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- 4:07
And of course the Four Noble Truths is primal teaching. This is the first noble truth is of suffering or dukkha. And today's subject is happiness. So happiness and suffering are... You know, we experience both in this human form in our lifetimes. We find happiness and things go well and we are rewarded for our good actions and we
- 23:54
And so that's more sustainable than the other. Because You know, even poor people, they can experience, living in northeast Thailand for ten years, lived in areas where people were very poor. But they had the same kind of joy as the rich people who gave. You know, because they were giving the best they had.
- 31:53
And so this is what allows us to Ajahn ourselves from all delusions. It's through Paona, awakened investigation.
- 49:59
And so then we, by doing this, It isn't through analysis, but through awareness. We start observing this sense of me and mine. My anger, my greed, my fear. This sense of my body. Is it really mine?
- 1:02:21
You know, just not trying to tell you what it is. But, you know, just to take these words and then just see what does make you happy. What makes you happy as a person? very undependable, because the opposite can also happen, that I'm unhappy. Being generous, unselfish, another kind of happiness.
Transcript
0:00 Get caught with agreeing or disagreeing with what you're hearing. The whole emphasis of Buddhadharma is awakening individuals to the present, to reality, rather than just trying to convert them, convince them, tell Report an error in the passage at 0:00
0:23 them what they should do, or endlessly argue about views and opinions. The spiritual life or religious life, what do we mean by that? Religion now means so many different things to different people. What is a religion and what's its purpose? And so the religious question is in people's minds now in countries like this because we are questioning what is religion about. Report an error in the passage at 0:23
0:59 As in Britain at this time, it's multi-religious. We just can't go along with just the traditional views that we've been brought up with in our culture. We're also being influenced by so many other things, by modern science, by psychology, by different philosophies, new age ideals, different religions. Report an error in the passage at 0:59
1:39 of course it can be very confusing because when something is kind of homogeneous, it's just this way and this practice and this religion and the way we do it is right, then it does simplify everything. Report an error in the passage at 1:39
1:55 So some people will settle for that, just being told what's right and wrong and what to think and what to do. But there's also those who are awakening to dharma, who no longer cannot commit themselves just to views and opinions that they acquire, but begin to recognize that maybe I need to find out myself. Report an error in the passage at 1:55
2:26 Discover or realize or recognize the truth of the way it is. Then on a personal level, I can think my personality isn't conditioned for that. The personality is conditioned with reward and punishment. You get rewards for obeying the rules, doing your homework, doing what the authorities tell you, not breaking the law. Report an error in the passage at 2:26
2:56 And you get punished when you don't. So the person now is very much conditioned to seek approval through conformity, through doing what I'm told is right and what's good and what's proper and what's acceptable. Report an error in the passage at 2:56
3:13 And then there's always the fear of maybe things will change and I will be punished for something. Maybe I'll lose it. Maybe I'll go crazy. Maybe I'll lose control. Something will happen where I'll make a mistake and then I'll be condemned. But there's also in all of us this interest and kind of aspiration for enlightenment or reality. Report an error in the passage at 3:13
3:43 Because the Buddha, the Buddhist teachings are pointing at what's real, reality itself. It's not about belief in Buddhist ideas, but the actual Buddhist approach. If you begin to investigate and understand the Buddha's teachings, they're teachings pointing at the here and now reality. Report an error in the passage at 3:43
4:07 And of course the Four Noble Truths is primal teaching. This is the first noble truth is of suffering or dukkha. And today's subject is happiness. So happiness and suffering are... You know, we experience both in this human form in our lifetimes. We find happiness and things go well and we are rewarded for our good actions and we pass the tests and get the approval of the authorities and sometimes we don't. And maybe we get what we want and other times we don't get anything we want. Report an error in the passage at 4:07
5:01 And so this realm that we're experiencing needs to be understood for what it is, not just, you know, trying to live an illusory dream world of everything that's going to be all right, or I hope, you know, or just to be pessimistic, thinking in the most negative terms about, you know, you've got to look after yourself and get what you can because nobody cares about you anyway. So there's a... Report an error in the passage at 5:01
5:29 There's a kind of negative approach, which leads to despair. And then the kind of positive style, living in a dream world, in which you try to live with the illusions that everything is all right. But what do we mean by happiness here and now, and suffering? These are two English words. Report an error in the passage at 5:29
5:55 And of course, happiness is different kinds, isn't it? Happiness is not just... One type, one monolithic happiness that we all experience. It varies according to conditions. And so, even though we would like to be happy all the time, yet much of our life is about being unhappy, about suffering, and losing what we loved. Report an error in the passage at 5:55
