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- 9:53
The five precepts, they are the basic moral precepts. Non-violence is the first one, not intentionally. It's about intention rather than the act itself. So like sometimes we accidentally kill somebody, something, but our intention was not to do it. Then the second is around property, not to intentionally take something, steal something.
- 19:22
You know, like in the Buddhist scriptures, Angulimala was a murderer, you know, a serial killer, you know. He wasn't just, you know, murdered a man who he caught making love to his wife. He was actually deliberately going out and killing good people, and quite intentionally. So this serial murder...
- 41:51
Right, like non-self, anattā, is a very interesting one, because it generally makes it, you know, because we identify self very much with the personality. And so we think of, you know, if I don't have a... If there's no self, then I'm just kind of a bland, nothing, you know, and no personality, no passion, no, you know, you're just kind of a zombie maybe.
- 56:17
And the desire to get rid of things was not even a desire in my mind before I started meditating. A lot of my life had been Based on the desire to get rid of desire, or the desire to get rid of anger, or the desire to get rid of greed and jealousy, things like this, desire to get rid of these bad things. And so in meditation, by examining that second noble truth, I had a strong insight in how much of my life was...
- 1:01:19
And so just by observing that, You naturally, you have this insight into letting go of those desires, which isn't getting rid of them. It's not a rejection of desire. It's understanding desire and the suffering that comes from being attached to desire that you can liberate yourself from it. So it's not like you're getting rid of them at all. You're learning from them. And so this is like in monastic life, you know, we...
Transcript
0:05 Well, it takes, we've found we've had good, we try to just make it, you know, less inviting for rats. Report an error in the passage at 0:05
0:21 No, no, they don't, I've not noticed any. Report an error in the passage at 0:21
0:30 And, I mean, I found in living as a Buddhist monk where you actually, you know, it's an offense to kill, intentionally kill. me. Report an error in the passage at 0:30
0:43 I found out, you know, like living in tropical countries where there are so many, you know, they're alive, like Thailand is an ant hill, is a termite mound, the whole country. You can't sit down anywhere for very long without being covered with ants or termites. Report an error in the passage at 0:43
1:11 And mosquitoes, things like this. But in living as a Buddhist monk, we learn how to make our accommodations so that it was very difficult for them to get in. Report an error in the passage at 1:11
1:31 And also there's a lot of feeling of just respecting life. It changes one's attitude towards vermin. And I think, you know, there's a psychic realm that we're influencing here that is, you know, is not generally acknowledged or even known about. So like in, we've had, you know, quite good results sometimes in just, you know, in just the sense of our own Report an error in the passage at 1:31
2:11 Loving kindness practices. So we've never had to call in people to kill the rats here. Report an error in the passage at 2:11
2:22 And at Chithurst, Chithurst has become, you know, a rabbit refuge. Report an error in the passage at 2:22
2:32 They're everywhere. When you just change your attitude from liking beautiful flower gardens and shrubs to appreciating rabbits. Report an error in the passage at 2:32
2:45 Rabbits are everywhere. Report an error in the passage at 2:45
3:15 Do Report an error in the passage at 3:15
3:20 you keep the fox in order to get rid of the rats? Report an error in the passage at 3:20
3:30 It's another moral dilemma, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 3:30
· · · silence, 1 minute
4:14 No, they say they're attracted to the heat of anger. Report an error in the passage at 4:14
4:22 I noticed in living in Thailand for ten years where at first the mosquitoes, where I hated them and where they'd make me angry, then I... I did have a problem, but the last few years living there, I don't remember it being a problem. I stopped taking malaria medicines, and I didn't use the mosquito net all that much, and I never remember it being a problem, because my attitude changed towards them. Report an error in the passage at 4:22
5:24 Yeah, that's how I would find that interpretation. Useful. useful because you know like expecting Maitreya to be some kind of savior out there to come and save us to me I even though Report an error in the passage at 5:24
5:49 I certainly wouldn't mind that if that happened I wouldn't object in any way don't get me wrong Messiah comes and Maitreya I'm quite happy for them to come and clean up the mess but I can't You know, I feel it somehow unrealistic and irresponsible to wait or to ask somebody else to do it. You know, so then you're suddenly looking at yourself again and that state where, you know, is a Maitreya state of mind where Maitreya Buddha represents the loving-kindness aspect. Report an error in the passage at 5:49
6:30 Like Shakyamuni Buddha is the compassionate Buddha that taught about suffering and freedom from suffering. Maitreya Buddha represents the joyfulness that comes through love. And it's more on the level of muditā or joy. And this to me is also a mental state I find in my own practice more natural to me. Report an error in the passage at 6:30
7:04 Now, where I remember like 20 years ago, even though I liked the idea of muditā, of sympathetic joy, I didn't actually understand it very well. My consciousness hadn't quite reached that level yet. A lot of compassion, I had a lot of karuṇā or compassion for suffering, for the suffering. But a real joy in the beauty and goodness of this universe is too cynical, still too cynical and too much concerned with the suffering of life. Report an error in the passage at 7:04
7:53 And then as the spiritual life developed, now I find this muditā much more natural to the way I relate to life. A lot more joy and rejoicing in the beauty and goodness of life and in the goodness of other people, other beings. Report an error in the passage at 7:53
