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- 8:21
That happiness was our right. And that we should, if we were normal, well-adjusted, quote, well-adjusted, unquote, citizens of the United States, that we would find happiness as our right. And because we weren't happy, it probably meant there was something kind of wrong with me. Maybe some screw missing or something wasn't quite right.
- 11:27
Idealism, then, is is a rather marvelous function of our mind, not to put it down as something, you know, to give it, to talk about it as if it were harmful or dangerous or deluding, because our ability to think and create in our mind ideal images is quite a miraculous gift.
- 41:42
In totality, and everything is contained within it, so you can't compare it with anything else. And that's where the mettā practice begins, really, is when we have that sense of total acceptance, kindness, non-aversion to everything. And that is to be developed as a practice. And that means that isn't as easy as it sounds. we can get sentimental about it in a bit smarmy and wet. it's not based on just thinking nice thoughts about people when you're in a good mood.
- 50:06
The realization is a direct, insightful knowing, profound knowing of reality, which is here and now. It's not having studied all about philosophy and read the Abhidhamma Pitta and figured it all out through the perceptions of Abhidhamma or various other methods.
- 50:56
a denial of self, but when there's no self-consciousness, there's no sense of me or mine, the mind is bright, it's intelligent, consciousness is operating, sensitivity is there. But there is no grasping of a perception of me or mine. That whole kind of tendency and habit has been relinquished for that.
Transcript
0:02 Welcome you. Report an error in the passage at 0:02
0:08 This week we've had the family summer camp here at Amar Bhatti. We've had all these children living in the retreat center. And this is, I think, about our fifth or sixth year that we've provided this family summer camp. An attempt to try to provide for the education and... Report an error in the passage at 0:08
0:41 Souls or minds of young children whose parents are Buddhists. Because we realize that these Sunday afternoon talks are adults like them, but children find them a bit boring. So we had a more kind of different approach for the children's summer camp. But the subject for today's talk is... Materialism and idealism. I think this is a rather good thing to talk about at this time. This is the news of the day with the kind of failures of the communist system in the Soviet Union and the end of a kind of era of idealism. Report an error in the passage at 0:41
1:33 Because we can see that so much of the political ideology of the past hundred years Democratic systems and socialism, communism, this is one function of our mind to be able to produce images or ideals of how things should be, to produce a plan of a society that we would like to have in the future where there is this democracy, where everyone has... Report an error in the passage at 1:33
2:09 ...measure of equality, equal rights and freedom. Report an error in the passage at 2:09
2:15 And we can see in the Western world, say here in Britain or Western European countries and the United States, that this idealism, this democratic idealism has provided us with a society that in one way lets us do pretty much what we want. We have, say, we don't feel... particularly oppressed by the governmental system we do have, by the political system. Report an error in the passage at 2:15
2:48 But then, because even though we have what we call democratic society, the actual attitude, general attitude in the ambience of the society is based on material values. Report an error in the passage at 2:48
3:09 So the idea of I'm trying to live for the high standard of living and being able to get what you want, to be able to have as much pleasure and the time and freedom to enjoy and get all kinds of material objects and material wealth or just powers and free time, holidays, rights that we demand for ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 3:09
3:42 In these democratic societies. And then the result we also see is not a very satisfactory one. Because what oppresses us is not the government or even the society itself, but our own wrong views, our own fears and doubts. Our negativity tends to oppress our minds. We find ourselves haunted. And obsessed with negative thoughts and worries and anxieties and self-criticisms, blame and that, so that the oppression that we experience, say here in Britain, is something that we produce ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 3:42
4:28 Because this is a generalization. I'm sure there are cases where one is justifiably oppressed by somebody else. But generally speaking, the system is a fairly benevolent one. It tries to To not oppress the population. Report an error in the passage at 4:28
4:48 Idealism, then, if forced on us, is a tyranny. Even though the ideals of communism, one can agree with many of their objects, it isn't their goal or their aim, I think, is objectionable to anyone, really. It's the means that they use. Because they're using the tyrannical means. To try to attain a goal that would be ideal or a complete kind of equality or sharing of wealth where there's no class domination or where everyone, every individual in the society has the same rights and privileges. Report an error in the passage at 4:48
