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Key passages
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- 25:34
point, you know, which is each one of us here and now consciousness. in meditation, we're getting back to the natural rhythm. Suddenly we're awakening to just the breathing, the way the body breathes. So kind of focus for meditation.
- 30:18
They're not, we don't create them. We're not judging them. We're not saying it. They're good, bad, or what they should or shouldn't be. We're just noticing the way they are. So, bringing this attention, this awareness, to the way it is, is the Buddha knowing the dharma. In the Satipaṭṭhāna, you have the, like, aware feeling of the sensitivities that we're in, this experience of being sensitive, because we're conscious.
- 37:43
So we do, we recognize that we're willing to feel life. We're no longer frightened of it and asking for special exemptions or anything, you know, or escape from anything because we have this sense of willing to learn from even failure and loss. And being blamed or persecuted, we learn from whatever we have to learn from. Success or failure or praise or blame, good fortune, bad fortune, health or sickness.
- 42:00
Or trying to control, but through accepting. And the word surrender, and this word is an interesting one because it kind of sums up the kind of holy life, really. And yet, I don't know how many people find that word objectionable because it does sound like, you know, giving up in a way. Give up and surrender. And in a kind of negative...
- 47:27
You know, if you really recognize it, not just think, fool yourself that you believe in Buddha, Dhamma, Saṅgha and all that stuff, that kind of cranking it out is some kind of abstract ideal, because it will fail you if that's all you're doing. But it's internalizing it, pointing to something, it's pointing to the present, to the reality of now.
Transcript
0:00 Sambhutasana Murtasa Report an error in the passage at 0:00
0:03 [chanting]
0:18 Aparthade Sangamatasa Thavarahi Soravantabhamu Jantu Sadang Report an error in the passage at 0:18
0:44 This is called Report an error in the passage at 0:44
0:50 Anagarikas. This is a term, Pāli term meaning going forth into the holy life. It's like leaving security in the worldly life. We're developing the brahmacharya, life of purity. Report an error in the passage at 0:50
1:14 So like shaving the head in white, all these are signs of purity. We call brahmacharya, celibacy, or it can mean like brahma always means a kind of sublime and pure, not caught up in old worldly worries, passions, obsessions, and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 1:14
1:51 These are like the conventions that we have in this tradition. So like Andre and Marga have asked to take dependence on the Saṅgha for a year as an agarika. So this is something to kind of really respect because it's rare that human beings want to do this even for a day. Report an error in the passage at 1:51
2:26 So Report an error in the passage at 2:26
2:32 for a year, that's quite a commitment. Report an error in the passage at 2:32
2:43 But during the year, in this form and all that, then of course you're going to experience it. You feel inspired and maybe, you know, a strong sense of commitment and dedication to the life. And then as life goes on, you know, then we have to deal with what we call our karma that comes to us, arises when the conditions are present. Report an error in the passage at 2:43
3:10 So therefore... We go through various emotional experiences, high and low, and loving, hating, and being bored and fed up, being disillusioned. These are part of the holy life. And I think that many of us who became samanas, we had this kind of aspiration. Report an error in the passage at 3:10
3:47 And that gets us into doing something, into kind of making some commitment. And after that commitment is made, then we have to deal with states of mind that are not so inspired or so dedicated or so noble or so pure. And that's learning how to accept that side of ourselves. It's not a matter of just trying to control your mind and trying to... Report an error in the passage at 3:47
4:18 make yourself conform to a convention just through willpower and kind of just making yourself do it but it's learning to really open to what you are feeling to really notice and to accept rather Report an error in the passage at 4:18
4:39 than to make judgments or pass judgments on ourselves when our maybe our feelings or our thoughts aren't a very And this, of course, is easily said, but to do it does take patience, because it's so easy to, you know, we're prone towards being quite self-critical and self-despairaging. So when our thoughts are ignoble, impure, selfish, mean-hearted, and so forth, we can really hate ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 4:39
5:19 And feel we're unworthy of this noble form. Report an error in the passage at 5:19
