1201-Acceptance-(271)

0:00 Oh, Tessa, not more, Tessa, back a wide tour, hard I had to, some more, some more, Tessa, not more, Tessa, back a wide tour. So this is the observance. © transcript Emily Beynon Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:28 this is the observance. Report an error in the passage at 0:28 Highlight the passage at 0:28

0:32 Day and the new moon or dark moon, no moon, and Report an error in the passage at 0:32 Highlight the passage at 0:32

0:44 it's also the no moon of the summer solstice. It's like reflecting on time in the phase of the moon and also the seasons. We're now on the days get shorter and the nights get longer. I'd like to reflect on this because here in this far north, the time changes are quite obvious. The long midsummer days and then now they'll get shorter. Report an error in the passage at 0:44 Highlight the passage at 0:44

1:28 And just by observing, keeping this reflectiveness on the way it is, on impermanence, so that, you know, the... We're actually bringing into, informing our conscious experience about the way it is, about conditions, nature of condition phenomena is changed in Nietzsche. Taking this reflection on a Nietzsche to, you know, it's a kind of ongoing challenge because we operate out of our ignorance with attitudes that things aren't impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 1:28 Highlight the passage at 1:28

2:09 Even though intellectually you might agree, you know, a rational mind says everything's impermanent, but emotionally, you know, we may not actually feel that or understand that, the reality, the experience of impermanence. So that's what meditation is for, to begin to experience impermanence, not just hold to views about it. Report an error in the passage at 2:09 Highlight the passage at 2:09

2:44 And so this takes that reflective capacity of observed change in its coarseness, in its most obvious forms of like the changing of the seasons or the phase of the moon, but also in subtleties of emotion and memory that Report an error in the passage at 2:44 Highlight the passage at 2:44

3:09 we experience in the sense of ourselves. We operate from the assumption that we are the... Are a permanent person or a permanent soul? Report an error in the passage at 3:09 Highlight the passage at 3:09

3:26 Now, you might agree that I'm being Buddhist. We don't agree. There's no soul, no God, no self. Nothing is permanent. But yet to really be the observer of impermanence, be the knower of impermanence, is not intellectual. It's not knowing all about impermanence and Buddhist theories of impermanence. And then rejecting anything that doesn't quite fit into Buddhist ideas. But it's being the knower, the knower of impermanence. Report an error in the passage at 3:26 Highlight the passage at 3:26

4:10 And so that's different than knowing about impermanence. And so this is what we call reflection or sattvisampatanya, mindfulness and intuitive awareness. Report an error in the passage at 4:10 Highlight the passage at 4:10

4:27 Intellectually we can, you know, we understand the term. And then with Sati Sampatanya, they're actually aware of just feeling, you know, the four Satipatanas, Gayanupasana, Vedanupasana, Jitanupasana, and Tamanupasana. These are skillful means that we have in our scriptures that are not for just intellectual devouring, but for actually observing, witnessing. Report an error in the passage at 4:27 Highlight the passage at 4:27

5:04 They're tools to use, not doctrines to grasp. Report an error in the passage at 5:04 Highlight the passage at 5:04

5:16 So many, like Mettā Pawana, for example, there are people, you know, have various, you know, interested in the practice of Mettā. Report an error in the passage at 5:16 Highlight the passage at 5:16

5:31 And of course, this is defined usually in the English translation as loving kindness. And Mettā is also in the Ten Barmitas. Report an error in the passage at 5:31 Highlight the passage at 5:31

5:48 So it's an, and mettā then is an attitude. It's not just a sentiment of, you know, it's not coming from the ideal level of we should all love everything or be loving and kind to everything. That tends towards the sentimental. It's a, you know, beautiful idea. Report an error in the passage at 5:48 Highlight the passage at 5:48

6:16 And mettā as a I like to use the terms unconditioned love. And I intentionally use the word love because even though that word itself is used for almost anything, it's usually used for liking something. So in the English language, we use it for all kinds of things. Usually it's around liking or being besotted with somebody. Report an error in the passage at 6:16 Highlight the passage at 6:16

6:47 somebody liking some object something that you you love to eat certain kinds of food love certain places but it really means liking now separating the liking and disliking and that these are dependent whether you like something depends on the condition doesn't matter so if you know if you like something then the conditions are there for this feeling of liking and if And if you dislike something, the conditions are present for disliking. Now this is a reflective mode. And they call it itabhajita, dependent. Report an error in the passage at 6:47 Highlight the passage at 6:47