5:37 And of course that is an ideal that we can incline toward and appreciate. But actually the daily life experience, the existence of living on planet Earth, living with other human beings in a country as pleasant as this one, as England, still we find so much anguish and despair, neurotic fears, emotional problems, mental breakdowns, addictions and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 5:37
6:15 oppressing the minds of our youth, not to mention older mature men. I always like to think that without, say, a proper understanding of our relationship as an individual human being to the universe we live in, then it's not possible to find any real happiness in the world. Report an error in the passage at 6:15
6:45 And some people think that's just one of those Buddhist kind of wet blankets that you throw out. I remember going to Wat Suen Mok in southern Thailand, Buddhadasa. This was when I was still a layman, and I was working in Bangkok, and I decided to go down and visit the famous monk Buddhadasa Bhikkhu in southern Thailand. Report an error in the passage at 6:45
7:10 Went there, and then he had this, he called this spiritual theater. In which all these kind of themes and paintings and different things were presented in artistic ways to try to stimulate a reflective mind. And one of them was this kind of ecstatic figure, something like this, this one over here, a big-bellied kind of radiant being that says, oh joy to know there's no happiness in the world. Report an error in the passage at 7:10
7:50 And at that time I was quite bewildered by such a statement, I must admit. Report an error in the passage at 7:50
7:57 Because joy and happiness were not truly defined. I mean, what was the difference between joy and happiness? It seemed like my whole conditioning for my life was to seek happiness, to try to find happiness in the world. And that there was something wrong with you if you were not happy. Report an error in the passage at 7:57
8:21 That happiness was our right. And that we should, if we were normal, well-adjusted, quote, well-adjusted, unquote, citizens of the United States, that we would find happiness as our right. And because we weren't happy, it probably meant there was something kind of wrong with me. Maybe some screw missing or something wasn't quite right. Report an error in the passage at 8:21
8:52 Quite up to par, really, and so this was a constant worry that since we felt obliged, that it was really necessary to be happy, and that was our right, then being unhappy was taken very personally. Report an error in the passage at 8:52
9:10 Attempts to be happy, though, trying to seek happiness. Many of us spent a great deal of time, put forth an enormous amount of effort, Seeking happiness in various forms, ways of having fun, having a good time, getting all the things you wanted, having adventures, romances, excitements, doing all the fun things of life, only to find out how empty and meaningless and confusing and depressing it all becomes. Report an error in the passage at 9:10
9:41 As somebody once told me, there's nothing more boring than continuous excitement. It's exhausting. So to just seek A stimulating company or interesting hobbies or adventures and romances led to a state of intense boredom and depression and hopelessness. So obviously happiness, as I saw happiness in those early days, was something that you couldn't really... Report an error in the passage at 9:41
10:19 You could have brief moments, like flashes or moments where you felt happy, but they were merely flashes. You couldn't kind of sustain them for very long. And then you drifted back into the worries, the self-consciousness, the sense of despair, the self-criticisms, the endless kind of complaints and blaming and gossip and that of... Report an error in the passage at 10:19
10:55 yet I remember feeling definitely that there was somehow, some place, eventually one would find a place or attain some level consciousness in which this kind of negativity had dissolved and one could abide in more of a serenity of the heart, of mind. Report an error in the passage at 10:55
11:27 Idealism, then, is is a rather marvelous function of our mind, not to put it down as something, you know, to give it, to talk about it as if it were harmful or dangerous or deluding, because our ability to think and create in our mind ideal images is quite a miraculous gift. When you start contemplating, thinking about That each one of us in this room has the ability in any given moment to imagine the best. Report an error in the passage at 11:27
12:08 Now one experiment I did with this years ago when I was, I think I was a monk about two or three years and I went off to stay in this kind of mountainous area in northeast Thailand and so I thought I would experiment with these different kind of concentration practices. Report an error in the passage at 12:08
12:29 So I read this kind of description of developing meditation on images of light in your mind. So since I can do this very easily, I can easily kind of visualize lights, I decided to do this. So I thought, what color do I really want to develop? I wanted to do a color, a light that had some color to it. So in those days I was very fond of green. Report an error in the passage at 12:29
