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Key passages
The teacher's own words, quoted from the transcript below and chosen automatically as representative.
- 1:15
We observe, the observer and the witness, the mindful ability to notice and pay attention to the way things are. This noticing, paying attention, observing, is not critical, not saying there's anything wrong with the way it is, but it's like this. So the winter time is the days get short, the nights are long, it's cold, leaves come off the trees, gray skies, like this.
- 2:55
The awakened state of conscious attention, rather than aiming at trying to, you know, just try to get what we like and hold on to it, and that the realm that we live in is like this. A lot of it we don't like, we don't want, it can be uncomfortable, painful, miserable, as well as its opposite. Because that's the nature of this realm. It's like this.
- 11:22
The five khandhas, the body, the feelings, The perceptions, the emotions, consciousness itself, we have that right now in the present. It's all here. It's not something that you have to go somewhere else to find.
- 47:51
from this purity of the mind, this awareness, this stillness, then the Brahma -Viharas reach perfection, mettā, karuṇā, muditā, upeka, because they come from that. Divine abodes or states of purity. Because they're not conditioned through, they're not habits of the mind. You're not stuck with them in terms of being habitual.
Transcript
0:34 So this is the full moon night, and the katina season is over, and Report an error in the passage at 0:34
0:48 we've got another month and a half for this century and millennium, and so the signs of time and change. change, it's It will be the winter solstice next month. Report an error in the passage at 0:48
1:15 We observe, the observer and the witness, the mindful ability to notice and pay attention to the way things are. Report an error in the passage at 1:15
1:31 This noticing, paying attention, observing, is not critical, not saying there's anything wrong with the way it is, but it's like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:31
1:46 So the winter time is the days get short, the nights are long, it's cold, leaves come off the trees, gray skies, like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:46
2:03 And we can see and observe, say, just how it affects our own mind, whether we like it or don't like it, makes us feel good or bad or sad or happy or... Whatever. But the emotions are also like the seasonal changes or the English weather, isn't it? Emotions are always very changing. You can't, you know, emotionally, you can't sustain an emotion for very long and it changes. Report an error in the passage at 2:03
2:48 But that which observes is what we're pointing to, the ability to The awakened state of conscious attention, rather than aiming at trying to, you know, just try to get what we like and hold on to it, and that the realm that we live in is like this. A lot of it we don't like, we don't want, it can be uncomfortable, painful, miserable, as well as its opposite. Report an error in the passage at 2:48
3:26 Because that's the nature of this realm. It's like this. And it's very important to really consciously observe the way it is, the nature of things, so that you're not, you know, that you have this sense of knowing the way it is, so you're not demanding the impossible. Report an error in the passage at 3:26
3:56 Because that's what we do, isn't it? We always... We have ideas of how things should be, and then we're always demanding or wanting something to be what it should be, rather than being able to accept and bear with the way things are. It's Report an error in the passage at 3:56
4:23 not a kind of passive resignation, because that implies a kind of negative... A position that one is taking as if the way things are is just, you know, is always going to be something we don't like or unpleasant. Report an error in the passage at 4:23
4:44 But much of our life is also extremely pleasant and very beautiful. And we have much pleasure, happiness. But that also changes. So it's the reflection on change of the condition realm. Report an error in the passage at 4:44
5:08 is to really make this, to get to know this so thoroughly that then you can reflect, you can begin to see your own emotional habits and ideals of what you want, what you like, don't like, and what you think should or shouldn't be. Report an error in the passage at 5:08
5:33 This life, this realm is mysterious, the human existence. To me it seems like great mystery. Because from the perspective of here and now, from this physical body and this conscious moment, you know, I can't figure out what the point of it is. Report an error in the passage at 5:33
5:56 You know, what happened? How did it all come about? What was the original cause? What's the purpose? And then one can come up with various ideas on this subject. Report an error in the passage at 5:56
6:16 But the important realization of this kind of questioning is the recognition of not knowing and of mystery, that mystery is something you don't know. Report an error in the passage at 6:16
6:35 It leaves the thinking mind, it stops the thinking mind, because the more you try to think about it, you go around in circles trying to figure it out. The original cause or what the purpose of our lives are. We can make up versions of, you know, kind of interesting or inspiring purposes. We can think our life has no purpose, and that we can, our life has absolutely no purpose. Report an error in the passage at 6:35