6:25 We all experience grief and loss in childhood, isn't it, when your dog or cat dies, that might have been very much attached. That's grief. Loss of the loved can happen early on in childhood. We lose our parents and as we get older we keep losing more and more. At my age you've lost a lot. And so this is just the result of having lived for this long is that you've seen so many Report an error in the passage at 6:25
7:09 And so this is what we're reflecting on and questioning, not trying to figure out how can I not suffer anymore, but taking suffering and putting it in that category of the first noble truth. So it's kind of taking what we most don't want or what we're trying to avoid or get rid of or run away from or resist. Report an error in the passage at 7:09
7:39 In our search for happiness and placing it as a noble truth. It's a truth. It's not an absolute truth. It's not a metaphysical truth. And it's a noble truth. So what's noble about suffering? Report an error in the passage at 7:39
7:58 And then you're reflecting on how you're using these words when the word noble is a common enough English word. But what do we mean by it? being of a nobleman is Report an error in the passage at 7:58
8:23 Nobility, when we think of nobility, it's being able to at things face life. There's something noble in our human makeup we begin to look at life, not endlessly demand and run away and resist and complain about it. Now, in a society like this one, it's easy to be just a complainer Because we... we can take a lot for granted here in this society. Report an error in the passage at 8:23
8:55 And we can always see something we don't like about it or what's annoying or irritating. Report an error in the passage at 8:55
9:04 whatever, because... We have ideals that we'd like the society to be completely fair and just and compassionate and wise and good and so you can fully trust in it. But yet societies are like this. You know, you do the best you can and you try to guide them towards moral responsibility, towards fairness and justice. Report an error in the passage at 9:04
9:28 But inevitably, karma has its influence and you can't compel condition phenomena to fit into the mold of an ideal. It has to go through its own quality until it ceases. So this dukkha or this suffering, the first noble truth, is to understand it. And so this is why we're in a noble place when we're willing to look and admit suffering. Report an error in the passage at 9:28
10:03 Yes, there is this. Suffering is like this, without blaming it on anybody, on yourself, on your parents, on the society, or the disappointments of your life. Report an error in the passage at 10:03
10:19 And so like in monastic life, Buddhist monasticism as I've experienced it, is, you know, this whole emphasis on reflecting on suffering was what I've been doing for the past 40 years. Report an error in the passage at 10:19
10:39 It's not because I've been mistreated, it's because of the changing conditions, things going their own way, things not going according to the way that I want them, wanting something I don't have, or not wanting things to be the way they are. And these are the causes of suffering, the desire, ignorance and desire of dharma, not knowing ourselves of what we really are, but Having an ideal of what we would like life to be, what we would like somebody else to be, or the society, or the employer, or the prime minister, or the government, or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 10:39
11:27 I think in my experience in Thailand was because it's not an idealistic society. And especially in northeastern Thailand where I live, you know, it's a farming community, rice farmers. They're quite practical and they're Buddhist. Most of them are Buddhist and quite earthy, practical people. And one of their references is, that's the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 11:27
11:54 Life is like this. And I kept hearing this all the time. And to an idealistic Westerner, this sounds like passive resignation. You're just going to say life is like this and not do anything about it? You know, there's so many things wrong, and we've got to set them right. And you're just saying, well, that's the way it is, and let it go with that? Report an error in the passage at 11:54
12:21 That's what it sounds like to the idealistic Western conditioned mind. But that's not what they mean. Like when Ajahn Chah would say that, he's just pointing to life is like this. It's not what you want. It's not going to be what you want. Report an error in the passage at 12:21
12:41 Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. But you can't sustain it as being something that you're contented and happy with in all its changing aspects. Sometimes in our lives we do have great experiences, peak moments where everything is just perfect. But you can't sustain that. Report an error in the passage at 12:41
13:04 That's a peak, isn't it? That's the best. It's reached its best point and then it's changing. Keep things, conditions, at their best. Because, as the Buddha continuously pointed out, condition phenomena is impermanent. So it's this emphasis, this pointing to changingness of impermanence that's so much of an emphasis in Buddhist meditation. Report an error in the passage at 13:04
13:34 Because even though we can understand the concept easy enough, and it's easy enough to kind of agree with, Nobody disagrees with it, but to fully appreciate, to really see that in everything, you know, in your own physical experiences, sensory conditions, mental, emotional, psychic, psychological, they're all subject, they're all in this process, relentless, inexorable changingness. Report an error in the passage at 13:34