5:31 And so that's how the conditioned world operates. When we talk about the conditioned realm that we usually, that's all we ever really know and identify with until we learn to trust ourselves to open to life in the present moment. And so, you know, we do tend to see we want to be good and we don't want to be bad and we want to be happy and we don't want to suffer and we want to be respected and appreciated and we don't want to be despised and looked down on and want to be successful and don't want to be failures. Report an error in the passage at 5:31
6:14 This is the dualistic structure of thought. So recognize that when you think about yourself. And try to analyze your life and rationalize, then of course you are stuck in this dualistic structure of thinking. So if you have good, you've got to have bad. And if you have right, then there's wrong. If there's purity, there's impurity. Report an error in the passage at 6:14
6:48 And to just want one side is asking for the impossible. Report an error in the passage at 6:48
6:59 So that's one reason why we do tend to be self-disparaging, because we maybe have noble hearts, but also we can be mean-hearted. And we don't want to be selfish, but then we find ourselves really selfish. We don't want to be vain and conceited, but then we find that these conditions arise in our consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 6:59
7:25 We want to be good and caring. caring and noble hearted and then the opposite can also So the Buddhist path is not in trying to deny one side and grasp the other, but in recognizing, in awakening to the way things are. Report an error in the passage at 7:25
7:49 So this Buddhist path is a path for awakening. And that awakening really I've become very fond of because it's, you know, just, That seems to be the real essence of the Buddhist teaching. You can sum it up with just one word, awake. Report an error in the passage at 7:49
8:15 If you want to know what the essential, the core of it is, the essence. Report an error in the passage at 8:15
8:26 So we tend to think, well, I'm awake. But are we awake, really? Just because my eyes are open, you know, I can be lost in a fantasy realm. I can be... Plotting a revolution. I can be, you know, doing all kinds of things. Making, you know, feeling sorry for myself or hating somebody or being besotted by somebody else. Report an error in the passage at 8:26
8:52 There's all kinds of things. It's dwelling in a world of weariness and boredom and self-hatred or worry, anxiety about what might happen. Getting old now. What's going to happen to an old man? What's going to happen if the present government doesn't seem to care that much for old people? Report an error in the passage at 8:52
9:21 And unlike this, I could think about voting Tory next time. So I'm living in a world of my ideas, fears, and desires. Or awakening to that. Report an error in the passage at 9:21
9:45 So the word Buddha itself means awake, to awaken that which is awake. So when you take refuge in the Buddha, then this is what you're really doing. You're not taking refuge in some kind of dead sage. Or, you know, 2,500 years ago, somebody called Buddha lived, and you're taking refuge in somebody that's dead. Report an error in the passage at 9:45
10:11 That's not refuge. Or in just some kind of sentimental view of Buddha, not just kind of idealizing it, but seeing that this is a reality, it's not just some kind of idealized form or just a pointless ceremony that you've gone through. Report an error in the passage at 10:11
10:38 So for me, Buddha is this awakeness. It means paying attention to life. Here and now, the dhamma is all about the present, here and now. Taking refuge in the dhamma, or the truth of the way it is, is not taking refuge in some kind of abstract metaphysical teaching or something that is, you know, remote and distant. Report an error in the passage at 10:38
11:08 It's about here and now, taking refuge in this present moment, being fully with life. As it is in the present, as you're experiencing it. So if you're feeling inspired and noble-hearted and totally unselfish and compassionate, or you're feeling miserable, mean-hearted and nasty, the refuge isn't in the quality of any of those thoughts, but recognizing that those are mere moods or thoughts, temporary conditions. Report an error in the passage at 11:08
11:45 So it's the Buddha, this awakened state, that recognizes, that knows things as they are. When you forget your refuge, then you start making judgments. You think, oh, I should be grateful and thankful, and I should be unselfish, but I'm not. I'm mean-hearted, and oh, I have to think about myself. Report an error in the passage at 11:45
12:06 And then we go on like that. Then we've lost the refuge again. We're caught in this realm of me and mine and the appearance, the habit. habit, Report an error in the passage at 12:06
12:19 The views, the conditioning of the mind. So all it does is just take this determination to awaken to that, not to even, you know, it is just a matter of reminding yourself, wake up. Report an error in the passage at 12:19