7:09 Cosmic joke, cosmic accident. What we can think is that we're here to learn, to love, to... That inspires the mind. That's an inspiring way. But also recognize that we don't really know. We can recognize that not knowing is like this. Now this is an important realization. To know not knowing. Report an error in the passage at 7:09
7:52 Because this... Buddha mind is this direct, it's a direct recognition of what we can actually know in the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 7:52
8:10 So knowing that you don't know is knowing. Report an error in the passage at 8:10
8:19 When the Buddha in the scriptures was asked about what happens to the Dittokada after death, he just keeps silent. The Buddha silences. Report an error in the passage at 8:19
8:34 The sages all thought, well, he couldn't really be a Buddha because he can't answer the questions. He just goes into a dumb silence. Report an error in the passage at 8:34
8:46 Or maybe the silence is the answer, isn't it? That's another. Maybe the answer is more direct than if the Buddha speculated and gave some inspiring theory or viewpoint. Report an error in the passage at 8:46
9:11 In this, using this intuitive awareness, This is the important message of the Buddha. This is what essential teaching is all about, is this awakened state of being. Report an error in the passage at 9:11
9:33 And it's something that you can trust, to trust it, because when you think about it, you don't. You think your mind is conditioned to think in probably very complex ways. Report an error in the passage at 9:33
9:52 And then you end up with not being sure and doubting. So this is where sundial or faith is necessary in any religious path because of not knowing in the way that we want to know out of the personality view or the conditioning of the mind that's conditioned out of ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 9:52
10:21 We want to know Maybe we want to know all kinds of things, like the Luciferian desire to know everything that God knows, or to be better than God is also one of our problems, wanting to know everything about everything, have Report an error in the passage at 10:21
10:47 all the answers, have everything figured out. But then Buddha said, His teaching was a handful of leaves. It isn't very much in terms of quantity, but all that you need to know is in this handful of leaves. Report an error in the passage at 10:47
11:10 Rather than counting all the leaves in the forest, just the amount of leaves you have in one hand is enough to understand leaves. Report an error in the passage at 11:10
11:22 The five khandhas, the body, the feelings, The perceptions, the emotions, consciousness itself, we have that right now in the present. It's all here. It's not something that you have to go somewhere else to find. It's here and now. So you reflect on this. This is the experience. Consciousness of feeling, of thinking, of emotional habits, of the physical experience, of having a physical body that's present here and now. Report an error in the passage at 11:22
12:18 So in order to recognize that, to learn from it, then it's not a matter of analyzing it, comparing it to ideals. Report an error in the passage at 12:18
12:39 the way it is, whatever state, quality, condition it happens to be, whether healthy, Report an error in the passage at 12:39
12:51 weak. whether you're feeling or depressed or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 12:51
13:00 Reflective mind just acknowledges that it's like this. Report an error in the passage at 13:00
13:13 Sounds simple enough, but it takes great determination to keep this going. Report an error in the passage at 13:13
13:22 There's so many... The thinking mind does easily take over our consciousness. It's like living in a community, isn't it? We tend to think about each other too much and about the future or about the... Report an error in the passage at 13:22
13:42 About practice, about Buddhism, about your own abilities or lack of them or somebody else. We're so used to that, so used to thinking about ourselves and the world that we live in. That's what we're often most comfortable doing, is thinking. I Report an error in the passage at 13:42
14:10 remember when I first had the insight into not thinking, It was quite a powerful experience. But I couldn't stop thinking. Report an error in the passage at 14:10
14:22 I was an obsessed thinker. I remember going over to, I was in Nong Khai at the time, and I went over to Vieng Chien in Laos and met somebody, another American on the high street in Vieng Chien. Report an error in the passage at 14:22
14:44 He said, what have you been doing? I said, I've been meditating. He said, what have you been doing? I said, stop thinking. He looked really kind of totally bewildered, made a quick exit. He felt like he'd gone crazy. But Report an error in the passage at 14:44
15:07 it's not a matter of just stopping thinking. That's not it. But that was quite a powerful insight at the time because I didn't have any other experience. My whole life was around thinking, thinking about myself and about everything else. And so it was just the obsession of one thought following another, because that's what the thought process is, isn't it? One thought goes on to another, like the wandering mind. Report an error in the passage at 15:07
15:44 And you start thinking one thought, it associates with another, and it goes on and on and on and on until you go full circle and find yourself thinking about the same thing again. And Report an error in the passage at 15:44