14:08 That we begin to awaken to. Now you awaken to impermanence. You might agree with it conceptually and logically, but that's still a function of the mind. You haven't really understood suffering. You merely agree with the idea of it, with the concepts of it. Because they are. They make sense. And you can say, well, of course, everything's impermanent and we're all going to die anyway. Of course, we all know that. Report an error in the passage at 14:08
14:46 And we've got to be separated. We're going to lose our loved ones eventually, but hopefully not too soon. Report an error in the passage at 14:46
15:01 Because we can conceive of all kinds of, you know, finding the perfect relationship, the perfect... Country garden, the perfect home, the paradise, the whole thing. It was possible, you know, to spend one's life in a search for fulfillment, completion through external conditions. Report an error in the passage at 15:01
15:24 Or the prince charming looking for Cinderella, isn't it? Find the beautiful princess with the glass slipper and eventually you find one whose foot That's called a fairy tale. But Report an error in the passage at 15:24
15:50 it also can be seen not so much in a personal way as maybe a pattern of finding within ourselves what meditation is. Buddhist meditation is finding that point, that still unchanging, Report an error in the passage at 15:50
16:13 Still point of the turning world, as T.S. Eliot described. Report an error in the passage at 16:13
16:21 So you can understand the concept of the still point, but to recognize it is not through trying to find it, but through no longer trying to find it, letting go of your conceptions, your ideals. It doesn't mean getting rid of anything. It doesn't mean that you just deny everything or resist, but it's... Report an error in the passage at 16:21
16:46 It's a kind of inner receptive openness to life. It's opening to the universe, put it in grand terms like that. Opening your conscious, this conscious moment to reality, to the real, rather than just trying to control and arrange and get caught up into things, distract yourself endlessly. With busyness, with important duties, causes, things that need to be paid attention to, that will take up all your conscious time and you might do some very good things. Report an error in the passage at 16:46
17:25 But at the end of the day, if you don't reflect on what you're doing, no matter how many good works you do, there's still this sense of loss and disappointment. Report an error in the passage at 17:25
17:36 Because if your whole life has been arranged in a way to where you're constantly busy trying to find something to do, something worthy, something good, but you're still unaware of this first noble truth and the causes of suffering, eventually you're going to be disappointed because everything will let you down eventually. Report an error in the passage at 17:36
18:03 How many of you have been caught up with peace movements and Charitable causes and all kinds of good things, good causes, wanting to dedicate your life to helping the world and solving the problem of poverty and on and on like this, which is good. It's admirable. It's praiseworthy. But if you still don't know who you are, even that will let you down. You won't be able to get what you expect. Report an error in the passage at 18:03
18:42 It's easy to see and people that are idealistic without any reflective abilities end up being cynics. After a while you just think, well, I've wasted my time. I worked hard for that and all I got was a lot of... Somebody else started spreading rumors about me and I was kicked out of the organization. Report an error in the passage at 18:42
19:05 I've been treated unfairly. Report an error in the passage at 19:05
19:13 These are the melodramas of life, isn't it? The soap operas that we can all relate to, because life isn't. You're going to be rewarded for working for the welfare of humanity. You should be, I agree, but nothing necessarily will be rewarded or recognized. Report an error in the passage at 19:13
19:35 But what we all can do while doing good works is not a dismissal of of engaging in good causes and working for the welfare of sentient beings but also in the same at the very same moment we can awaken to life to reality which is not doesn't lead to despair or disappointment it allows us to to see things in perspective to be able to do what we can To help in the ways that we can actually be helpful rather than trying to be helpful in magnanimous ways that we can't possibly hope to succeed in. Report an error in the passage at 19:35
20:31 So in happiness, say happiness, the cause of happiness, one way of describing happiness is I get what I want. I want something and you give it to me. And for that moment, I experience happiness. Report an error in the passage at 20:31
20:51 So we've all experienced that kind of happiness, isn't it? You want something really bad, you get it, and you feel, I've got it. Try to sustain that. Report an error in the passage at 20:51
21:04 You become one of these shopping addicts. You have to go shopping all the time to get everything you want because after you get it, you know, you can't sustain the happiness. Report an error in the passage at 21:04
21:19 And so that's a kind of... Report an error in the passage at 21:19
21:36 desires and trying to get things that we want because after a while that kind of happiness will will become boring to us Report an error in the passage at 21:36
21:46 know, we'll take to drink after a while or something. Drugs or anything, you know, just because, just getting what we want is, you know, has its own pleasure, but you can't sustain it. And it just goes on and on and on. If you're not reflecting, if you don't notice, if you're not willing to learn from experience, Report an error in the passage at 21:46