12:59 So I used to sit on the top of this kind of high hill in the afternoon, and I would just develop this inner light on the color green. Report an error in the passage at 12:59
13:12 And of course it was, I would just create it at will. And I could imagine, I could close my eyes, and I could bring this image of light, this green light. I could make it quite small, or I could enlarge it. Report an error in the passage at 13:12
13:29 And then I began to try to get it as the most beautiful shade of green that I could possibly imagine. So then I kept developing a sense of this color that is so utterly beautiful, there couldn't be a more beautiful green in the whole universe. Report an error in the passage at 13:29
13:51 So then my mind would start thinking, well, how do you know this green that you're making is the most beautiful? Maybe there's a more beautiful green somewhere else. Report an error in the passage at 13:51
14:00 Then it's gone, you see, as soon as you doubt it, get caught up in thinking about it in a negative way or doubting it, then of course it's gone. But as long as you actually sustain it with that act of will, bringing it into existence as a mental image and creating it into anything you want it to be, like the most beautiful green light in the whole universe. Report an error in the passage at 14:00
14:29 And then suddenly I saw that it was the most beautiful color of green, the most beautiful green light in the whole universe. Report an error in the passage at 14:29
14:40 Because I made it that way. That gave me a sense of the kind of miracle of the mind. But then I tended to dismiss this ability as just kind of playing games with oneself. That the real practice was penetrating suffering. And then looking at suffering and the first noble truth and then to realize and have the insights through the contemplation of the four noble truths. Report an error in the passage at 14:40
15:13 But at that time I did realize that the human mind is such that you can create whatever you want. If you are willing to, if you get beyond just the kind of negative doubting Insecure tendencies of the mind. Because with the Samatha meditations, whenever you start doubting it, oh, it's not real, it's just playing games, of course, then it's lost. Report an error in the passage at 15:13
15:42 Or any form of negation or negative or doubt or wavering, the thing, the limit or the sign or the image that you create as a mental image is gone. It depends solely on believing in it totally and sustaining it and keep sustaining it and building it and reflecting on it until it begins to kind of hold on its own. Report an error in the passage at 15:42
16:14 It becomes where you can actually kind of bring it into any situation, project it at any time or any place, whatever you're doing. This is possible to do. And what that does is, because to do that, you have to commit yourself totally to believing it, to thinking positively about it, to accepting it, believing it, creating it in very positive ways, affirming it, and confirming it, and making it work for you. Report an error in the passage at 16:14
16:59 Or the same with, say, that's with an image of light. Then apply that also to, say, ideals, such as love, or universal love, or compassion, loving kindness, joyousness. Then we have the Brahmavihāras as examples in the Buddhist system, the muditā, or mettā karuṇā muditā upeka, as a kind of divine, Qualities, or radiant qualities in the universe. The Brahma, in the Buddhist use of Brahma, always implies radiant states of mind, of purity. Report an error in the passage at 16:59
17:41 Pure and radiant qualities. So mettā, or loving kindness, karuṇā, which is compassion, muditā, which is joyousness, and the... Upeka, which is equanimity or serenity, means that these are sustained as ideas in the mind, as ways of really getting to investigate and know and to identify what that is really like, the quality of mettā or loving kindness. Report an error in the passage at 17:41
18:25 Not just the sentiment, or a nice thought that passes by but actually a sustained reflection through affirmation, through concentration, through really knowing what it's like to feel, say, non-aversion, non-hatred, a sense of well-being and goodwill toward oneself and all other beings, whatever they might be. Report an error in the passage at 18:25
18:57 Good, evil, high, low, your friends, enemies, the whole lot. Mettā is non-discriminatory. It's not spreading more mettā to one side than the other. There's no quality or quantity. It's all equal mettā to all beings. Well, that's quite a wonderful thing that we can actually imagine that as a possibility. Report an error in the passage at 18:57
19:25 And to be able to create mental With our minds, that mental state in which we have, say, let go of the negative states of mind, all the criticisms, the faults, the flaws, the blames, the worries, the doubts, anxieties, the jealousies, the feelings of being offended and so forth, all have dropped away to abide in that level of... Report an error in the passage at 19:25