7:37 Conditions are always dependent on other conditions. There's no absolutes. Those absolute conditions that are just seem to rise all on their own independent of anything else. Report an error in the passage at 7:37 Highlight the passage at 7:37

7:52 So in terms of Liking somebody, then it depends on how they behave to us and treat us, and whether they like us or not, and whether they're in a good mood and being pleasant, and then we like them. And then when somebody that we like starts getting angry with us and criticizing us, then we don't like them. Report an error in the passage at 7:52 Highlight the passage at 7:52

8:25 And so that's dependent on the condition, on the mood you're in. Even somebody you like, most of the time, if you're in a bad mood, you don't like them. Report an error in the passage at 8:25 Highlight the passage at 8:25

8:38 Because like and dislike are changing conditions. So, say then, mettā as unconditioned love, then taking love out of the context of liking or approving or being besotted or obsessed with anything, It's put in this more than Christian context of unconditional love. Now by this, then, it means unconditional love then isn't dependent. Report an error in the passage at 8:38 Highlight the passage at 8:38

9:11 It's not about liking or disliking or approving of something. Report an error in the passage at 9:11 Highlight the passage at 9:11

9:21 It's not a sentiment about we should love our enemies as if we should like our enemies. or, you know, Report an error in the passage at 9:21 Highlight the passage at 9:21

9:33 In Christianity, when they talk about loving your enemies, that seems almost impossibility. When somebody's really being difficult and nasty to you, you can't say you, you can't like that. Report an error in the passage at 9:33 Highlight the passage at 9:33

9:54 And also you don't like them when they're in that mode, when they're busy kind of slagging you off. So, but you can notice this. You can observe. Like and dislike. Report an error in the passage at 9:54 Highlight the passage at 9:54

10:16 And then mettā, this unconditioned love then is an attitude of receiving everything for what it is. Like unconditioned love doesn't matter whether the person is pleasing and kind and good to me or is being nasty and rude and insulting to me. Unconditioned love then is It's not about liking or disapproving or disapproving, but receiving unconditionally the praise, the blame, the liking, the disliking that one is receiving from somebody else and also that one is feeling in one's own consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 10:16 Highlight the passage at 10:16

11:15 So then mettā, you know, as a concept is a very useful one for meditation. And we always start with the formula that may I abide in well-being. You always start with yourself. And we tend, you know, modern people, educated people tend to be very critical of themselves. Report an error in the passage at 11:15 Highlight the passage at 11:15

11:41 So we oftentimes don't even like ourselves very much. And we often, we have a tendency for many is to, is to dwell on faults and weaknesses and And guilt and moods that we create about ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 11:41 Highlight the passage at 11:41

12:07 So then we take this, may I abide in well-being. How can you do that? You can say the words, may I abide in well-being, but how do I abide in well-being? Report an error in the passage at 12:07 Highlight the passage at 12:07

12:26 Sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? It is a good idea. And how do you do it? What is that really about? Report an error in the passage at 12:26 Highlight the passage at 12:26

12:37 And that, of course, pointing always to the here and now. It's not, tomorrow I'm going to abide in well-being. It's kind of pointless, isn't it? I'm not going to do it now, I'm going to do it tomorrow. But it's, and this is where you reflect, isn't it, on abiding in well-being. And so these words, English words, well-being, present moment. And that means, to me, then, Accepting the way I am right now, even if I'm in a nasty mood or upset or frustrated, angry, enraged, guilt-ridden, full of self-aversion or whatever, whatever condition I'm experiencing now in my consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 12:37 Highlight the passage at 12:37

13:35 Abiding in well-being doesn't mean trying to suppress or deny the condition, but... Abiding in well-being towards the conditions that I'm experiencing, or mettā, loving-kindness, or unconditioned love, meaning then there's no condition. It's accepting, allowing whatever you're thinking or feeling, physically or emotionally, mentally, allowing it to be what it is. Report an error in the passage at 13:35 Highlight the passage at 13:35

14:07 It's unconditioned love. It's not, I will... I will love myself once I change and I purify myself and I'm worthy. And when these conditions go, that will never happen if you believe that. Report an error in the passage at 14:07 Highlight the passage at 14:07