22:12 then there's the happiness that comes through giving to others. Now that's a... More profound kind of happiness. Where it's not, I want this and then when I get, I'm happy. Report an error in the passage at 22:12
22:32 Or maybe you give me something I don't particularly like. It's the wrong color or something. Report an error in the passage at 22:32
22:42 Because as we become more greedy and self-centered, then we become more fussy. We have to have, you know, we want good quality and all the rest, and we don't want junk. Report an error in the passage at 22:42
22:57 So we can be quite disappointed when somebody gives us something we want, but it's not up to our standard. But giving to others has its own happiness or joy, isn't it? We feel this sense of joy. Like I just came from a, today, this morning, a Sri Lankan dana in Enfield. And my dermatologist has offered dana today. Report an error in the passage at 22:57
23:28 And so there are all these people offering food and there's a sense of giving. So there is an atmosphere of joyfulness, of offering. Well, that's another kind of happiness that is deeper and doesn't mean that we have to get anything. It means we're giving something. Report an error in the passage at 23:28
23:54 And so that's more sustainable than the other. Because You know, even poor people, they can experience, living in northeast Thailand for ten years, lived in areas where people were very poor. But they had the same kind of joy as the rich people who gave. You know, because they were giving the best they had. Report an error in the passage at 23:54
24:18 It was not about giving the most expensive, the highest quality food or robes or anything, but it's the very act of giving, of generosity. Report an error in the passage at 24:18
24:30 And so generosity is a kind of foundation of Buddhist practice. In the traditional Theravāda teaching, you know, they have this sequence of dana silapavana. And dana is generosity. Because that is, you know, you have to, you actually, you're not thinking of yourself first. What am I getting out of this? You're actually thinking of somebody else first. Report an error in the passage at 24:30
25:00 And there's a kind of joy and good feeling that comes from that action of giving without expecting anything in return. It's not to be thanked or rewarded or praised, because then the happiness, if you don't get the thanks that you expected, then you'll be unhappy. So the aim is just to give freely without... Report an error in the passage at 25:00
25:55 survive, like food and shelter. So these can become perfunctory acts of just giving food to the Saṅgha, or it's a real joyful act of sharing what you have with alms mendicant. Report an error in the passage at 25:55
26:16 that's another kind of happiness you can contemplate. Dona, Sīla So Sīla is... Taking responsibility for action and speech. If we're going to live in this society, then we can live in a very self-centered way. I can do what I want, say what I want. Here in modern democratic societies like this one, I have my rights, I can say what I want, do what I want. Report an error in the passage at 26:16
26:51 It's none of your business. I can live my own life. business. Report an error in the passage at 26:51
26:58 So we can think of just ourselves, my rights and what I want to do, or we can also take responsibility. It takes reflection, doesn't it, to see how to act, action, right actions, skillful actions in the society or speech. It's about offering to the society, to the family that we're living with, living in. Report an error in the passage at 26:58
27:33 So that has its own good result, leads towards happiness, worldly happiness, being generous and being responsible for action and speech. Where being, let's say, taking selfishness at its most bitter is me first and I want this and you've got to give it to me or, you know, I can live my own life and how it affects you is none of your business. Report an error in the passage at 27:33
28:00 That, when you contemplate those mental states, that's not, those aren't happy mental states. They don't lead towards happiness in life. Report an error in the passage at 28:00
28:10 Even when I get what I want and I do whatever I feel like doing, it's not the result. If it's not reflective, not responsible, then there's all kinds of unpleasant things, reactions to my existence. Report an error in the passage at 28:10
28:26 You know, a selfish person is not someone you want to live with or be with. Report an error in the passage at 28:26
28:38 demanding and blaming exerting their rights at the expense of everyone else. those are the kind of people you don't want to live with. Report an error in the passage at 28:38
28:52 so they suffer from... criticized, Report an error in the passage at 28:52
29:02 in fear, become a mafia or something like that, become a gangster, criminal, And then you have to live in a realm of fear because the basic premise of your life is I've got to protect myself because somebody will, it's going to hurt me in some way. So notice the opposite of Dhanasila. Generosity, Isn't about doing it in order for reward. Sīla is not about obeying rules because you're afraid you're going to be punished for immoral conduct. Report an error in the passage at 29:02
29:39 But it's a reflective wisdom approach where you see the result of being responsible for how I live in this society brings me a sense of self-respect. I can respect myself. As a member of this society, as an individual living in this society, in this community, because I'm taking responsibility for how I live here. Report an error in the passage at 29:39
30:11 And there's something ennobling about that and beautiful and mature in human beings that are generous and are responsible for how they live in society. Report an error in the passage at 30:11
