Automated transcript, estimated accuracy about 92% for this source; report an error.
Words the recogniser was unsure of are underlined with dots. Use “Report an error” beside any passage to tell us what the teacher actually says.
Key passages
The teacher's own words, quoted from the transcript below and chosen automatically as representative.
- 0:02
So composing, bringing attention to the present, here and now, the breath, the body, sound of silence, mood, state of mind you're experiencing at this moment. So this way of just noticing without, you know, adding anything to it. It's like bare attention. You're just observing the bodies like this.
- 1:58
And then in the Buddha's asking us to investigate the way it is, not just go along with the conventional views, cultural conditioned attitudes, but look into what is personality? What is the ego? So any stand you take on the ego, whether...
- 5:23
And so what we're taking refuge in is this Bhutto knowing the way it is, Dhammo, the Buddha knowing the Dhamma. Now this is, as I said before, this is the reality of consciousness. If you think that consciousness is yours, is in your brain, in your body, that's a perception, isn't it? It's a sense of...
- 7:39
Consciousness is operating. We can recognize it. This is it. And then the sense of a self arises. I am Ajahn Sumedho. I have some perspective on it. Now, if I don't investigate this, then I tend, you know, in the ignorance of conditioning, I would tend to operate always from I'm Ajahn Sumedho.
- 28:08
So notice in monasticism and in meditation, this desire to attain something. This is Bhavadana. In the Second Noble Truth, they list the three kinds of desires. Now it's very important to know these desires, not to recognize them. So in meditation, trying to attain and achieve something is actually Bhavadana. Trying to get rid of bad thoughts and negative emotions is Vipavadana.
Transcript
0:02 So composing, bringing attention to the present, here and now, the breath, the body, sound of silence, mood, state of mind you're experiencing at this moment. Report an error in the passage at 0:02
0:25 So this way of just noticing without, you know, adding anything to it. It's like bare attention. You're just observing the bodies like this. Breathing, sound of silence. These are happening right now. These are not theories or things that are even personal. They're not about me and my future and my desires and my past. Report an error in the passage at 0:25
1:06 Now the personality, the ego is supported by ideas that I've been the same person over all these years. years, know. When I was a layman, when I was a teenager, child, and it's the same person now sitting here, and that I will live a few more years, that's the future. The same person will live, you know, and then until it's time, until the body kind of has had enough, and then I die. Report an error in the passage at 1:06
1:45 The person dies. And this is how we think, how we're culturally attuned and what we seem to accept unquestioningly. And then in the Buddha's asking us to investigate the way it is, not just go along with the conventional views, cultural conditioned attitudes, but look into what is personality? Report an error in the passage at 1:45
2:15 What is the ego? Report an error in the passage at 2:15
2:21 So any stand you take on the ego, whether... You should have one or shouldn't or it's good or bad. It's still a thought, isn't it? As long as you're attached to thinking and views, then you're always in that illusion of being a person, a person that is attached to view of some sort about the ego. Report an error in the passage at 2:21
2:49 So even if you believe that you've got to get rid of your ego, that's still the ego. It's not a matter of... I am Report an error in the passage at 2:49
3:11 like this, I'm good, I'm bad, I'm young, old, male, female, refined, coarse, whatever, you know, it's a to even change it, but recognize it, awaken to it like this. Report an error in the passage at 3:11
· · · silence, 1 minute
3:42 We have to create with words ourselves, our personalities, the sakya-diti. So what, you know, is language and is thought and is memory, are these permanently fixed conditions or when we open to them, when we observe, then we realize that how you feel, you know, how you think depends on other conditions. Report an error in the passage at 3:42
4:11 You're not the same personality, you know. From moment to moment it changes, whether it's sunny or rainy or damp and cold and whether you're hungry or full, whether people love you or hate you, whatever, whether you're feeling healthy or sickly. You know, you become grumpy, you become happy, you become lighthearted, loving, you become angry, enraged, jealous, frightened. Report an error in the passage at 4:11
