the passage at 23:54 Highlight the passage at 23:54

24:28 These were very fixed ways of looking at everything. You had this very limited use of your mind because it tended to not move very much. It just moved between these two extremes. Report an error in the passage at 24:28 Highlight the passage at 24:28

24:53 But notice in just some of the Buddhist meditational exercises, just the ways of visualizing, of using your mind to create visions of things, to contemplate the 32 parts of the body. I remember when... I was first faced with this in Thailand. I kept wanting to think of 32 parts of the body as kind of being physiologically accurate according to Western science. Report an error in the passage at 24:53 Highlight the passage at 24:53

25:23 And just observing, contemplating my own 32 parts, it was easier for me to go and find a book on anatomy and physiology and look at a chart and a picture. Then to contemplate the reality of those organs and those conditions existing here and now in this form that I call myself, that I assume it's me. Report an error in the passage at 25:23 Highlight the passage at 25:23

25:54 But Report an error in the passage at 25:54 Highlight the passage at 25:54

26:00 it is a different use of learning to flex the mind a bit. It's Report an error in the passage at 26:00 Highlight the passage at 26:00

26:13 also a malleable loudspeaker system. Report an error in the passage at 26:13 Highlight the passage at 26:13

26:31 Look at yourself also in terms of, you know, I was talking to one of the monks last week about how difficult sometimes it is to see yourself in terms of positive qualities, because Report an error in the passage at 26:31 Highlight the passage at 26:31

26:49 we're so used to seeing ourselves in terms of negative, you know, what's wrong, what is the fault. With many, especially... Western people, Europeans and Americans, we're so aware. We spend so much time criticizing ourselves and dwelling on what we feel is wrong with us or not good or weak. And then we think it's even wrong to admit our good qualities. I used to feel like that. Report an error in the passage at 26:49 Highlight the passage at 26:49

27:33 I couldn't. I was being honest when I was admitting my weaknesses and faults. But if I admitted my virtues, that would be like bragging. Report an error in the passage at 27:33 Highlight the passage at 27:33

27:45 And here in Britain, it's a very bad taste to brag and tell people how wonderful you are, how much money you make, or how many important degrees or titles you have. Report an error in the passage at 27:45 Highlight the passage at 27:45

28:03 In Thailand, for example, some monks have these... Report an error in the passage at 28:03 Highlight the passage at 28:03

28:33 right to present yourself in terms of accomplishments. Report an error in the passage at 28:33 Highlight the passage at 28:33

28:41 here, everything has a very bad taste. It's embarrassing. You never see in an English home people putting their university degrees up, framing them, putting them up on the walls. Report an error in the passage at 28:41 Highlight the passage at 28:41

28:55 would be too embarrassing. Report an error in the passage at 28:55 Highlight the passage at 28:55

29:00 it's like boasting or bragging. so there is a sense of modesty. Report an error in the passage at 29:00 Highlight the passage at 29:00

29:11 It is also quite lovely in many ways. It's a sense of modesty. But then it can be taken to the extreme where it becomes you have no way of acknowledging any goodness in yourself or to appreciate your own successes, virtues, and good qualities. Report an error in the passage at 29:11 Highlight the passage at 29:11

29:39 And is it going to? Are we going to become inflated, egotistical monsters if we admit that we love good things? I'm, you know, why do I become a bhikkhu, Buddhist monk? Why would I choose to live a celibate life in this order, this monastic group? Report an error in the passage at 29:39 Highlight the passage at 29:39

30:05 And then I could give you reason out of, because I, you know, I've just got to, you know, get myself together and make myself, you know, shape up and get my act together. I can't do it any other way. I have to do something, you know, in order to make I can look at it in terms of weakness and inability that I need the support from external conditions because I can't do it myself. Report an error in the passage at 30:05 Highlight the passage at 30:05

30:31 Or I can also look at it in terms of being attracted to what is good and virtuous and what is, you know, beautiful. Report an error in the passage at 30:31 Highlight the passage at 30:31

30:50 So it's, you know, and both can, you know, have their points to make. Report an error in the passage at 30:50 Highlight the passage at 30:50

31:05 Even though I can be fascinated by lower things and the darker side of life, it's not that I'm just so good that I just gravitate everything that's light and beautiful. Because I've certainly had my fascinations for that which isn't. But I would say, summing up as a character tendency, Report an error in the passage at 31:05 Highlight the passage at 31:05