19:58 Loving kindness for all beings, for all sentient beings. Now all sentient beings, it's even in the mettā practice where one is a loving kindness for all unseen sentient beings as well as all seen ones we can look at and actually observe or the ones that we think exist but can't see or don't know for sure. Report an error in the passage at 19:58
20:25 So that the What you're doing with this practice is developing a totally positive attitude toward all possibilities, all existence, and the totality of being, in which the negative states of mind cannot grab hold of that moment. Because to have mettā for all sentient beings, at that moment you cannot, Any thought, any negative feeling is also a part, is also a sentient being of some sort, isn't it? It's a condition that arises and ceases. Report an error in the passage at 20:25
21:07 So that one is developing a total kind of patient acceptance of well-being and goodwill towards every possibility from a kind of brief flickering mental state to a total universal system. Well, that's quite a miracle that we can actually contemplate in that way. And I find that a marvelous ability that I have. Report an error in the passage at 21:07
21:40 I'm sure everyone else has that ability. I didn't think this up. I didn't make this up. This has been going on for thousands of years, being taught as Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 21:40
21:54 But sometimes we don't realize the miraculousness of our own existence. We get stuck in the negative. Kind of banality of daily life. Just the poor little old me and the chip on the china cup and the annoying way the neighbours never kind of clean up their back garden or things like this can obsess our minds and just the most kind of miserable mental states of dreariness. Report an error in the passage at 21:54
22:33 Gray dreariness of the mind can of course block us off from the miracle that we're very much involved with which is conscious experience in an individual form. Report an error in the passage at 22:33
22:53 Now the human being then is we are some kind of creature that is in a very peculiar position because we can't kind of find any real satisfaction in drifting back towards more kind of Report an error in the passage at 22:53
23:17 We can't just find us, we can't be content with a good meal and just the instinctual drives of our bodies in the animal world. Report an error in the passage at 23:17
23:31 I mean, we are always trying to get beyond that. And so we, you know, civilization and the attempts to, and the refinements of Aesthetic refinements that we create and the religious aspirations and spiritual realizations, mystical experiences, a sense of mystery, bring us to that awareness that this is a temporary journey that we're involved in. Report an error in the passage at 23:31
24:11 It's a peregrination. It is merely a kind of, maybe a purgatory. Report an error in the passage at 24:11
24:20 When I was a Christian, I used to talk about purgatory. I think, well, that's what I'm experiencing right now. Being a human being is like living in purgatory. Because you're on fire, or you have a body that's hot, and you're always dealing with obstacles and difficulties. Report an error in the passage at 24:20
24:41 And there always seems to be so much kind of... Anguish and despair, so much to be concerned about. So the problem of being self-conscious, of having to stand out and be somebody in a group where you can be criticized or made fun of, where you can be attacked or brutalized or tortured, this is quite a difficult problem. Report an error in the passage at 24:41
25:12 difficult place to be in many ways, being a human being. So Report an error in the passage at 25:12
25:24 purgatory then is like a purgation in itself. It means to purify, to cleanse. And this is what I found very much as a kind of experience of my life as a Buddhist monk. It is a mental and spiritual cleansing of the mind that I've been involved in over the past 25 years. Report an error in the passage at 25:24
25:50 Because the When I first ordained as a monk, my mind was, even though it was altruistic, and it was inclined toward the good, wanted to realize the truth, it had good intentions, but the whole kind of basic conditioning of it was so fraught with so many difficult attitudes about myself. People I lived with and the society I lived in, everything had become complicated for me. Life was not just easy, come easy. Report an error in the passage at 25:50
26:32 Everything was full of difficulty, loaded, explosive, dangerous. There was endless kind of anxieties that you carry around with you on holidays and find yourself in the midst of a... A pleasant scene, trying to have a good time, and then suddenly completely kind of shattered through just thinking one negative thought that brought back a whole kind of oppressive mental framework. Report an error in the passage at 26:32
27:07 This was brought home to me one day when we were, when I was living in, when I was in the Peace Corps. And I was sent off to this very kind of tropical paradise in northern Borneo, west of the east coast, a place called Semporna. And Sempurna was a little coastal town in which there was a smuggling port in the Celebes Sea to the Philippines in Indonesia. Report an error in the passage at 27:07