4:48 Barring, depressed. Now these are conditions changing. Sometimes life is, you know, presents us with a series of negative experiences. So you're not going to feel happy by that. You know, not trying to sustain the illusion of happiness, but Report an error in the passage at 4:48
5:15 being aware of how, you know, things do affect. And so what we're taking refuge in is this Bhutto knowing the way it is, Dhammo, the Buddha knowing the Dhamma. Report an error in the passage at 5:15
5:35 Now this is, as I said before, this is the reality of consciousness. If you think that consciousness is yours, is in your brain, in your body, that's a perception, isn't it? It's a sense of... Report an error in the passage at 5:35
5:59 Me and mine. And that's oftentimes what we assume. We assume the brain is the condition for consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 5:59
6:11 But another way of looking at it is because consciousness seems to be, it's not a created state. We don't create consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 6:11
6:22 There is consciousness as experienced here and now, isn't it? We're all conscious. Report an error in the passage at 6:22
6:32 And consciousness is like this. It doesn't need to be, you know, trying to define it, but just recognize it. It's like the space, you know. Space, just open your eyes and look. There's space right all around you, inside you, in front of you. Consciousness is, this is consciousness. It's as simple as that. And then the thinking process, it's, you know, create myself into it. Report an error in the passage at 6:32
7:02 This is my body. I am like this. I am this kind of person. So then with mindfulness, what we call sati sampachanya, then we can actually rest in consciousness and observe the conditioning that we're experiencing, the sense of ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 7:02
7:28 So like sati sampachanya, intuitive awareness, awakened attention in the present, Consciousness is operating. We can recognize it. This is it. And then the sense of a self arises. I am Ajahn Sumedho. I have some perspective on it. Now, if I don't investigate this, then I tend, you know, in the ignorance of conditioning, I would tend to operate always from I'm Ajahn Sumedho. Report an error in the passage at 7:28
8:11 As a kind of, this is my identity ongoing. Or I'm this person, I have a passport and I have a birth certificate and so forth. I have proof that I am somebody. Or how many of us depend on being somebody? Report an error in the passage at 8:11
8:36 Having a position, having an identity. Strong identity. You hear a lot now of people suffering because they don't know who they are. You know, if you're born in a country like this with mixed parentage, your mother's black and your father's white, what are you, English or African or whatever? You get confused about your identity because the ego wants, you know, I want to... Report an error in the passage at 8:36
9:09 Know who I am, so we look for identities, something that gives us certainty. Report an error in the passage at 9:09
9:21 We need maybe people to tell us, you know, am I okay? Yes, Ajahn Sumedho, you're a great teacher, you're okay, we love you. And then on a personal level, if I need that to feel secure personally. Report an error in the passage at 9:21
9:44 Then when I don't get it, I fall apart. If the people start telling me they don't like me and I'm no good, then I sink into depression because the sense of feeling okay depends on affirmations from outside. Report an error in the passage at 9:44
10:03 So that is the suffering of even being loved and admired. It's still not enough. There's not enough. I began to recognize even if everybody in the whole planet Report an error in the passage at 10:03
10:18 said they loved me, Report an error in the passage at 10:18
10:23 there'd still be this doubt. Because the ignorance is still there. There'd still be the suffering. You can never, you know, you can't fill up, you can't find liberation just through trying to find a false sense of security in the conditioned plane. Report an error in the passage at 10:23
10:47 So, you know, we do play games, you know, in society, trying to, you know, Support each other's illusions or delusions. Let's say in awakened attention, now this whole, the whole emphasis and point of Amaravati is it's a place where, you know, that awakeness is encouraged. Report an error in the passage at 10:47
11:21 Or chitost or any, and if I'm honest, the point is not to be just kind of, you know, Report an error in the passage at 11:21
11:32 communities of good people trying to bring peace to the world actually you know where this sense of encouragement we need to be encouraged to can because we we tend to be so intimidated so bound to the conditioning we have already dithi sīla bhattabharmata So Report an error in the passage at 11:32