14:30 But you can do this always immediately. It's spontaneous here and now. Abiding in well-being towards the body and its present condition. Report an error in the passage at 14:30 Highlight the passage at 14:30

15:20 Then mettā then as an attitude, you know, it's not sentimental at all. Not trying to convince myself that I like myself or love myself or anything like that. Report an error in the passage at 15:20 Highlight the passage at 15:20

15:42 But it is practical and it's realistic and it's real. Because this is something we can actually do, abiding in well-being. Report an error in the passage at 15:42 Highlight the passage at 15:42

15:55 Not as an ideal, but as the reality of here and now, whatever state you're in, physically or mentally. Report an error in the passage at 15:55 Highlight the passage at 15:55

16:09 And then, you know, we develop this practice of abiding in well-being towards ourselves, towards these five khandhas, meaning it's not ignoring and pretending everything is just all right. It's not trying to To fool oneself in any way or suppress anything, it's totally receptive. Unconditional love has no conditions on it, no strings attached, no preferences. Report an error in the passage at 16:09 Highlight the passage at 16:09

16:44 Whatever is, no matter what your mood, state of mind is, it's received, it's allowed to be what it is. Then you experience a nicca, because you're... You're attending to the changingness of this, of physical feeling or emotional feeling. Report an error in the passage at 16:44 Highlight the passage at 16:44

17:15 You can actually observe it with mettā, allowing a condition to be what it is. You're letting go of it. You're not trying to kind of make it into something else. You're just letting it be this way and experiencing that it's changing this. Report an error in the passage at 17:15 Highlight the passage at 17:15

17:37 So you're, you're recognizing, you're, you're realizing the Pei Sangharani Chao conditions are impermanent. You're actually, you know, the witness of change. So whether it's a good feeling, a happy feeling, a high feeling, elation, inspiration, whatever, or depression or misery or boredom or whatever, the, These are changing conditions. Some of the most difficult mental states, I think, for all of us are like boredom and disillusionment and despair and disappointment. Report an error in the passage at 17:37 Highlight the passage at 17:37

18:28 In monastic life, isn't it? You know, you get to a point where you feel despair with it or disappointment. You don't get what you expected. Report an error in the passage at 18:28 Highlight the passage at 18:28

18:40 And, you know, one can... He survived for a long time on inspiration and determination, all kinds of other virtues. But you can't sustain any of these. They die. They're impermanent too. What do you expect from monastic life? What is your expectation of it? And then if you don't get what you expect, then you're going to be disappointed. Report an error in the passage at 18:40 Highlight the passage at 18:40

19:16 And you can actually believe disappointment is the truth. But disappointment is not ultimate reality, is it? Being disappointed is not ultimate reality. When the conditions for disappointment are present, then this is the feeling that arises. Report an error in the passage at 19:16 Highlight the passage at 19:16

19:47 That's why it's so important to notice. To experience the changingness of emotions. And not just the more, you know, the highs and the lows, but the kind of mediocrity, the boredom, the restlessness, Report an error in the passage at 19:47 Highlight the passage at 19:47

20:15 disappointment, and just being fed up with things. You know, you can keep the rules and be very strict. Report an error in the passage at 20:15 Highlight the passage at 20:15

20:29 All that for a long time, then you get fed up with it, with all the restrictions. And oftentimes monks and nuns get really fussy about rules and everything. Report an error in the passage at 20:29 Highlight the passage at 20:29

20:43 And you get fed up with monks and nuns and all their monkish ways. You feel pretty, at least I have, fed up with it all. Fed up with the life. Fed up with being a monk. Report an error in the passage at 20:43 Highlight the passage at 20:43

21:03 But then mettā Report an error in the passage at 21:03 Highlight the passage at 21:03

21:12 allows this feeling to be conscious. It's not permanent. And so one can experience the changingness of these emotions. These are emotions. I call them emotions. Report an error in the passage at 21:12 Highlight the passage at 21:12

21:38 So when you really practice mettā, when you really understand it in a practical way, in other words, It, you know, it's just, it's the same thing as mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 21:38 Highlight the passage at 21:38

21:58 It's exactly the same. Mindfulness, mettā. Report an error in the passage at 21:58 Highlight the passage at 21:58