8:19 And even though I always understood that up here, it hadn't registered as all that much within the heart till now it's much more strong and alive in me. And then I would say that is... One could regard that as the Maitreya Buddha, birth of the Maitreya Buddha. Not that I'm saying Maitreya Buddha, but that quality is definitely the quality of Maitreya Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 8:19
8:57 That's more useful to think like that, isn't it? Than to think that that's something very remote from us, totally separate from everyone. Report an error in the passage at 8:57
9:14 Or something that we don't have. And that's where this awakening, this Buddha sense of awakening is then awakening to that reality too. Report an error in the passage at 9:14
9:29 Because we can say we all have it, but maybe we aren't awakened to it. We don't know it. Or we've forgotten all about it. Report an error in the passage at 9:29
9:53 The five precepts, they are the basic moral precepts. Non-violence is the first one, not intentionally. It's about intention rather than the act itself. Report an error in the passage at 9:53
10:16 So like sometimes we accidentally kill somebody, something, but our intention was not to do it. Then the second is around property, not to intentionally take something, steal something. And that also implies a respect for the property of other beings, especially like human beings. But also, as you expand that, it's respect for the property or the lives of other creatures or the nests of the birds and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 10:16
10:52 I mean, it's learning. You can start out from just as they relate to humanity, like not killing a human being, not stealing from your neighbors. But then these precepts also can be expanded to greater proportions, like not intentionally taking the life of other creatures or not taking things that don't belong to you and that belong to, say, the animal kingdom, which is certainly not a crime in this society, just to take what... Report an error in the passage at 10:52
11:31 The third is around to refrain from irresponsible sexual activities such as adultery and promiscuous habits. It's to take responsibility for our sexuality. sexuality Report an error in the passage at 11:31
12:06 Fourth is around speech, to not tell lies or speak, try to delude people with speech or insult or harm or hurt people with insults. So it's taking responsibility for speaking. Then the fifth is around addictive drugs, drink, to refrain from taking intoxicants. So that's the basis of five precepts. Report an error in the passage at 12:06
12:40 And these are precepts, therefore, like I said, it's criteria rather than commandments. So it gives you a sense of being able to work it out rather than to make yourself rigid with the most strict, most kind of rigid interpretation of morality. Report an error in the passage at 12:40
13:07 And so the whole aim of the Buddha is to to encourage better behavior rather than to command a kind of high standard of conduct. Report an error in the passage at 13:07
13:24 work in Thailand, for example, where... Report an error in the passage at 13:24
13:31 monks might be living in areas where people are quite violent one monk I know lives on the coast in the Gulf of Thailand and a lot of the village the men are fishermen and they're oftentimes quite rough and there's a lot of killing going on. There's a lot of murders in that area. were the pirates that used to the Vietnamese boat people and they're really rough humans. Report an error in the passage at 13:31
14:04 you know then they quite and they're quite willing to kill each other And so he would try to aim at not killing each other. He wasn't teaching non-violence about fish. If he just could get them to stop killing each other, that would be, you know, that's what you could aim for. And that's what he had the best result in doing because they depended on fishing for their living. So you couldn't present them with this very high standard that a monk has. Report an error in the passage at 14:04
14:39 But you could present them with a standard that was to their benefit and would help them to develop. You see, where moral precepts are held up high and commanded, then oftentimes you just have to, because they're so high for you that you just can't, you throw out the whole lot. There's no way to... To grow or develop, but you're just saying, well, I can't do that, so you just turn your back on the whole thing. Where with Buddhadharma, it's always this kind of, it's working with the flow of life and with meeting needs of different types of human beings. Report an error in the passage at 14:39
15:35 And therefore, it can be wishy-washy, I admit. Buddhists can be very morally kind of, you know, anything goes in that. That's not what I'm saying. But in the awakened state, you're learning, you're actually encouraging what is wholesome in yourself. And through that, then you begin to want to refine and be better once you see your own potential for that. Report an error in the passage at 15:35
16:11 But if I hold up this very high standard that I live by... Report an error in the passage at 16:11
16:26 I can't be a Buddhist. It's too high. Report an error in the passage at 16:26
16:34 else. Report an error in the passage at 16:34
· · · silence, 1 minute
17:10 It could, I mean it could, you know, I'm not... Report an error in the passage at 17:10
17:15 mean, sometimes it does. Report an error in the passage at 17:15
17:21 There's been doing these, like Mr. Goenka, Goenkaji, has been, there's an Indian man that comes here, Mr. Sidhu, and he lives in Dunstable, but now he spends a lot of time in India teaching in prisons in Delhi, teaching meditation to prisoners in New Delhi. And he said it's, And in Indian prisons, they seem to allow this. And he said it's very good, you know, that it has a good effect because, you know, a lot of these men and women who are in these prisons, they can awaken. Report an error in the passage at 17:21
18:13 You know, you can, like Victoria works with prisoners in Rome, and they can. Some can be quite right because they certainly suffer a lot. They certainly know what suffering is. And if you just leave them in a prison just with other prisoners to talk about criminal things, you're influencing them. You're not giving them anything to help them get beyond that state. And if you humiliate... Report an error in the passage at 18:13