16:02 so this thinking is a great gift, actually. It's not something to despise or to feel that you don't want to think anymore. You'll be caught in the desire to not think. But begin to trust in the ability to observe thinking. How do you do that? And Report an error in the passage at 16:02
16:34 so I used to teach these kind of skillful means where you deliberately think. You know, I'd decide I was going to think rather than trying to stop thinking. When I started meditating with the idea of stopping thinking, I'd always, it just was hopeless. I'd sit there and I'd just fight with myself all the time. Shut up! Stop! It was like, you know, five minutes of meditation was more than I could stand because it was just... Report an error in the passage at 16:34
17:13 An endless struggle with my thoughts, and to shut them up. And the more you want to stop thinking, the more you tend to think. So then the idea of maybe deliberately thinking, rather than, and listening to thought. And I had this, I decided I'd just listen to myself thinking, and to do that I'd deliberately think. Report an error in the passage at 17:13
17:46 I'd take a thought like I am Sumedho Bhikkhu or something like that and just deliberately think it, but at the same time I'd be attentive to the fact that I'm thinking it. I'd notice the spaces. Like when you really deliberately think, you recognize a gap before you think and between the words. Report an error in the passage at 17:46
18:15 So, and this was a Report an error in the passage at 18:15
18:20 consciously notice in the mind, or non-thought. if I just think about thinking, then the habit is just the habit of one thought going on to the next. You never get any kind of relief between the thoughts, between the words you're thinking. Report an error in the passage at 18:20
18:44 then I used to think very slowly, like, I, then I'd just note that. This kind of gap. Report an error in the passage at 18:44
18:56 That was a kind of exercise I developed just so that this affirmed the non-thinking, the conscious awareness through consciousness of non-thought is like this. Report an error in the passage at 18:56
19:24 Because what happens if we don't do that is we tend to To experience life through thinking about it, and sometimes, you know, like a mystical experience usually is when your thinking mind stops, totally Report an error in the passage at 19:24
19:45 present, and the self-consciousness, obsession with oneself is gone. Report an error in the passage at 19:45
19:54 But then, how to realize that state is oftentimes mystical experiences happen. But quite without intention, so we don't know how they, we can just say it's maybe like grace or something like that. But how to, but it does give us a sense of that there is a reality that is beyond just the obsessions that one has through one's thoughts and emotions. Report an error in the passage at 19:54
20:33 And that's quite, it was quite important, I found, for me to To know that, because even though I suspected, I didn't really know it. And it seemed like my world at the time, before I became a monk, was very much increasingly more kind of wearisome, because I was getting bored with myself, really feeling depressed. Report an error in the passage at 20:33
21:09 Bored and weary of just the way I thought about everything. And Report an error in the passage at 21:09
21:21 another exercise was like the koan, or this hua tou in the Chinese Zen system, where you develop the doubt, deliberately develop doubt as a means. Because when you go into doubt, your thinking mind stops. Report an error in the passage at 21:21
21:49 Non-plusses the mind, the thoughts. It's like a question, who am I? At that moment, when you ask the question to yourself, there's a gap, a doubt, who am I? Report an error in the passage at 21:49
22:09 Now you're noting that gap, or where the thought ceases. So that helps to get this sense of space. Or gaps between the thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 22:09
22:31 Then in using the sound of silence as you begin to recognize the kind of background sound, or is it a sound, whatever it is, vibration, your mind, the thinking mind will stop. Report an error in the passage at 22:31
22:54 As you just listen and kind of suspend thinking just to listen to that ringing sound. Report an error in the passage at 22:54
23:06 More and more you're beginning to recognize ways of just deconditioning, deprogramming, taking away the programs. Report an error in the passage at 23:06
23:25 It's like turning on, just watching the screen on a television set where there's just the lights on but there's nothing happening. nothing happening. Report an error in the passage at 23:25
23:43 And of course, emotionally, we find that boring, isn't it? We much prefer to look at like an action-packed blockbuster where every other second there's some kind of incredible explosion of some sort. Report an error in the passage at 23:43
24:06 Because that kind of, you know, you keep getting stimulated, isn't it? They're like these blockbuster films, aren't they? You're sitting there and you're getting block busted every so many seconds. They figured it out psychologically how to keep you in the state of attention by stimulating you, having something shocking or exciting happen on the screen. Report an error in the passage at 24:06
24:38 screen. It's like, you know. And when... Report an error in the passage at 24:38
