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- 0:07
This opportunity we have of course is to develop our contemplating abilities, reflective capacities and to use our thoughts not as just to make decisions, arbitrary decisions or take positions but to bring into consciousness The way things are, the way it is on the level of our own existence on planet Earth as human beings, as men and women, as personalities, and this using thought for reflection is helping us to use our intuition, our ability to
- 5:11
your own mind, in your own experience of life, from the way you are as an individual human being, and being able to notice and witness and accept the way it is, even if it isn't very good. We're no longer or taking... We're not trying to... Take an interest in whether how we're feeling or what we're thinking is good or bad. We're beginning to just notice that this is what we're feeling right now.
- 12:59
When we allow ourselves to feel this fully, then in that willingness to feel life, you're not caught in the conditions that cause suffering. You're actually transcending suffering. Because in our willingness to feel and observe and witness the way things are, in those moments where there's pure awareness and acceptance, Then there is no suffering. Suffering then, in Buddhist terms, is what we create out of our ignorance around these experiences, around the flow of our life.
- 22:31
I am of the nature to sicken. I have not gone beyond sickness. I am of the nature to die. I have not gone beyond dying. And these are reflective reflections on truth, on dharma, that help us to begin to... Look at our life in this reflective way rather than in the conditioned way of becoming, liking, disliking, wanting and not wanting things.
- 41:54
Have everything guaranteed and ensured for the future. And this way of I don't know or my now or uncertainty is to the mind that wants to become, that wants certainty, wants everything spelled out, everything guaranteed. It brings us a lot of anxiety. So that very sense of anxiety And uncertainty is reflected upon, seen, and in that acceptance in consciousness we begin to trust in not knowing, not having to know things,
Transcript
0:00 Again I want to welcome you all to Amaravati this afternoon. This opportunity we have of course is to develop our contemplating abilities, reflective capacities and to use our thoughts not as just to make decisions, arbitrary decisions or take positions but to bring into consciousness Report an error in the passage at 0:00
0:33 The way things are, the way it is on the level of our own existence on planet Earth as human beings, as men and women, as personalities, Report an error in the passage at 0:33
0:49 and this using thought for reflection is helping us to use our intuition, our ability to Look at and observe and accept and not just take, just not be caught up in reactions of liking or disliking what we see or what we feel. And if we don't develop this ability then of course we end up just making very harsh value judgments about ourselves or about others, about the world. Report an error in the passage at 0:49
1:30 And this is one of the This makes us insensitive and harsh and unable to understand things because if we take fixed positions and just look at things with our highly developed critical faculties, we end up always with a sense of that there's something basically wrong either with yourself or with the world in general. Report an error in the passage at 1:30
1:56 It always ends up with some kind of feeling of That there's nothing much you can do about it. One feels depressed or despairing or hopeless. If that's all you've developed in your life is just your ability to see what's wrong. Report an error in the passage at 1:56
2:20 I think in the modern western world we've developed this to a very high level. And therefore it's turning against us. We destroy ourselves. ourselves, are no longer able to enjoy our lives or experience joy in our lives when we're so caught up with these negative mental states and seeing what's wrong. Report an error in the passage at 2:20
2:44 Just reading the or literature, journals and so forth about the state of the of the world, one seems to be Report an error in the passage at 2:44
2:59 the world. A lot of feelings that there's, one oftentimes senses that there's a feeling of hopelessness or it's too late to do anything about it or we've gone too far. Report an error in the passage at 2:59
3:18 The kind of predictions on the ecology, ecological system of the planet or the population explosion, the crises of modern life. Life seems to be just one endless, A series of crisis, stress, and this is the kind of harsh sounds we hear, hissing sounds of despair and fear and anxiety about ourselves, the society. Report an error in the passage at 3:18
3:52 What's wrong with the British society? We hear endless reports of what's wrong with this country, what's wrong with the United States. And of course this needs to be appreciated as a function of our mind. But if that's all the further we develop in our lives, just seeing what's wrong and believing that there's something we have to do, we have to change something, we have to make something different. Report an error in the passage at 3:52
4:24 We have to get rid of the existing things and create new ones. We have to have maybe a revolution. This is how we are conditioned to think and perceive ourselves and the world around us. Report an error in the passage at 4:24
