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Key passages
The teacher's own words, quoted from the transcript below and chosen automatically as representative.
- 0:27
Should I do Ānāpānasati, sweeping, sound of silence, mettā? Should I count or out-count or use mantra? And the thing is to just, the point is to do it.
- 2:59
I feel the body tense or feel tensions or The kind of discomfort, physical discomfort, I spend a lot of time just sweeping the body in this attitude of mettā and then just sharpen up the concentration on the panasati and get into a kind of refinement of tranquility.
- 8:55
that's the transcendent state. Just by attention, just by paying attention to the present, whatever the condition might be, the attention is what you take refuge in, not in the condition.
- 13:55
the sound of silence, or somebody referred to it as a cosmic hum, a scintillating, almost electric sound, background sound. When your mind is open and relaxed, you begin to notice this. Even though it's going on all the time, we don't generally notice.
- 22:22
Emptiness. Emptiness. No self. When you're just with the cosmic sound alone, there's pure attention, but there's no sense of a person, a personality, of me, mine, anattā.
Transcript
0:03 So this evening, the guided meditation, the more reflective suggestions. The Report an error in the passage at 0:03
0:17 important thing is the actual doing of it. When you think about meditation and you get caught in endless doubts. Should I do Ānāpānasati, sweeping, sound of silence, mettā? Should I count or out-count or use mantra? Report an error in the passage at 0:17
0:40 And the thing is to just, the point is to do it. Report an error in the passage at 0:40
0:47 Like with vanapanasani, just go to the breath, you know. With the sweeping, just go to the sensations of the body. It's an act of, it's an important thing is doing it rather than trying to figure out what you should do or how you should do it, whether you're doing it right or whether you're doing it wrong. Report an error in the passage at 0:47
1:12 Or which is the best, what is suitable for you. You know, you've heard what you've read in books, what other people tell you, and pretty soon you're in a state of paralysis, unable to move. Report an error in the passage at 1:12
1:30 So it's just like with going right to the breath. Remember that the pachubana, the pachubana dharma, the here and now, is the samrum, this collecting. On one point, this present moment, Report an error in the passage at 1:30
1:55 being here with the way it is, so we start from very obvious things, the way they are, the breath is like this, sensations, bodily sensations, as we sweep through the surface of the body, from the top of the head down to the soles of the feet, the sound of silence, here and now, the cosmic primordial. Report an error in the passage at 1:55
2:23 Ajahn Report an error in the passage at 2:23
2:49 tune into that. Report an error in the passage at 2:49
2:53 if I want something to do, then I sweep through the body. I feel the body tense or feel tensions or The kind of discomfort, physical discomfort, I spend a lot of time just sweeping the body in this attitude of mettā and then just sharpen up the concentration on the panasati and get into a kind of refinement of tranquility. Report an error in the passage at 2:53
3:31 Then Report an error in the passage at 3:31
3:39 the attitude of mettā is on its same side. Total acceptance, non-judgmental, unconditioned love. You use unconditioned love in Report an error in the passage at 3:39
4:04 the sense that love isn't liking, it doesn't necessarily mean approving or liking. Love is the ability to accept things Report an error in the passage at 4:04
4:19 for what they are. Report an error in the passage at 4:19
4:25 So when we are not in this state of awareness, In our life, very much picking and choosing, making judgments of, I don't like this, this person shouldn't be like this, I shouldn't think like this, they shouldn't act like that, the government shouldn't be like this, they should be like something else. Report an error in the passage at 4:25
4:55 I can't possibly love somebody who says... who is so insensitive and cruel in their behavior. I can't possibly love somebody like that. we go on and on endlessly in terms of approval and disapproval, liking and disliking, calling and love is Report an error in the passage at 4:55
5:34 There's no deals you're making. If somebody's being absolutely rotten and stupid and horrible, it doesn't destroy the love. Report an error in the passage at 5:34
5:46 No matter what you're thinking or how bad you've been in the past or whatever, it's not a matter of destroying or perverting or disrupting love because it's unconditioned in this attitude of mettā. Report an error in the passage at 5:46
6:07 It isn't I love you if you act in the proper way. That's a conditioned kind of love, isn't it? If you behave yourself, then I love you. Report an error in the passage at 6:07
6:19 If you do what I want, then I love you. If you don't do what I want, then I don't love you anymore. Report an error in the passage at 6:19
6:31 So this is a reflection, isn't it, on, say, the grandness, the kind of all-inclusiveness of mettā. Report an error in the passage at 6:31