30:25 Live in the world, live on the planet. Now they talk about environmental problems and pollution. It's because we haven't considered how my life, the way I live in this planet, in nature, how it affects the natural environment or the society or the people I'm living with. I might be just, it's my life, I can do what I want. And if you don't like it, too bad. Report an error in the passage at 30:25
31:25 we can see that, that we're not going to find happiness through... Just doing what we feel like. Just being the center of our universe at the expense of everyone else. Report an error in the passage at 31:25
31:40 Then the third aspect is pavana. So there's dana, sīla, pavana. And that's reflecting, meditation, contemplation of dhamma. And so this is what allows us to Ajahn ourselves from all delusions. It's through Paona, awakened investigation. Report an error in the passage at 31:40
32:34 or arcane, or esoteric. Report an error in the passage at 32:34
33:02 open to life. We're not trying to just protect ourselves fear and ignorance, but opening to This sense realm that we are experiencing until the body dies. So this is called the enlightenment or the awakened human consciousness. On Visakha Puja, you know, this is the enlightenment of the Buddha. This, the birth, the enlightenment and the death of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 33:02
33:45 So these three things. As I say in my Visakha Puja Desanas, we've all been born and we're all going to die. What about enlightenment? And so enlightenment takes place between those two points, doesn't it? And just using these terms, birth, enlightenment, death. And so birth and death are just part of this realm, the sense realm. What's born dies, what begins ends. Report an error in the passage at 33:45
34:17 So in this way we're investigating or contemplating change. All your thoughts, emotions, good, bad, indifferent, memories, and so forth, they come and go. They change according to condition. Report an error in the passage at 34:17
34:38 And then enlightenment, what do we mean by that? So in Theravāda school that we find in Thailand and Sri Lanka, they have... All three on the same day, the full moon of May. And I used to, you know, having majored in history in university, I kept thinking, no, that's ridiculous, you know, nobody's going to have all three major events all happen on the full moon of May. Report an error in the passage at 34:38
35:13 Because it's a logical mindset, isn't it? One that thinks in terms of... History. Western attitudes about history. But just think of what this means as a reflection. You know, the profundity of birth, death, and enlightenment. So, now we can all reflect that we're here, so we've been born. Physically. So that's, you know, obvious. Report an error in the passage at 35:13
35:42 Nobody's going to say they haven't been born yet. So, maybe you don't remember. I don't remember when I was born. I can't remember that. My sister can, though. I just came back from the United States seeing my sister. She's two years older. She remembers when I first came into the house, when my mother brought me home from the hospital. She remembers that. I don't. Report an error in the passage at 35:42
36:13 So she's known me longer than I have. Report an error in the passage at 36:13
36:24 But it is truism, an obvious fact, that birth has taken place. And this is... This body is the result of having been born and that it will die in the future. Because that's the way all conditioned phenomena operate. That's the way it works. That's the law. It's supposed to be like that. So then enlightenment is what? Report an error in the passage at 36:24
36:51 In Buddhist terms, we can think of enlightenment always in some kind of super trance state of great attainment. Because of the way we're conditioned, how you see yourself. How do you see yourself? What is your self-view? Do you think you can get enlightened? Report an error in the passage at 36:51
37:16 Do you think any of you are capable of enlightenment now? Report an error in the passage at 37:16
37:27 And I can hear the mental processes. Report an error in the passage at 37:27
37:35 And of course, what do I mean by that? Because it can be held as such a superlative attainment. as good. Report an error in the passage at 37:35
37:43 That right now you don't feel that you're anywhere near to that level of mindfulness and concentration and morality and all the rest because of how you see yourself, the self you create right now. You create yourself, the self-view. So this is the obstruction really, this self-view, the ego. Report an error in the passage at 37:43
38:12 The way that we're identified with the body, with this body, it's mine, I am this body, and the gender of the body, being male or female, with the age of it, with its appearance, whether it's beautiful or ugly or indifferent, Report an error in the passage at 38:12
38:36 with the color of the skin, with the size, whether you're fat or thin. These are strong egotistical identities that we are very attached to. We take for granted we are this. Also in the Western society, the tendency is to be very self-critical because you've all been educated and you've developed your critical faculties. Report an error in the passage at 38:36
39:09 The old days of... Religious devotion are not so much a part of our cultural experience, are they? Modern education is much more based on reason and logic, analysis, science, psychology, not on belief in heaven or hell or God, angels, spirits, devils. Report an error in the passage at 39:09
39:43 And yet at one time, this was very much the way people thought, isn't it? In terms of what they call mythological thinking. In more picturesque. I remember going years ago in the European Cathedral in Strasbourg. I was visiting the cathedral there and they had this beautiful rose window in the cathedral, medieval cathedral. Report an error in the passage at 39:43