19:20 mean, even the most... You know, like in the Buddhist scriptures, Angulimala was a murderer, you know, a serial killer, you know. He wasn't just, you know, murdered a man who he caught making love to his wife. He was actually deliberately going out and killing good people, and quite intentionally. So this serial murder... Report an error in the passage at 19:20
19:52 He murdered 999 people. He's called Angulima the Finger Murderer. He wore a necklace. He cut off the finger of each one of his victims. He was really a heavy number, a really gruesome man. And the Buddha was the... He was trying to kill the Buddha. And the Buddha awakened him. see. Report an error in the passage at 19:52
20:25 They only got 999 fingers. And he actually became a completely enlightened being. This is in the traditional scripture. He became an Arahant. He wasn't just a kind of reformed member. He actually attained the full, complete enlightenment of the Arahant. And then the story goes, well, he was such a despised and feared murderer that... Report an error in the passage at 20:25
20:54 That when they heard that he'd been enlightened, nobody believed it. So wherever he'd go, people would say, Angulimala is here, and they'd all run and scream or throw rocks at him. But because he was an Arahant, he recognized that was what they call the results of his murdering life. So he didn't get angry or get lost by the results of people's... Report an error in the passage at 20:54
21:23 people's fear. He was awakened to his true nature. I mean, that's a rather, you know, that's a legendary story. But it does signify what... What the Buddha's teaching is, it's awakening the individual. And the people in prisons, they can be awakened just like any of us can. In fact, sometimes, probably, some of them might be really ready for it. Report an error in the passage at 21:23
· · · silence, 1 minute
23:14 It's also just to trust the fact that because you are here, there's something in you. You know, that's being reached, we're being touched. And so that sometimes you don't even know it. You know, you're not even aware of it. But there's always a point in someone's life, well not always, but in many lives, where suddenly you remember something. Report an error in the passage at 23:14
23:51 And that remembering of something, maybe you heard it a talk here or... I remember meeting a monk in Thailand. When he got married, he was a village boy, and he got married, and his wife's family, they were devotees of Ajahn Chah. They forced him to go to visit Ajahn Chah one day. The last thing he was interested in was in religion, but he went because the in-laws insisted, so he went with his wife. Report an error in the passage at 23:51
24:29 And he sat there and listened to one of Ajahn Chah's talks and he just kind of put up with it and was glad to get out. But ten years later, his wife died suddenly and he lost everything. And at that moment, he suddenly remembered something he heard Ajahn Chah say ten years before when he was forced to go by his in-laws. Report an error in the passage at 24:29
24:54 And he remembered something. And that... You know, it hadn't really sunk in until ten years later. And then that really changed him because then he went and he became a monk. He's still a monk to this day. Report an error in the passage at 24:54
25:15 That's why you never know what, you know, like you... You know, there's a part of me that sometimes, you know, living in community life and living here at Amaravati in a large community and all this is... Report an error in the passage at 25:15
26:03 you know, go off to a cave live a peaceful life far away from the maddening crowd. Report an error in the passage at 26:03
26:17 I made this resolution years ago when I first ordained, when I was a novice monk. I made this resolution which was to the effect that if I could just help one person ...other than myself to be a little better than they are, I've not wasted my life. Put it on a very low level. I wasn't expecting to save the world or influence a lot of people or do anything grand. In this lifetime, if I've been able to help this one other person or to get... Report an error in the passage at 26:17
27:11 One other person to have real faith and trust in the Buddha, I've not wasted my life. So that, I keep remembering because I made that resolution over 30 years ago. And yet I've influenced a lot of people over the years. And I get a lot of letters from people about how Report an error in the passage at 27:11
27:52 So then this, when I think of this, I feel a lot of joy in the life. Report an error in the passage at 27:52
28:02 know, when people disrobe or leave or they get disillusioned or that. But there's a point in their life where that will stop too and they'll remember. When you judge it on a personal level or how it appears, oftentimes you get it all wrong. If you're just going on the immediacy of an emotional reaction or taking it all too personally, then you can make yourself quite negative for no good reason. Report an error in the passage at 28:02
28:43 That's what... Like Ajahn Chah would keep saying that, like planting a mango seed. He said, all you have to do is you've got to plant it in the right way. And then you try to protect it so you see it gets enough water. When it grows, you try to protect it so that the rabbits don't eat it, destroy it. But, no Report an error in the passage at 28:43
29:14 you don't. You protect it in some way. You don't kill. But then, that's all you can do. How fast the mango tree grows is up to it, you know. Where sometimes, you know, you feel, you plant the seed and you say, I want you to grow up quick. Report an error in the passage at 29:14
29:38 How many years did I plant you and you're just this big? I want you to be this big. Report an error in the passage at 29:38
29:49 That's another one I keep reminding myself. And, video. Report an error in the passage at 29:49
29:55 It's up to the mango tree to grow according to its nature, fast or slow. Report an error in the passage at 29:55
30:12 Have you found quite a few? Report an error in the passage at 30:12
30:25 It's like sometimes getting terminal illness is a turning point. Like people get cancer or AIDS suddenly. Suddenly they live pretty heedless, indulgent lives and then suddenly they find they've got this terminal illness and it awakens them to their spiritual nature. Report an error in the passage at 30:25
30:50 The who? The murderers. Report an error in the passage at 30:50