31:44 that's something very good, something to respect. I see that this is something very good in my character. Report an error in the passage at 31:44 Highlight the passage at 31:44

31:54 that's just putting it in terms of personal qualities. Report an error in the passage at 31:54 Highlight the passage at 31:54

32:03 It's learning to... Be honest and admit and make it a conscious kind of appreciation of your own humanity and your individuality. It helps to give you a confidence that you don't have if you're too obsessed, too overly interested or too committed to being critical and seeing yourself through the negative perception. Report an error in the passage at 32:03 Highlight the passage at 32:03

32:42 So this is being able to use our critical mind, our discriminative abilities and our thoughts, not just to analyze and compare one thing with another, but to examine and investigate in terms of experience. We Report an error in the passage at 32:42 Highlight the passage at 32:42

33:09 awaken to, say, awaken to the breath. It's like this. Awaken to the sensitive state we're in. It's like this. Report an error in the passage at 33:09 Highlight the passage at 33:09

33:23 Awaken to the irritations that we experience as conditions and contact and irritate our senses. Or the way our own obsessions and emotional habits, whatever they might be, to be able to put them in the perspective of... Report an error in the passage at 33:23 Highlight the passage at 33:23

33:54 Rather than seeing that as something to get rid of, it's something to awaken to, change from pushing away, resisting and denying towards awakening, accepting and welcoming. Report an error in the passage at 33:54 Highlight the passage at 33:54

34:09 Now in the First Noble Truth, the Buddha proclaimed that there is this dukkha, this suffering. So that is... Report an error in the passage at 34:09 Highlight the passage at 34:09

34:58 It's just dukkha from the beginning to the end. Report an error in the passage at 34:58 Highlight the passage at 34:58

35:05 There's nothing noble in that, is there? It's just pessimism and depression and seeing it in terms of I don't like it, I don't want suffering. What a bad joke, what a lousy joke God played on us, you know, creating this mess and me being born in this mess. mess to live just to get old. What am I living for? Just to get old, sick and die. Report an error in the passage at 35:05 Highlight the passage at 35:05

35:37 The prescription to deal with this. Report an error in the passage at 35:37 Highlight the passage at 35:37

35:50 then, noble truth, there is suffering, it's, and the advice, prescription to deal with this. With this suffering is to welcome it, to understand it, to open to it, to admit it, to begin to notice and accept, Report an error in the passage at 35:50 Highlight the passage at 35:50

36:15 and that willingness to embrace and learn from that which we don't like, don't want, the pain or the frustration, the irritation, and on and on, whether it's physical, emotional, mental, whatever. Report an error in the passage at 36:15 Highlight the passage at 36:15

36:39 So you can see, like in dukkha, and then suffering should be understood, or to understand suffering is like opening to it. Report an error in the passage at 36:39 Highlight the passage at 36:39

36:58 We understand suffering because it's, you know, and then we rationalize it, but that's not understanding. It's welcoming, you know, embracing suffering that we're experiencing. Report an error in the passage at 36:58 Highlight the passage at 36:58

37:38 well, it's an Aryan truth, this word Arya. Report an error in the passage at 37:38 Highlight the passage at 37:38

37:44 Ajahn means noble. Report an error in the passage at 37:44 Highlight the passage at 37:44

37:50 So what is noble in the English word noble? It's a kind of grand quality, isn't it? It rises up. If you're noble, you rise up to things. You don't just say, oh, life is just misery and I just want to hide away from it because I can't bear it. There's nothing noble in that, is it? Or blaming the suffering. God, why did you create this mess? Report an error in the passage at 37:50 Highlight the passage at 37:50

38:18 It's your fault. Report an error in the passage at 38:18 Highlight the passage at 38:18

38:23 You know, you're brought up as a Christian sometimes. I used to feel furious with God. Report an error in the passage at 38:23 Highlight the passage at 38:23

38:32 If I were God, I would have created a lot better situation than this one. I remember as a child thinking, if I were God, I wouldn't have created pain. Report an error in the passage at 38:32 Highlight the passage at 38:32

38:43 You know, you'd fall down and hurt yourself. Why does God allow this? Why do you create a realm where there's so much pain? If I were God, And I created the world. I wouldn't create pain. And my mother, she never could answer that question very well. Report an error in the passage at 38:43 Highlight the passage at 38:43

39:08 Because the pain is, you know, something that shouldn't be, something wrong. Report an error in the passage at 39:08 Highlight the passage at 39:08