24:49 That's getting, you know, because then you are, you're getting kind of stimulated through visual consciousness and that keeps you absorbed into what's happening on the screen. Report an error in the passage at 24:49
25:08 But then say, what if the thing stops and it's just a blank screen? And then you're, at first you're just not equipped to handle that. You just turn off to something else, you know, try to... Report an error in the passage at 25:08
25:23 What is it? Surf the television or whatever, find something else. So the mind is, if all we ever do is use our minds to be kind of endlessly stimulate them, then we become very dependent on that, on something always stimulating Report an error in the passage at 25:23
25:48 our consciousness in the present. Now, like in meditation, what you're doing is rather, why it is so boring at first, is because you're learning to, because you're not getting stimulated from the externals. Report an error in the passage at 25:48
26:08 You're sitting still in a quiet place. And so then you're not getting any kind of stimulation from outside. So what happens with a lot of people who Begin meditation when their main experience of life is to be stimulated. They fall asleep all the time. Like sloth torpor is a big problem at first. Because if we're just used to being awake through stimulation, when the stimulation's not there, what happens? Report an error in the passage at 26:08
26:50 You just... You can't hold it, you've got nothing from inside yourself developed. Report an error in the passage at 26:50
26:59 I notice like people, very active, busy people that think a lot and that as soon as they go into, when they start meditating, they fall asleep or they go into torporous states immediately because they're There's nothing stimulating the mind. So in meditation what we're doing then is we're learning to arouse the energy, bring the energy from inside rather than depending on external stimulation. Report an error in the passage at 26:59
27:49 I remember just consciously learning to bring up the energy from the lower part of the body just to learn to To focus the mind, concentrate the mind, and to be patient, because it takes patience. Because usually, you know, if we're used to being stimulated, for our experience of life to be stimulated, then we lack patience, because we need the hit right now to feel alive, to be excited, to feel awake. Report an error in the passage at 27:49
28:28 So if that's absent, then of course... The mind drifts into just kind of wandering thoughts or just dullness. Report an error in the passage at 28:28
28:41 So in terms of developing energy, like developing the posture, learning to bring attention to the body itself. So like Gayanopassana Satipaṭṭhāna, the first foundation of mindfulness, the body. We go right to the physical experience of a body, but not Trying to stimulate it, but to learn to contemplate, to reflect on just the, on intuitive, in an intuitive way about the physical experience. Report an error in the passage at 28:41
29:25 So like we use the four postures as a basis, sitting, standing, walking, lying down. These are ordinary postures in which we can, you know, sitting, lying down, fall asleep if we usually. Connect lying down with sleeping, sitting. We tend to sit, but we're always doing something, like reading or eating or talking, thinking, walking, standing, developing awareness. Report an error in the passage at 29:25
30:07 Awareness then is like learning to really bring attention to just the experience. of pressure the body's standing or walking or sitting on the mat or lying on the bed uh Report an error in the passage at 30:07
30:24 aware of its pressure of its heat or its coldness or it's uh it's the various sensations of pleasure and pain or a neutral feeling so they like this sweeping practice of bodily sensations very good practice to develop Report an error in the passage at 30:24
30:48 So that you're paying attention to the way it is rather than depending on some stimulating experience to pay attention to. Like if it's very pleasurable, it's easy to pay attention to something very pleasurable, isn't it? It's exciting, interesting, beautiful, and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 30:48
31:16 To pay attention to that is either very absorbing or pain even. Physical pain is quite obvious or really extreme negative thing. Report an error in the passage at 31:16
31:34 But neutral is another one we don't notice who pays attention to neutrality, neither pleasant nor painful sensation. So the sweeping practice, you're giving a lot of attention to neutral sensation, like this pressure, or clothes touching the skin, or one hand on the other, or tongue in the mouth, or the upper lip touching the lower lip. Report an error in the passage at 31:34
32:04 This is the thing, most kind of ordinary sensations that are present, but you never bother to pay attention to them, unless they get painful or extreme in some way. So what you're doing, you're actually waking, you're looking, you're paying attention to something. Rather than having something make you pay attention, you're learning to pay attention. Report an error in the passage at 32:04
32:33 So that's coming from inside yourself, isn't it? Because neutral sensation is not interesting. It's not exciting. It doesn't... Tap you on the shoulder and say, hey, look at me. Aren't I a fascinating experience? It's present, isn't it? Like you can feel your clothes touching your skin. So what? Not interesting? Report an error in the passage at 32:33