31:15 Which are the most hopeless ones? Report an error in the passage at 31:15
· · · silence, 1 minute
32:14 Marx saw religion in a kind of... Because when you look at the history of religion, you can get a very ugly picture. Just like Islam at this time, through the popular press, you get... You get a very ugly picture of Islam, don't you, through this fatwa on Salman Rushdie and things like this. So you feel and you hear about Islamic terrorists and things like this. So then you can make a case against religion. Report an error in the passage at 32:14
32:57 I remember reading a few years ago, somebody gave me this book. written by somebody in Hong Kong about the history of the Roman Catholic Church. And all it recorded was all the bad things that had been done in the name of Roman Catholicism. So you read the whole book, and at the end of it you thought, my mother and father and my sister, they're all Roman Catholics. Report an error in the passage at 32:57
33:31 And I thought... Oh, my dear. You know, it's like reading the whole list of, you know, of dirty laundry. And you never, you know, not a bit of cleanliness in the whole lot. And yet, and so you can, you know, make a judgment, value judgment against religion through looking at all the bad things they've done or the negative side. Report an error in the passage at 33:31
33:59 But in Buddhism, you can find plenty wrong with that. In any Buddhist country you'll see a lot of things that you don't like, or you could make a case for Buddhism being the opiate of the people. But it's not religion, it's the ignorance. So, I mean, you might belong to religion, but if you don't use it rightly, then it doesn't work. Report an error in the passage at 33:59
34:17 Ignorance. And this is... Report an error in the passage at 34:17
34:29 You can say you're anything. Say you're Christian or Buddhist or Jehovah's Witness. But if you don't use it rightly for liberation, then it's not the fault of the religion. It's you yourself have just used it as an opiate to blind yourself. And I think for Marx himself, he was... The opium for him was the intellect. Report an error in the passage at 34:29
35:04 He thought he could, he felt he could figure it all out with his brain, I think. You know, some brilliant ideas. And so you can make a case against, you know, you can be anti-intellectual too. And be, you know, some people get very, you know, averse and critical of intellectualizing life. And yet the intellect is also another wonderful tool we have. It's how you use it. It's really how the awakened mind, how we use our intelligence, how we use our culture. Report an error in the passage at 35:04
35:46 Like here in... You can make a strong case against... I'm an American, so I can... I've been brought up with a critical view towards European... European you know, especially Report an error in the passage at 35:46
36:07 know, coming from the colonies and that. This is a cultural bias that you pick up from being educated in an ex-colony. Report an error in the passage at 36:07
36:25 But when you come here, it's not. You know, you realize all that is, you know, it wasn't really that way, you know, completely, you know, we were propagandized too in the American system. They only gave their side of the story, you know, to support their view. Report an error in the passage at 36:25
36:52 So who are you going to believe, you know? So the only thing is to awaken the mind. And then the intellect. Like Buddhism, Theravāda Buddhism, say. All these things, then you can use them in a skillful way, rather than just, you know, abuse them or misuse them. Report an error in the passage at 36:52
37:24 It's like this freedom we have to, it's like awakening the mind. Then you can go out into life and really have a sense of being able to use what you have. Like life here in England. How can we live here? Report an error in the passage at 37:24
37:42 And so that our relationship to this country that we're living in is a benefit to oneself and to the rest, to the other people. These are the kind of questions you ask when you awaken. Rather than come here and say, what can I get out of this place? What are my rights? What do they owe me? How can I work the system to get all I can out of it, to milk the... Report an error in the passage at 37:42
38:10 The welfare state for my own benefit. Or, you know, that is, you know, quite easy to just take this country for granted and just try to exploit it for your own ends. Report an error in the passage at 38:10
38:27 Or, as you wake and then you want to, you know, how can I live in this country as a blessing to the people living here rather than as just a... Another kind of greedy, selfish person getting what they can out of the system. I remember in the Navy, it was terrible, the mentality you developed by being in the American military. Report an error in the passage at 38:27
38:56 It was just, what can I get out of this? How can I cheat the government? The whole philosophy. ...of military life that I saw back in the 50s, the mid-50s, was how to rip off the system. Report an error in the passage at 38:56
39:20 That was... And that wasn't very useful conditioning, you know. Because, you know, four years of that kind of experience. And unfortunately... I didn't like that. But a lot of people are very much caught into those ideas of what can I get, how can I get everything that I want for myself. Report an error in the passage at 39:20
39:55 Or they just complain when they can't. Oh, the Americans, you know, or the British, you know, you can't. And you just complain and whinge. Report an error in the passage at 39:55
40:23 your life really uh and and not developing that sense of liberation that comes through through awakening to life where then the conditions you find yourself in you can you can The good ones, then you can respect and encourage. And the ones that aren't so good, then you have a better perspective than just hating and complaining about the unfairness or the injustices of the system. Report an error in the passage at 40:23
40:54 Then you just become a kind of negative force that complains and blames. But if you awaken the mind, then you can appreciate also the good side of it. And make that more conscious, so then what you say isn't coming, isn't just a gripe, just a whinging person. Report an error in the passage at 40:54
· · · silence, 1 minute