40:08 And looking at it and immediately I wanted to get a guidebook to explain it. Because I couldn't understand it. They had guidebooks where they explained all the details of this rose window. And that's what I needed to understand it. And then I started thinking, probably when they made that, all these icons, this stained glass, all these figures in Roman Catholic churches, Report an error in the passage at 40:08
40:40 Or one time, say, when they were constructed, this was, people were illiterate. Majority of people were illiterate. They couldn't read or write. They couldn't read a guidebook and read about the rose window. But I'm sure that it was used as a way of teaching, isn't it? That's how people thought, like rose windows, like saints and devils, heaven and hell. Report an error in the passage at 40:40
41:08 This is how you could explain happiness and suffering and how we experience it still, isn't it? We can talk about being in hell right now when we're totally miserable and life is going all wrong for us. I'm in hell. This is a hell realm and we know what that is. Report an error in the passage at 41:08
41:32 Now we think, well, there's no such thing as hell. There's just, you know, we can get into psychobabble. Report an error in the passage at 41:32
41:55 that's not fair it shouldn't be like that and I'm in hell because then so we can we can analyze we can figure out and then we can think I shouldn't really care you If somebody else gets the raise, why am I so angry about it? Because emotionally we can feel very angry and even murderous and wanting to seek revenge and rationally at the very same time feel guilty about it. Report an error in the passage at 41:55
42:30 I shouldn't be jealous. I shouldn't feel this anger. Report an error in the passage at 42:30
42:37 So many of us in modern life, we suffer this conflict between our intellectual, rational mind and our emotions. Can any of you relate to this? Report an error in the passage at 42:37
42:52 Because, you know, I can see myself, you know, I hated myself because emotionally I didn't like a lot of my emotions. You know, they weren't what I wanted. Anger and jealousy and fear. Report an error in the passage at 42:52
43:13 I didn't want them. And so that, you know, when these emotions would arise, hate them and feel guilty. Or I'd blame, you know, I'd just get caught in my resentments about how unfair life has been to me and become a victim of circumstances. Make me feel sorry for myself and just feel that nobody loves me and it's not fair. Report an error in the passage at 43:13
43:45 when I've tried so hard to do my best. So that this is, these are how we deal, say, on the ego level, isn't it? What are we? Are we emotions or are we irrational? Are we just purely rational beings? Report an error in the passage at 43:45
44:06 Sometimes we'd like to be, you know, just everything should be reasonable. We say, let's be reasonable about everything. Don't get emotional. We want none of that. It just gets in the way. Be reasonable. Why can't the Palestinians and the Israelis be reasonable? The American elections now, why can't they be reasonable about it? Report an error in the passage at 44:06
44:32 Why do they have to say terrible things to each other? I don't even want to listen anymore to the American elections because I know they're going to get nasty and it just makes you sick. Why can't they be reasonable? Why can't people just be nice about things and try to listen and understand each other? Report an error in the passage at 44:32
44:55 But reason doesn't feel anything, does it? It's all about, you know, it's logical, it's intelligent, but it's not about feeling life. Hell is a feeling. It's not reasonable, but you can feel it. It's what we might call emotional experience of despair, anger. Rage and resentment may be justified in so many ways. It's not that anger necessarily is wrong because life can be totally unfair, mean and nasty and horrible and cruel. Report an error in the passage at 44:55
45:42 It can be that way. So, I mean, that kind of rage and anger, resentment, is quite a natural emotional response to being humiliated, demeaned, abused. Report an error in the passage at 45:42
45:57 So Report an error in the passage at 45:57
46:01 what I'm doing now is just questioning, looking at this. This emotional side that feels. It's based on feeling. But it's also interpreted in the self-view. You know, this is me. Life shouldn't treat me like this. Why is this happening to me? Whose fault is it? Who am I going to blame? Is it my fault? Is there something wrong with me? Or because of my past? Report an error in the passage at 46:01
46:28 My mother? My father? Was it because of, and I get fascinated by trying to figure out why I'm so angry, but still, at the end of the day, I'm still angry. I might have a more logical understanding of it, but the illusion of it being my anger is still present. Report an error in the passage at 46:28
47:00 I'm angry because... In the past and on and on like this. So it's still the essence of a separate self. Report an error in the passage at 47:00
47:14 So then in Buddhist practice we say, well let's go much more deeply than that. Than just trying to figure out whose fault is it. And why do I feel anger? What's wrong? And should I or shouldn't I? How do I come to grips with my anger and my fears? Report an error in the passage at 47:14
47:39 By exploring the very sense of my, my anger, my fear, my emotions, my life. And so this is reflecting, beginning to see that we create ourselves through thinking. Report an error in the passage at 47:39
47:58 This sense of me and mine, these are pronouns. And they always refer to this sense of me as a separate person, this person, this personality, this physical body. Report an error in the passage at 47:58