39:19 Or is pain a noble truth? Is old age a noble truth? Is loss, separation, all these experiences that we all have to have in this? Report an error in the passage at 39:19 Highlight the passage at 39:19

39:45 truth. this is what I'm pointing to is that we can look at things in different ways. You know, we can choose. We're not just stuck with one program. Report an error in the passage at 39:45 Highlight the passage at 39:45

39:59 a victim of the program we did get, which might not be very good. Report an error in the passage at 39:59 Highlight the passage at 39:59

40:07 The program from the culture and from the family we were born into might not be a very good program, actually. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it's fairly all right. But still, as just limited to that experience alone, when we have this opportunity to explore, investigate reality, to know in a direct way. Report an error in the passage at 40:07 Highlight the passage at 40:07

40:40 Enlightenment is not something remote and impossible, even though you can see it in terms of some very abstract state that you hold up and aim for, but you don't think you'll ever be able to achieve. That way of thinking is based on what? You think of yourself as this kind of person. You know, my personality, if I depended on my personality, I couldn't do anything, I mean, ever hope to get enlightened. Because my personality doesn't, doesn't, can't possibly conceive myself as a person being enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 40:40 Highlight the passage at 40:40

41:22 My personality's conditioned to think of myself in terms of what's wrong with me. Coming from a competitive society, where you, you, You're very much aware of who's better or who's worse, who's above and who's below. Report an error in the passage at 41:22 Highlight the passage at 41:22

41:45 So I can't trust that. My personal habits are not, they're conditioned things, so they don't have any, they aren't flexible in themselves. If you just attach and interpret experience through those perceptions and never... Learn to look at things in any other way, then you are stuck with a limited view. That can be just a very depressing way of having to live your life. Report an error in the passage at 41:45 Highlight the passage at 41:45

42:22 So, like awakening, isn't it? Wake up, and then we begin to see getting beyond this rigid dualism, the puritanical dualism, or the... The initial program that you acquire through your family, social background, Report an error in the passage at 42:22 Highlight the passage at 42:22

43:03 trusting in your own intuitive awakened sense. Don't trust in your views and opinions about anything, about yourself or Buddhism or the world. Those are oftentimes very biased. We get very biased views of... Report an error in the passage at 43:03 Highlight the passage at 43:03

43:29 each We have racial prejudices, class identities, and ethnic biases, and feelings of social superiority or inferiority or whatever. These are not to be trusted. These are not perceptions that are conditioned, admittedly, but we can look at things in different ways. We don't have to look at... Something always from the conditioning that we've acquired. So there's this, when the Buddha talks about the Buddha mind, it's a very flexible, malleable, it's universal. Report an error in the passage at 43:29 Highlight the passage at 43:29

44:13 We can see things in so many different ways. The mind has this radiant quality to it. Consciousness is a radiance. It's light itself. So as we to go of always limiting ourselves through the distortions of our conditioned states, we to understand. Report an error in the passage at 44:13 Highlight the passage at 44:13

44:47 things as they really are Report an error in the passage at 44:47 Highlight the passage at 44:47

44:53 the dhamma enlightenment Report an error in the passage at 44:53 Highlight the passage at 44:53

44:57 are not something that are distant, remote, and Report an error in the passage at 44:57 Highlight the passage at 44:57

45:05 I want to hold to those views from a kind of personal attitude about it, about you as a person, and holding these perceptions so high that you can weigh beyond your personal ability to ever achieve them. And that's because you haven't awakened to what you're doing. You're merely operating from a conditioned view of everything. Report an error in the passage at 45:05 Highlight the passage at 45:05

45:46 So, one thing I was like, there is dukkha, dukkha should be welcomed. This is my new interpretation. The dukkha should be understood. The dukkha should be welcomed. How's that? Try that one. And you can experiment with a different word. You know, you don't have to say, the Pāli scriptures say, understand. Report an error in the passage at 45:46 Highlight the passage at 45:46

46:13 They didn't say welcome. you for your interpretation. Report an error in the passage at 46:13 Highlight the passage at 46:13

46:17 But Pāli scriptures, they don't say understand. They use a Pāli word that we translate as understand. And maybe we don't even understand what understand means. Did you ever think of that? Maybe even our own language, we don't understand. We're so limited to a particular narrow view of the word understand, we can't expand it. Report an error in the passage at 46:17 Highlight the passage at 46:17