4:42 But then in the spiritual path, developing your spiritual abilities, it's not a fatalistic acceptance of failure or despair or doom or hopelessness. Report an error in the passage at 4:42
5:01 to see that these are conditioned emotional states. being able to witness and observe. Report an error in the passage at 5:01
5:11 your own mind, in your own experience of life, from the way you are as an individual human being, and being able to notice and witness and accept the way it is, even if it isn't very good. We're no longer or taking... We're not trying to... Take an interest in whether how we're feeling or what we're thinking is good or bad. We're beginning to just notice that this is what we're feeling right now. Report an error in the passage at 5:11
5:40 It feels this way. If we're feeling despair, we can look at this feeling of despair in a way that you're seeing it as an object, as a mood of your mind, something that arises in your consciousness. And you can observe it. In this way, as an object. And that objectification of emotion, of mood, of feeling is a transcending, is a transcendence of it. Report an error in the passage at 5:40
6:12 Not a suppression or rejection of anything you're feeling, but you're also not indulging, you're not identifying, you're not commenting on it, making judgments about it on a personal level. And so you begin to accept, doesn't mean approve, accept the way you're feeling, even if it's pain, sickness, fevers, illnesses, weakness, the kind of most unwanted kinds of physical or emotional conditions, we can accept in this way. Report an error in the passage at 6:12
6:54 And in that perspective, then you're developing your spiritual path. You're getting beyond just the conditioned reaction, the emotional liking or disliking or elation or depression that these conditions might generally give you if you don't reflect and observe them in this way. Now, recognize our society is a society based on becoming. Report an error in the passage at 6:54
7:27 When I look back at my own cultural conditioning, I was brought up to become things. You're always looking ahead into the future. You're always thinking that there's something you must do, you've got to do, that you're not good enough the way you are, and someday, hopefully, if everything goes right, you will be able to become what you think you should be. Report an error in the passage at 7:27
7:57 But then there's always this fear that you can't do it. There's a tremendous fear of failure in our lives, isn't there? Because we're so conditioned to think that we've got to prove ourselves. We've got to become something that we are not now. And if we do all the right things and make all the right decisions, then we will eventually, hopefully, maybe, But that's always in the future and that's always in that mode of maybe and I hope and it should be, in that state of uncertainty, which of course always brings forth the feeling of I can't do it, I just can't make it, I don't have what it takes, or any failures in your life you can take as a sign that you're just a hopeless person. Report an error in the passage at 7:57
8:51 case can regard any failures or rejections in our lives as proof that there's something wrong with us that we're defected or can't And that is just the conditioning of the mind, that level of emotional development, intellectual idealism that we have, and the belief in it as ourself. Report an error in the passage at 8:51
9:21 Identifying ourselves, always defining ourselves with these judgments, our worth. Report an error in the passage at 9:21
9:37 I remember years ago when my parents, when I was a child, they took me to church one day and the priest said to me, well, how do you justify your existence? Report an error in the passage at 9:37
9:52 It never occurred to me that one should do that. Existence Report an error in the passage at 9:52
10:01 At least it started me reflecting, justify my existence. Before that, as a child, one didn't feel you needed to justify it. Report an error in the passage at 10:01
10:11 But that is oftentimes how we do feel about it. How do we justify it? How hard do you work? How much money do you have? How much, you know, how independent are you? How well educated are you? And so forth. You have, these can maybe, you feel justified in some way. But if you, but when you, but then there's always the doubt that maybe you're, you know, there's something, you know, you're not quite, you're not complete, you're not whole, you're not perfect, there's something wrong. Report an error in the passage at 10:11
10:50 So it's not in just assuming that there's nothing wrong, the kind of I'm all right, Jack, kind of thing, where, you know, I'm just kind of affirming, making a, Report an error in the passage at 10:50
11:07 myself, because that probably helps on one level. It helps to at least lift you out of always seeing things in negative terms, but it doesn't transcend. You don't get beyond. The problem is not solved. The cause of the problem is not recognized, and therefore you might be able to have a few moments of happiness in your life just by constantly affirming that you're a lovable, wonderful person. Report an error in the passage at 11:07