12:04 that's why in the talk about the... Dhamma, we say, to be experienced individually. You have to know this. Just believing me or taking my word for it or scriptural authority, there'll still be a doubt. Just grasping good ideas and doctrines from books or teachings from teachers, you don't really know. Report an error in the passage at 12:04
12:34 It's like what the taste of honey is until you've tasted it. And so there's awareness. Tasting it, it's like this. Recognizing it. Now in the Four Noble Truths paradigm, that's the whole point of the Second and Third Noble Truths. Report an error in the passage at 12:34
12:57 Realizing. Third Noble Truth is about realization. Report an error in the passage at 12:57
13:04 Realizing how thoughts, emotions, what arises, ceases. The reality of how all conditioned phenomena ceases. In what? Consciousness, isn't it? know, recognize. Report an error in the passage at 13:04
13:16 When thoughts cease, emotions cease, there's still consciousness. You're not unconscious. Nibbāna isn't the experience of being unconscious. Report an error in the passage at 13:16
13:38 But how many of you really have observed cessation of anything? You know, the delusions of modern society is always about, you know, seeking happiness. Report an error in the passage at 13:38
13:53 It's so many distractions, so many... ...options, alternatives, that one can constantly seek some kind of distraction so that the recognition of cessation is never possible. Report an error in the passage at 13:53
14:09 Because every time something has changed in a way we don't particularly want or can't accept, then we seek another distraction. Report an error in the passage at 14:09
14:25 So that's why Buddha emphasized old age sickness death. grief, sorrow, despair, anguish, not as a morbid philosophy of life. But awakening to these, because we don't really, generally speaking, these are the very experiences we tend to try to ignore or run away from or resist. So in this attitude of awakened attention, we're allowing now, allowing despair. Report an error in the passage at 14:25
14:59 despair, disillusionment, Disillusionment, sorrow and grief, Report an error in the passage at 14:59
15:10 old age and sickness, pain. We're not seeking them. That's asceticism, you know, doing things to make yourself miserable. But there's enough, you know, this is natural flow of life. They come naturally. You don't create suffering intentionally to understand it. Report an error in the passage at 15:10
15:32 There's enough in anyone's life for enlightenment because this realm is like this. You know, if you're a devadana, then it's harder to, maybe harder to recognize suffering because this amount of beauty and happiness is, you know, is your main experience. And that we like, you know. When you're happy, you don't really, you just want to prolong that happiness. Report an error in the passage at 15:32
16:10 Now, in a way that I encourage, like, Sound of silence, not to grasp it as some kind of, you know, make anything out of it. Report an error in the passage at 16:10
16:26 It's merely expedient means as far as I'm concerned because in the pragmatic way of meditation, you know, once you recognize it, you have to let go to recognize it. I've known people who sat on retreats with me trying to find it for a whole retreat. Report an error in the passage at 16:26
16:50 Because they conceive it, you know, the sound of silence, some kind of cosmic sound, some kind of, you know, they make it into something, trying to get it. So when we're trying to get something that we imagine or we hear about that we want, that's not it. It's not a matter of trying to get it and achieve it, but to recognize this sense of relaxed, Open receptivity. Report an error in the passage at 16:50
17:31 Like letting go. It's actually letting go. Relaxation, isn't it? Or letting go. Second Noble Truth is all about letting go. It's not destroying anything, but relaxing. Allowing things to be what they are. But attentive. Report an error in the passage at 17:31
17:54 Attention. Alertness. Report an error in the passage at 17:54
18:01 Listening. Receiving. Now when we... When we're trying to attain something, you know, or trying to find something, we imagine, as I say, sound of silence. And it's a sound, it's probably sound of silence. There's that Simon and Garfunkel song from The Graduate. Report an error in the passage at 18:01
18:27 These are the kind of memories that arise. And it might sound mystical, like if it's a mystical sound. I remember... You know, the Sikhs, some Sikh groups, you know, use it, but they make it into a highly kind of initiation experience where you have to study for years and then finally you're introduced to this nada sound. Report an error in the passage at 18:27