12:38 Then you begin to really sense that this state of attention is a sustainable state, it's a natural state. That we begin to realize or recognize. It's not a creative, it's not like a refined level of concentration, like Ajahn or something where you've raised your consciousness to a high level and kind of sustain it in refinement. Report an error in the passage at 12:38
13:11 But it's an all-embracing natural state of being that's natural to us as human beings. It's nothing we create. It's nothing that I've got to make happen or that I have to control or get the right conditions around me to have this experience and sustain it. Report an error in the passage at 13:11
13:37 It's being able to recognize this attentiveness and trusting in this attention, attentiveness to the way things are. When we talk about the dhamma, we have the truth of the way it is. So that's not, the truth of the way it is, is something you know directly. That's why you have to use words like truth of the way it is. You say, well, what is the truth of the way it is? Tell me. And they say, like this. Report an error in the passage at 13:37
14:16 It's opening to that. It's not something that you have to look up in the... In the scriptures, or that some great wise enlightened master can tell you, it's up to you to, you know, something you do, you taste it, and you know the flavor. Report an error in the passage at 14:16
14:44 So like the foundation is based on morality, so like the sīla, the eight precepts that the Anagarikas, and then we go because Report an error in the passage at 14:44
15:00 ...took this evening, established their commitment to that level of moral commitment and restraint. So morality is something that in Buddhism isn't a kind of commandment. It's not something that we kind of force on people. Report an error in the passage at 15:00
15:34 not something that we're going to intimidate people with, but that's why it has to be requested. notice they had to request me to ask me for the precept. Report an error in the passage at 15:34
15:50 this is the thing, because this way of attention, of awakeness, means that you're responsible now, you're not, you know. Ajahn Sumedho has to tell us what to do and he's the kind of This person is going to run our lives for us, but it's asking to take these refuges and precepts. You ask three times, and then you have this sense of you're taking on this. Report an error in the passage at 15:50
16:28 It's what you're doing. You're establishing yourself in this commitment. To restrain, physical and verbal restraint. So it's a form, you know, to live in, to operate in this community. So Report an error in the passage at 16:28
16:54 this establishes how our relationship with each other, brahmacharya, a celibate relationship rather than a sexual one, is a non-violent relationship rather than you know, using any kind of violence, either verbal or verbal. It's based on honesty, telling the truth, not prevaricating, not exaggerating, not using harsh or crude kind of speech. Report an error in the passage at 16:54
17:35 It's about Report an error in the passage at 17:35
17:47 around food, around taking food at the appropriate times and not, you know, fashion and up. Report an error in the passage at 17:47
18:07 activities. Our relationship isn't one to of, to relate to each other in those ways that are quite There's nothing wrong or immoral about dressing up, playing games, singing and dancing. Report an error in the passage at 18:07
18:22 There's nothing like this. We're passing judgments against There's some kind of immoral... Things that the worldly people do that puritanical people like us would never think of doing. But it's a form, isn't it, that we're kind of relinquishing these activities because Report an error in the passage at 18:22
18:43 we're more interested in developing this attention than in distracting ourselves with games and fun and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 18:43
18:59 We live in a society where there's, you know, a high level of distraction and that, you know, that's how modern life is just, you know, providing us with almost instant distraction with all these computers and television and whatnot. You can, you know, and mobile telephone. See them all over the world now. Report an error in the passage at 18:59
19:26 People can't resist on a train. They're talking. To somebody or whatever they are, you can have your mobile telephone. You feel a little bit lonely, you just call your mom on the mobile telephone or whoever. And the push-button instant result of life means that the mind never gets any rest. You know, the constant word for describing life in modern cities is stressful. Report an error in the passage at 19:26
20:04 Whether you're in London or in Bangkok or wherever, you hear the word stressful. And I can understand that. And if you never have any, give the mind any kind of rest, any space, then it's an endless distraction. You know, you're increasing the amount of stress. You know, when you look at, say, how people lived maybe 100 years ago, they had, you know, they didn't have such... Report an error in the passage at 20:04