6:53 So in this way, what you do happens to you in meditation. It all belongs, you know. You think you're meditating wrongly because maybe you're feeling a lot of negative thoughts, or you're not getting the results you want, and so forth, and then you start doubting and thinking of yourself in negative ways. Report an error in the passage at 6:53
7:22 But all this is, in the attitude of mettā, is... It's total acceptance of even your wandering mind or your disruptive thoughts or the rage or resentment you're feeling. It's not passing any kind of value judgment. Like this, it's able to bear and endure and not make a problem about the quality or the state of... Report an error in the passage at 7:22
7:57 The condition. Report an error in the passage at 7:57
8:05 So how do you do that? There is an attitude, and then in this awareness, isn't it, this pure state of awareness, Report an error in the passage at 8:05
8:20 it's a transcending the condition. When you're aware of, say, a bad mood, that awareness is not the mood, isn't it? The bad mood can't observe itself, but that which observes, the knower, the knowing. The aware, which is aware, the awakened one knows, the bhutto. So Report an error in the passage at 8:20
8:55 that's the transcendent state. Just by attention, just by paying attention to the present, whatever the condition might be, the Report an error in the passage at 8:55
9:19 attention is what you take refuge in, not in the condition. Don't take any refuge in the conditions because they'll only lead to more confusion. It's Report an error in the passage at 9:19
9:39 not aversion to the conditions, but it's recognizing the limitation of conditioned experience. It's just what it is. It can't be more than that. You can't make a condition into something that you want and hold it and keep it that way. Report an error in the passage at 9:39
10:02 You're no longer... Kind of manipulate, control life because you can flow with it, because you have a refuge that contains and is patient accepting of the conditions that you're experiencing. Report an error in the passage at 10:02
10:21 So that's the enlightened mind. That's not something remote or distant or impossible. Seeing things in the light. There's this word enlightenment. Oftentimes we... You get this idea of being blasted like when they take a picture of you with a flash, you know, and it goes right in your eyes and you can't see because the light's so blinding. Report an error in the passage at 10:21
10:51 But that's the kind of light that blinds. It isn't the light that allows you to see, is it? If it's too bright, then it only blinds you and you can't see anything. Report an error in the passage at 10:51
11:05 But if the light is awareness, isn't it? The light of awareness allows you to see everything clearly. So Report an error in the passage at 11:05
11:25 it's not a blinding light. Enlightenment isn't being zapped and going into a fit over a kind of big flash of fiery light. Report an error in the passage at 11:25
11:40 But it's the ability to trust and rest in the state of awareness with the light. Is enlightening things, lightens up everything. If things are lit up properly, then you can see everything for what it is. Report an error in the passage at 11:40
12:03 If it's too dim, then you can only see maybe shadows. If it's too bright, it blinds you. Report an error in the passage at 12:03
12:18 So now just practice, going to the, composing the mind, samrum, collecting your mind in the present. Breath and the posture, the sensations, this attitude of patient, uncritical acceptance of whatever conditions you're experiencing. Using Report an error in the passage at 12:18
· · · silence, 1 minute
13:55 the sound of silence, or somebody referred to it as a cosmic hum, a scintillating, almost electric sound, background sound. Report an error in the passage at 13:55
14:16 When your mind is open and relaxed, you begin to notice this. Even though it's going on all the time, we don't generally notice. Report an error in the passage at 14:16
14:36 I found this very useful reference, because in order to hear that, to notice it, you have to be in a relaxed state of awareness. Report an error in the passage at 14:36
14:54 And people trying to find it on a description of it, they don't... They spend, other people go on ten day retreats trying to find sound of silence. I can't hear it. Report an error in the passage at 14:54
15:11 What's wrong with me? They're trying to find something where there's not something you have to find, it's open to, there's more listening. Report an error in the passage at 15:11
15:29 And that's listening, ability to listen, isn't it, where you... Your mind is in a receptive state. Report an error in the passage at 15:29
15:44 You're not trying to solve any problems or anything. You're just listening. You're actually putting your mind into this receptive awareness. Report an error in the passage at 15:44
16:06 It's an awareness that is receiving, willing to receive whatever is. One of the things that you begin to recognize is this sound of silence. Report an error in the passage at 16:06
