The Silence of the Immeasurable

0:00 Welcome, everybody, and this is going to be a very hypocritical talk. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:24 The title, of course, sounds very pretentious. Report an error in the passage at 0:24 Highlight the passage at 0:24

0:32 Silence of the Immeasurable. Report an error in the passage at 0:32 Highlight the passage at 0:32

0:43 So it's the aim of these Sunday afternoon reflections. bore, aren't you? Report an error in the passage at 0:43 Highlight the passage at 0:43

0:53 really reflections. Report an error in the passage at 0:53 Highlight the passage at 0:53

0:57 For consideration and contemplation and not to kind of convert you or tell you anything or convince you of anything. It's to consider and contemplate. So this is the, you know, the essence of Buddha Dhamma is to awaken, be awake and aware. Report an error in the passage at 0:57 Highlight the passage at 0:57

1:30 And realize the way it is, reality in other words, so awakening to reality rather than to illusion, delusion that most human beings seem to live in. And you can see the state of the world these days is not getting much better because of this lack of wisdom, awakeness, reflection. reflection. Report an error in the passage at 1:30 Highlight the passage at 1:30

2:01 There's all kinds of moral dilemmas and political problems, economic problems, religious problems, you name it, relationships, family, marriages, everything is because the problems always arise from lack of reflection, understanding, having no grounding in reality, but in various views, opinions, ideals. Report an error in the passage at 2:01 Highlight the passage at 2:01

2:31 Prejudices without knowing what you're actually doing. What is the problem? Because we tend to blame somebody for it. We gave a retreat last week. We were talking about how the immediate reaction for most of us is something goes wrong. The immediate reaction is, who's to blame? Have you ever wondered why we do this? It's always we want to blame somebody. Report an error in the passage at 2:31 Highlight the passage at 2:31

3:01 And this is very much the cultural reaction because one of the great fears we have in life is being blamed. I'm speaking for myself. And Report an error in the passage at 3:01 Highlight the passage at 3:01

3:21 so on a personal level, you know, just our personality and fear of being blamed for something. Sometimes we lack courage or... Daring or unwilling to risk anything because we might be blamed and being blamed is what we can really dread. Report an error in the passage at 3:21 Highlight the passage at 3:21

3:42 And of course, when you take a risk and you do something, then you are kind of sticking your neck out or putting yourself in a position that's easily blameable. Report an error in the passage at 3:42 Highlight the passage at 3:42

3:57 So it's just trying to get another abbot for Amaravati. Report an error in the passage at 3:57 Highlight the passage at 3:57

4:09 Nobody wants to be the abbot of this monastery. Report an error in the passage at 4:09 Highlight the passage at 4:09

4:23 So one thing that we don't tend to notice, what's most obvious and real in our daily experience here and now is silence. Report an error in the passage at 4:23 Highlight the passage at 4:23

4:37 We tend not to notice it, or if we do, if things get too silent, we become very uncomfortable. Report an error in the passage at 4:37 Highlight the passage at 4:37

4:54 Everybody gets terribly nervous, then you desperately think of anything to say to break the silence. yet silence is with us all the time. It's not something that absent or destroyed by noise, but something that is... Unrecognized and unappreciated. Report an error in the passage at 4:54 Highlight the passage at 4:54

5:19 we like the idea of silence, and when things get noisy and chaotic, then we long for peace and silence, but too much silence and too much peace, become very unhappy and restless, what we really want sometimes is happiness and excitement, moments, an adventure, to stimulate. Report an error in the passage at 5:19 Highlight the passage at 5:19

5:45 And fill us with energy, something that fascinates and interests us. So of course modern life is, we've got so many, so technology of the time allows us to stimulate our senses continuously with quite exciting, interesting information, sensations. Report an error in the passage at 5:45 Highlight the passage at 5:45

6:12 And so this is because we are afraid of Sensations. Report an error in the passage at 6:12 Highlight the passage at 6:12

6:16 Silence of the immeasurable. These words, you know, what is measurable, we can imagine. We have images of the measurable. And we can have form and color and quality and shape. This we, you know, even if it's ugly or horrible or whatever, or beautiful or mediocre, the shapes or... The qualities of the shapes may be. They are understandable in terms of our ability to comprehend conditions. Report an error in the passage at 6:16 Highlight the passage at 6:16

6:57 But the unconditioned or the immeasurable or the deathless is incomprehensible. We don't know what it is. So today we had, you know, in dedicating the donnas, may so and so attain nirvāṇa. I made the comment. Report an error in the passage at 6:57 Highlight the passage at 6:57

7:16 Nibbāna is you don't attain it. Because this word attain is always like getting something you don't have. It's through acquisition, something missing that you would like to have and you work hard to get it. And if you work hard enough and you're lucky enough you attain it or you finally get it as a reward. But this word Nibbāna in Buddhism Report an error in the passage at 7:16 Highlight the passage at 7:16

7:44 It's an enigmatic word and in terms of practice and understanding of dharma, it is the realization of non-grasping. It's liberation, in other words, a freedom from grasping. But it's not something attainable. It's something recognizable. So see the difference in just those two terminologies like What you attain and achieve is what you imagine. So Nibbāna in Buddhism oftentimes gets elevated to a very high state. Report an error in the passage at 7:44 Highlight the passage at 7:44