48:15 And of course this is what I'm stuck with for a lifetime, isn't it? I've had to live with this ever since I was born. Report an error in the passage at 48:15
48:29 And, you know, like each one of you has to live with your body till it drops dead. That's just the way it is. So it's putting into perspective that that's the way it is. When we're born, then we're experiencing consciousness from this position of this body, this separate form. This body here is what I'm experiencing you now through this consciousness that comes through this form sitting here. Report an error in the passage at 48:29
49:05 Now this is just affirming an obvious fact. I'm not making this up. I'm just noticing the way it is. And I can't experience consciousness through your form because Report an error in the passage at 49:05
49:23 this is not the way it is. And just by recognizing this, you begin to... To not see it in the sense of me and mine as, you know, life should treat me, shouldn't have treated me like this, or the way we're emotionally programmed to react to praise and blame and success and failure in the world, we began to investigate, to look into the causes of the suffering. Report an error in the passage at 49:23
49:59 And so then we, by doing this, It isn't through analysis, but through awareness. We start observing this sense of me and mine. My anger, my greed, my fear. Report an error in the passage at 49:59
50:18 This sense of my body. Is it really mine? Report an error in the passage at 50:18
50:28 And the more you begin to question it, start observing the body rather than just taking it for granted. When we take the body for granted, that this is my body, then it easily goes into vanity and all the way that we perceive ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 50:28
50:47 You know, the obsessions we have around our appearance and our age and so forth, whether our nose is the right size or our ears stick out. We all have our little quirks, don't we? Little things that we... Report an error in the passage at 50:47
51:05 We feel very self-conscious and don't like about the way we look. Or all the problems around being male or female. This can be a big issue, you know, the importance of femininity, masculinity, and the strong identity that arises with those. But those are words that we create, isn't it? We create this sense of I am a man, I am a woman. Report an error in the passage at 51:05
51:37 The body doesn't say that. The body is male or female, but it doesn't say, I am you. We say, you are mine. And so, now this is just investigating, consciously observing how we create this identity with the gender of the body. Report an error in the passage at 51:37
52:09 So this is done through language, through What karma? We can say we each have our own karma or tendencies. We are heredity. We inherit our parents' genes and so forth. So we have heredity, we have instinct, we have karma. But what the Buddha is pointing to is awakened consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 52:09
52:39 So then, reflecting on consciousness, then is not experiencing consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 52:39
52:51 But it's not mine. I create the sense of mine through thinking, through language, through memory. I am Ajahn Sumedho, a memory. That's a memory. I can say that as a statement of fact. You say, what's your name? I'm Ajahn Sumedho. That's one way of using it. Or, you know, I'm desperately trying to be somebody. Report an error in the passage at 52:51
53:23 I'm an Ajahn. I'm a teacher. I'm a meditation teacher. And so then I become, you know, I'm trying to identify myself as something I think is important because maybe I don't want to be just, you know, an ordinary person. Report an error in the passage at 53:23
53:45 And after all these years being a Buddhist monk and saying, you know, I don't, I'm not a teacher, I'm just a nobody. Report an error in the passage at 53:45
53:56 It sounds more like false modesty than anything. Report an error in the passage at 53:56
54:04 But instead of the sense of I am an Ajahn, a teacher, I am a meditation master. Now that sounds even better, doesn't it? Report an error in the passage at 54:04
54:17 In the United States, they consider me a meditation master. Report an error in the passage at 54:17
54:26 It's wonderful to be considered a master, isn't it? So that's the ego, isn't it? You know, he's a... A great teacher, famous teacher, or he's not a very good teacher, he's all wrong. Other people think I've got it all wrong. Report an error in the passage at 54:26
54:48 But what I'm pointing at is just the thinking, isn't it? I am, I am not. So what I'm doing is observing the way it is. There's this body sitting here, which was born. And now it's 74 years old. I just had my 74th birthday. So this body is 74 years. Now 74, what is that? How does that number affect you when you regard it in about age? This is a reflection. Report an error in the passage at 54:48
55:22 74 to me, from my ego level, seems very old. Report an error in the passage at 55:22
55:33 Where actually I don't feel very old. Report an error in the passage at 55:33
55:42 And then I think, you know, six more years, I'll be 80, and that really seems, you know, really old. Well, reflecting on these words and identities, if I'm this body, why don't I feel old? Report an error in the passage at 55:42
56:02 I mean, what does a 74-year-old body feel like? It feels like this. But it is what it is. You know, it's not, you know, I can be very attached to my age, or I could be ashamed of it. Maybe... I don't want you to know how old I am. Maybe I'm the kind of person that you know you can get on my good side if you keep telling me how young I look. Report an error in the passage at 56:02