46:43 That's why, you know, it's like to... See, we can experiment with the words. Just observe the effect of it. So I say welcoming now, not because I found the real translation for this, you know, and anyone who's going back to use understand is somehow, you know, it's not right. My view, my particular translation is, and that's getting into, you know. Report an error in the passage at 46:43 Highlight the passage at 46:43

47:18 Another rigid, arrogant approach. I'm not interested in proving that I'm right. My translations are the best, but just seeing how they work. What is the effect of it in terms of the here and now? Report an error in the passage at 47:18 Highlight the passage at 47:18

47:39 So that I'm sharing this with you as a way of encouraging you to have that right. right and that uh... freedom Report an error in the passage at 47:39 Highlight the passage at 47:39

47:56 know yourself in a way that you don't have to always try to fit yourself into the... Report an error in the passage at 47:56 Highlight the passage at 47:56

48:05 orthodox forms or definitions or our particular group way of looking at things or our Report an error in the passage at 48:05 Highlight the passage at 48:05

48:28 suffering, there is dukkha. Dukkha should be welcomed and Dukkha has been welcomed. What is that like? You know, try it out. Report an error in the passage at 48:28 Highlight the passage at 48:28

48:42 I don't know if it worked for you, but it does for me. Because welcoming is, I tend to be, the habit tendency is to Dukkha, to push it away. You know, that's my conditioning, my personality, suffering, push it away. Don't want it. Report an error in the passage at 48:42 Highlight the passage at 48:42

49:05 Somebody else is suffering. I see somebody. I don't want to go near them. I don't want to have to. I want to push away from them. There's a problem. Ajahn Sumedho, I've got to push away. I don't want. I don't want a problem. This is my character tendency to do that. Report an error in the passage at 49:05 Highlight the passage at 49:05

49:28 Resisting. I don't want to know about this suffering. Tell me the good things. How are you today? I'm fine, Ajahn Sumedho. I just love it here at Amaravati, and I love being a monk, and I just adore the dharma and the Theravāda form and the Vinaya, and I love the whole thing. Oh, that makes me feel so good. Report an error in the passage at 49:28 Highlight the passage at 49:28

49:56 Tell me more. And I go to somebody else. How are you this morning? This life is such a dreary, miserable thing. I'm fed up. I want to disrobe. are they? Report an error in the passage at 49:56 Highlight the passage at 49:56

50:15 I don't want to hear that. Don't tell me that. Report an error in the passage at 50:15 Highlight the passage at 50:15

50:21 then you're kind of like you're going around trying to... know, people kind of make you feel good, you know. Tell me the good things because that makes me feel good. don't tell me the bad stuff because that makes me feel bad. I don't want to feel bad. I don't want suffering. don't welcome it. I want to get rid of it. Report an error in the passage at 50:21 Highlight the passage at 50:21

50:46 so therefore, I'm going to try to... Live my life so that I can get as much of the good stuff as I can and push away the bad stuff. But Report an error in the passage at 50:46 Highlight the passage at 50:46

51:02 then in this new translation, there's suffering. Suffering should be welcomed. And it changes, doesn't it? It works. So then you see the suffering, your own, somebody else's problems, difficulties, and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 51:02 Highlight the passage at 51:02

51:27 things to away from or push away. Report an error in the passage at 51:27 Highlight the passage at 51:27

51:37 I like this. Report an error in the passage at 51:37 Highlight the passage at 51:37

51:41 were on this retreat the past week and I really found that very, really like the formal practice. I like to sit here and face the shrine. Report an error in the passage at 51:41 Highlight the passage at 51:41

51:59 And I like the temple, you know, it's very pleasant. Very nice place to sit. And then I sit with this nice cushion and then I have this triangular cushion on the back that just supports the spine so I can sit very comfortably for long periods of time. And I look at the shrine and everything, the mind goes very still and quiet. Report an error in the passage at 51:59 Highlight the passage at 51:59

52:30 And then when I look around and face... Report an error in the passage at 52:30 Highlight the passage at 52:30

52:40 What happens when my mind isn't, when I'm looking at all of you? So this is just a way of contemplating. When I'm looking at the shrine, all the things at the shrine tend to bring peace and calm. So you have candles and incense and Buddha image and things that aren't. Report an error in the passage at 52:40 Highlight the passage at 52:40