11:34 person but sometimes you can't do it anymore and then you sink into the opposite feeling that I'm just So knowing ourselves, understanding ourselves is the kind of way of looking at the way things are, not through Report an error in the passage at 11:34
12:00 Comparing yourself with an ideal or a role model or something that is perfect as a concept, but recognizing the way it is, the way life is, which is non-judgmental. It's merely what you observe and you're willing to accept. You're willing to feel life. You're willing to feel what you're feeling without blaming yourself or anyone else. Report an error in the passage at 12:00
12:38 You're willing, if there's pain, if there's fevers, diseases, any kind of physical problems or emotional problems, fears, desires of various sorts, depression, despair, constant anxiety, When we allow ourselves to feel this fully, then in that willingness to feel life, you're not caught in the conditions that cause suffering. Report an error in the passage at 12:38
13:15 You're actually transcending suffering. Because in our willingness to feel and observe and witness the way things are, in those moments where there's pure awareness and acceptance, Then there is no suffering. Suffering then, in Buddhist terms, is what we create out of our ignorance around these experiences, around the flow of our life. Report an error in the passage at 13:15
13:44 Like suffering, if we have a cold, for example, or a fever, and it's unpleasant, uncomfortable sensations we have, and we can say that I'm suffering because I have this fever. Report an error in the passage at 13:44
14:04 That's how it seems and that's the average way of perceiving it. If I get rid of this fever then I won't be suffering. But the fever actually is the way it is. One can observe the feeling, the experience that one is having and in the process avoid creating this aversion to the feeling, the sensation, the discomfort. Report an error in the passage at 14:04
14:36 That you might be experiencing. And the physical sensations and the discomfort we can endure if we do not create this suffering around it. In the Thai language they have a very good word they use for this. They call it seasoning. Report an error in the passage at 14:36
15:00 Adding to something. Like seasoning food or adding something. to something, something else. So, in this process of, say, where there's some kind of, like, fever, then that's the way it is. If we're mindful of the fever, the sensation of it, and even of the emotional reactions to it, then we can say that in those moments of clarity and mindfulness, there's no suffering, even though there's sensation, there's discomfort, that is bearable. Report an error in the passage at 15:00
15:36 That we can endure, but we're not suffering from those sensations or the heat of the fever or the discomfort of the body. The suffering then comes when we, how can I get rid of this? I don't want this. The worry, the aversion, the emotional reactions that we can generate towards these sensations that we're having, not wanting them, worrying, trying to get rid of it all. Report an error in the passage at 15:36
16:06 Trying to get resenting the limitations that illness or disease place on our life and that whole range of seasoning, of adding to. Once we see that, we can drop that side. We can let go of those tendencies. So then, more and more we feel a sense of being with the flow of our lives in their ups and downs. Report an error in the passage at 16:06
16:37 Highs and lows, the pleasure and pain of existence that we have in this state can be something we find strengthening us rather than weakening. In other words, we're strengthening our wisdom. We're learning from our experiences. We're understanding ourselves the way life is. Report an error in the passage at 16:37
17:04 And we need to put ourselves in a perspective of Not just me as an individual, unique person, but ourselves as human beings or creatures, conscious creatures, planetary residents, or see ourselves in terms of the mass and also in terms of the individual. Because the human mind has this reflective capacity. When we take life on the extreme level of The person of me as a person, we forget the common problems we share with the rest of humanity. Report an error in the passage at 17:04
17:50 Like if I take the aging process personally, I had my 15th birthday last week, and so midlife crisis, or beyond midlife, the crisis is over, but the old age is becoming increasingly apparent. As a personal quality, I quite look forward to it. Being a monk, having been a monk for so long, one quite enjoys the aging process. Report an error in the passage at 17:50
18:25 It's not something I find that offends or frightens me. But if I looked at it merely from a mind that only valued youth and the The qualities of youth, and then those were gone, then one could only feel depressed by what's happening. Report an error in the passage at 18:25
18:52 Because you think, well, it's just going to get worse and worse, you know. It does, doesn't it? You get older and older. You don't get younger and younger on the level of a physical or the way you appear. You increasingly, you know, get more and more aged and less resilient. And so forth. This is... When we take this personally, then we feel, this is not fair. I don't want this to happen. Report an error in the passage at 18:52