33:04 But to pay attention to it is you're developing an effort from within your mind, isn't it? You're learning to look at something that isn't interesting. experience. Report an error in the passage at 33:04
33:19 But present, the way it is. And learning to sustain that attention, noticing it, like this. Report an error in the passage at 33:19
33:36 So in that way your effort then is coming, you're developing effort from your mind rather than depending on stimulation from outside. Report an error in the passage at 33:36
33:53 That applies to emotional experience. Report an error in the passage at 33:53
34:01 So we have emotions, you know, we become aware of like extreme emotions, like greed or lust or anger or fear, extreme emotions. Report an error in the passage at 34:01
34:22 But then, and they can be quite interesting, but what are boring are emotions like confusion, uncertainty. uncertainty. Not knowing. Report an error in the passage at 34:22
34:41 Sloth torpor is boring, isn't it? People ask me all the time, how do I get rid of sloth torpor? Sleepiness. Because you don't like it. It's boring. Report an error in the passage at 34:41
35:00 So in changing the attitude from just trying to get rid of what you don't like, you use what you don't like to learn to pay attention, to accept what you don't like. And don't want. Changing of your attitude towards it is important. Looking at it in terms of what it is. It's like this. If I'm sleepy right now, then sleepiness is, if that's the dominant conscious experience of this moment, then that's what I advise you to pay attention to. Report an error in the passage at 35:00
35:45 With an attitude of accepting it, rather than thinking, if I pay attention to it, I'll get rid of it. Because then you're fooling yourself again, isn't it? You're thinking, you know, Ajahn Sumedho said, accept your sleepiness and it'll go away. But you really, what you really want is to get rid of it. Report an error in the passage at 35:45
36:08 So even the desire to get rid of it, notice that. How much one doesn't want something. Report an error in the passage at 36:08
36:21 And as you begin to trust in this very natural ability, then these things resolve themselves. Not a matter of me getting rid of anything, but when you're no longer feeding them with ignorance and indulgence and resistance, then Then they tend to resolve themselves, because you're not reinforcing them through attachment to them. Report an error in the passage at 36:21
37:03 The pain, physical pain also, we don't like it. We want to get rid of it. That also is changing your attitude towards physical sensation, unpleasant physical sensation. Report an error in the passage at 37:03
37:26 So what you're doing then is you're kind of arousing. It takes some kind of attention, isn't it, to pay attention to physical pain. Report an error in the passage at 37:26
37:39 If you're just caught in aversion to it, how can I get rid of it, then that's a reaction. I want to get rid of it. I can't stand it. Or I've got to conquer it. There's another one. We've got to conquer pain by not giving in to it. Report an error in the passage at 37:39
37:58 But that doesn't work either. So it's changing the attitude of Report an error in the passage at 37:58
38:08 taking an interest in the physical sensation of pain, learning to relax into pain, Report an error in the passage at 38:08
38:22 because like resistance is always trying to, you know, creates more tension, always trying to get rid of it, creates the very conditions that increases pain. So learning to relax. To relax into it, to even befriend it, to welcome it, to embrace it, things like this. It's different, isn't it, than the usual kind of ordinary reaction of how to get rid of it. Report an error in the passage at 38:22
39:04 So these are, then developing this, cultivating this way, till you're... You really trust yourself in the state of attention, of awareness. Report an error in the passage at 39:04
39:25 It's not something that you... When you're really aware, when you're awake and aware, then you can actually... You're not anybody. You're not a person. Report an error in the passage at 39:25
39:43 It's actually like a transcendence of... The personality and of the body. And Report an error in the passage at 39:43
39:55 so from there you've got perspective on, you can see how you create yourself, how you're endlessly making problems and compounding situations endlessly in the present through just the momentum of your habits. And Report an error in the passage at 39:55
40:20 once you see the suffering that you create, then you're... Your insight is to let go of the causes because it's something to, you don't have to do it. You're beginning to recognize a wiser, more useful way of living within the limitations of the human condition than just trying to control it endlessly according to desires. Report an error in the passage at 40:20
40:59 Of course, it does take wisdom, because the mind's pretty tricky, so it'll offer all kinds of little tricks and things that quite easily delude us. But you keep learning from it. This is where I keep emphasizing this sense of saddow, this sense of Resting or trusting in this faith, which is not in any concept of yourself or any theory or anything you can grasp. Report an error in the passage at 40:59