56:28 You all become sycophants. You only look 35. And you're a meditation master. Welcome to Amavati. Report an error in the passage at 56:28
56:47 But this is, you know, contemplating the fact that The ego, vanity, what we look like, our emotional habits. What kind of emotions? Are you ashamed of a lot of your emotions? Or do you feel guilty about them? Or you hope nobody notices a lot of what you're feeling because you're ashamed of what you're feeling. Report an error in the passage at 56:47
57:15 Because what you're feeling isn't what you like or want. And so, but feeling, emotion is like this. You know, it's not about maturity or immaturity or good or bad. But because we don't choose our emotions, they arise according to conditions. Report an error in the passage at 57:15
57:38 You say, I'm going to be happy today. You know, I can, you know, try to convince you I'm just terribly happy today. And, you know, but maybe emotionally I'm in hell. And you say, how are you, Ajahn Sumedho? Oh, happy. happy Report an error in the passage at 57:38
58:00 I'm so glad to be 74. Everything is so nice. Life is just wonderful. Happy, happy. Or, you know, trying to put on the appearance of being a meditation master. Report an error in the passage at 58:00
58:24 And Ajahn sits here and Report an error in the passage at 58:24
58:30 says, learn Report an error in the passage at 58:30
58:32 What are the Four Noble Truths here and now? Report an error in the passage at 58:32
58:42 Trying to act the role of what I think a meditation master should be. So these are how we can live our lives through playing roles or acting roles out with our families and with our societies. and now. Report an error in the passage at 58:42
59:04 But it's not a matter of judging these emotions, but recognizing them. So this is why it's a noble truth. Because it's not about having noble emotions. It's about willing to admit emotion, to willing to receive your own sense of anger or jealousy or fear. Report an error in the passage at 59:04
59:31 Willing to bear with it, to accept it for what it is. There's something very noble about that. It's not in order to get rid of it, but be willing to be patient and accepting with even the things you most detest about your emotional life or about yourself. Report an error in the passage at 59:31
59:51 So that is, in developing this dana and sīla and pavana, we begin to see the way of not creating suffering. Report an error in the passage at 59:51
1:00:04 Once you see it for yourself, then you realize you're not just a helpless victim of the conditioning process. You're not just stuck with a bad deal. Even if you have had a life that has been quite unfair and have been treated badly by others, that is not really an obstacle to enlightenment unless you... Report an error in the passage at 1:00:04
1:00:31 to that view. Never investigate, never learn from it. what I'm encouraging today is this awakening, enlightenment here and now. It's about being and recognizing this simple, imminent reality of here and now until you... And this is an attitude of reopening to life, receiving, observing. And even if you're afraid of it, it's all right. The fear is like this. The more you're just willing to receive whatever your emotions are producing, or restlessness, anxiety, boredom, or whatever might arise, you're no longer trying to control it, criticize it, judge it. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:31
1:01:32 So you begin to find this way of living your life within the years remaining to your body, how long it's going to live, in the state of awareness, increasing bhavana, or Cultivating the way of mindfulness in your life, through daily life. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:32
1:02:11 Now then this, they say nibbāna is the highest happiness. So this is the word happiness. You know, just not trying to tell you what it is. But, you know, just to take these words and then just see what does make you happy. What makes you happy as a person? Report an error in the passage at 1:02:11
1:02:46 very undependable, because the opposite can also happen, that I'm unhappy. Being generous, unselfish, another kind of happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:46
1:02:59 least I began to like myself better. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:59
1:03:04 And I find, you know, I find... Living in society, living in the world, much more pleasant experience than if I'm always trying to resist, protect myself and live just for my own benefit. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:04
1:03:20 And then bhavana is actually getting to the root causes of suffering to realize the true nature. You can call it happiness or contentment, peacefulness. It's beyond description. It's not, you can't. I can't, the words aren't good enough. Nibbāna, but that becomes like an attainment. But it's not. When the Buddha is speaking of using the word Nibbāna, it's the awakened consciousness and recognizing dharma, knowing the real. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:20
1:04:05 This is reality here and now. And as you... Remind yourself of this and affirm it more and more. Then you find yourself less inclined to believe all the delusions or illusions that you create out of habit. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:05
1:04:26 So I'll stop here and invite you all to a cup of tea. Kunlada is forever faithful. Thank you. This monastery would fall apart if Lada left. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:26
1:04:49 So I invite you all for a cup of tea and then in 20 minutes or so, if you're interested, you can come back and we can have a discussion. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:49
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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