41:51 Right, like non-self, anattā, is a very interesting one, because it generally makes it, you know, because we identify self very much with the personality. Report an error in the passage at 41:51
42:07 And so we think of, you know, if I don't have a... If there's no self, then I'm just kind of a bland, nothing, you know, and no personality, no passion, no, you know, you're just kind of a zombie maybe. It's hard to imagine, but, you know, just totally indifferent. Like the monk that first told me about upeka, equanimity, he said it means indifference. Report an error in the passage at 42:07
42:38 He said the highest... Attainment for a Buddhist is indifference. That sounds really... Report an error in the passage at 42:38
42:50 Because indifference doesn't matter. A million people slaughtered in Rwanda. Who cares? Report an error in the passage at 42:50
43:03 But that's just a Thai monk's... You probably got that definition from some kind of dictionary. But in terms of experience, like equanimity is like balance. Report an error in the passage at 43:03
43:24 And so rather than indifference, it's balance. Equanimous, you know. And so if you have no equanimity, then you tend to go up and down with conditions. Report an error in the passage at 43:24
43:40 When everything's going well, you're high. When everything's going wrong, you're depressed. If you have equanimity, you have a balance, a kind of transcending the experiences, which doesn't give you a kind of bland, zombie-like character, but it gives you the ability to respond in a wise way to success and failure or praise and blame. Report an error in the passage at 43:40
44:06 Like I feel now, you know, through meditation, much kind of... A sense of strength and confidence in dealing with the world that I didn't have when I was caught in my emotional habits where I got frightened because I could get overwhelmed. People could make me angry and I couldn't help it. I could be manipulated by people very easily because I was just a victim of my emotional habits. Report an error in the passage at 44:06
44:39 So you become very furtive and I became quite frightened of society because I'd suffer too much from my emotional reactions of either going too far one way or just suppressing my feelings and just being lost in not knowing how to deal with emotions. And then in... Monastic life, then I've been able to get some perspective on my emotional habits. No, no, but also you're finding a more balanced, mature emotional world. Report an error in the passage at 44:39
45:27 Rather than being caught in just a very, like a lot of my emotions were still very childish emotions. And that was frightening as you're, you know, an adult, physically adult man and you've got childish emotions. And so, you know, it's rather, you know, it's very embarrassing and you feel quite depressed by it. Report an error in the passage at 45:27
45:54 But then as you resolve that, then your emotional world is much more, it's with the life and it has ability to love and to respond in a mature and... Report an error in the passage at 45:54
46:25 inadequate or over-the-top situations. Report an error in the passage at 46:25
46:34 then it is, that's what spontaneity is, rather than react, say, or impulsivity, where you're just in impulsively reacting to things. spontaneity is the ability to respond. Report an error in the passage at 46:34
46:51 To what's happening. Because I use the word spontaneity as coming from the wisdom rather than from just impulsive habits. Report an error in the passage at 46:51
47:10 Like in Berkeley, California where I live, they use spontaneity for everything. Like, you know, be spontaneous. And I just thought of spontaneity, just be spontaneous. But it ended up being just impulsive. And Report an error in the passage at 47:10
47:32 so you're trying to be spontaneous. You feel terrible because you don't feel spontaneous and you're trying to be. That's kind of like an idea where when you can trust yourself, have Report an error in the passage at 47:32
47:59 a confidence and a strength through understanding, then... Then you trust in spontaneity, you know, because it, you know, you can trust it. It's not just based on some idea that it's a good thing, but it's a natural way of responding to praise or blame or good fortune or misfortune to the experiences of the world. Report an error in the passage at 47:59
48:43 Yes, well, it's... Report an error in the passage at 48:43
48:49 Well, he uses words like mettā, karuṇā. He uses Brahmavihara terms. So compassion, karuṇā, and muditā, which is joy, being able to rejoice in the goodness of others, in the beauties of life, in the goodness, what's truthful, and to rejoice in that. And then mettā is like unconditioned love. It's like in Christianity, like unconditioned love, Christian love. Report an error in the passage at 48:49
49:36 In Buddhism it would be mettā practice, where you're, like mettā is an unconditioned love. It's a total acceptance of something for what it is without any conditions demanding, you know, expectations. Report an error in the passage at 49:36
49:55 It's very much at the heart of it, like mettā, karuṇā, muditā, upeka is equanimity. And these come from the purity of the mind. Like the Buddha is emphasizing how to clear the mind from these delusions so that these, like mettā, karuṇā, muditā, upeka, are then manifesting from that purity. They're not just ideals. Report an error in the passage at 49:55
50:26 You know, that you, I must love everybody and then find out, you know, when you get in a traffic jam, you're cursing. Report an error in the passage at 50:26
50:43 Panyathara, the Thai monk, he sent me a cartoon from a newspaper yesterday. He sent me a letter. It shows this group called the Institute of Universal Love and Inner Being. And so these people sitting there, you know, like this, in a kind of state of bliss about love, and then the next picture they're standing up, they're hugging each other in ecstasy. Report an error in the passage at 50:43
51:17 And then there's another one, then the fourth one is they're out, they've left the institute and they're out in the traffic jam and they're cursing at each other. say. Report an error in the passage at 51:17
· · · silence, 1 minute
51:55 don't know if that was good or not. Report an error in the passage at 51:55
· · · silence, 1 minute