19:22 When we look at it as a common bond of all human beings, then we begin to see, well, this is what life is. Everybody does this. And somehow when you realize everyone is doing this, the kind of fixed and concrete... Views of oneself don't seem very important. You realize that this is part of our life experience. Report an error in the passage at 19:22
19:48 This is nature. This is the way it's supposed to be. It's not like life is playing a joke on me or just choosing me and trying to make my life unbearable. It's just this is what happens to everyone. Report an error in the passage at 19:48
20:11 Interesting to see when... The people have cancer or these kind of diseases that everybody dreads. They say, why me? And I think, why not you? Report an error in the passage at 20:11
20:29 Why not me? Report an error in the passage at 20:29
20:36 One thinks that maybe someone else gets these things, but hopefully I won't. But that's not the way it is. These are possibilities for all of us. These are within our spectrum of life experiences. Report an error in the passage at 20:36
21:02 Being born as a human being means that these kind of things are possible. When you say, why does this happen? It's not fair. You say, well, why should these things happen? Is it because we're born? We're born and therefore in this human state anything is possible that we can imagine from having extremely good health from the day one to live to a hundred years without any disease that seems very impossible but that could be a possibility or being born from the day one and having all kinds of weaknesses and disabilities or most of us are In the day one we have varying amounts of good health and sickness. So in this way of reflecting, notice this reflecting on the way it is, is non-judgmental. Report an error in the passage at 21:02
22:00 It's just bringing into consciousness what being born, what a lifespan is a human being, what it involves, the possibilities of what has happened so far to you in both positive and negative experiences. Report an error in the passage at 22:00
22:18 In monastic life we... We reflect on this almost every day. We think, I am of the nature to age. I have not gone beyond aging. Report an error in the passage at 22:18
22:31 I am of the nature to sicken. I have not gone beyond sickness. I am of the nature to die. I have not gone beyond dying. And these are reflective reflections on truth, on dharma, that help us to begin to... Look at our life in this reflective way rather than in the conditioned way of becoming, liking, disliking, wanting and not wanting things. Report an error in the passage at 22:31
23:05 Now, many people get confused in Buddhist terminology because, for example, the subject is understanding ourselves and yet also you realize that Buddha taught the no-self. Report an error in the passage at 23:05
23:23 So there's no self to understand. Report an error in the passage at 23:23
23:35 But then the Buddha was using self and no self in a reflective way rather than in an absolute fixed way. And I think that this I want to make a point because many of the misunderstandings in regards to Buddhism come from thinking about the Buddhist teachings or The dharma teachings in the way of, say, the worldly mind, where we think in terms of principles or doctrines that are rather fixed, and that oftentimes are the kind of positions, the doctrines that we take our cues from, metaphysical doctrines, or creeds and beliefs that are given to us through a particular religious Report an error in the passage at 23:35
24:32 And then those become very fixed in our mind. They're not for reflection. Like say, I believe in God, is not reflecting on what is God or the nature of God or is there a God or when that subject comes up, what do I feel like? It is a doctrine that you take and you... There's some little creature annoying me. Report an error in the passage at 24:32
25:14 Say, for example, if I said there is a god, then say, how would you regard that statement? Say, if you're prone towards theistic attitudes, or you're kind of a Buddhist who doesn't like the more atheistic sounds of Buddhism, Report an error in the passage at 25:14
25:45 Or maybe you're a very dedicated Theravadan Buddhist that is against any concept of God totally. Buddha didn't teach God. There's no God. Or maybe one can just observe one's reaction, emotional reaction to something that is sad. That's a reflection on it. So I say I'm a Buddhist monk, Theravadan Buddhist monk, and then I say, you know, Report an error in the passage at 25:45
26:22 god and then people would say he's he's not really a buddhist he's a christian in disguise there's one emotional reaction Report an error in the passage at 26:22
26:32 you might think, oh, that's wonderful to hear, because I've always found it unsettling in Buddhism the fact that they didn't believe in God. people are more relieved if I said that. And other people would... Report an error in the passage at 26:32
26:48 Be very offended. Some people don't care. But whatever way you're feeling, then that is the, to reflect on that is using your intuitive, reflective abilities. Just to notice that these are words, like the word God is not a Buddhist word. You don't find it in the Pāli Canon. The Buddha never used the word. Report an error in the passage at 26:48