22:05 But mettā then, the word itself conveys a more heartfelt quality. Mindfulness can sound a bit too mental, you know. But mettā is an attitude, a kind of way of Of accepting something, letting something be what it is. Don't we all just want to be accepted for what we are? You know, I look back at my own life and I feel all the anguish and self-consciousness of my personality. Report an error in the passage at 22:05 Highlight the passage at 22:05

22:39 I never felt, you know, I always felt I had to prove to be acceptable, to be liked, and that I had to... I had to prove myself in some way. I had to be nice and polite and good, obey the rules and smile and get on nicely and not rock the boat too much. Report an error in the passage at 22:39 Highlight the passage at 22:39

23:08 You learn as a child, don't you, how to behave so you get the approval you need. So the sense of wanting... But it develops this personality that's based on, I can only be loved when I'm good. Report an error in the passage at 23:08 Highlight the passage at 23:08

23:31 And I always have to prove that I'm somebody worthwhile in order to be accepted. And so this was very much a kind of attitude. It wasn't consciously held. It was just quite subconscious, actually. operating in me in my life until I became aware of it through awareness through meditation and Report an error in the passage at 23:31 Highlight the passage at 23:31

24:01 then the unconditioned love we think well like that's God or some Buddha or some very high person because you know on a personal level you can't love something unconditioned unconditionally personally you can only change according to the condition On a personal level, you're only capable of liking and disliking, approving and disapproving. That's how the personality is. You're not going to get a personality that is wise, pure, and permanently good. Report an error in the passage at 24:01 Highlight the passage at 24:01

24:45 Personalities change according to conditions, if you've noticed. Report an error in the passage at 24:45 Highlight the passage at 24:45

24:54 So, you know, whether I feel... As a person, you know, then I'm praised and people say you're wonderful and my personality is like this. And then they say you're a phony, you've got it all wrong, you're not even really a proper Buddhist, you're a failure. Report an error in the passage at 24:54 Highlight the passage at 24:54

25:18 Personality changes, praise and blame. But they... Then I can see, then if I'm attached to the idea of mettā as a person, then I can feel, you know, I can feel mettā when people are praising me, no problem. You know, liking and love in this sense. But I'm not really being mindful if I'm getting lost in the praise, am I? Report an error in the passage at 25:18 Highlight the passage at 25:18

25:44 It just makes me feel good as a person to be praised and liked and be successful on a personal level. I feel all right. I feel better about myself. But then when things go the other way, when it's being criticized or blamed or rejected or despised or humiliated, then I personally don't feel. That makes me feel that I'm no good, that I'm a failure. Report an error in the passage at 25:44 Highlight the passage at 25:44

26:21 That's the personality, and that depends. Personalities change according to conditions. not in the personal. Report an error in the passage at 26:21 Highlight the passage at 26:21

26:32 in the conditioned, but in unconditioned. Report an error in the passage at 26:32 Highlight the passage at 26:32

26:39 then the unconditioned then is realized, recognized through sati or mindfulness. then mettā is a helpful attitude. Report an error in the passage at 26:39 Highlight the passage at 26:39

26:53 a word conveys, it reminds us of, say, unconditioned love. then unconditioned love. It can only be that in the present moment which is willing to accept something totally unlikable, unwanted, starting with oneself. It Report an error in the passage at 26:53 Highlight the passage at 26:53

27:23 doesn't mean approving or justifying. It's just willing to allow something to be without saying, I want you to go. I don't want this condition. I want to annihilate these bad thoughts or these... These negative emotions. Report an error in the passage at 27:23 Highlight the passage at 27:23

27:48 So that's where they're getting back to sati sampatanya and mettā, where they conjoin, where they're actually the same thing. Report an error in the passage at 27:48 Highlight the passage at 27:48

28:01 But mettā then has this, for me anyway, the word mettā has this more of an attitude of accepting, allowing, to be loved unconditionally. Is what we all long for, isn't it? A God that loves me unconditionally. You know, because on a personal level, I never felt anybody that I knew ever loved me unconditionally. Report an error in the passage at 28:01 Highlight the passage at 28:01

28:36 Whether they loved me depends on how I behaved. And then, God does. And then when you lose your, you know, you no longer kind of can accept that either. You don't even know what that means anymore. Report an error in the passage at 28:36 Highlight the passage at 28:36