8:25 Like sometimes it's defined in English as the highest happiness. And so happiness is we all want to be happy and some things make us happier than others. There's different levels of happiness, and then the highest happiness, because nibbāna must be happier than heaven. Report an error in the passage at 8:25 Highlight the passage at 8:25

8:55 That's what I've heard anyway. Christians, they have heaven, but we have nibbāna, and it's higher than that. Report an error in the passage at 8:55 Highlight the passage at 8:55

9:08 You see how ridiculous it gets, just because of language itself. So, when you're talking about The immeasurable or the unconditioned or nibbāna or anattā, non-self, then, of course, it's where there's no form, flavor. Report an error in the passage at 9:08 Highlight the passage at 9:08

9:34 You can't imagine it. You can't form an image. When you try to think about it too much, it tends towards nihilism or annihilationism. Report an error in the passage at 9:34 Highlight the passage at 9:34

9:48 Like Theravāda Buddhism, if you... If you grasp it just intellectually and rationally, it tends to almost sound like our aim is to become extinct. Like they say, Buddhists, you know, Christians want to go to heaven where they live in love forever, and Buddhists just want to expire. Report an error in the passage at 9:48 Highlight the passage at 9:48

10:18 Extinction. And that, of course, is how... You know, some people see Buddhism, especially Theravāda Buddhism, because it emphasizes nibbāna. And I remember when I first became acquainted with Buddhism, I said, what is nibbāna? Or the aim of a Buddhist is for extinction. Report an error in the passage at 10:18 Highlight the passage at 10:18

10:47 Which, to me, is not such a bad idea, actually. I've never... I mean, that doesn't, that particular nihilism is not something I would mind at all. Because if you don't exist anymore, what's there to bother with? You're never going to live in a happy relationship with God forevermore. That doesn't sound so good to me. It sounds very boring, maybe. Report an error in the passage at 10:47 Highlight the passage at 10:47

11:19 Too much happiness gets boring. So, going beyond happiness and Unhappiness, and this is where the language, we have to stop using the language because it's indescribable. And this is where I emphasize intuition or apprehension or these kind of words where we're no longer thinking, grasping ideas. It's no longer ideas. It's no longer dualistic. Report an error in the passage at 11:19 Highlight the passage at 11:19

11:57 Like language itself is always a dualistic function. When we use the word dualistic, it means if you have one extreme, you have its opposite along with it. So even in the presentation, in the scholastic presentation of Buddhism, in Pāli Canon, you have the unconditioned and the conditioned. It sounds like a dualism, doesn't it? You say there's the unconditioned and there's the conditioned. Report an error in the passage at 11:57 Highlight the passage at 11:57

12:28 There's the unborn and there's the born. That's the limitation of language. And you cannot create an image of the unconditioned. You know, the thinking mind stops at that point. You can kind of intellectually grasp the idea of the unconditioned. But the reality of the unconditioned There's nothing to see, nothing to grasp at all. So it is the reality of non-grasping. Report an error in the passage at 12:28 Highlight the passage at 12:28

13:06 And it's realizable, it's reality, and it's recognizable, but you can't imagine it. But just think how bound we are by our desire for images. We want affirmations, confirmations. Verifications, guarantees, doctrines. We want somebody else to confirm our own opinions. We want authority figures and great minds to confirm our beliefs and our existence. Report an error in the passage at 13:06 Highlight the passage at 13:06

13:52 So, you know, you hear on Radio 4, there's some interesting programs on this where modern scientists are talking about, you know, there isn't any God. Report an error in the passage at 13:52 Highlight the passage at 13:52

14:06 And then the Christian theologians come on and say, oh, but they're kind of missing the point. Because there is a God, or there is God. And so this word, God itself, is a very... Report an error in the passage at 14:06 Highlight the passage at 14:06

14:23 Confused term. What do we really mean by that? Is it definable? Is it conditioned? Is God really an old man up in the sky? And of course, this works. This image is all right when you're a child. Report an error in the passage at 14:23 Highlight the passage at 14:23

14:47 In terms of experience, isn't it? Your mother and father are gods up to a certain age. Because they have complete control over you. They reward you for being good and punish you for being bad. And that's what we oftentimes think God does. God punishing us or rewarding us. So we should be rewarded for being good. Report an error in the passage at 14:47 Highlight the passage at 14:47

15:16 So I heard recently how could a loving God like this In Portugal where this British couple's daughter was kidnapped, missing, four-year-old daughter, and then the parents were asked, well, how could you believe, they're Roman Catholics, how could you believe in a God that would allow such a horrible thing to happen to your beloved daughter? Report an error in the passage at 15:16 Highlight the passage at 15:16

15:47 And of course, this is, you know, why would a loving God allow Iraq? Butchering and persecution is so grotesque at this time, so horrific, and yet it goes on in spite of belief in a loving God. So what I'm doing is not trying to condemn or criticize religion or theism, but to encourage a reflective ability to... Report an error in the passage at 15:47 Highlight the passage at 15:47