16:26 And some people get averse to it. They think one woman started hearing it, and then she wanted to stop hearing it, so she'd resist it. And she says, now I can't, you know, I used to have peaceful meditations, now all I hear is that blasted sound, and I'm trying to stop it. Report an error in the passage at 16:26
16:49 Before I never heard it, and now that's all I, sitting down immediately, I go, and Report an error in the passage at 16:49
16:57 that's, she's creating an aversion towards the way it is, isn't it? I don't want that. She's creating a suffering around the sound of silence. If you stop creating suffering, it Report an error in the passage at 16:57
17:17 helps to focus the mind. Because the mind is in this kind of very expanded state. It's an including. It's not a state where you're excluding anything. The sound of silence is like infinite space. It includes everything. All other sounds. Report an error in the passage at 17:17
17:37 Everything has this kind of sense of expansion, unlimitedness, infinity, and Report an error in the passage at 17:37
17:53 other sounds come and go, change and move accordingly, but that is a kind of continuum, like a stream. And then last January I was giving retreat up in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, in this place called Ponyang, and it's this lovely resort. Mountain resort with this waterfall and stream and they built the meditation all right by the stream. The sound of the waterfall and the stream is continuous. Report an error in the passage at 17:53
18:26 It's quite loud. I Report an error in the passage at 18:26
18:33 remember when somebody on the retreat, not this year, but the year before, got very averse to the sound of the stream. I can't meditate here in Ponyang. It's too noisy. The sound of the stream is just, you know, just too much for me. Report an error in the passage at 18:33
18:54 Can't bear it. Other than seeing, you know, how if you listen, if you open your mind to the sound, or are you going to resist it? I don't like this sound. Then you're fighting and resisting. That's the suffering. I noticed in Ponyang, the sound of the waterfall and the stream didn't, and the sound of silence was in the background. Report an error in the passage at 18:54
19:23 In fact, the sound of silence... It became the stronger, more obvious sound, but it didn't obliterate the sound of the stream. Report an error in the passage at 19:23
19:35 But they kind of worked together, and the sound of the stream didn't obliterate and disguise or cover up the sound of silence. Report an error in the passage at 19:35
19:50 So it's like radar, you know, you've got this kind of wide, the mind is in a very wide, expansive state of awareness. Ajahn open too including receptive other than shut off controlled controlled. Report an error in the passage at 19:50
· · · silence, 1 minute
20:41 lovely kind of... Feeling, a sense of being blessed and being opened, rather than seeing it merely as if you hear a buzz in the air, then you think it's maybe something wrong with, you think it's tinnitus or some disease. If you start contemplating it as the sound of angels or cosmic sound, cosmic hum, primordial sound. Report an error in the passage at 20:41
21:23 blessing us every moment as we open to that feel a sense of being blessed So, Report an error in the passage at 21:23
21:34 just reflecting in this way, in a positive way towards it, helps us to take an interest in it and have a very kind of good feeling from it. Report an error in the passage at 21:34
22:01 You can begin to contemplate non-thinking. Because when you're just listening to the cosmic sound, Report an error in the passage at 22:01
22:12 there's no thought. You notice, no thought. Report an error in the passage at 22:12
22:18 It's like this. Report an error in the passage at 22:18
22:22 Emptiness. Emptiness. No Report an error in the passage at 22:22
22:35 self. When you're just with the cosmic sound alone, there's pure attention, but there's no sense of a person, a personality, of me, mine, anattā. Report an error in the passage at 22:35
· · · silence, 1 minute
23:44 Relax into the sound. One, two, Report an error in the passage at 23:44
24:19 three, four, five, six, seven, eight. to try to force the tension on me, just a sense of relaxing, resting. Report an error in the passage at 24:19
24:07 then count sometimes, just to sustain, you can count to ten, to the sound of sound, you can think to yourself, one. Report an error in the passage at 24:07
24:34 9, 10, there's Report an error in the passage at 24:34
24:42 a way of kind of sustaining, because the mind is not used to resting in that way, used to thinking and restless mental activities. So it takes a while to calm and to relax and to rest in this silence of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 24:42
· · · silence, 1 minute
26:14 In that, You can also be aware of any emotions that arise. It's not an annihilating emptiness. It's not a kind of sterile nothingness. It's that it's full. It's embracing. Report an error in the passage at 26:14
26:34 So you can be aware of just the movements of emotion, doubt, Report an error in the passage at 26:34
26:49 or memories, or... Feelings start becoming conscious. It embraces them. It's not judging or resisting or even being fascinated. It's just recognizing, realizing the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 26:49