28:54 So then in Buddhist meditation, coming back to the present moment and exploring, investigating consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 28:54 Highlight the passage at 28:54

29:07 What do I find? I find, and this is according to the Buddhist teachings, the Four Noble Truths, where the Buddha emphasized sati sampatanya, is Report an error in the passage at 29:07 Highlight the passage at 29:07

29:25 this First Noble Truth. is accepting suffering for what it is and that is a meta allowing dukkha it's not it's not condemning or or trying to change it but recognizing observing allowing suffering to be to Report an error in the passage at 29:25 Highlight the passage at 29:25

29:53 and then to let go of it now don't try to manipulate it or resist it or indulge in it or ignore it or anything but allow suffering to be what it is, experience the changingness of suffering. Report an error in the passage at 29:53 Highlight the passage at 29:53

30:11 you initially do in the present is not something put off till tomorrow. Report an error in the passage at 30:11 Highlight the passage at 30:11

30:21 May all, everyone abide in well-being. Once you understand abiding in well-being, then the compassion, then the karuṇā. You know, where this kind of altruism of, you know, compassion for may everyone abide in well-being. Report an error in the passage at 30:21 Highlight the passage at 30:21

30:56 And so starting from here, then we can go outward towards all sentient beings. But towards, and especially, you know, like that tends to get, you know, quite outward. But then, Notice the people that you're actually living with. You know, like here in Amaravati, the monks and nuns, lay people that are here. Report an error in the passage at 30:56 Highlight the passage at 30:56

31:28 And we might, may everyone abide in well-being, might be a nice thing to say. Report an error in the passage at 31:28 Highlight the passage at 31:28

31:40 But then in terms of the reality of everyone abiding in well-being, because you're all very much, Part of my experience, isn't it, in the present. Now, a billion Chinese in China, I can easily spread, may all billion Chinese abide and well be, because I don't know one, and they're not here. Report an error in the passage at 31:40 Highlight the passage at 31:40

32:11 But then in terms of living here in a community, you know, we affect each other emotionally, so in different emotional... Reactions of love, liking, hating, you know, being judgmental, critical, preferring one over another. Report an error in the passage at 32:11 Highlight the passage at 32:11

32:39 And then we can think, I should have mettā for you all. You know, all the time I should have mettā for all the monks, all the nuns, all the time. That's an ideal. But in terms of may I abide in well-being, getting back to this point here, Report an error in the passage at 32:39 Highlight the passage at 32:39

32:58 Then the memories, you know, like memory, you know, each one of you, when we live together, you have memories of each other. So it's not that we're actually, you know, living like Siamese twins attached to each other physically, but we come and go physically in relationship, but then we carry memories. Report an error in the passage at 32:58 Highlight the passage at 32:58

33:22 So these memories are, the mettā for the memories means whatever the memory is, Report an error in the passage at 33:22 Highlight the passage at 33:22

33:31 You know, if it's a loving, liking, appreciating memory or a jealous one or an angry one towards anybody, then unconditioned love means allowing this memory to be what it is, letting Report an error in the passage at 33:31 Highlight the passage at 33:31

33:57 it be in consciousness without attaching or trying to get rid of it. Because you're experiencing the changingness of memory. So Report an error in the passage at 33:57 Highlight the passage at 33:57

34:19 in this practice, it is word practice and it's practical. Something that is not, I'm not being altruistic or something that's advanced, only the most advanced meditators can do. It's something we can all do. And something worth doing, worth practicing with. It learning, it is developing. Developing, cultivating this way of awareness. And memory is, you know, in the Sannyakanda, you know, the five khandhas, the Sannyakanda are used for memory. Report an error in the passage at 34:19 Highlight the passage at 34:19

35:06 Now memories arise and cease according to other conditions. They just aren't absolutely kind of fixed. And, you know, whether you remember me or not depends on conditions to remember me. Report an error in the passage at 35:06 Highlight the passage at 35:06

35:21 Or anyone. Report an error in the passage at 35:21 Highlight the passage at 35:21

35:25 And then you remember somebody, you know, the memory of that person is unpleasant, is like this. And Report an error in the passage at 35:25 Highlight the passage at 35:25