16:23 Reconsider what we mean by these terms. What is God? What do we mean by that? What is love? What do we mean by love? Because that's another word that we like to use a lot, and we may not even know what we mean by it. It has not become clear for us. Now, we think we know, because it's used, you know, usually for liking something a lot. Report an error in the passage at 16:23 Highlight the passage at 16:23

16:55 When we talk about God and love, then these are rather inspiring concepts in the English language. You want to inspire people, you talk about love, God's love, compassion. And then in Theravāda Buddhism we talk about non-attachment, unconditioned, no self. Report an error in the passage at 16:55 Highlight the passage at 16:55

17:20 You see, so they... The opposition of a theistic approach and a non-conceptual approach. So the Buddha used language that in order to really comprehend and understand and have the insight, you have to let go of the language and begin to... Awaken and recognize even what language does, how it affects consciousness, but not to hold on or blindly grasp intellectual concepts or doctrines or dogmas of any sort. Report an error in the passage at 17:20 Highlight the passage at 17:20

18:07 It doesn't mean to throw them out either, but it means to awaken. And so at this very moment, when we're sitting here in this sala, Report an error in the passage at 18:07 Highlight the passage at 18:07

18:21 You know, we're sharing a common experience. We're all conscious. So this is the reality of consciousness that we are all sharing at this very moment. It's the same for all of us. Consciousness you don't create. It's not my consciousness as opposed to yours, is it? When a baby's born, it's born conscious. Report an error in the passage at 18:21 Highlight the passage at 18:21

18:50 If it's not conscious when it's born, it's called dead. Report an error in the passage at 18:50 Highlight the passage at 18:50

18:56 So, I mean, this is, you might think I'm trying to be funny, but consciousness, I'm just pointing out the reality of consciousness, something so real that we're all experiencing. But how many of you have ever really recognized consciousness, pure consciousness? Report an error in the passage at 18:56 Highlight the passage at 18:56

19:23 Before you create yourself into it, before you become a person, you know, a man or a woman or young or old or whatever, you know, whatever you create. Report an error in the passage at 19:23 Highlight the passage at 19:23

19:38 But before you create anything, there's still consciousness. Like a newborn baby is conscious, but it doesn't think of itself. I'm a little baby, little boy baby, and I'm English baby. Report an error in the passage at 19:38 Highlight the passage at 19:38

19:54 And my parents are working class. Report an error in the passage at 19:54 Highlight the passage at 19:54

20:02 And I'm a cockney because I was a boy. Where do we acquire those concepts? It's afterward, isn't it? We acquire the sense of our position, identity, after birth, after we're born. Cultural conditioning. So in cultural conditioning then we acquire the views and opinions of parents and the ethnic values, religious values, identities, identities and so forth that are held to be the truth. Report an error in the passage at 20:02 Highlight the passage at 20:02

20:44 And so in modern Britain, because it's so mixed now, There's a lot of misunderstanding and conflict because of the ethnic differences, different races, ethnic groups, different attitudes, cultural values, religious values. And try to sort all that out into one nation is really, you know, Britain does quite well actually considering the infinite variety of conditions that people hold to in this. Report an error in the passage at 20:44 Highlight the passage at 20:44

21:26 small country. Now we have, you know, this Islam is the big item in the news now. No longer communism. Communism's passé. Report an error in the passage at 21:26 Highlight the passage at 21:26

21:46 That's gone with the dinosaurs. It's for the museum. But now it's Islam. And so this is, you know, a radical... groups, terrorism. Report an error in the passage at 21:46 Highlight the passage at 21:46

22:26 We're all conscious, the same thing, but then how we, what we put into consciousness, you know, it's all different. Right now I'm thinking, I am Ajahn Sumedho. You're not thinking that. Report an error in the passage at 22:26 Highlight the passage at 22:26

22:47 Sister Sumedho's thinking Sumedha. Report an error in the passage at 22:47 Highlight the passage at 22:47

22:56 But that's slightly different, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 22:56 Highlight the passage at 22:56

23:01 But maybe she's not. And this we don't know, we don't know what the others are thinking. But pointing to the common ground of this very moment, all of us in this one room, consciousness is the common bond we share. Report an error in the passage at 23:01 Highlight the passage at 23:01

23:22 Human form, we all regard ourselves as human beings, so that's common ground. So we can say things like we're all conscious human beings, are sitting and all are breathing. I'm just pointing out the most obvious facts. These are facts, aren't they? These aren't fantasies or imaginations. It's just pointing to common, what we share in common. Then we divide up into, there's male and female. So then we start, you know, dividing. Report an error in the passage at 23:22 Highlight the passage at 23:22

24:04 And then... There's monks, samanas, and lay people. And then it gets into... Then there's senior monks, senior nuns, juniors, anagarikas, anagarikas. And then there's Tibetan. And then there's Chinese. And it goes on into the various conditions and forms. Report an error in the passage at 24:04 Highlight the passage at 24:04

24:33 So just recognizing the... immeasurable is the consciousness. You can't measure consciousness. You can't find it. You can't kind of grasp it and hold it. You have to just recognize it. It's like space in this room. It's not that you create the space, but you may not notice it. You know, one can come in here. Report an error in the passage at 24:33 Highlight the passage at 24:33