27:15 So he, and therefore the word itself It has strong cultural connotations in the Western world. And some people have very strong views for and against him. Some people don't really care and are not interested in the subject whatsoever. But whatever your feeling, you can observe that. That's reflecting on the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 27:15
27:48 Now, if you get emotionally upset, like if you say, Report an error in the passage at 27:48
28:07 keep the tradition in its proper perspective because there's a tremendous fear of adapting, changing things so that beyond where they are no longer of any use, they kind of become useless through too much adaptation. Report an error in the passage at 28:07
28:29 that's fair enough, to want to kind of preserve a tradition and not kind of make an eclectic synthesis of all religions. Report an error in the passage at 28:29
28:43 we can at least observe. Report an error in the passage at 28:43
28:47 the way we do feel, than judging or or taking sides. What I recommend is willing to just observe. If you feel very distraught because this statement is not in align with the Pāli Canon, then it might be because you feel a loyalty to the Theravāda Buddhist tradition and don't want it to be corrupted. Or it might be that you've invested a lot of your religious experience in belief in... Report an error in the passage at 28:47
29:19 Believing that there's no God, and when that's threatened, it upsets you emotionally. It shatters your security when something that you have depended on and invested a lot of your belief and emotions in suddenly has changed in a way that you can no longer accept it. Report an error in the passage at 29:19
29:43 We notice this in, like religious fanaticism is that way, isn't it? There's where people... Very rigid, fixed views, and when those views are not, when there's anything that is stated outside those views, then it brings on, of course, the zealot, the religious fanatic, the Spanish Inquisition, the kind of mind that wants to burn witches and crucify heretics. Report an error in the passage at 29:43
30:17 And that I've seen in myself also. I've seen those kind of emotions. I'm not free from that kind of feeling. When something that I treasure and put a lot of value in is threatened, I can get very indignant and quite fierce and condemning. But that's something that I would prefer to observe and learn from rather than... Report an error in the passage at 30:17
30:50 Then grasp and follow through action. So this is what I'm recommending. Not to become a kind of wishy-washy, peace-anonymous wimp and just say everything is all right. But to take time out to observe and admit, not in a judgmental way, but just to notice what it is like to feel threatened or angry or indignant. Report an error in the passage at 30:50
31:20 Just being to notice those as feelings will help you to see that you have a choice in your life. You can either go along with it, believe it, suppress it, or you can learn from it and free yourself from the power and the influence of those kind of experiences. Report an error in the passage at 31:20
31:48 For example, fear is... Report an error in the passage at 31:48
31:53 Life has a lot of natural fears involved in it. I mean, in a modern civilization, we've tried to create societies where we have laws and police and prisons and where people that go outside these laws and do things that are criminal, we can lock them up or in some way punish them for acting like that. Report an error in the passage at 31:53
32:22 And this gives us a sense of security. It's not like living in the jungle anymore where, you know, you've got to survive, survival of the fittest. And you can't, there's no way you can kind of make agreements with the other animals on how to behave. So in the animal kingdom, you just survive as best you can, the clever and the strong survive somehow. Report an error in the passage at 32:22
32:49 As in modern civilization, The animal world is no longer much of a threat to us, is it? Like bears in England and even in Thailand. Report an error in the passage at 32:49
33:04 Monks now, they read the stories about the old Tudong Ajahns going off into the jungles of Thailand and meeting tigers. It's kind of exciting adventure stories. Ajahn Mun and so forth going off into a remote part of Thailand. And sitting under his mosquito net and a tiger walks by. And now, like Western monks, they're desperate to have these experiences because it's hard to find a tiger to frighten you. Report an error in the passage at 33:04
33:35 Tigers are hard to come by these days in Thailand. And so some of them, I know, some of the Western monks at Wat Nonachat deliberately go off to the Burmese borders and things just to have a tiger experience because they're not really kind of proper monk till you... So they've confronted a tiger. Here in England, as you can see, I think possibly that the saṅgha here in England is not really going to develop to full maturity because the tigers are all in cages here. Report an error in the passage at 33:35
34:06 At least the tiger tigers. There's other kind of tigers. But Report an error in the passage at 34:06
34:21 fear is, there's this natural fear, self-preservation. We recognize that we are vulnerable and we can be hurt. And so this is... Report an error in the passage at 34:21