27:38 But it was a kind of exciting place to be and very picturesque. And we used to have these, there were several Chinese millionaires who used to throw these kind of grand parties for us. And they'd bring special cooks from Hong Kong. to prepare these fantastic banquets of Chinese delicacies, of Napoleon branding and champagne, and life was just, you know, a gala party. Report an error in the passage at 27:38
28:08 And we have speedboat, water skiing, skim diving, snorkeling, all the rest. It's an incredibly beautiful equatorial place. Report an error in the passage at 28:08
28:22 But then while I was there, I was there two years, I saw it enormously. Not due to any of the physical things around me, but to the mental states that could take over my mind. And the thing that brought it home so clearly was that in some way before I could always blame it on something else. But where I was, I realized that there was, you know, life was really quite enjoyable. There was nobody really to blame for anything. Report an error in the passage at 28:22
28:58 And yet these very kind of difficult fears, kind of nameless fears and worries and a kind of level of gray negativity could just take over my mind in the midst of a quite pleasant and enjoyable scene. And I used to wonder, why? Why does this happen? Report an error in the passage at 28:58
29:27 Why can't, why can't I just not have this, why can't I just thoroughly enjoy this, everything that's so enjoyable and so available and there to be enjoyed and yet mentally there are many times this oppressive would take over my conscious experience. Why Report an error in the passage at 29:27
29:52 is that? Why does that happen to us? And that is, isn't it, that's due to the conditioning of the mind. The general attitudes we have towards ourselves, that maybe we're not even intentionally, we don't intentionally have them. It wasn't that I had any intention to have these moods or these feelings. Report an error in the passage at 29:52
30:14 In fact, I intended not to have them. But yet they were somehow, would suddenly occur and take over the mind and make you quite helpless, quite depressed. And so the... Several years later I went off to Thailand and became a monk, began to really investigate all this. This negativity, this dimness of the heart, this doubting, wavering, unconfidence, Report an error in the passage at 30:14
30:48 the worry, the tendency to sink into a kind of sea of worries about nothing really, but just one was so accustomed to worry. That's the way the mind usually just went. When there's nothing else to do, nothing to occupy your time, then you sink into this realm of worry. It would just be kind of automatic. Report an error in the passage at 30:48
31:19 And that is the result of a mind that has developed in a society Report an error in the passage at 31:19
31:38 based on Ideals and material values on a strong sense of one's self and where the miracle of life has not been raised up as a reflection, but where the whole emphasis has been placed on the concepts and the views, the attitudes you have about yourself, what you think you are or should be or shouldn't be, became. Report an error in the passage at 31:38
32:15 That which tended to dominate conscious experience, it would affect it. The self-consciousness, the ego, in Buddhist terms of sakayaditti, a self-view, self-consciousness, conceit or pride or ego, these words convey a conditioned attitude of mind towards yourself. Report an error in the passage at 32:15
32:48 And that was based on, say, on the family I was born into, on the whole kind of cultural background, education, that instills in you your attitude and self-view. And that self-view, of course, if it's based on comparisons, on competitions, on the critical faculty, Report an error in the passage at 32:48
33:20 Even if you have a fairly positive attitude towards yourself, it still takes you to a sense of despair because that whole function of mind is not meant to be something that we claim to identify with. Our discriminative faculties, the views, the opinions, the memories, the ability to perceive or create perception, all these are a function of the mind to be understood. Report an error in the passage at 33:20
33:52 To be examined, to be known for what they are, but not to be attached to, not to identify yourself, because that's what self-consciousness amounts to, isn't it? Self-consciousness is the sense of I am somebody independent, somebody who's this person, this being here, and that brings forth all kinds of maybe I'm not as good as somebody else. Report an error in the passage at 33:52
34:20 Maybe I'm arrogant, I think I'm better than everyone else. Maybe I have a view that there's something wrong with me, or I'm abnormal, or I can imagine myself being much better than the way I perceive myself. I can perceive, have a view, create a view of myself as a perfect kind of human being, male human being, some ideal form. Report an error in the passage at 34:20
34:50 I feel quite weak and helpless and lost in the realities of life as I experience it. We Report an error in the passage at 34:50
35:01 do that, we oftentimes feel always disappointed with the people around us. How many times have you been disappointed with your husband or wife or friends or close associates or children or parents or whatever? Report an error in the passage at 35:01