25:01 I'm really caught up in a mood of some sort and caught up in your own feelings and attitudes. Notice the shrine or the people, the things, the walls. They have different effects on you. You like them or don't like them or what. But the most obvious, the real thing here that is important. One is the space, because it holds all of us at the same time. That's the problem with many Buddhist viharas. Report an error in the passage at 25:01 Highlight the passage at 25:01

25:39 They don't have big enough spaces. Even though space is immeasurable, they tend to meet in places where the rooms are too small. So here, at least we have a fairly good-sized room to accommodate all of you in one space. But the space... It's immeasurable, isn't it? The room, the building is in the space. So this pointing out, just visual consciousness, you know, just by being able to contemplate seeing with our own eyes is the recognition of space as a reality that we don't create. Report an error in the passage at 25:39 Highlight the passage at 25:39

26:23 It's not, space is not good or bad. It's not beautiful or ugly. All we can say is it's spacious. As we contemplate space we tend to let go of the things in the space or say in consciousness when you're mindful then you're letting go of your thoughts and personal feelings and cultural conditioning and sense of your separate self. Report an error in the passage at 26:23 Highlight the passage at 26:23

26:57 Letting go of that. Not annihilating it. not condemning it or destroying it, but letting go of it. And then remains is consciousness. So it's real, it's natural. In Pāli it's the power of dharma, the natural law, law of nature. What's natural? That is not a concoction that we create out of our desires and preferences and views and opinions. Report an error in the passage at 26:57 Highlight the passage at 26:57

27:36 So this is, to point to this then, is beginning to encourage an awakened reflectiveness in us, where we, you know, if we just caught in the conditions, in the doctrines, in the teachings of a religion, then we do, like with Theravāda said, to a Western mind, a rational mind, it all sounds nihilistic. Report an error in the passage at 27:36 Highlight the passage at 27:36

28:06 Or we have, say, if one is a theist, then we have a particular view. People say, do you believe in God? And they go to interfaith meetings in London, and they'll say, Buddhists don't believe in God. They're not even a religion. To be a religion, you have to believe in God. What do you mean by God? And then they assume what they believe is the truth. Report an error in the passage at 28:06 Highlight the passage at 28:06

28:36 But they don't really know what they believe. And maybe they're just attached to an idea of God or some sense of belief in what they've been told. Report an error in the passage at 28:36 Highlight the passage at 28:36

28:55 Or maybe they've actually recognized or had mystical experiences, but then the vocabulary tends to personify and limit. The word God to a figure, to a form. So this is just pointing out how language itself is to be contemplated, to recognize how it does affect consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 28:55 Highlight the passage at 28:55

29:27 That as an end in itself, it can only take us so far and we have to let go of even the doctrines and the teachings that we have in Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 29:27 Highlight the passage at 29:27

29:37 So in the teaching of the Lord Buddha, this is, The essential teaching that he gave, the Four Noble Truths, the actual recognition of the causes of suffering, which is called the Second Noble Truth, the insight is letting go, letting go of conditions. Report an error in the passage at 29:37 Highlight the passage at 29:37

30:01 So this letting go is not destroying or not because of aversion or it's not because we hate the conditioned realm, we want to destroy it. It's because we see the suffering we experience when we hold on to it blindly, when we're just hopelessly caught and trapped into the conditioning of our minds, because that's very limited. Report an error in the passage at 30:01 Highlight the passage at 30:01

30:31 We acquire that conditioning, and it's always a limitation. Grasping the condition always puts limitation on us, and that limitation always makes us feel separate. I always feel that I'm separate and often alienated or people talk about having identity crises or not knowing who they are or where they belong. Report an error in the passage at 30:31 Highlight the passage at 30:31

30:56 And you hear a lot of modern stress problems around people, modern people in cities like London that don't know who they are or where they belong anymore. Or because of the multicultural, multi-religious religious conditions that exist in this country. Report an error in the passage at 30:56 Highlight the passage at 30:56

31:29 this I have identity crisis too. Report an error in the passage at 31:29 Highlight the passage at 31:29

31:34 not really a crisis. Report an error in the passage at 31:34 Highlight the passage at 31:34

31:37 But I don't really care what my identity is actually, because this is important. The important thing is the recognition, the realization, realizing the immeasurable. Now the word silence also is an interesting word because it's juxtaposed to noise or sound. So the Wisdom publication has recently published Report an error in the passage at 31:37 Highlight the passage at 31:37

32:18 Intuitive awareness, which was for free distribution, now it's been added to and it's called sound of silence. And of course this is, you know, rationally, silence has no sound. And if there's sound, there's no silence. And that's a rational approach, isn't it? That's logic. One thing cancels out the other. Report an error in the passage at 32:18 Highlight the passage at 32:18

32:47 Or if I came in here to talk about silence, I should just not talk. The real thing, just sit here. Report an error in the passage at 32:47 Highlight the passage at 32:47

32:59 I thought of doing that. Report an error in the passage at 32:59 Highlight the passage at 32:59

33:09 Or just not coming and then one of the monks would say, Ajahn Sumedho is teaching silence. Report an error in the passage at 33:09 Highlight the passage at 33:09