34:33 human feeling. Report an error in the passage at 34:33
34:37 there is, like, something to be frightened of. But in, say, modern civilization, we're oftentimes frightened of things when there's nothing to be frightened of because we can imagine all kinds of things. Even in, like, in tribal societies or in other societies, say, other than European societies, there's a lot of fear around the the unknown. Report an error in the passage at 34:37
35:04 unknown in forms of ghosts, spirits, demons, possibilities of creatures or forces or entities with terrible intentions that are fierce and malevolent. There's that possibility of things that maybe aren't real but are imagined. So there's In modern life, many of us aren't so prone to believe and worry about ghosts or spirits, but we manage to be in a continuous state of anxiety or worry because we might fail the examination, we might lose our job, our partner might run away, or we might get some fatal disease, or something's going to go wrong. Report an error in the passage at 35:04
36:01 We have the sense of doom and maybe of something pending that is going to be unbearable, that we won't be able to take, that will destroy or ruin our lives. Report an error in the passage at 36:01
36:18 So this, recognize, is a function of your mind. Say, when a tiger's chasing you, that kind of fear is a kind of self-preservation. Something in you just starts going. It's not neurotic. Report an error in the passage at 36:18
36:45 away from it. That's what I advise. It's not like a personal cowardice you experience. It's just-preservation. Report an error in the passage at 36:45
36:57 then we can create ghostly tigers in our minds or spirits under the bed or in the or whatever then who knows, maybe there are. Report an error in the passage at 36:57
37:14 But still, what we can observe is the fear itself, isn't it? The anxiety, the worry, this kind of, this agitated mental state that we create. Report an error in the passage at 37:14
37:31 When a tiger's chasing you, I recommend you just run, mindfully, rather than stop and try to figure out how you're feeling at that moment. Report an error in the passage at 37:31
37:43 But when it's, say, in ordinary life where there's nothing immediately kind of, there's no immediate danger other than your own feeling of uncertainty or insecurity, I wholeheartedly recommend trying to accept the feeling of anxiety, worry, insecurity, uncertainty. And in some Buddhist traditions, they develop this as a kind of mantra almost, a way of keep remembering that everything is uncertain. Report an error in the passage at 37:43
38:24 And there's the unknown, the uncertain. And that Ajahn Chah used to have, they'd say, everything is my now. Everything is uncertain. And I remember Report an error in the passage at 38:24
38:43 President of the Buddhist Society, Christmas Humphreys, once, in 1979, invited Ajahn Chah to a Wessex celebration at Caxton Hall. Report an error in the passage at 38:43
38:54 And Mr. Humphreys came to Haverstock Hill, where we were residing, and invited Lungpho Chah. And Lungpho Chah said, you know, he said, well, when is that? He said, about two weeks away. And so Ajahn Chah said, my name. So I translated, and I said, he's uncertain. And so, Mr. Humphreys, why can't he make up his mind? Report an error in the passage at 38:54
39:29 Lungpho Cha was determined to keep to his minor answers, and too much exasperation of Mr. Humphreys. And finally, Mr. Humphreys sent his car to pick us up on that day, and of course I said, Report an error in the passage at 39:29
39:49 Ajahn Chah, the car is here to take us to Caxton Hall. So he put on his robe and went. He wasn't refusing to go, but he was pointing that the future is minor and nothing is certain. And so this was kind of used to exasperate all of us because we like to, I mean, in a mind that has diaries and And charts to plan the future and all that. You want everything kind of written down nicely and gives you a sense of security. Report an error in the passage at 39:49
40:32 But what Thanajan Chah was very good at was always putting you back into the state of insecurity. Report an error in the passage at 40:32
40:45 And that is something worth really reflecting on, your own sense of uncertainty. About yourself, the future, the state of the world, what happens when you die, the whole possibility of various unknowns, doubts, uncertainties, insecurity. Report an error in the passage at 40:45
41:12 There's another, there's a Korean teacher in the States that he has a kind of teaching called the I don't know mind. Report an error in the passage at 41:12
41:26 I guess it's a kind of Korean accent, I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 41:26
41:33 So that is another kind of way of bringing into your conscious experience this sense of not having to know, not having to always have the answer, not having to have views about everything, have fixed opinions. Have everything guaranteed and ensured for the future. And this way of I don't know or my now or uncertainty is to the mind that wants to become, that wants certainty, wants everything spelled out, everything guaranteed. Report an error in the passage at 41:33
42:14 It brings us a lot of anxiety. So that very sense of anxiety And uncertainty is reflected upon, seen, and in that acceptance in consciousness we begin to trust in not knowing, not having to know things, Report an error in the passage at 42:14