20:46 make lathes or knit or do little things you know that require some kind of patience and to be able to accomplish they didn't expect to be entertained endlessly to have Report an error in the passage at 20:46
21:09 so you can, the minute you get a little bit bored, you can tune in to something that's interesting or exciting. People never expect that. So there was... Report an error in the passage at 21:09
21:23 living in, like I just noticed, living in in northeast Thailand for years, in a very kind of... Without all the kind of modern conveniences, forest monasteries, it wasn't a stressful life. Report an error in the passage at 21:23
21:49 And more or less flowed with the seasons of rice planting and rice harvesting and so forth, so that life was more or less, both in the villages and in the monasteries, had a certain kind of natural... Report an error in the passage at 21:49
22:07 It seems to be quite pleasant, actually. I quite liked it. Report an error in the passage at 22:07
22:16 You know, once you kind of adapt to that, because it is something that you're awakening to, and it's natural to the, you know, it's built around the natural rhythms of the planet, the days and nights, the human body, and so forth. Now we recognize that we can live in a totally artificial environment most of our lives. With central heating, air conditioning, electricity, everything is kind of, you're going to make a cocoon and just live in a world that is totally based on artificial conditions. Report an error in the passage at 22:16
23:06 Never look at the moon or the stars or the trees, anything. Just live with the television, the computer, and, you know, regulated, well-regulated, temperatured room, pleasantly designed with pleasant kind of internal decorations, and never notice what nature is like. Report an error in the passage at 23:06
23:42 But all it does... To create stress, you know, we have maybe convenience, we have security in a way, and we have a kind of, in many ways, quite privileged life, because it's quite comfortable, much more comfortable than, say, a hundred years ago for most people. Report an error in the passage at 23:42
24:09 But also, because of the endless distracting of the mind, the stress increases. Now, like, notice what meditation does. Meditation, you know, why do people, why are suddenly so many European people interested in Buddhist meditation when they weren't before? This is fairly recent interest. And it's probably due to, because there's so much stress. And, you know, if you can take so many kind of Prozac pills and, you know, Try to, you know, tranquilize your mind and, you know, endlessly kind of sort things out in so many different ways. Report an error in the passage at 24:09
25:01 But in the end of the day, it's really up to yourself, isn't it? You can't go around asking psychiatrists and doctors and governments and the world to kind of make life something, you know, convenient, peaceful and perfect. Report an error in the passage at 25:01
25:34 point, you know, which is each one of us here and now consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 25:34
25:45 in meditation, we're getting back to the natural rhythm. Suddenly we're awakening to just the breathing, the way the body breathes. So kind of focus for meditation. Meditation usually starts with Ānāpānasati, or mindfulness of the breath, because that's a natural rhythm. I'm not creating it. It happens even if I'm crazy, I'm still breathing. And when I stop breathing, I'm dead. Report an error in the passage at 25:45
26:22 But if I pay attention to the breath, then I'm not really crazy anymore. As soon as I... And with something that's natural, with a natural rhythm, the madness goes away. Because the madness comes out of the stress and being caught in this kind of confusion that we create through our thoughts and emotions. Report an error in the passage at 26:22
26:45 So, like in meditation, you're establishing awareness around just the most simple rhythms and conditions that we tend to ignore. Report an error in the passage at 26:45
26:57 Such as the body itself. I remember when asked about having meditation on the body. I found that quite difficult, actually. In fact, for a start, I couldn't even do Ānāpānasati. I was such a kind of cerebral person. I was always an endlessly obsessed thinker. Report an error in the passage at 26:57
27:38 to think about I a mantra that helped me, like one thought than just wandering in thought. I found that helpful, just to start... Start with a mantra, because at least that's something I could easily do. Report an error in the passage at 27:38
28:08 And then after a while, I was increased calm from mantra, then I could begin to appreciate the mindfulness of the breath. Report an error in the passage at 28:08
28:18 When they come to body awareness, they say, look at the posture and notice what it feels like. And I want to be analyzing my body all the time, thinking about it. What am I supposed to be doing next? And the mind would wander away and get caught up with thoughts. And I found it difficult at first to just keep aware, to be with the body as an experience. But through patience and through determination to stay with these thoughts, Report an error in the passage at 28:18