33:24 But this word silence is a word that... Not using it as an opposition to sound in a logical way, but in a reflective way. So the title Sound of Silence is a reflection. It's not a statement, but it's to awaken or to encourage you to awaken, to listen rather than just endlessly try to figure everything out. Report an error in the passage at 33:24 Highlight the passage at 33:24

34:05 And think, think, think your way to nibbāna, because you won't be able to think your way to nibbāna. And if you do, that's not nibbāna. Thinking has nothing to do with it. But it is, you know, it's quite an interesting word in itself, because it is kind of enigmatic. Report an error in the passage at 34:05 Highlight the passage at 34:05

34:35 And we would like it defined, you know, what, is it eternal, is it, you know, who's attained it? And then you hear all kinds of opinions about, you know, sometimes monks will say, nowadays nobody can attain Nibbāna, only the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 34:35 Highlight the passage at 34:35

34:57 And after the Buddha, nobody else was enlightened. That's an opinion, isn't it? I mean, that's really depressing. Why are they monks if that's what... Lungpho Chah used to say, well, if that's what you think, you know, what are you here for, a free meal? Report an error in the passage at 34:57 Highlight the passage at 34:57

35:24 But in silence, as you let go of thinking, which is not a suppression, you begin to experience silence and inner stillness, which is recognizable. It's not a creation. It's not something you imagine or you create. It's something so ordinary you don't notice. So on a retreat, you know, I talk about sound of silence and people will, I've been trying to hear the sound of silence this whole retreat. Report an error in the passage at 35:24 Highlight the passage at 35:24

36:00 I can't do it. Report an error in the passage at 36:00 Highlight the passage at 36:00

36:05 And of course, this is the problem is that, you know, the word sound is a bit misleading because it You always connect sound with your ears and with something that has the quality of sound. But sound on that level, what you hear through the ears is, it's definitely impermanent. You know, do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. And all that is definitely, you know, you can't sustain high C for very long. Report an error in the passage at 36:05 Highlight the passage at 36:05

36:41 I heard some opera. Sopranos can sustain it for quite a while, but they eventually have to let go of it. Report an error in the passage at 36:41 Highlight the passage at 36:41

36:57 So is it high seed? Report an error in the passage at 36:57 Highlight the passage at 36:57

37:03 But in this way, as you begin to kind of awaken or recognize non-attachment or relax even, it's not a matter of pushing and forcing and willfulness, but of trust, this word trust or faith. see. Report an error in the passage at 37:03 Highlight the passage at 37:03

37:21 It's more of a sense of opening and receiving rather than trying to get something you've heard of or you would like to get or like to have. Report an error in the passage at 37:21 Highlight the passage at 37:21

37:34 So when people try to imagine the sound of silence, then they're looking, you know, one's already prejudiced to try to find something they imagine. They've got some kind of sound that Ajahn Sumedho hears but I don't. And then you imagine it. You're looking for something. And when you start trying to create an image and try to find what you imagine, you're caught in the trap. Report an error in the passage at 37:34 Highlight the passage at 37:34

38:04 You're in the world of saṃsāra. You know, you're somebody who's trying to get something that they don't quite know what it is, but they have an image of it, some idea of what it... It must be some kind of sound. So then some of the people... you know finally notice this sound of silence and then they'll say no I don't know Ajahn Sumedho if this is what you mean but is it that kind of any Report an error in the passage at 38:04 Highlight the passage at 38:04

38:36 kind of buzzing sound or is it it couldn't be that because the sound of silence also sounds like It's special. Ajahn Sumedho has been meditating for years. It takes years to get there, and I'm just a beginner. Then you've already grasped ideas and projections of what I hear and your own position. If I'm an advanced meditator and you're a beginner, those are creations, aren't they, of your own thinking process. Report an error in the passage at 38:36 Highlight the passage at 38:36

39:21 That's a self-identity. And so these self-identities are what blind us. They're called fetters. They bind us, or they're fetters or manacles. They chain us to the wall. So we're bound by these fetters. Report an error in the passage at 39:21 Highlight the passage at 39:21

39:47 And these fetters then, rather than just trying to... To get rid of them, we have to know what they are. What are fetters? And the self would say, well, the self-concept is a fetter. I've got to get rid of myself. So you can spend a retreat time trying to get rid of your self-view or your personality or ego. Report an error in the passage at 39:47 Highlight the passage at 39:47

40:15 You can call it ego. And ego is always, you know, it's a Freudian term. And it conveys, you know, egotistical is not exactly a compliment to anybody, is it? When you say, somebody, that guy really has a big ego, that's usually we mean it to disparage them. Report an error in the passage at 40:15 Highlight the passage at 40:15

40:38 Or say, she's very egotistical, and that's a criticism, not a compliment. What is self, then, in the English word self? And, of course, in the Pāli, they use the word sakayaditti, which translates usually as personality view, attachment to a sense of yourself as a person, a separate person, which means, of course, your identity with memories, with what you look like, your body, what your face looks like, with all the conditioning, you know, your... Report an error in the passage at 40:38 Highlight the passage at 40:38

41:22 position in the society, the color of your skin. Report an error in the passage at 41:22 Highlight the passage at 41:22