19:06 So maybe there's good psychology behind that. I don't know. But I found it quite naturally. You know, it wasn't through a guru at all, but it's through recognizing, through reflecting on the way things are that I became aware of this. So then the thing like, you know, you're contemplating the Nietzsche, all conditions are impermanent. So then I began to think, I wonder if there's anything that's permanent. Report an error in the passage at 19:06
19:45 And then, of course, Scripture says everything is impermanent. So then, when I grasp that view, everything, all sankharas are impermanent, then I tend to almost project the attitude of impermanence onto everything. Report an error in the passage at 19:45
20:06 So it's like I'm grasping the Buddhist doctrine of impermanence. Report an error in the passage at 20:06
20:16 Because all, if I say, put it in these terms, everything is impermanent. That means there can't be anything, any permanency anywhere, according to the way I think, you know. Everything means everything. Report an error in the passage at 20:16
20:34 So then, just by grasping that, then I tend to, you know, believe it. Because, you know, personally, I have great respect for the Buddha, and he's a lot wiser than I am. So whatever he says must be the truth. I believe in everything the Buddha says. Report an error in the passage at 20:34
20:58 But if you... Contemplate dharma and practice. Buddha is not asking us to believe anything. This is all investigation. Then there's this, is there impermanence? Is there permanence? In terms of experience here and now, not as some kind of theory or some kind of belief like in God or in some kind of force. Report an error in the passage at 20:58
21:35 Some kind of ultimate reality gets into abstractions in Buddhism. Ultimate reality. But when you're talking about God or ultimate reality, these are concepts, aren't they? God tends to be, you know, anthropomorphized. So we're all stuck from the Judeo-Christian backgrounds with this silly figure of old man with a white beard up in the sky. Report an error in the passage at 21:35
22:05 Godly great patriarch. The patriarchal father that punishes us when we're naughty. And so this is what that word, at least when I talk to many people, including my own Christian conditioning, Christian background, was this God is actually an anthropomorphic figure, a patriarchal father. Report an error in the passage at 22:05
22:40 Now that's cultural, isn't it? That's a cultural conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 22:40
22:50 Ultimate reality, then it goes into kind of abstract concepts. What is ultimate reality in the mind? What does your mind do with that concept, ultimate reality? Report an error in the passage at 22:50
23:04 Can you imagine? Can you make an image, an icon of ultimate reality? Report an error in the passage at 23:04
23:14 You know, I can make an image of God, old man, white beard up in the sky, sitting on a cloud. Report an error in the passage at 23:14
23:26 But I can't, you know, when the mind, my thinking mind goes kind of, it stops, you know. Ultimate reality. Report an error in the passage at 23:26
23:36 I believe in ultimate reality. How can you believe in something, you know, in that which you don't even know what it is? Report an error in the passage at 23:36
23:51 Except, you know, you believe in the term, you know, ultimate reality, something, you know, what Report an error in the passage at 23:51
24:00 is it, you know, when you think about it. Ultimate truth. Report an error in the passage at 24:00
24:07 So this is like exploring your own experience using these words and concepts, seeing how in mythological forms of religious representation you have forms like Zeus or Osiris or God or Shiva, Report an error in the passage at 24:07
24:31 Brahma, Krishna. Report an error in the passage at 24:31
24:38 And then the Christians say there's only one God and he's ours. Shiva is not a god, just pagan. I mean, these are views and opinions, aren't they? And the conceits. Because we all think our religion is the best one. Report an error in the passage at 24:38
25:01 So in awakening, alertness with consciousness. You don't have to create consciousness, but we can be conscious and lost in a dream world. Report an error in the passage at 25:01
25:17 You know, so we live in a kind of fantasy life, an illusory world, which can be, you know, we can make it the kind of whatever we want. Usually we're victims of our conditioning. So people sink into kind of depressions and despair, you know, when they don't get what they want and life is disappointing. Report an error in the passage at 25:17
25:42 Get cynical, embittered, despairing, depressed. Report an error in the passage at 25:42