41:50 It's being able to just trust yourself enough in the state of attention. Get to know that state to really... It's like wake up, pay attention, those little statements like that, in that state of just attentiveness, to begin to trust it more. Because as you trust it, then it connects. It's not just another condition that goes on to another condition. Report an error in the passage at 41:50
42:29 Like mindfulness, it's really just a wake up, and it's a... But we're not used to being awake like this. We're used to conceiving, creating a world, creating myself, creating all kinds of things every day and wake up. Oh God, another day, I've got to do this, do that. And then we have, you know, we're so involved with ourselves as personality. Report an error in the passage at 42:29
43:05 And that world is so real because the society we live in reinforces that, believes totally in the reality of a personality, the Report an error in the passage at 43:05
43:23 reality of our society. It's all very convincing, and the mind is very much conditioned to think and create in that way. Report an error in the passage at 43:23
43:36 In this awakened state, that's why it's transcending this momentum of habit, thinking, and emotion. Report an error in the passage at 43:36
43:49 Like the emotions, for example. We think, people find Buddhism a bit threatening sometimes because they think that if you're enlightened, then you don't have any more emotions. You're kind of just a totally unfeeling person. Report an error in the passage at 43:49
44:13 That's what it sounds like, you know, to someone if they just, they don't understand the nature of their mind, then they think of like transcending your emotions, an emotionless world, you know, where you don't have any emotions anymore. Sounds pretty drab, just, you know, indifferent. But Report an error in the passage at 44:13
44:41 then when you really look at emotions, I mean, they're so, they just, Go up and down like a yo-yo. You know, you can just be absolutely over the moon one moment and then totally suicidal the next. Report an error in the passage at 44:41
45:00 By something, the way somebody, what somebody says. You can, you know, just praise and blame or success and failure. Good health and having good health. You can feel really happy and then suddenly find out you've got Report an error in the passage at 45:00
45:49 You know, it is what it is. But those conditions, they become habitual. As you get older, you begin to see you're just emoting the same things over and over. You think, you know, even though you're old, you think that you still can have emotions that you had when you were five years old. Report an error in the passage at 45:49
46:19 You see old people throwing tantrums. Pouting, just like little children do, because the emotional life Report an error in the passage at 46:19
46:40 has not been resolved yet or developed. So in terms of being aware of emotion, it's not to get rid of them, but to no longer be stuck with the habits. Report an error in the passage at 46:40
47:07 The emotional habit. So then the responses to life are from the purity of the mind rather than just repetitions of habit. Report an error in the passage at 47:07
47:22 Because this realm is a lot of joy and compassion and things like love is very much a part of our life. It's not getting rid of these. But these are say, coming from the purity of the mind, rather than just the emotional habits we've developed. So Report an error in the passage at 47:22
47:51 from this purity of the mind, this awareness, this stillness, then the Brahma Report an error in the passage at 47:51
48:09 -Viharas reach perfection, mettā, karuṇā, muditā, upeka, because they come from that. Divine abodes or states of purity. Because they're not conditioned through, they're not habits of the mind. You're not stuck with them in terms of being habitual. But they're spontaneous. And they arise when the conditions are there for that. So Report an error in the passage at 48:09
48:47 this is to encourage this amongst you all to Keep going. And it does, you know, it goes through plateaus and all kinds of things in the holy life. Report an error in the passage at 48:47
49:14 But even those are important to reflect on. What we might call plateaus, where you don't seem to be, nothing's happening. Just kind of getting by. Report an error in the passage at 49:14
49:37 Maybe if you... If you develop this trust in this very simple ability to pay attention, then I found that very important realization because in my early years so much of it was trying to attain things and so it was very much from my background I'm brought up in a society that's very... Goal-oriented. That's how naturally I would approach Buddhist meditation as some kind of goal to attain. Sometimes I attained all kinds of things and then whenever you think you've attained something then you end up feeling you've lost it. Report an error in the passage at 49:37
50:33 So gain and loss go together. So Report an error in the passage at 50:33
50:41 this reflection became more a sense of of learning to recognize, to really appreciate, to value, to see the value and the gift that we all have in a very simple ability to be awake, pay attention to this present here and now, just as simple as that. Report an error in the passage at 50:41
51:14 So I offer this as a reflection for this evening. Report an error in the passage at 51:14
Related talks
Talk by Ajahn Sumedho. Original at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ajahn-sumedho-dhamma-talks. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.
Talks of Ajahn Sumedho, archived on Internet Archive. More from Amaravati