35:39 then notice if you're very idealistic, how you feel you shouldn't have this hatred for anybody. You know, especially, you know, we're here sharing the holy life together. Report an error in the passage at 35:39 Highlight the passage at 35:39

35:55 You know, we can be very altruistic about it. But we can feel also very mean and nasty and petty also in our emotional experience. Because sometimes we act that way. Sometimes we're rude and insensitive and critical and just reactive in ways that are unpleasant. That's what happens when you live with somebody, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 35:55 Highlight the passage at 35:55

36:31 With people. Report an error in the passage at 36:31 Highlight the passage at 36:31

36:36 And so then the mettā, the unconditioned love then is observing, witnessing, allowing your emotional world to be what it is. It's not approving of it. When I say accepting it, acceptance doesn't mean approval. In order to understand something, you have to accept it. Report an error in the passage at 36:36 Highlight the passage at 36:36

37:00 It doesn't mean you have to like it or approve of it. And so if it's unplanned, like suffering is... Who wants suffering? None of us want to suffer, I think. Some people, I think, like to suffer. Report an error in the passage at 37:00 Highlight the passage at 37:00

37:19 But I don't. I don't like suffering at all, personally. But then suffering is experience, isn't it? This realm, being human, having a body like this, having a personality, having memories, all this, likes and dislikes. Personally, I have preferences and what I prefer and what I don't like and what I approve of and disapprove of. Report an error in the passage at 37:19 Highlight the passage at 37:19

37:50 And these are part of a personality. Report an error in the passage at 37:50 Highlight the passage at 37:50

37:55 I can be very idealistic and altruistic. I can also feel very cold and very unfeeling, very kind of lack of caring. I can feel very selfish. Report an error in the passage at 37:55 Highlight the passage at 37:55

38:20 That's personal. Those are conditions that one experiences in consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 38:20 Highlight the passage at 38:20

38:29 So then, in terms of ideals, I don't want to be selfish and cruel and insensitive. Idealistically, I want to be full of compassion and loving kindness and good natured and accepting and, you know, being the ideal Ajahn, ideal habit. Being the ideal friend to you all, being the ideal teacher. I like ideals, and they're likable. Report an error in the passage at 38:29 Highlight the passage at 38:29

39:06 Ideals are likable. But Report an error in the passage at 39:06 Highlight the passage at 39:06

39:14 with mettā practice, then we are allowing ourselves to be the witness or the observer of change. And so, even though what we like, It's likeable and praiseworthy and right and good. It changes. All conditions change. Nothing can be absolutely right and absolutely good under all conditions. Report an error in the passage at 39:14 Highlight the passage at 39:14

39:49 So this emphasis on awareness, allowing, experiencing, knowing change is like this. No matter how personal it might seem, how emotional, how urgent, How important or how horrible and nasty or frightening it might be. Or on the other side, how wonderful and inspired and marvelous and fantastic everything is. Report an error in the passage at 39:49 Highlight the passage at 39:49

40:28 These are the extremities. And much of our life is neither the heaven or hell or the extremities, but Just the day-to-day, putting on your robe, eating your food, walking from here to there, sitting down, bowing, chanting, the daily routine. Most of our life is not extreme, it's just like this, neither this nor that. Report an error in the passage at 40:28 Highlight the passage at 40:28

41:09 But mettā includes it all, the attitude of allowing boredom and routine and that to be. Report an error in the passage at 41:09 Highlight the passage at 41:09

41:25 restlessness that arises if your life gets perfunctory, just going through the routine, say, surrender to the Don't be selfish. All these kind of words we fling about. Surrender to the form. It means shut up. Don't complain. Report an error in the passage at 41:25 Highlight the passage at 41:25

41:55 That's where some of these thoughts come in. Surrender to the form, really saying shut up, don't complain about anything. Report an error in the passage at 41:55 Highlight the passage at 41:55

42:15 So then, you know, the more you, you know, contemplate in this way, reflect in this way, this awareness is, becomes, you know, is your, is the real strength. Report an error in the passage at 42:15 Highlight the passage at 42:15

42:34 Awareness isn't dependent, is not a condition. Report an error in the passage at 42:34 Highlight the passage at 42:34

42:40 It's our ability to awaken to condition. Report an error in the passage at 42:40 Highlight the passage at 42:40