41:53 Virgo. Report an error in the passage at 41:53 Highlight the passage at 41:53

41:57 And fair enough, I mean, it's kind of playing with words. But getting beyond this is not suppressing thought, but recognizing thought in the silence. So with awareness, when we use this word awareness, or sati in the Pāli word, Report an error in the passage at 41:57 Highlight the passage at 41:57

42:24 Mindfulness or awareness means our ability in the present moment to pay attention, to listen. It's not a thought. And it's a natural state. It's not a creation. It's not that you create awareness. You just use awareness. You pay attention. And if you think, well, I've got to be somebody who pays attention, then you've missed the point. Report an error in the passage at 42:24 Highlight the passage at 42:24

42:55 Spend the whole retreat trying to make yourself into somebody who pays attention is, well, probably, you know, at the end of the retreat you'll give up and then you might recognize. Report an error in the passage at 42:55 Highlight the passage at 42:55

43:08 That happens. Sometimes we try so hard we have to give up at the end of the day. Oh, is this it? If you're looking for the sound of silence for ten days, I give up. You can't do it. Oh, is that it? Report an error in the passage at 43:08 Highlight the passage at 43:08

43:24 It can't be that. Nothing special. Nothing fantastic. It doesn't bowl me over. It's not like being lifted up to the highest heaven higher than the Christian heaven. It's just kind of a buzz, a ring, a sound of flowing water or whatever it is. It's more like a vibration and it's not really a sound. But it is like... Report an error in the passage at 43:24 Highlight the passage at 43:24

43:56 Consciousness in space, it's recognizable once it's pointed out. It's realizable, it's real. When I say real, it's not a creation out of greed, hatred or delusion, out of ignorance. So when you're awakening to reality, then of course you are reflecting. You're not trying to figure out what's real and what isn't. Report an error in the passage at 43:56 Highlight the passage at 43:56

44:25 So, recognizing that this, you know, this word consciousness is another creation. It's an English word. Report an error in the passage at 44:25 Highlight the passage at 44:25

44:35 In Thailand they usually call it chitta. But anyway, it's not, the word is not the important thing. It's the recognition. This is consciousness. Now when I'm doing this, then I recognize what I call sound of silence. Report an error in the passage at 44:35 Highlight the passage at 44:35

44:57 I'm not trying to make anything out of it as if it's some kind of thing in itself, but it is useful for those that are willing to pay attention to it. Because what it does is like space and consciousness. These are sabawadhamma, they're reality, but they're not created by me. Report an error in the passage at 44:57 Highlight the passage at 44:57

45:26 They're not cultural. They don't belong to any religious sect or group. Report an error in the passage at 45:26 Highlight the passage at 45:26

45:37 They're natural, in other words, and using the Buddhist word dhamma, it's dhamma, the law, the natural law, or sabawadhamma, the natural law. And so this is when we take refuge in the dhamma, and this is part of a traditional form, Using a traditional form skillfully, then we're not taking refuge in something, in a thing or a belief, but in reality. Report an error in the passage at 45:37 Highlight the passage at 45:37

46:17 Dhamma is real, it's not a created thing, it's not artificial. Reality then is not something that you imagine, it's that which you recognize when you're When you're open, when you're receptive, you recognize. It's all like mystical experience, isn't it? Like Christian mysticism. When you read Christian mystics, they talk about the mystical union. Report an error in the passage at 46:17 Highlight the passage at 46:17

46:54 And if you really kind of contemplate that and get beyond just one's own view about Christianity or language that they used to convey this. Report an error in the passage at 46:54 Highlight the passage at 46:54

47:13 know, it's where they awake and receptive. listening. Report an error in the passage at 47:13 Highlight the passage at 47:13

47:27 my group and my... family and all this, it falls away, all this sense of me and mine and separateness It ceases, or it fades out, and what's left is pure consciousness. And then recognizing it, and then if we say, oh, I'm enlightened, then of course you're back into the swim of saṃsāra. It's nothing to be claimed, not something one claims, but recognized, because it isn't mine. Report an error in the passage at 47:27 Highlight the passage at 47:27

48:11 It isn't like I created and it's my special quality or I've achieved anything. That whole way of thinking is relinquished through recognition of the suffering, the dukkha, that I experience when I start creating myself as a separate person. Report an error in the passage at 48:11 Highlight the passage at 48:11

48:35 Now this doesn't mean that I have lost all sense of being a separate person. Because, you know, I do have to live in the world and with this body. So it's, you know, it's not like I'm living in a totally different realm, you know, the unconditioned. Report an error in the passage at 48:35 Highlight the passage at 48:35

48:57 But also, but you know what it is. You know the condition. You know, you've investigated, looked into the condition to know for yourself all conditions are. I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 48:57 Highlight the passage at 48:57

49:16 they have this nitya-dukha-nata, or the three characteristics, the jai-lakkha-na, of all conditioned phenomena, they're all impermanent, unsatisfactory, So this is how we can actually begin to look at phenomena, but it's not in destroying it. Or in rejecting it, or extinguishing it, but understanding it, recognizing it. Report an error in the passage at 49:16 Highlight the passage at 49:16