52:34 Well, you know, like those, those are the, what they call the divine messengers. Old age, sickness, death. Like old age and sickness and pain and death, loss of loved ones. Before we die, we lose. Report an error in the passage at 52:34
52:57 They're the awakening. They're oftentimes the things that awaken you. Like you're saying in the prison, the suffering that comes, the guilt, the remorse, the sickness that they're having to deal with, for some will awaken them to a spiritual path and to non-self. So like anattā, it isn't like a... It isn't like a... Report an error in the passage at 52:57
53:27 Like sometimes people misread Buddhism and saying they make it into a kind of philosophy of denial. There's no self. You shouldn't be attached to anything. You should get rid of all your desires. And the highest state is nibbāna, which is extinction. That's usually oftentimes the hard line Theravadan approach, which is very uninspiring. Report an error in the passage at 53:27
53:57 You have to be a kind of nihilist to appreciate that one. But then you can contemplate the Buddha's style of teaching wasn't nihilistic and wasn't coming from doctrinal positions. He's not saying you shouldn't have any desires and that And that self is bad and you shouldn't have any self at all and that there's really no self and no soul, there's no God and you should not be attached to anything. Report an error in the passage at 53:57
54:41 He wasn't saying that. That's how people read it sometimes. But what he's saying in the scriptures when you contemplate them is there is suffering because of this, because of attachment, ignorance and attachment. If there's ignorance of the way things are, then there's attachment, and the result's always going to be some form of suffering. But this is to be investigated. Report an error in the passage at 54:41
55:12 So many people, even here at Amaravati, will say, I'm trying to get rid of my desires. I've got a lot of desires still. Monks or nuns will say, Report an error in the passage at 55:12
55:26 I've got to get rid of my desires. And I still have a lot of desires. I've got to get rid of them. How can I get rid of them? But desire is to be understood, to be examined. So like when you're contemplating according to the Four Noble Truths, and the Second Noble Truth is around recognizing desire for what it is, not condemning. Report an error in the passage at 55:26
55:57 But really knowing. So they give three kinds of desires. And this I found very helpful, you know, because to me desire was just, you know, just a category that included, but had no, there was no discrimination within that category, just any kind of wanting whatsoever. Report an error in the passage at 55:57
56:17 And the desire to get rid of things was not even a desire in my mind before I started meditating. A lot of my life had been Based on the desire to get rid of desire, or the desire to get rid of anger, or the desire to get rid of greed and jealousy, things like this, desire to get rid of these bad things. Report an error in the passage at 56:17
56:41 And so in meditation, by examining that second noble truth, I had a strong insight in how much of my life was... was, was... you know influenced by this desire to get rid of things uh and so uh and then i began to observe that as an experience how much i wanted to get rid when when i felt angry how i wanted to get rid of it or like like if i felt jealous how much i wanted to stop it and get rid of it or if i felt uh uh you know some some of these emotions that i i wanted to get rid of them i wanted to um Not have these things. And so there is so much in my life based on trying to get rid of, to resist, which I didn't even, wasn't even aware of. Report an error in the passage at 56:41
57:39 Because it seemed right in a way. It seemed that you were doing the right thing. That if something's bad, you get rid of it. And these are bad, so you know, the logic is there. You get rid of them. It's like exterminating, you know, spraying the ants with insecticide. Report an error in the passage at 57:39
57:57 You know, it's expedient. They're bad things. Killing mosquitoes is a good thing. Mosquitoes, they're nasty little creatures that give you malaria. Kill them. There's logic there. It's reasonable. But then when you examine that desire to get rid of, what is it like? Well, I've found like desire for sense pleasure, that's fairly easy to see. How longing for something that you don't have. Report an error in the passage at 57:57
58:27 You know, you... I remember as a layman, I used to like to go and eat in restaurants because before you went, you'd be thinking all day, I'm going to eat in this lovely restaurant. And you'd anticipate it. And then you'd dress up and you'd go out and you'd go to some posh restaurant and the candle light and soft music. Report an error in the passage at 58:27
59:00 All this, and then you order the food. Pretty soon it's all gone. And sometimes you didn't even know what you were eating. Report an error in the passage at 59:00
59:17 But even if you did, even if you managed to really enjoy the meal, then it was gone, and then what next? You had to have something else to anticipate. You know, you build a life always anticipating, you know, the next sensual pleasure, you know, the holiday or the whatever you had in mind that you were going to look forward to. Report an error in the passage at 59:17
59:44 And the actual thing in itself didn't last very long. You know, so you got what you wanted. Then what? You know, what next? So I'd become what they call a quidnunc. And a quidnunc is a person that's always saying, what's next? Report an error in the passage at 59:44
1:00:00 So I observed like gama dhanah was like that. I was always anticipating the next thing and in the next sensual pleasure. Then the bhava dhanah was the desire for becoming, like ambition and all that, the desire to become something. And always, I'm not good enough the way I am now. I know I'm a mess. I know I've got a lot of problems. I'm going to work hard, really put this meditation into effect, and I'm going to become an enlightened person, hopefully, in the future sometime. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:00