· · · silence, 1 minute
27:53 We tend to use the word sound itself or perceptual conditioning of our mind. We connect sound with ears. It's like a buzzing in the ears maybe at first. You hear the buzz in the ears because Report an error in the passage at 27:53
28:16 this impression of sound is always connected to the ears. But you can plug your ears up and you can still hear it. Or when you're swimming underwater you can hear the sound of silence. So Report an error in the passage at 28:16
28:40 what is it? Report an error in the passage at 28:40
28:47 And then you kind of... Realize it's more like it's everywhere rather than in the ears. That perception of it's in my head like the mind is in the brain or the sound is in the ears. You see, you're changing from that kind of very conditioned way of experiencing through this sense of self and the cultural conditioned attitudes we hold to a much more kind of Report an error in the passage at 28:47
29:22 Wider understanding of the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 29:22
29:32 It's like the perception of the mind in the body. And then through intuitive awareness, we're seeing the bodies in the mind. Report an error in the passage at 29:32
29:45 Like right now, you're in my mind. All of you. This whole. Report an error in the passage at 29:45
29:54 You're in the mind. On the conventional level, we say, each one of us, our mind is in our head. You're sitting over there with a mind in your head. Report an error in the passage at 29:54
30:11 The mind in her head. The mind in her head. The mind in his head. All these different heads with minds in them. Report an error in the passage at 30:11
30:36 But then in terms of the fact that the mind, like I'm sitting here, this body is sitting up on this high seat. I can see you with my eyes. You're in the mind. You're not in my head. Report an error in the passage at 30:36
30:58 I can't say you're all in my brain, but the mind is no limit to it. So Report an error in the passage at 30:58
31:15 then one begins to see the body is more like a radio, some kind of conscious entity in the universe that picks up things. Report an error in the passage at 31:15
31:30 It's the being born. As a separate entity in the universe, we're a point of light, we're a conscious being in a separate form, but as a kind of fixed person, as a kind of solid physical person that we tend to assume, or is it something greater than that? Not so limited, not so heavy, not so... Report an error in the passage at 31:30
32:06 Fixed as our cultural conditioning tends to make it sound, or as we tend to perceive it. Report an error in the passage at 32:06
32:17 Because this sound of silence, it isn't like mine, or in my head. But this form is able to recognize it, know things as they are. This knowing isn't a cultural knowing, it's not like... Interpreting everything from my cultural conditioning. Seeing things as it is in a direct way, which isn't dependent on cultural attitudes. Report an error in the passage at 32:17
32:51 So Report an error in the passage at 32:51
33:03 we begin to really understand anattā, non-self. All Report an error in the passage at 33:03
33:17 connected, aren't we? We're all one, really. We're not, as it appears to be, a collection of separate... Totally separate entities. You start contemplating like this. Begin to expand your awareness, to include rather than to define. So Report an error in the passage at 33:17
34:04 in terms of meditation, where you're establishing awareness, there's some room in the present, collecting, recollecting, contemplating. One-pointedness in the present, vachubhanandamma, the body, the breath, the sound of silence, the mettā is an attitude of a way of relating and recognizing conditioned phenomena without judging it, Report an error in the passage at 34:04
34:41 because otherwise we tend to make judgments, value judgments about what we're experiencing on a personal level, you know. One person is feeling peace, and the other person is feeling restless, and another person is feeling inspired, and another person is feeling bored, and another person is feeling high, and another low. Report an error in the passage at 34:41
35:07 Or you're having good thoughts, or bad thoughts, or useful thoughts, or stupid thoughts. These are judgments. what? Judgments. Report an error in the passage at 35:07
35:18 About the quality of the experience that each one is having. Report an error in the passage at 35:18
35:25 You know, stupid thoughts or good thoughts or bad thoughts. But in terms of knowing, isn't it? We're knowing that thought is the condition rising and ceasing. Even Report an error in the passage at 35:25
35:47 bad thoughts, horrible thoughts, rise and cease just like good thoughts. So, I mean, it's not a matter of... Passing judgment about how bad you are, because you're having bad thoughts, isn't it? The ability to recognize thought, the nature of thought, is changing, permanent, non-self. Report an error in the passage at 35:47
36:42 So now just use this cosmic hum, this gentle stream flowing, sense of flowing, scintillating sound. Let's get familiar with it. Sometimes, Report an error in the passage at 36:42
· · · silence, 1 minute