25:52 Some people are incorrigible. Optimists, you know, they can be really irritating too. Encourageable optimists. Life can only get better and better, better and better, better and better, better and better. Report an error in the passage at 25:52
26:10 If it's not, well, it will. Just keep a smile on your face. Report an error in the passage at 26:10
26:21 And that's the kind of cheery, cheery optimism. Report an error in the passage at 26:21
26:27 But it's hard to sustain it, isn't it? You have to keep, you know, when you, you know, life isn't, isn't, you know. A realm of soda water fountains and pink marshmallows. It's like this, isn't it? It gets cold and wet and windy and we lose, you know, we lose who we love. There's separation. There's disappointment. Despair is part of every human experience. Report an error in the passage at 26:27
27:03 Old age, sickness. Report an error in the passage at 27:03
27:09 And these can be depressing if we're attached to it. We don't like it and we don't think it should be this way. But notice what the Buddha is saying. He's not justifying it or trying to tell us what to believe about it, but recognizing it. A simple recognition is like this. It means that you're opening to it. Report an error in the passage at 27:09
27:30 Old age, having an old body is like this. Feeling loss is like this when your mother or father... Somebody you love or your cat dies like this. Grief, loss. So, you know, there's recognition of grief. Report an error in the passage at 27:30
27:56 Loss of the loved is like this. Not getting what I want is like this. Getting something I don't want is like this. Report an error in the passage at 27:56
28:08 So notice in monasticism and in meditation, this desire to attain something. This is Bhavadana. In the Second Noble Truth, they list the three kinds of desires. Now it's very important to know these desires, not to recognize them. So in meditation, trying to attain and achieve something is actually Bhavadana. Trying to get rid of bad thoughts and negative emotions is Vipavadana. Report an error in the passage at 28:08
28:45 Trying to get rid of something you don't like. It's like this. Report an error in the passage at 28:45
28:55 Trying to become something, always trying to, you know, become something that I imagine or that I remember. Maybe I've had meditation experiences where, you know, I've been very peaceful, very blissful, and I want to have it again when I remember that. I want to become that way. That's bhava dhanah. So dhanah is a Pāli word. Report an error in the passage at 28:55
29:23 We translate that as desire, desire to become, desire to get rid of, and gama-dhanha, sensual desire. That's the desire that rises through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body. Report an error in the passage at 29:23
29:39 Like when you see something beautiful with the eye, then the desire to have it arises. Something hideously ugly passes in front of your field of vision, you want to get rid of it. Report an error in the passage at 29:39
30:00 Now that's just the way it is. Beauty is attractive, ugliness is repulsive. That which is observant, that which is knowing this is the Bhutto, is the Buddha, is knowing. Report an error in the passage at 30:00
30:22 And this realm, you know, people are always talking about, you know, now and the problems around sexuality and that arise in the society. Is homosexuality natural? You know, they have discussions on Radio 4 about this. And the Christians say it's unnatural. And then others, you know, I don't know if anyone says it, agrees that it's natural. But everything's natural in terms of Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 30:22
30:58 It's not a matter for me to decide what is natural or unnatural. Everything is, you know, so it's not, it's not, you know, who's going to, You know, we can take the conceit that the church or the pope or the archbishop of Canberra or something can tell us what God has wanted us to be, what the Bible says and what's right and wrong. Report an error in the passage at 30:58
31:28 But when you contemplate in terms of dharma includes everything. So everything and dharma, the word dharma means, you know, can be translated as natural or nature. Report an error in the passage at 31:28
31:41 So, This is, you know, we might have views, you know, preferences. We have cultural biases maybe. But that has nothing to do with what's natural. It's just the way we're conditioned. You know, conditioned to say this is normal, this is natural, this is abnormal, unnatural. Now these are cultural conditioning. This is silabata baramasa, second fetter. So you have the... Report an error in the passage at 31:41