28:57 posture of sitting, I use the four postures, sitting, standing, walking, lying down, ordinary postures. more, I began to just rest, my mind began to rest with the body, just being aware of the pressure of sitting, or where my feet are, hands, and the spine and the sensations in the body of heat and cold or tingling or... Report an error in the passage at 28:57
29:24 Pressure or touch, things that are always present but can be totally ignored, never noticed unless they get too strong. Like if you get pain, then they're aware of that. But so much of our body can be ignored because it isn't particularly pleasurable enough to enjoy or painful enough to notice. Report an error in the passage at 29:24
29:53 So it's like you're awakening, isn't it, in the sense of awakening. You wake up to the experience of having a physical body, of this body as it is, sitting like this. Report an error in the passage at 29:53
30:09 So at that moment, when you're with the body and the breath, there's no madness or craziness because these things, these are just natural conditions. They're not, we don't create them. We're not judging them. We're not saying it. They're good, bad, or what they should or shouldn't be. We're just noticing the way they are. So, bringing this attention, this awareness, to the way it is, is the Buddha knowing the dharma. Report an error in the passage at 30:09
30:41 In the Satipaṭṭhāna, you have the, like, aware feeling of the sensitivities that we're in, this experience of being sensitive, because we're conscious. This consciousness and then this sensitivity or this feeling of pleasure and pain or beautiful, what we see can be pleasing or unpleasing. What we hear through the ears or smell, taste or touch can affect us in terms of being pleasing or unpleasing or neutral. Report an error in the passage at 30:41
31:24 We begin to notice just what pleasure and pain, pleasure or pleasing, Pleasing sensations are, pleasing experiences are unpleasing. And notice just how there's the state of the mind, the mood, the way that the mind can change, can be happy or sad or angry or lustful or lonely or frightened or anxious or worried. Report an error in the passage at 31:24
31:56 Just noticing these, seeing them in terms of Not judgment or criticism, but just they are what they are. Report an error in the passage at 31:56
32:08 So then, by this, as we trust ourselves in this more and more, then we begin to notice the silence, the stillness that's natural to this moment. Report an error in the passage at 32:08
32:27 And so it's, even though there can be noise, there's silence or stillness. That we completely ignore. If we're not mindful, we're just caught in the habit patterns and we never notice it. Or if it does happen sometimes, then we don't know what it is, so we just ignore it. I remember one time having a kind of mystical experience where my mind stopped for, I don't know how, it was like a timeless experience. Report an error in the passage at 32:27
33:09 The thinking mind stopped. There was just this, Stillness, this kind of resonating sound of stillness. I didn't know what it was. Report an error in the passage at 33:09
33:25 I liked it, but I didn't know what it was. And it happened quite, you know, without any intention or understanding of it. Report an error in the passage at 33:25
33:43 So then, but now, say in meditation, we're beginning to notice, you know, the whole point is being aware of the way it is. So this stillness, this... Silence is natural to this moment too. So we're beginning to recognize what is natural, what is peaceful, what is free from just this desire to distract or get something or get rid of something or control. Report an error in the passage at 33:43
34:19 Because as we begin to... To open to life and really understand it, then we find that we're freeing ourselves from just the conditioned realm, from all the illusions that we created and the problems, the worldly problems that we create endlessly and the fears and the desires and all that. That tend to follow us wherever we go. We have a holiday. Report an error in the passage at 34:19
34:54 Well, I'm really fed up with my family and work and all that. I'm going off to have a holiday in a tropical island. Then you go and you take all your worries with you. Report an error in the passage at 34:54
35:15 You can distract yourself for a while, have a few high moments maybe is the best you can expect from it. So in meditation, we're not seeking escape. It's not like getting away from anything, but really taking time to really notice and awaken and to be with life. And it's not something to, not passing judgment, not condemning anything, but it's recognizing, waking up to the way, to the truth of the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 35:15
35:58 So it's, but yet this is a lifetime practice, actually. Report an error in the passage at 35:58