49:55 And through that recognition then there is this awakened consciousness where we see for ourselves, we realize, we recognize, non-grasping is real, non-self, unconditioned, unborn, uncreated is reality. Report an error in the passage at 49:55 Highlight the passage at 49:55

50:20 And it's not, you know, it's nothing to claim in any personal way. Now when this is recognized, then our relationship to each other is the problems we can resolve. Personal conflicts and cultural misunderstandings and that. Because this isn't our whole... We're not committed to a certain delusion that we have to defend at all costs by putting down someone who doesn't agree. Report an error in the passage at 50:20 Highlight the passage at 50:20

50:59 We're out of that realm that's called the saṃsāra and that means it's a repetitive habitual thinking pattern and attachment and identity out of ignorance that we create these endless conflicts within ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 50:59 Highlight the passage at 50:59

51:18 We have internal conflicts. Ask anyone, you know, in the Saṅgha about internal conflicts. And, you know, you have, you know, just speaking from my own experience, the difference between my intellectual understanding and my emotional experience. Report an error in the passage at 51:18 Highlight the passage at 51:18

51:40 Now this is very hard to, you know, resolve if you don't have any reference or any perspective on it. You know, because the intellectual side is usually this educated, it's conceptual, it's based on reason, rational thought. Report an error in the passage at 51:40 Highlight the passage at 51:40

52:01 It's what we call intelligence. And we know right from wrong and good from bad. Emotional experience is not rational in that it's feeling. One can feel anger and hatred. Report an error in the passage at 52:01 Highlight the passage at 52:01

52:22 Emotionally and rationally condemn yourself for feeling it. A good monk should love everybody. But at this moment, you might hate somebody. Might be angry. Report an error in the passage at 52:22 Highlight the passage at 52:22

52:42 And then the rational thing, we call it the inner time. It always knows right from wrong. It's always judging and condemning and saying, you know, you shouldn't. feel like that. You should and you shouldn't you're wrong or he's wrong or she's wrong. Report an error in the passage at 52:42 Highlight the passage at 52:42

53:04 there's always right and wrong, and evil. Report an error in the passage at 53:04 Highlight the passage at 53:04

53:10 I'm going to always... can you say they're right or wrong, but they are what they are? You don't choose your emotions. They manifest according to conditions. Report an error in the passage at 53:10 Highlight the passage at 53:10

53:26 I choose happiness as my emotion in life. So, you know, I can make that choice on one level, but the realities of daily life, emotionally, I can't order my emotions to be happy. It takes certain conditions to come together to feel happy. And this, of course, is, you know, through awareness, we begin to see that, like happiness... Report an error in the passage at 53:26 Highlight the passage at 53:26

53:55 It depends on conditions that allow us to have this emotion arise. So when it's sunny and everything's going well and I'm feeling good and so forth and I'm happy. All the conditions for happiness. And then the next day I feel terrible. It's rainy and cold. Report an error in the passage at 53:55 Highlight the passage at 53:55

54:19 Somebody is blaming me for something. And, you know, you can't expect to feel happiness. Report an error in the passage at 54:19 Highlight the passage at 54:19

54:33 That is so idealistic, you know, you're going to suffer the rest of your life if you don't solve that one. People spend years going to therapies to deal with it. Report an error in the passage at 54:33 Highlight the passage at 54:33

54:49 So this is where, you know, by reflecting, you know, on the way things are, you know, so... When it's raining now, it feels like this, emotionally. When it's really bright and sunny, there's a certain different feeling, an emotion or mood that comes just through the weather changes or the temperature of the room or the time of day or night or the state of my health, whether I'm feeling vigorous or weak. Report an error in the passage at 54:49 Highlight the passage at 54:49

55:29 But this is all, ...recognizable, it all arises and ceases in consciousness. Consciousness has this continuum. It still operates even no matter what the conditions might be. You know, whether you're happy or sad or you're having good fortune or bad fortune, whether you're healthy or sickly, when you're aware, when there's awareness with consciousness, then there isn't... Report an error in the passage at 55:29 Highlight the passage at 55:29

56:02 We don't create suffering. We don't manufacture suffering even when the conditions we're experiencing are unpleasant. So this is what mindfulness is the way that the Buddha encouraged us to develop, to cultivate this awareness because it is a refuge in terms of Buddha, Dhammasanga, the three refuges. Report an error in the passage at 56:02 Highlight the passage at 56:02

56:32 Buddha is our... ...is our ability to be aware, to be awake, to know the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 56:32 Highlight the passage at 56:32

56:42 So in the Thai forest tradition, they always teach the mantra, Bhutto, Bhutto, you know. And it's the name of the Buddha. And so this mantra I've kept, you know, for years now, 40 years using this, just these two syllables, Bhutto. But what it does is it... You know, in itself, at first it didn't, you know, because it's not a part of my own culture, it sounded a bit funny. Butoh, butoh, it sounded like nonsense. Report an error in the passage at 56:42 Highlight the passage at 56:42

57:21 And then I had to, what's the name of the Buddha, and then I gave it some gravity. But then over the years, because it is a recognition of awareness and consciousness combined. Where there's no longer operating from the sakya-ditti level, from what I like and don't like and believe and don't believe in. Report an error in the passage at 57:21 Highlight the passage at 57:21