32:14 These cultural conditions, you know, that determine our sense of what's right and wrong and what's natural, what's normal. What do we mean by normal? Report an error in the passage at 32:14
32:28 Is anybody normal? Do you know any normal person? You know, and we think, you know, I've thought many people, I used to think everybody was normal except me. Report an error in the passage at 32:28
32:45 Because I have to live with myself all the time. You know, when I go back to my kuti, I'm still with me. I can get away from you. Report an error in the passage at 32:45
32:54 No matter how abnormal you might be, I can get away from it. But, you know, can you get away from yourself? If I go and close the big old door, there I'm stuck with me. And all kinds of, you know, what goes on there? Is that, you know, I see, I'm aware what's happening. Is that normal? Well, from the critical position, from my critical condition mind, I can see all kinds of abnormalities. Report an error in the passage at 32:54
33:25 And by this I mean, according to Silabhatta Baramatha, this is like these are not appropriate, not beautiful behavior in terms of society's values or even monastic values. Report an error in the passage at 33:25
33:42 So there tends to be a, you know, should and shouldn't, this is right, this is wrong, good, bad. Now with awareness, you're actually, you know, Awakening to dharma, to the way things are, you're not trying to recreate yourself into what society thinks is normal and allowable, but awakening to ultimate reality. Report an error in the passage at 33:42
34:12 Is ultimate reality something so remote, so abstract, that we just kind of have the idea of it, but we don't quite understand what it is? We just may believe in it. Because we can't accept maybe the anthropomorphic versions of Christianity. Report an error in the passage at 34:12
34:35 You know, that rubbish old man in the sky white beard. Rubbish, nonsense. Because we can't believe in that anymore. Some people seem to, but I personally, I think it's rubbish on a personal level. Report an error in the passage at 34:35
34:57 But then I'm stuck with the term ultimate reality, which... Intellectually, you can play around on that level of thinking. But what is it right now? If there is ultimate reality, Report an error in the passage at 34:57
35:21 is it a thing? Another thing that arises and ceases? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? A right or wrong thing? Is it big or small? We go into... Report an error in the passage at 35:21
36:13 I just rest in consciousness, then don't create anything. It's completely natural. Consciousness is not something I create out of my desires or self-views or cultural conditioning. Completely, it's everywhere. It's not mine or it's not Buddhist or English or anything like that. Report an error in the passage at 36:13
36:49 And consciousness allows everything. It's not selective. It's not judgmental. I will have none of that. I'll have only this. This is normal. This is right. But none of that bad stuff. When we do that, then we're caught in the conditioning again. Report an error in the passage at 36:49
37:10 You know, the thinking process, the judgmental attitudes, and we're stuck into that, you know, of trying to control and annihilate the evil forces, trying to control everything. Report an error in the passage at 37:10
37:29 So that's where the liberation doesn't come through this divisiveness of thinking, but through the oneness of consciousness. It's real. This is reality. I'm not imagining it, I'm just recognizing it. I'm using the word consciousness because it's a convenient English word, but whatever you want to call it is not the issue. Report an error in the passage at 37:29
37:56 It's this. It's real. It's here and now. Report an error in the passage at 37:56
38:04 And it has no boundary. It doesn't begin and end. In terms of now, the awakened, the awakening now. Report an error in the passage at 38:04
38:29 So by reflecting in this way, I establish this sense of awakened. I know there's this knowing. This is reality. This is real. This is not just wishful thinking or fantasy or dependent. This is not dependent on meditation retreats or Report an error in the passage at 38:29
38:54 on ideal conditions. Noble silence and no problems. This is timelessness, reality, deathlessness. These words are the words that point to it. So it's recognizable, realizable. You can't find it as a thing. It's not sound or silence. Isn't something to find, but to recognize. So as long as you're looking for something, then you're, you know, you're, you're imagining, you're trying, you're still the Bhawadanha, trying to find something you hear about. Report an error in the passage at 38:54
39:52 Or just stop trying to look. Just trust that this is the ultimate faith. Report an error in the passage at 39:52