1:00:39 The desire for becoming. And in order to become this enlightened being, I've got to get rid of these defilements that I've got loads of. Loads of defilements and sins, bad habits I've got to get rid of. So then in like investigating the desire, you know, you're not getting rid of it. You're not making a judgment, but you're just noticing what is it like to be caught always in this desire realm, you know, looking forward to the next thing, trying to become something that you're not now and trying to get rid of things that you have now that you don't want. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:39
1:01:19 And so just by observing that, You naturally, you have this insight into letting go of those desires, which isn't getting rid of them. It's not a rejection of desire. It's understanding desire and the suffering that comes from being attached to desire that you can liberate yourself from it. So it's not like you're getting rid of them at all. You're learning from them. And so this is like in monastic life, you know, we... Report an error in the passage at 1:01:19
1:01:56 This is very important in a celibate life and in a life where you don't have wealth, personal wealth, or things like this, so that the life itself brings up very strongly all three desires. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:56
1:02:17 And to get people to encourage people to learn from these desires, the process of Desire, attack, ignorance. Ignorance of the dharma, or the way it is, which then desire out of that ignorance and the attachment to that desire, then the suffering is the result. And as you investigate that more, then you have the insight into letting go into non-attachment, which doesn't mean, you know, just refusing to participate in life anymore, but having a spontaneity and a... Report an error in the passage at 1:02:17
1:02:57 And a sense of being able to be in the present and to respond to the life in the present in a wise and compassionate way, rather than caught in this tight fist of, I've got to become something that I'm not now. In the future sometime, if I work hard enough, I might get enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:57
1:03:24 In order to get enlightenment, I've got to get rid of these terrible thoughts or these immature habits and being caught into, inbound into those kind of attitudes. And then even, you know, that's why the spiritual life can be so despairing, you know, cause so much despair because, you know, you might work so hard at it on that level and then it doesn't work. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:24
1:03:55 You know, we think we should be rewarded for good behavior. So if I really work hard, the work ethic of the Northern Europeans, of the Brits, you know, the work ethic, if I work hard, I get a reward. So if I really work hard, then I will be rewarded for it. Though you put so much energy... into meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:55
1:04:28 And you don't get a reward. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:28
1:04:52 Rather than working from just the conditioning, your already conditioned mind, you're getting to the point of transcending your cultural conditioning. The sense of yourself that you limit yourself with by attachment to the perceptions of yourself as being reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:52
1:05:13 Like we all limit ourselves until we awaken to life. We limit ourselves very much by being attached to What we think we are, and so we, which can be, you know, we can have very limited views of our own worth, or we might actually feel that we're not, you know, we're a basket case, or we're not very good. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:13
1:05:43 I mean, a lot of really good people feel they're not very good, you know, surprising. A lot of very good people oftentimes feel that they're, surprising. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:43
1:05:54 They're not good. They're not good enough. Because they've developed a kind of a perception of themselves based on their flaws or what they see as weaknesses or flaws. And then they hold on to that as what they are. And they're not doing it intentionally, it's more habitually. And so in meditation you're actually... Report an error in the passage at 1:05:54
1:06:24 Transcending that. You're getting to that point of emptiness where you can get some perspective on that habit of what, you know, the perceptions and the assumptions you make about yourself. And then to have no self is a kind of freedom because like you, then you have, then you're not operating from a condition. Then you're able to have spontaneity because you're able to respond to a situation and not have that reactive Report an error in the passage at 1:06:24
1:06:54 A reaction that is filtered through distorted perceptions. So that's why you can trust it because it's coming from a wisdom that is not personal. It's not like I have wisdom, me, this person. Wisdom is natural to all of us and it's not more in me and less in you or whatever. It's a matter of how open we are to it, how willing we are to give ourselves to that wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:54
1:07:37 Yeah, it's certainly, you know, the Buddha was pointing to something that's natural. And Buddhism, as we know it, is a convention, is an expedient tool that he offered, that he left to us. So it's a help. But they call it Bajeka Buddhas, or it's a term in Buddhist terminology meaning... Buddha's who are enlightened, but not through the tradition. So it's like, so there, you know, there's no reason why. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:37
1:08:23 I mean, you find, I've met several people who, you know, seem to be very enlightened, wise beings who know nothing about Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:23
1:08:39 But what they... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:39
1:08:44 But because of their response to life was coming from wisdom, which is universal. So wisdom isn't the prerogative of Buddhism, isn't our discovery. But Buddhism is, if used rightly, then the Buddhist teachings are helping us to waken to that wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:44
1:09:16 And for me, I found that I wasn't the kind of person who operated from a kind of natural, pure state of awareness. I was highly, I had a lot of distortions in my mind and bad habits. So, I mean, I found the Buddha, and yet intuitively, when I first heard Buddha's teachings, intuitively, Report an error in the passage at 1:09:16
1:09:44 I recognized it. I mean, like I was 21 years old and when I first came across Buddhism and I just remember feeling, you know, this is it, this is right. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:44