35:17 Because of that we say, well, they're only human. Being only human means that we... We don't expect very much. Report an error in the passage at 35:17
35:30 Well, I'm only here to kind of justification. Report an error in the passage at 35:30
35:37 So we can idealize, apotheosize somebody into how they should be, what a mother, a father should be, or a lover, or a mate, or a partner, or whatever, what they should be, what we want is kind of ideal relationships, and then feel quite disappointed with the realities of a relationship. I feel quite embittered or disillusioned because realities of living with some other person is never really ideal. Report an error in the passage at 35:37
36:13 It has many moments where it reaches a peak of where we feel it's ideal, but it can't stay on that peak experience. And then we feel disappointed, disillusioned, blaming, blaming ourselves or blaming the other person. Negativity takes over the mind. Report an error in the passage at 36:13
36:39 So that ability to create an ideal, what Report an error in the passage at 36:39
36:47 is that? Why do we do that? Why do we expect something to somebody? Why would we want maybe a religious teacher to live up to our ideal? With some of the disrobing that have taken place recently, lay people have told me they've been so disappointed because some of the members of the Saṅgha that have disrobed have disappointed them. Report an error in the passage at 36:47
37:14 Because they think, well here, these monks, nuns, these are not going to disappoint me. They're going to be these pure beings who will, I can trust at last, somebody who lives up to these noble goals and who will not disappoint me by proving that they have faults or weaknesses or they want to disrobe. Report an error in the passage at 37:14
37:40 Disrobing implies also a sense of maybe Maybe the holy life isn't. Maybe we can't really do it. But Report an error in the passage at 37:40
37:59 we need ideals, don't we? We need archetypes, role models, examples, perfect forms, lovely images to look to. But we must recognize that that's all they are. That's what they are. They're ideals. And therefore, that's fair enough. It's a miracle to create. of the mind that we can create an ideal but we must with wisdom and right understanding recognize that it is an ideal it's not a person it's not a real thing in the sense of an ongoing permanent experience you can't expect a flesh and blood conscious creature to be an ideal just like you can't expect me to be this marble image sitting above me Report an error in the passage at 37:59
38:59 You know, I can sit for so long like a marble image, but not very long. But that one's been doing it about 300 years. That's an ideal, isn't it? The marble image is an ideal Buddha. So we know that. It is an aesthetic form. It's a creation of the human mind. And it's beauty. And it inspires us. But we recognize that it is. Report an error in the passage at 38:59
39:38 of us a conscious, sensory Report an error in the passage at 39:38
39:45 on this planet. this is a reflection on way things are. the ideals we need, we need to have ideals. We don't want to live in a world of cynicism and pessimism just... and and mediocrity and just say everything is just you know meaningless and useless and and go to the extreme of just denial and rejection of life but recognize the miracles of our mind as miracles and their limitation also and not to expect them to be more than what they can be Report an error in the passage at 39:45
40:30 now the aim of them of the holy life the religious life spiritual journey is for ultimate realization which is Beyond the ideal, beyond the condition, beyond the miraculous, which is not, say, beyond in a sense of cut off, but it contains, it's what is all embracing, it is the whole, where Report an error in the passage at 40:30
41:02 all the different pieces fit in, where there's room for every possibility, every permutation, every aberration, every... Every variation in all possibilities, all forms, mental, physical, in the totality and in the one, there is everything finished. You can't compare totality with anything because you've taken your ability to create a perception to its ultimate point. Report an error in the passage at 41:02
41:42 In totality, and everything is contained within it, so you can't compare it with anything else. And that's where the mettā practice begins, really, is when we have that sense of total acceptance, kindness, non-aversion to everything. Report an error in the passage at 41:42
42:04 And that is to be developed as a practice. And that means that isn't as easy as it sounds. Report an error in the passage at 42:04
42:17 we can get sentimental about it in a bit smarmy and wet. it's not based on just thinking nice thoughts about people when you're in a good mood. It is really getting to a very basic place where the discriminative mind kind of has no meaning anymore. Report an error in the passage at 42:17
42:38 it doesn't kind of dominate and take over your awareness influence you. Where you can just... Be a conscious and fully sensitive receptive being and Report an error in the passage at 42:38
42:55 yet totally accepting of the conditions and manifestations that you're experiencing, no matter how beautiful or how ugly, how pleasant or painful, how ordinary or mediocre, how lovely or hideous they might be, because this sense of totality, everything fits into it, everything belongs. There's nothing that shouldn't be there. Report an error in the passage at 42:55