40:04 Letting go. Realizing. Report an error in the passage at 40:04
40:10 So those are the insights into the second and third noble truth. Letting go and realizing. So what does that say? Putting it in terms of common parlance is relax. Report an error in the passage at 40:10
40:35 Relax and pay attention. Just observe. Be the puto, the knowing itself. Report an error in the passage at 40:35
40:46 Now when I do this, I feel this sense of, you know, there's no sense of a self anymore. Report an error in the passage at 40:46
40:57 Sakya Ditti disappears. Report an error in the passage at 40:57
41:03 All my cultural conditioning then doesn't seem to, it's in a perspective where I no longer, you know, believe in it anymore. I can, you know, I can function with it, I understand it, but it's not the kind of my modus operandi. It's not, you know, I'm not coming from my cultural biases or conditioned attitudes, socially conditioned attitudes anymore. Report an error in the passage at 41:03
41:32 This is empty. It's not like it has a quality of being beautiful and wonderful or anything like that. It's what I would say is the norm, completely normal. Not what society judges as normal, but if you're going to play around with words. Report an error in the passage at 41:32
42:04 So say the Arahant is, in terms of the way we think, would be completely normal. Not a highly attained individual. Not a highly attained person. Report an error in the passage at 42:04
42:26 Now, cultivating this, mat jima bhakti bhata, middle way, the fourth noble truth, bhavana, cultivating or developing. Now, this is like a lifetime's endeavor. Because as we live our lives, as they put it in Buddhist terms, karma ripens, things change, you know, and then there's loss of love. We all experience loss. Report an error in the passage at 42:26
42:56 You know, the experience of loss of Lungpocha, Puttadasa, revered teachers, loss of my mother and father, loss of friends, Ajahn Ananda, and things like this. So you're experiencing loss, disappointment, personal level, seeing people, monks and nuns, disrobing or becoming disillusioned or whatever. There's disappointment, you know, on personal level. But on the... Report an error in the passage at 42:56
43:27 The awakeness, this is my refuge, not in my emotional tendencies. So those emotions still can, when the conditions for those emotions are present, then this emotion is like this. Report an error in the passage at 43:27
43:50 But my refuge is in knowing the emotion, not in grasping it and becoming someone that's terribly disappointed and upset. Because somebody does something I don't like or doesn't do what I want or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 43:50
44:10 It means I still feel it, but the relationship changes from the personal grasping and then the reactions and the way that I would tend to react to things on a personal level to a knowing. Report an error in the passage at 44:10
44:30 So in Saṅgha life, you know, in monastic life, It gives us a conventional way of living in which we're encouraged to reflect on the way things are. So in monasticism, you're still going to experience, don't expect monasticism to bring you happiness and peace and kind of hope that you avoid all kinds of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 44:30
45:08 The point of being monastic is it's an expedient means, a vehicle to live in, in which reflection is encouraged, where we're not supporting egotistical desires or habits or ambitions or altruistic visions. It's for awareness. Report an error in the passage at 45:08
45:41 If used properly, and it is a very skillful, because it is, you know, I find it a very, you know, nice way to live. Report an error in the passage at 45:41
45:51 Very pleasant way to exist on this planet, in this society, in England. Works here, working well here in England. You know, it's a, you know, but it's an expedient means in itself. It's not for attachment or identity, but... Report an error in the passage at 45:51
46:20 A skillful means for encouragement of awakeness. Report an error in the passage at 46:20
46:33 So notice in the morning chanting, the Buddha, Report an error in the passage at 46:33
46:40 awakened, aware, knowing, is not, you know, don't see it in terms of history. We're not talking about great sages of the past. This Buddha, this refuge in Buddha, this celebration of Buddha is about consciousness here and now. Report an error in the passage at 46:40
47:02 About consciousness as we human beings experience it now. There's not something I praise for a great saint or a sage of the past. Can be if you want to make it that way, but it's certainly okay. But it wouldn't be liberating because you've missed the point. And the dhamma. Notice these terms. These are santidiko akaliko ehi paskar, Report an error in the passage at 47:02