42:35 and be willing to be with life, to accept life in whatever manifestations that it brings us, to accept that and to learn to fully be with it. And in being with it, we can see it in terms of dharma. We see it as it is. It's honest. It's direct. It's clear. Everything is what it is. There's no deceit, no lies, no artificial delusions taking place. Report an error in the passage at 42:35
43:14 When there's anger, anger is this way. It's just this. Or if you're feeling feeling Report an error in the passage at 43:14
43:24 It's just this the moment. And when it's present, when it's absent, its absence is also reflected upon. Not being depressed is like this. Now Report an error in the passage at 43:24
43:41 this is regarded as a spiritual path because you're evolving out of the conditioned, civilized mind, conditioned mind that you have. The strong self-identity, cultural identity, value judgments, all of this, the programming of your mind as what you should and shouldn't be, all this is seen in terms of mental states, mental conditions. Report an error in the passage at 43:41
44:17 But that which observes and that which is mindful, that which can witness. Report an error in the passage at 44:17
44:27 You begin to trust in just being the knowing, being the witness of these conditions. You can't know the knower. You can only be the knower. Your conditioned mind will say, well, who is it that knows then? What is it that knows all this? Because then you'd like to have some kind of maybe metaphysical doctrine. Well, it's the universal mind. Something like that gives you a sense of... Report an error in the passage at 44:27
44:58 Of knowing what it is. But the Buddha was relentless, determined not to give in to these kind of, to take it to its complete enlightenment, where you give up all desire to know who or what knows, because just to be able to know is enough. And to know within the limits. Report an error in the passage at 44:58
45:28 of the way life is for each one of us. We're not going to know in the sense of God knowing everything about everything, an omniscient knowing from the macrocosmic position. That's the conceit of our human state. Little old me wanting to be God, wanting to know from the top position about the whole universal system. Report an error in the passage at 45:28
45:58 That we don't know. We can see that that desire is a desire. And if I'm very attached to that, just now that I'm a very conceited person, because I'm not just going to learn from sitting here and being with, just learning from life from the kind of worried or frightened or maybe seemingly insignificant feelings I'm having. Report an error in the passage at 45:58
46:27 I am someone who wants to be at the top and know everything, is the kind of Luciferian. Problem. Report an error in the passage at 46:27
46:40 So religious development is always humbling because you know you don't know and you won't know very much. But what you know, you know, and you know you don't know. Report an error in the passage at 46:40
46:58 And in that, there's being, there's peaceful, it's honest, it's Report an error in the passage at 46:58
47:15 humble, it's patient. We have to be patient. Report an error in the passage at 47:15
47:23 And we trust in that. There's faith. There's all that is necessary for enlightenment, for spiritual liberation, in just knowing yourself. Report an error in the passage at 47:23
47:42 And to me this is the great possibility for humanity at this time. When I read the gloom-doom sheets of predictions for the future and the pollution of the planet and the population explosion and the ozone layer and... And all these chlorofluorocarbon things that are going around and the selfishness of humanity, the brutality, the stupidity. Report an error in the passage at 47:42
48:13 You hear about, you know, the kind of bombing orphanages in Sarajevo and doing the most horrendous kind of acts to innocent people. And you think of, you just feel... a sense of despair that human beings will never be able to learn that that kind of feeling is not helpful to cultivate just a depressive and take that to believe that human beings are hopeless and can't change even if that's true it's still not helpful to think like that What is helpful is to... Report an error in the passage at 48:13
49:03 Do it yourself. Don't wait around for somebody else. And then also to realize how difficult it is. Even all of us who don't have all the traumas of people in Bosnia at this time or Somalia or places like that, we have fairly comfortable lives with quite a lot of security. Report an error in the passage at 49:03
49:37 still, to drift back, to fall back into the old patterns of self-interest and the old kind of habitual tendencies is just so easy to just get caught up. Report an error in the passage at 49:37
49:58 we need to, like, like this come to be reminded. Report an error in the passage at 49:58
50:05 To seek out opportunities to go on retreats, meditation retreats, or try to develop friendships with people who have a common interest in this kind of thing, because we need all the help we can get, support. Just going it alone is possible, not impossible, but also we're living in a country and in a time... Report an error in the passage at 50:05