43:26 And then we abide in the state of non-aversion. And yet it's intelligent. It's not stupid. It's not clouded, unclear thinking. It's taking your consciousness to a point where it's total and where the discriminative function, the dwelling on the detail and comparing one thing with another is no longer operating. Report an error in the passage at 43:26
44:13 conditioned high levels of discrimination. Modern education, modern terms, materialism, The ideals of our society, democratic ideals, all these create a sense of, influence our discriminative mind. We can always see how things should be and the way things are, then we find oftentimes it's not the way they should be. Life isn't what it should be. Report an error in the passage at 44:13
44:48 I'm not what I should be. You're not what you should be. Britain isn't what it should be better than this. Britain should be better off than it is now. Europeans, Americans, they should be. We can, you know, what's wrong with the British? That they are perfect. Report an error in the passage at 44:48
45:08 We can look at the politicians, blame them, which we do, very good at. And that's the discriminative, which has its use and its purpose, but it needs to have the balance of the other. Otherwise, it turns on us, doesn't it? We become stuck. Report an error in the passage at 45:08
45:40 that is the result of developing our discriminative faculties without developing our spiritual aspiration in Report an error in the passage at 45:40
45:54 you notice people that have a spiritual goal a sense of balance. religious life was spiritual aspiration. Aspiration puts us in touch, allows us to touch into or connect into universality or oneness or totality or in the Buddhist terms in the unconditioned or the amatadamma, the deathless reality. Report an error in the passage at 45:54
46:30 It's only that we can't tune into that through discrimination. That's why... You can't find it through thinking about it. You can't find God or find ultimate reality or unity or love through thinking about it and discriminating. Because of discriminative conditions and then we have various preferences and biases, prejudices and that influence. Report an error in the passage at 46:30
47:06 perception. when all that has been let go of, relinquished and abandoned, Report an error in the passage at 47:06
47:14 through aversion to it, but through understanding it, then we are... connect into universality, the unconditioned, deathless reality. Report an error in the passage at 47:14
47:28 that's what the religious goal is, isn't it, of any religion really, is is that kind of realization, direct realization. Report an error in the passage at 47:28
47:40 Allows the discriminative function to be a friend rather than an enemy. We begin to realize our intelligence, our ability to seek and discriminate, rather than it being something that persecutes us and oppresses our conscious experience, it actually is something we use to manifest beautiful ideas, to be able to respond, to act, to deal with life's Report an error in the passage at 47:40
48:20 that there's nothing really wrong, is there? Ultimately, perfect right now. Report an error in the passage at 48:20
48:33 the conditioned mind won't... So the realization of perfection is not through believing that there is something that's perfect, or believing that it's perfect right now. But in realizing the way of things, the true way of things, which is in Buddhist terms what we call the dharma, or the way it is, the truth of the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 48:33
49:06 Now in Buddhist practice, we do this kind of reflection that I'm doing this afternoon. Report an error in the passage at 49:06
49:18 It's something we need to do quite often. We need to remind ourselves. That's what, say, in a monastic routine, you have morning puja, evening puja, you have... A whole lifestyle of conventions, disciplines, and so forth, that are used for that recollection to remind you of that ultimate reality, of what that, of that, remind you of that is your goal, that is your, what you're here to realize, and that realization to examine and investigate them until you have that realization, you know for sure. Report an error in the passage at 49:18
50:06 The realization is a direct, insightful knowing, profound knowing of reality, which is here and now. It's not having studied all about philosophy and read the Abhidhamma Pitta and figured it all out through the perceptions of Abhidhamma or various other methods. Report an error in the passage at 50:06
50:35 ...of perceptions and concepts and imagery, but through a real direct realization in a moment of non-attachment, of no self, not Report an error in the passage at 50:35
50:56 a denial of self, but when there's no self-consciousness, there's no sense of me or mine, the mind is bright, it's intelligent, consciousness is operating, sensitivity is there. But there is no grasping of a perception of me or mine. That whole kind of tendency and habit has been relinquished for that. Report an error in the passage at 50:56