57:47 So the bhutto knows the dhamma. The Buddha knows the dhamma or the natural law or the way it is. And the saṅgha is those who practice the dhamma, who cultivate reality in daily life. So there's a supatipanno So these are refuges that are, you know, when you contemplate what a refuge is, what do we mean by that word? Report an error in the passage at 57:47 Highlight the passage at 57:47

58:20 Well, when I use the word refuge, it means a safe place to be when your life's in danger or, you know, you go find a refuge, a place where you feel safe, where you are safe. Some refuges are just make-believe refuges. They give you a false sense of safety. Report an error in the passage at 58:20 Highlight the passage at 58:20

58:41 But then this is, you know, if you test it out over years, you begin to see this is, safety lies in this, in this awareness, knowing things as they are, seeing clearly, knowing reality. And that's within the life of a vulnerable human body like we all have. Our karmic predicaments don't, you know, it's not the problem either. We can deal with our peculiar karma or character tendencies. Report an error in the passage at 58:41 Highlight the passage at 58:41

59:16 If we know this, we can also live in society without being caught in all its foolishness and fears that we can't help but experience. Just living in England, we have to, you know... We are going to be affected by the vibrations, by what people believe in, by the fashions, the attitudes, the values, the ideals of the society, or the fears and the dreads of society that are generated in the human consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 59:16 Highlight the passage at 59:16

59:59 But if our refuge is in Buddha Dhamma Saṅgha, then... This means to me, this is simple, imminent attentiveness and investigating it, like really, you know, cultivating it in daily life means that you check it out, you know, when I feel I'm suffering or, you know, there's always crises or problems or urgencies in the world. Report an error in the passage at 59:59 Highlight the passage at 59:59

1:00:28 And so, you know, I think, I remember coming back from Being away from Amaravati for a while, and then I'd come back and they'd all meet me at Heathrow Airport, and I wonder what crises they're going to greet me with. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:28 Highlight the passage at 1:00:28

1:00:52 Who wants to disrobe now? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:52 Highlight the passage at 1:00:52

1:01:01 And so I find myself kind of, you know... now, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:01 Highlight the passage at 1:01:01

1:01:10 Wanting to find out, but also not wanting, you know. Everything's fine, Ajahn Sumedho. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:10 Highlight the passage at 1:01:10

1:01:20 And so, you know, it's nice to hear, everything's fine. Don't tell me anymore right now, I'm not quite ready to face reality yet. So, because, you know, in the Saṅgha life or wherever, you know, like here, we've got, you know, such a good life that mean... Report an error in the passage at 1:01:20 Highlight the passage at 1:01:20

1:01:41 You know, the crises wouldn't maybe be all that important in somebody else's life. But, you know, we can get very frustrated and caught up in rather seemingly insignificant things because of the way our life is, you know. So, you know, we get very caught up in... Report an error in the passage at 1:01:41 Highlight the passage at 1:01:41

1:02:11 Should you chant in Pāli or English? Or like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:11 Highlight the passage at 1:02:11

1:02:22 Now everyone is Bhikkhuni Saṅgha, you know. Should we re-establish Bhikkhuni Saṅgha or not? And that's a hot issue, you know. So these are the crises or the conditions that people can get very attached to, very caught up into. this. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:22 Highlight the passage at 1:02:22

1:02:43 into causes or views and opinions, so then we This can be our whole way of relating to life here, is our own view, our own particular axe to grind, or our own good cause, or whatever, can take over rather than realizing the suffering, recognizing attachment. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:43 Highlight the passage at 1:02:43

1:03:17 So nirvāṇa then is non-attachment and that's recognizable. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:17 Highlight the passage at 1:03:17

1:03:25 Or in the Third Noble Truth, realized. It's the insight into the cessation of suffering is realization. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:25 Highlight the passage at 1:03:25

1:03:37 The absence of suffering or suffering has ceased is like this. Cessation or realization. Because the suffering, when we let go, then the suffering will cease. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:37 Highlight the passage at 1:03:37

1:03:51 And there's still consciousness and awareness, but there's wisdom also along with it to recognize the absence of dukkha, of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:51 Highlight the passage at 1:03:51

1:04:05 And so this is, you know, in terms of realization, then reality includes both recognizing, realizing the unconditioned and discerning. the condition, knowing the condition as the condition. it's not an annihilation or an attack or suppression of conditions of any sort, but what they are and knowing the result of attachment, binding yourself, yourself to conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:05 Highlight the passage at 1:04:05

1:04:45 I hear the clink of cups, Report an error in the passage at 1:04:45 Highlight the passage at 1:04:45

1:04:55 She's been doing this for years now. I never have to ask her to do it. She does it all on her own. So we all appreciate giving for so many years. Always providing, especially on Sunday afternoons, tea and so forth. So at this time I will stop talking and you can all be silent then. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:55 Highlight the passage at 1:04:55

1:05:28 Because I'm the one breaking the silence, aren't I? That's why I feel like a hypocrite. And then invite you all to have tea and then in about 20 minutes or so those interested we can discuss this further. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:28 Highlight the passage at 1:05:28