53:14 They bring kind of, they inspire, they're pleasing. They aren't irritating or causing me any kind of unpleasant feeling. Report an error in the passage at 53:14 Highlight the passage at 53:14

53:30 Or if I don't really want to look at them, I close my eyes. Don't look at anything. But then, turning around and you're all here. What happens? Report an error in the passage at 53:30 Highlight the passage at 53:30

53:44 So then it brings up the sense of, you know, there's so many different possibilities, isn't it? All these different people. Some I don't know even. Some I think I know. I've got views about some of you. You know, you're like this and they're like that. And then I've got memories. Report an error in the passage at 53:44 Highlight the passage at 53:44

54:11 And each person will bring up certain memories and some pleasant, some unpleasant memories. Some people have different ways of moving and acting and saying things that bring up different feelings in my mind, in my consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 54:11 Highlight the passage at 54:11

54:34 So then if I'm, oh, I can't bear this world that is like that, I have to turn away immediately. Turn around and look at the shrine again. Report an error in the passage at 54:34 Highlight the passage at 54:34

54:47 Or, is when I'm looking at the shrine, if I begin to allow, say, the awareness to take me to no longer just non-grasping, to the reality of non-attachment, and really know this, not depend on the lack of stimulation for this. Report an error in the passage at 54:47 Highlight the passage at 54:47

55:44 A conditioned experience that we become very dependent upon. So Report an error in the passage at 55:44 Highlight the passage at 55:44

55:56 in this sense of saṅgha, refuge in saṅgha, it's not refuge in... I mean, we can define saṅgha in terms of the four pairs, the eight kinds of noble beings. How many fit into that description? How many of your egos think of yourself as Sotāpanna, Sakata, Sotāpanna? Report an error in the passage at 55:56 Highlight the passage at 55:56

56:32 Which one? Report an error in the passage at 56:32 Highlight the passage at 56:32

56:36 Which one are you? Report an error in the passage at 56:36 Highlight the passage at 56:36

56:43 How can I take refuge in a bunch of people that don't, you know, even four pairs, eight kinds of noble beings? It remains very abstract, doesn't it? Kind of ideal. Arahantamanga, Arahantapala. one? Report an error in the passage at 56:43 Highlight the passage at 56:43

56:55 These kind of stages, ideal kind of being somewhere maybe. Well, they're here. And then we look, there's this monk and that. Report an error in the passage at 56:55 Highlight the passage at 56:55

57:11 So what's the refuge in saṅgha then? We want to abstract it. Or looking at saṅgha like saṅgha rather than as this person, this personality. night now. Report an error in the passage at 57:11 Highlight the passage at 57:11

57:32 You know, whether anybody, you know, is it up to me to decide who's a Sotāpanna, Sakadakami, and all that, and figure out who I can take refuge with? Report an error in the passage at 57:32 Highlight the passage at 57:32

57:48 Because then it's a matter of my ego again, isn't it? And this person trying to decide what somebody else is. Report an error in the passage at 57:48 Highlight the passage at 57:48

57:59 So it's like taking these words like Saṅgha and making them work for you. The Saṅgha, it can be, you know, make it practical. Like, we have the same refuge, we're the Saṅgha. Report an error in the passage at 57:59 Highlight the passage at 57:59

58:19 Our refuge is in Buddha and Dhamma and Saṅgha, not in personal attitudes or preferences or habits or views and opinions. Report an error in the passage at 58:19 Highlight the passage at 58:19

58:37 So when we see each other in terms of Saṅgha, or as devaduttas, Report an error in the passage at 58:37 Highlight the passage at 58:37

58:45 It's a way of looking at each other that is beginning to appreciate and respect and getting beyond just personal preference, personal view, personal reactivity. Report an error in the passage at 58:45 Highlight the passage at 58:45

59:09 But we're not trying to annihilate that because the dukkha that we welcome is all this personal reactivity. You know, why I feel angry with you or why I feel... ...jealous or why I feel rejected or things like this is not trying to dismiss this. But as we trust in this awakened state, then we can, you know, we can welcome our own feelings, you know, foolish feelings or whatever or neurotic habits. Report an error in the passage at 59:09 Highlight the passage at 59:09

59:50 We can welcome these things in terms of... A noble truth rather than personal faults. Report an error in the passage at 59:50 Highlight the passage at 59:50

1:00:07 So this is the observance night. Everybody's invited to sit till the magic hour of midnight. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:07 Highlight the passage at 1:00:07