1:09:58 Even though I didn't know, I couldn't have explained it to you at that time, but something intuitive, an intuition was there. And then, so that was like the light at the end of the tunnel. And then I found the institution itself, like Buddhist monasticism, as I've learned it, in Thailand. I found, like the teacher, Ajahn Chah, was obviously an enlightened man, enlightened being. And so, you know, I kind of, you know, I wasn't about to just throw myself at his feet. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:58
1:10:48 So I did, you know, doubts, and I could see little things I didn't quite like, and I'm quite a critical person, so I could, you know, I wasn't just accepting the package blindly, but living with him for ten years, you know, I could just see the power of this convention as it manifested through somebody like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:48
1:11:16 And then for my own own Report an error in the passage at 1:11:16
1:11:23 I feel a lot of gratitude to Buddha. I really like Buddhism, basically. I like the idea of Buddhas. I like Buddhist countries. And I like Buddhists in general. And the word Buddha, it inspires my mind. And I'm really happy to say I'm a Buddhist monk. I'm not... Report an error in the passage at 1:11:23
1:11:51 I'm quite proud of being a Buddhist monk. And so I've never had a problem with Buddhism, you know, culturally. I've never been embarrassed or ashamed of it. I've always been very proud of it. But I've also seen a lot in the Buddhist world that I don't like. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:51
1:12:17 And, you know, just seeing it being misused or... Misrepresented or the kind of stupid arguments that Buddhists get into and things like that. But then, well, that happens everywhere. You know, the people, you know, it's like grasping the Buddhism and using it as a weapon rather than using it as a... The image I have that I give in one of my books is like it's the key to the door, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:17
1:12:53 The Buddha gives you the key. You're in a prison, you know, you're in this prison cell, and the Buddha gives you the key. Buddha comes, you know, suddenly peers into your cell, and he says, now, he says, here's the key. To get out of this prison, you take this key, you see, and you put it in that little hole there in the door, and you turn it to the right, clockwise. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:53
1:13:22 And then you turn the knob and open the door, and then you can get out. So the man in the prison says, he's so impressed by a Buddha appearing in his cell, and that this Buddha gives him something, that he doesn't hear the instructions. So he just says, Buddha's come to me, and he says, come to me, and he's given me this. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:22
1:13:53 And so if I worship this key, I'll be saved. So he puts it up on the wall and bows every day. And so, you know, it's more likely it will make him happier while he's in prison because he has some faith and to bow and feel happy and love for the key and all that. You know, it's certainly better than sitting there hating the world. So at least it makes you happier while you're in prison. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:53
1:14:23 But he still won't get out, you know. So then the second man, he's in there and the Buddha comes and he says the same thing. But he gets the directions confused. He puts the key into the door, into the keyhole, turns left counterclockwise, turns the knob, the door doesn't open. He says, see, it doesn't work. I knew it. But the person is all wrong. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:23
1:14:54 And the third one, you know, opens and no one gets out. So, I mean, it's an example of, you know, basically it's how to use it rightly. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:54
1:15:12 Like I was saying, even just worshipping, you know, looking at Buddha rūpas with love is better than going around spitting at them and condemning religion. Because you're developing a kind of devotional, Report an error in the passage at 1:15:12
1:15:51 learn how to Report an error in the passage at 1:15:51
1:15:55 To follow the instructions, which is to, in this case, like investigate, you know, in our particular style of Four Noble Truths, the suffering, its causes, and realize cessation and develop the path. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:55
1:16:12 Then you're following the directions. Then you find out. But sometimes you may get the direction, you might misunderstand the directions and feel that it doesn't work. But if you keep... Report an error in the passage at 1:16:12
1:16:27 Try, you know, keep trusting yourself in the awakened state rather than from some kind of egotistical desire. Like sometimes religious people get very inflated, you know, with their piety. Because Buddha came and saw me in the prison cell that I'm special, you know, I'm better than the rest, than the others in the prison. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:27
1:17:01 I mean, you know, you meet people who've had, you know, kind of mystical visions and sometimes they're quite, you know, I've had a mystical vision and I've seen the truth and it all sounds terribly like egotism to me. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:01
1:17:16 But because it isn't, not that they haven't, but they haven't that they're telling a lie or that they didn't have something, but the way they're grasping that memory is the problem. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:16
1:17:27 So the Buddha was pointing to this grasping. It's a very direct thing. Of grasping things is the problem. Desire is not the problem. This is a desire realm. Desire is a part of our experience. It's through understanding desire. And through understanding desire, then we see that grasping desire is like grasping a fire. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:27
1:17:53 It hurts. So you let go. You don't try to... destroy fire but you let go you realize you don't you don't grasp fire you let it go you let it be so Report an error in the passage at 1:17:53
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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