50:32 Where there is a lot of external supports increasingly more available to people living here. Report an error in the passage at 50:32
50:42 And then to not look at it as something, another thing you have to do to change yourself, you've got to get rid of your selfish intentions, your emotional hang-ups and become maybe some kind of super monk or nun that you can't feel that what you are now is... You can be so critical of it that you just feel despair when you think about yourself. You can think in terms of having to change yourself totally, transform yourself, give up all your money, sell your house, divorce your wife or husband, shave your head, put on the yellow robe. Report an error in the passage at 50:42
51:23 Then you'll have it all together. Report an error in the passage at 51:23
51:32 Don't believe that either. together. Report an error in the passage at 51:32
51:33 there. Report an error in the passage at 51:33
51:36 Let's begin to see that it's not a matter of becoming in the future, but of learning to really accept and notice the way it is. Because a lot of the things that we find very upsetting or aggravating aren't really. It's just that we have habitual tendencies to just dwell in aversion on what we're experiencing, being critical of it. Report an error in the passage at 51:36
52:03 Like living in a community of... Monks and nuns, one can, you know, you find some monks, some nuns are, you find a very, you get on very well with, and they don't have very many irritating qualities, and others do. Report an error in the passage at 52:03
52:24 Some monks and nuns irritate, and others irritate you a little bit, and others don't irritate you very much. But everybody, we all manage to irritate each other sometimes. Sometimes. Report an error in the passage at 52:24
52:37 And yet in a community where everybody's trying, you know, everybody in the monastic community here is a very good person. And they're all trying. There's no kind of people, monks and nuns here are not putting forth the effort, are not trying to develop in the right way. And yet it's still difficult to live with each other. So it does take... Report an error in the passage at 52:37
53:05 Take a kind of determination and willingness to accept all possibilities of irritation, frustration in daily life. And through that lesson we find ourselves being irritated and aggravated by things that used to do that to us. We find that fading away. We find ourselves much more able to accept. The way things are and the way people are and to be able to even appreciate qualities and attributes in people around us that before we might have been found very unpleasing to us. Report an error in the passage at 53:05
53:51 Because sometimes we're so narrow in our way we perceive and what we expect and want. We have such very rigid attitudes that there's nobody in the world that we could live with. But, as I say, of course, in marriage is another interesting institution that helps you to, say, learn to accommodate more people into your life than to community life also. Report an error in the passage at 53:51
54:25 And this is like expanding your conscious experience, the way you perceive things. You're opening up to... to a wide kind of universal total totality rather than a very rigid set of high standards and personal preferences that can only you can only possibly accept under the most controlled and idyllic situations because life isn't like that is it it's this way we have very little control over it And many of us who wanted to control and manipulate the world for our own benefit have been bashed about considerably until we finally get the message that that's not the way to do it. Report an error in the passage at 54:25
55:20 We're just suddenly realizing years ago as a monk in Thailand where I used to try to control and get what I wanted. And be so caught up in my practice and what I need for me. And I seemed quite justified and I had all that energy and dedication to practice. But from that very selfish attitude, I was always, something was always going wrong. Report an error in the passage at 55:20
55:57 I was getting ill. Things would just, know, was getting... Report an error in the passage at 55:57
56:03 I'd find myself in a monastery where, oh now, this is my ideal monastery. I really like this place. I can really practice here. And then something would happen. Some new monk would come who'd manage to drive me to my wit's end or something would go wrong. And finally I realized it was me rather than the place or the person. Just through that kind of... Report an error in the passage at 56:03
56:34 We can say open to the whole universal system. Because that's the real mind, isn't it? It's the whole. It's rather than this little perception, conditioned view and emotional state that I happen to be very attached to. And in that we have a sense of unity, of union, of wholeness, oneness. And then there's compassion. Report an error in the passage at 56:34
57:06 All the beauty of our humanity then can manifest in the human communities that we live in. So now I've said enough for this past hour, and we can have a break, a tea break, I do believe, and then in about 15-20 minutes we can sit down again and discuss this. Report an error in the passage at 57:06
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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