36:10 I used to think years ago, I used to think, just get the right conditions, perfect monastery, and I can really get it all together, and then I'll be perfectly enlightened, and then move sailing. Report an error in the passage at 36:10
36:28 Because that's another desire, isn't it? To never have another worry, never have another problem, never have another... Report an error in the passage at 36:28
36:49 sickness, death, to loss, to sorrow, despair, and anguish, because these are part of our human experience. are natural to the state we're in. Report an error in the passage at 36:49
37:02 Grief and loss and and... Report an error in the passage at 37:02
37:09 Sorrow and these kind of emotions are natural to this state. There's nothing, not trying to deny or never experience them, but to be able to deal with these emotions in a proper way, to recognize them and to accept them for what they are, rather than trying to just block ourselves off from life, from feeling, from the world around us. Report an error in the passage at 37:09
37:43 So we do, we recognize that we're willing to feel life. We're no longer frightened of it and asking for special exemptions or anything, you know, or escape from anything because we have this sense of willing to learn from even failure and loss. Report an error in the passage at 37:43
38:10 And being blamed or persecuted, we learn from whatever we have to learn from. Report an error in the passage at 38:10
38:21 Success or failure or praise or blame, good fortune, bad fortune, health or sickness. Report an error in the passage at 38:21
38:37 Because we find our refuge transcends these conditions. And transcending doesn't mean like we... embraces the conditioned realm. a relationship to the world isn't one of or rejection, but of embracing it, willing to experience it, willing to feel, willing to be, willing to fully awake to life as it really is. Report an error in the passage at 38:37
39:14 as we experience it through the way we are. Like each one of us has to recognize our own particular way of thinking or character tendencies and habits without criticizing them. Report an error in the passage at 39:14
39:33 I used to suffer a lot because I used to compare myself with others. I'm not as good as that. I'm not as smart as that. I'm not as... I wish I could be more... calm like that person or wish I could, know, endlessly kind of looking at others and comparing myself with them. I'm superior or inferior. But then that doesn't help, does it? Report an error in the passage at 39:33
40:11 Because I can never be somebody else. That's asking for the impossible. It's like being with the way I am, which isn't that I always like the way I am or approve, but it means that I learn from my strengths and my weaknesses. Report an error in the passage at 40:11
40:41 It's interesting to see people, you know, how people do learn. Some people really have to overcome all kinds of very difficult physical problems or emotional patterns. And even though we, you know, we sometimes feel defeated by them, I found all the really, really difficulties that I've had to go through, seemingly impossible or almost insolvable problems or habits, bad habits I have, I've found that, you know, that in the long run you learn and you find a kind of ink. Report an error in the passage at 40:41
41:26 Confidence and strength that comes from that. Sometimes life does present things like almost kind of impenetrable obstacles. You know, I can't cope, I can't do it. But you can. Not to believe these kind of feelings. And it's through that kind of patience and acceptance that we learn. Not through trying to get rid of them. Report an error in the passage at 41:26
42:00 Or trying to control, but through accepting. And the word surrender, and this word is an interesting one because it kind of sums up the kind of holy life, really. Report an error in the passage at 42:00
42:19 And yet, I don't know how many people find that word objectionable because it does sound like, you know, giving up in a way. Give up and surrender. And in a kind of negative... negative mode. But that's not it, isn't it? It's surrendering in this sense, is an act of faith. Report an error in the passage at 42:19
42:44 this faith is recognized. Report an error in the passage at 42:44
43:03 Just talking in Buddhist terms, Buddha Dhamma Saṅgha surrenders that. Report an error in the passage at 43:03
43:12 Not surrendering to just life is suffering and so what. It's not like a surrendering out of just negative feelings. But it's a very, it's a sense of total trust, of rest, of relaxing. Report an error in the passage at 43:12
44:09 that might arise. Report an error in the passage at 44:09
44:33 in, you know, whoever you have, like in Christianity or whatever, you surrender. It's the same thing really, you're surrendering to... To God or Christ, whatever, so that you're... What this means is that you're giving up your personal needs to control and fight and resist and struggle all the time. Report an error in the passage at 44:33
45:05 Which, you know, is what we do. It's distracting of the mind and... And the fear, if you don't distract your mind, you probably become frightened. Report an error in the passage at 45:05