38:33 like with emotional experiences, you get all kind of wound up about something. From a strong emotional feeling of being indignant or upset by something. Report an error in the passage at 38:33
38:49 I'm not going to stand for that. Oh, I've had enough. Then go into the sound of silence and count to five to ten. See what happens. Report an error in the passage at 38:49
39:06 To experiment with it. You can be here, you know, right at this moment. I'm fed up, totally fed up. I've had enough. This is it. And then go into the silence. I Report an error in the passage at 39:06
39:30 used to like to do this, play with this, because I used to suffer from indignation, exasperation, being Report an error in the passage at 39:30
39:45 fed up. The Report an error in the passage at 39:45
39:54 word fed up, you can say it with such conviction. Report an error in the passage at 39:54
40:01 But Report an error in the passage at 40:01
40:22 the way of training, a conviction. Report an error in the passage at 40:22
40:24 It's like training the mind, like this cosmic sound, the sound of silences. It's really a natural sound. That's why when you learn to rest with it, it's sustainable. It's not created. It's not like you're creating a refined state that depends on conditions supporting refined. I'd like to Report an error in the passage at 40:24
40:52 To sustain any kind of refined conditioning, you have to have very refined conditions supporting it. Report an error in the passage at 40:52
41:01 You can't have coarse, raucous, noisy, loud, nasty things happening and still sustain a sense of refinement in your mind, because the conditions won't allow that. Report an error in the passage at 41:01
41:23 To have a refined mental state, you have to have, you know, silence or kind of not a lot of demands, not a lot of raucous noise, no noise, no disruption, no quarreling and wars and explosions and that. But there's this very... Lovely kind of theme where everything speaks. Report an error in the passage at 41:23
42:05 When we get into that state, we all get very precious. We whisper to each other in gentle tones. And somebody says, oh, it really shatters us. And we get very upset because we get so sensitive in that state. In Report an error in the passage at 42:05
42:33 the military, you get used to coarseness. Report an error in the passage at 42:33
42:45 But say, in the sound of silence, isn't, you know, you begin to hear it wherever you are, in the middle of London, in a traffic jam in Bangkok, in a heated argument with somebody on the battlefield, when the chainsaws gain, when the pneumatic drill is... And the lawnmower and the chainsaw are all going at one time. And when there's music, you can hear it. Report an error in the passage at 42:45
43:31 It's Report an error in the passage at 43:31
43:36 learning to detect it, isn't it? That's why it's like a challenge. Just tune into it. Because sometimes you say, I can't hear it now. There's too much noise. But if you... Relax. If you're resisting the noise, then you can't. But if you begin to open to it, then you begin to hear that gentle, scintillating hum with a pneumatic drill blasting away or a chainsaw. Report an error in the passage at 43:36
44:14 It's like it integrates. It allows us to integrate mindfulness and meditation into movement. Work, busyness, like if you're in the kitchen or washing dishes or walking from here back to your room or driving a car or whatever, it helps to, it doesn't like make you heedless. It increases your, it allows you to breathe fully with what you're doing. It isn't a kind of distracting thing that It makes you heedless if you're washing the dishes. It increases your mindfulness. It helps you to wash the dishes fully, you know, to be really with the washing of the dishes, rather than just washing the dishes and your mind thinking about all kinds of other things. Report an error in the passage at 44:14
45:22 Or Report an error in the passage at 45:22
45:26 when you're walking from here back to your room, you can be thinking about everything else. Here's the... Sound of silence helps to be with the walking, with walking. Be mindful and with the very action that's happening in the present. Report an error in the passage at 45:26
· · · silence, 1 minute
46:32 Sometimes the sound of silence will become very loud and quite unpleasant, but it won't stay that way. I remember one time it really was incredibly loud. It seemed to be like... Report an error in the passage at 46:32
46:55 I thought, oh, something's going wrong. Report an error in the passage at 46:55
47:02 it changed, and then I tried to get it loud again, I couldn't. Report an error in the passage at 47:02
47:13 So it's something to, you know, it's not something that's dangerous. I Report an error in the passage at 47:13
47:32 mean, how you look at it in terms of You know, it being, you know, if you resist or are negative towards it, that's something, you're creating that negativity towards it. But Report an error in the passage at 47:32
47:47 if you relax and open, then you feel a sense of just a gentle kind of scintillating background sound. It's peaceful, calming, restful. And Report an error in the passage at 47:47