51:20 That is true serenity. That is peace. Because as soon as the old bugbears of self-view come back, and then you're off into the saṃsāra again, zooming around, worrying about what people think of you, and this and that, what will happen to you when you get old, and why life has been... so unjust and and on and on and on into the endless whirlpool, of the conditioned self views. Report an error in the passage at 51:20
52:02 So Anattā isn't to be seen as a kind of soullessness and a denial of self, but as a realization of totality, where there's no need to be anybody. There's no, there's no, there's no, there's no... a blind spot which takes you off into becoming somebody or having to become or anybody or having to become something or having to get rid of something this uh winter's retreat i kept kind of trying to get the community to to contemplate that to do two months of silent meditation with an attitude that there's nothing to do nowhere to go some people find that very difficult because they immediately assume That I don't have to do anything and I don't have to go anywhere. Report an error in the passage at 52:02
53:05 So it's not to try to convince yourself you're nobody, but in opening the mind up to that realization of non-attachment, emptiness, no self, desirelessness. Where there is the purity of the heart, the heart is pure, larger, broader. There's intelligence. Pure intelligence, not stupid, not plain. It's not denying anything. Report an error in the passage at 53:05
53:43 It's not rejecting anything. It's a total acceptance. Report an error in the passage at 53:43
53:51 And I find in, say, in community life, say in the monastery here, the more the monks and nuns train themselves to accept, to try to create, to try to develop an attitude of total acceptance of everybody in the community. This allows a sense of trust where we can have a few moments maybe in our lives to be able to reflect and not feel that we have to become something or get rid of something. Report an error in the passage at 53:51
54:28 Because the obsessions of Western mentality are such that we immediately feel guilty if we aren't doing something. Even meditation becomes another compulsive habit we develop, something we have to do to get a result in the future. Report an error in the passage at 54:28
54:48 But when we appreciate just the ability to be conscious, to create it with what is worth creating, to be able to abide in the purity of the heart and trust in it, and not be just caught up in the obsessive habits that we've acquired. Before we did realize the dharma, or the truth of the way it is, then Report an error in the passage at 54:48
55:23 the ideals, maybe communism, so whatever works, whatever is fair and of benefit, then those are the conventions we'll be able to appreciate. But even if we create the perfect political system in our brain, which I think what Karl Marx, you know, he tried to create the... Perfect political system, while he was sitting in the British Museum. Report an error in the passage at 55:23
55:57 You could create this ideal political system, quite intelligent, logical system, and one doesn't disagree with it as an ideal. Report an error in the passage at 55:57
56:14 That's all it is. It's like trying to make you all into marble buddharupas. Even though that'd be nice if you all could sit still for 300 years. And look as patient and as beautiful as that image. You know, that would be very nice. We realize none of us could do it. Report an error in the passage at 56:14
56:38 And that if I forced you to do it, what would happen? You'd have to rebel and kill me, wouldn't you? You'd have to ask me to resign as abbot of Amaravati. Report an error in the passage at 56:38
56:53 And you'd have a coup. Report an error in the passage at 56:53
57:02 Because I'm trying to shove an ideal on top of you that you can't ever possibly hope to achieve. Because you're not ideal in that sense of something that is perfect, a perfect thing. The perfection you really are is, say, universal, deathless, not physical perfection, not an ideal. You can create an ideal of perfection, but a realization of perfection is surreal. Report an error in the passage at 57:02
57:45 If Report an error in the passage at 57:45
57:58 you're Report an error in the passage at 57:58
58:18 mindful, you begin to see the wonders around you, the miracles that are happening, but which you may be oblivious to because of just the... willpower, or somebody imposing an Report an error in the passage at 58:18
· · · silence, 1 minute
58:28 the habitual tendencies of your conditioned mind as it takes over and blocks off any real sensitivity to this present moment so that the way of the Buddha is a way of liberation freedom understanding Report an error in the passage at 58:28
58:47 and and to realize the perfection of the dharma and in the the sense of the the triple gem the Buddha dharma these are jewels or perfect diamonds that which is Perfectly clear and beautiful. And that's Report an error in the passage at 58:47
59:15 why they stand Report an error in the passage at 59:15
59:18 down in the right way. That is our realization. That is our true nature. So I offer this for your reflection discussion. Report an error in the passage at 59:18
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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