45:22 You get bored. What do you do with boredom? And your life becomes meaningless unless you switch on the telly and then you look at something really meaningless. But at least you're absorbing into somebody else's meaninglessness, not your own. When you get into your own, then it really... Report an error in the passage at 45:22
46:08 in terms of believing in these kind of words through definitions you get in but in really recognizing what is it pointing to right now. Report an error in the passage at 46:08
46:23 I'd ask myself, what is Buddha right now, if it's a refuge? So then you realize that, you know, that this awakens Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 46:23
46:41 So every time I just go off into my stressful thoughts and then suddenly Buddha, right there all the time, you know, not some kind of remote. It's a very practical thing, isn't it? Not some sentimental kind of ideal I have, but it's very practical. So, and then dhamma, here and now, santitiko akaliko dhamma, it's learning to trust in that, the refuge that you, something you can surrender to because it works. Report an error in the passage at 46:41
47:27 You know, if you really recognize it, not just think, fool yourself that you believe in Buddha, Dhamma, Saṅgha and all that stuff, that kind of Report an error in the passage at 47:27
47:52 cranking it out is some kind of abstract ideal, because it will fail you if that's all you're doing. But it's internalizing it, pointing to something, it's pointing to the present, to the reality of now. Report an error in the passage at 47:52
48:20 Saṅgha, Report an error in the passage at 48:20
48:23 And that we say supatipanno, ujjupatipanno, and this means, like this is, you know, this body now, this chance to practice in the right way, this physical entity here, this conscious being. So Report an error in the passage at 48:23
48:48 it's in taking responsibility for one's life, someone who practices in the right way directly. Ujjupatipanno is direct, you know, it's not trying to become or trying to, you know, get rid of anything. It's very direct, Saṅgha. Report an error in the passage at 48:48
49:16 So it's, let me tell you, the four pairs, the eight kinds of noble beings, this usually mystifies most people. It doesn't sound terribly inspiring to say four pairs, eight kinds of noble beings. But it's pointing to, you know, this is the path right now. You know, it's not, it's that direct. Just the awakeness is the path. And so it's not becoming some kind of Sotāpanna or Arhat. Report an error in the passage at 49:16
49:55 It's some kind of personal attainment, is it? Refuge in Saṅgha is... learning to trust in awareness so you're not I take refuge in the four pairs, eight kinds of noble beings. What kind of refuge is that? I don't have a clue. If I'm seen as somebody else. Are there any kind of Sotapannas around here that I can take refuge in or Arahants? Report an error in the passage at 49:55
50:26 So it becomes, you know, we're always looking outward or seeing it as something distant or remote. Or when you're looking at it personally, you feel, I certainly can't think I'm very near that level or that kind of thing, because this is the personal view, but the awakeness to that view, Report an error in the passage at 50:26
50:49 that's the real path then, where you awaken to... about yourself not being a stream enterer or something that's path seeing it as a view, a condition that arises and ceases rather than as a personal condition Report an error in the passage at 50:49
51:15 it has this very directness and immediacy, is, you know, when you start thinking about it, you get lost again because thought. ...inevitably is around past and future, and Report an error in the passage at 51:15
51:38 that we're always thinking of enlightenment in the future, or we're remembering the past, or remembering something that happened, you know, last year or yesterday or whatever. So Report an error in the passage at 51:38
52:00 I'll be going to Sri Lanka on the 1st of December, and I'll be there until the 20th. And then go to Thailand. And on the 30th of December, I'll fly back to Colombo and catch a flight, I hope on the 31st, to come back here for the Winter's Retreat. I want to be up in the air on New Year's Eve. Report an error in the passage at 52:00
52:42 Get high on New Year's Eve. I Report an error in the passage at 52:42
52:53 want to welcome Andrea. Mora and to the noble order of Anangari Khas. Quite a few of them. But it's something to praise and, you know, to see as a rare opportunity and also it is something to really value, even if you... Even if at the end of the year you want to leave, that's fine, but I mean, you know, recognize the value of having such an opportunity in a country like this where such conditions are hard to find, where one can do it. Report an error in the passage at 52:53
53:50 They have this kind of occasion. Report an error in the passage at 53:50
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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