48:10 you realize, recognize emptiness. And it's not just some... Vague idea about if you practice meditation you might experience emptiness someday or anattā. It's not a vague kind of thing. It's very direct. Report an error in the passage at 48:10
48:42 And contemplate what self is. That emptiness. And then when you become a personality, what happens? You start thinking. Grasping your feelings and you become a monk or a nun or a man or a woman or a personality or a Pisces Report an error in the passage at 48:42
49:19 or an Aries or an Asian or a European or an American or an old man or a young woman or whatever. It's through thinking, grasping at perceptions, Reception. We need to know Vedanasanya Sankara. Report an error in the passage at 49:19
49:46 Getting wound up into that. Then we become. But in this emptiness, there's no nationality. Not English, particularly. English comes and goes. Thai comes and goes. It's a pure, pure intelligence. ...to anybody or any group. Then Report an error in the passage at 49:46
50:19 you start recognizing when you've become somebody and when there's nobody. When there's atta and there's anattā. Like in this emptiness, there's anattā. There's no Ajahn Sumedho right now. I Report an error in the passage at 50:19
50:43 want to tell you about my personal history and all my qualifications and my achievements in the holy life over the past 33 years. And tell you about all that I'm, you know, this... I'm an abbot of the monastery and I've written some books and I'm considered a VIB, a very important bhikkhu. Report an error in the passage at 50:43
51:14 And I want you to respect me and treat me properly because you get a lot of merit for being kind to old people. Report an error in the passage at 51:14
51:30 That's Ajahn Sumedho. You Report an error in the passage at 51:30
51:40 don't have to respect me at all. You know, it doesn't matter to me in the slightest. You know, I can take it if you don't like me or if you criticize me and find fault in me, it's okay. I'm quite willing to bear it and, you know, because I've sacrificed a lot for all of you. Report an error in the passage at 51:40
52:09 That's Ajahn Sumedho again. Born again. And then gone now. You Report an error in the passage at 52:09
52:34 know, despite... By exploring this, you're going to really understand, you know, what atta is, self, when you become a personality, and so forth. When there's no person, but there's still awareness, isn't there? It's an intelligent awareness. It's not an unconscious, dull stupidity. It's bright. It's clear, intelligent emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 52:34
53:12 And Report an error in the passage at 53:12
53:17 you can see when you become, you know, you're feeling sorry for yourself, thinking about what I think. If you want my opinion, let Report an error in the passage at 53:17
53:33 me tell you what's wrong with you. That kind of thing. Or the self-criticism, you know, I'm, you know, here I am with a lot of weaknesses and faults and so Report an error in the passage at 53:33
53:54 forth, and then I start thinking about what's wrong with me. Report an error in the passage at 53:54
54:01 And then it stops, and there's this silence. But there's still, the silence is bright and clear, intelligent silence. And then we begin to, like I find, preferring this silence than this endless kind of proliferating, nattering that goes on in the mind. I used to have what I call an inner tyrant. It's a bad habit I picked up. Report an error in the passage at 54:01
54:40 I'm always criticizing myself. There's a real tyrant. There's nobody in this world that has been as tyrannical and as critical and as nasty to me as I am. Report an error in the passage at 54:40
54:58 Even the most critical person who's harmed and made me miserable has never made me as miserable, relentlessly miserable as I have. This inner tyrant. Report an error in the passage at 54:58
55:14 There's a real wet blanket of a tyrant, it's always, no matter what I do, it's never good enough. Even if everybody says, oh, Ajahn Sumedho, you gave such a wonderful desana, the Indian tyrant says, no, you shouldn't have said this, you didn't say that right. Report an error in the passage at 55:14
55:39 It seems to just go on in kind of endless, perpetual obloki. Report an error in the passage at 55:39
55:50 and fault-finding. Report an error in the passage at 55:50
55:59 yet, it's just a habit. I let it, I freed my mind from this habit. I'm not trying to get rid of it. I just know not to pursue it. Report an error in the passage at 55:59
56:30 It dissolves into the silence. And Report an error in the passage at 56:30
56:52 that's a new way of breaking these habits, a lot of these emotional habits we have that kind of plague us and obsess our minds. You can actually train your mind to, not through rejecting or denial, but through understanding and cultivating this silence. Report an error in the passage at 56:52
57:12 So this silence isn't a, don't use it as a way of annihilating or getting rid of, but a way of resolving. liberating your mind from, say, obsessive thoughts or negative attitudes that can just kind of endlessly plague conscious experience. Report an error in the passage at 57:12
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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