47:31 A parent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation. Ehi Pasiko is this real, you know, come and see. You know, it's an invitation, you know, encouragement. Wake up and find, look, it's like this. It's not telling you. It's a kind of encouraging to translate Ehi Pasiko into English. It's very, not difficult. Ehi actually means come and see, dharma, you know. Report an error in the passage at 47:31
48:01 Waking right now. Observe. Encouraging investigation. Doesn't quite have the same taste, does it? Ehi Pasiko. Encouraging investigation. But this is Ehi Pasiko. Come see. Wake up. Stupid. Report an error in the passage at 48:01
48:33 Upanayaka Dhamma. Is it inward or outward? Report an error in the passage at 48:33
48:40 It doesn't matter really, but leading onward, once you begin to recognize it, it's just present here and now. You begin to recognize the reality of now, the power of now. Report an error in the passage at 48:40
49:06 is to be experienced individually by the wise. It's like, you know, you've got to... Taste the honey to know its real flavor. I can't taste honey for you. I can just encourage you to try it out. So, I mean, it's budgetung. Now, these are, you know, in terms of dharma. What does that say? You know, what does that really mean? Report an error in the passage at 49:06
49:35 Is it just abstract thinking, philosophical concepts? It seems to me very direct pointing. Santidiko dharma, apparent here and now. How do you get more direct than that? Report an error in the passage at 49:35
49:49 It's not about next year after you've developed all the jhānas and gone through the stages and all this and that, and if you, bar me, your collected virtues are good enough, you might be able to recognize and realize the dhamma. Report an error in the passage at 49:49
50:06 That's all conceptual proliferation, isn't it? Apparent here and now. Each one of us is experiencing consciousness now. You say, well, I don't quite... I feel that I understand what you're saying because, well, you know, I do have these problems and the teacher told me that I have a lot of obstructions and go on like that. Report an error in the passage at 50:06
50:39 The parent here now then is an awakening to this thing. Well, I don't quite understand what you're saying, Ajahn Sumedho. When you suddenly realize... You know, the way you're conditioned to think about yourself. I don't really understand. You suddenly awaken to this whole way of thinking. Not in a critical way, but you begin to observe how you create yourself. I don't really understand what you're talking about, Ajahn Sumedho. Report an error in the passage at 50:39
51:10 It is a creation that you might produce in the present. Report an error in the passage at 51:10
51:18 You know, I think you should understand. And I'm appealing to you, you know, that... That if you don't understand you're stupid, and you should, then you create a personal problem around it. I'm not trying to create more problems for you, but to encourage and trust yourself more. Report an error in the passage at 51:18
51:42 So even though I might feel, you know, on an emotional level, I can't do it, I've got too many emotional problems. That awakeness to that very thinking process, Report an error in the passage at 51:42
51:58 that's thinking. I don't really, I don't think I can get enlightened in this life. That's thinking process, isn't it? I, enlightenment, what do you mean by that anyway? What is I? And I don't think I can do it because I've got too many obstructions. That, what is that? In the terms of now, the Sakyaditi, putting it in a convenient category. Report an error in the passage at 51:58
52:29 And who, what is it that's aware of Sakyaditi? It's not me as a person. It's conscious. It's awakened consciousness within this individual human body. Report an error in the passage at 52:29
52:45 So it's like you're really, you know, noticing, reflecting on the way it is. And using Buddha's teachings not for grasping or believing, but they're skillful means. They're tools, skillful tools that if you... Report an error in the passage at 52:45
53:06 For awakening, you know, do the job. They're very adequate for awakening. But like any tools, if you just grasp them and don't use them, what good are they? Report an error in the passage at 53:06
53:20 Just holding a lot of tools in your hand can be onerous. You think, how do you use them? What are they for? And teaching the Buddha is like that. It's a tool to use for liberation, for... Enlightenment for awakening. Report an error in the passage at 53:20
53:45 Have I convinced you? true. Report an error in the passage at 53:45
Related talks
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