42:47 It's an ability to observe condition within the confines of our human form and our personality, the way our personalities work, our emotional world and all the rest. These are not obstructions unless we, you know, but if we identify with them, then everything is obstructive. Everything obstructs us. So the point is awaken. Report an error in the passage at 42:47 Highlight the passage at 42:47

43:40 this moment, not in some, you know, the world out there, so much as the world, I'm talking about the world that you're experiencing, your consciousness at this moment. Report an error in the passage at 43:40 Highlight the passage at 43:40

43:55 the real world. Report an error in the passage at 43:55 Highlight the passage at 43:55

43:59 I heard on Radio 4 recently they had this experiment where they were sending Christian nuns, Catholic nuns, who'd been in convents for years. Once they enter, they're not supposed to leave. And some of these Catholic nuns had been in a convent for 20 years or so. Report an error in the passage at 43:59 Highlight the passage at 43:59

44:21 And so there was an experiment taking these nuns who'd been incarcerated in a convent for 20 years and putting them out in the real world. They say, this I heard on the radio. They went out into the real world like various, you know, like some place in London or, you know, to experience the real world. Report an error in the passage at 44:21 Highlight the passage at 44:21

44:45 That's how we often, we get accused of not living in the real world. I've been, you know, people said, you aren't living in the real world. Because to most people, the real world is not a real world. It's their illusions that they create. It's their prejudices, their opinions, their views, their emotions are to them the real world. Report an error in the passage at 44:45 Highlight the passage at 44:45

45:16 And the society they live in, their views and their attitudes and all that that they hold in their social position and whatnot, they call the real world. Report an error in the passage at 45:16 Highlight the passage at 45:16

45:30 Now, this is not a doctrinal position I'm taking, but... In the Buddhist context, the real world is here, isn't it? We create the world. You're the creator of the world. Because you live in the world that you create. It's obvious. The memories that you have, the opinions, the preferences and habits, they're not the same for all of us, are they? Report an error in the passage at 45:30 Highlight the passage at 45:30

46:02 But they're real for us. That's what our real world is. Whether you're incarcerated in a convent, Or living in the middle of London or here at Amaravati. The real world is this, here and now. The conditions changing. Report an error in the passage at 46:02 Highlight the passage at 46:02

46:25 And so mettā is mettā for the real world. It's not saying, oh, I shouldn't have these bad thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 46:25 Highlight the passage at 46:25

46:46 Because then you're making a problem. You're not reflecting, you're not experiencing the changing of some bad thoughts. You are... Judging them and then creating an ego with that because you think they're my bad thoughts and I shouldn't, if I'm a good monk, I shouldn't have these bad thoughts. And then it goes on into a real, you know, into a world that I create about me being a monk who has bad thoughts that I shouldn't have and gets very complicated. Report an error in the passage at 46:46 Highlight the passage at 46:46

47:24 And you feel guilty and... Report an error in the passage at 47:24 Highlight the passage at 47:24

47:30 I feel you let everybody down. You should be full of loving kindness all the time and never feel any anger or enmity or jealousy or fear or anything. Report an error in the passage at 47:30 Highlight the passage at 47:30

47:44 And then the conditions arise for these kind of emotions. I've been meditating all these years and I still get frightened. I've been meditating all these years and I still get angry over this. Report an error in the passage at 47:44 Highlight the passage at 47:44

47:58 It's not working. Report an error in the passage at 47:58 Highlight the passage at 47:58

48:04 But then in terms of reflectiveness. Reflectiveness, sattisampatanya, this is our ability to allow the world to be what it is. It doesn't mean approving or liking, but allowing, receiving it, experiencing this world, experiencing its changiness, because the world changes all the time according to the condition. Report an error in the passage at 48:04 Highlight the passage at 48:04

48:45 So this is like a reflection on... Mettā is something that I encourage to develop. And Report an error in the passage at 48:45 Highlight the passage at 48:45

49:06 then mettā is no longer just a kind of formula or being altruistic or being sentimental about anything. It's very practical, very realistic. Report an error in the passage at 49:06 Highlight the passage at 49:06

49:25 So unconditioned love is our true nature, in other words, putting it in non-Buddhist terms. Report an error in the passage at 49:25 Highlight the passage at 49:25

49:36 Unconditional love is pure conscious awareness. When we awaken and awaken to the way it is, the Buddha aware of the Dhamma, knowing the Dhamma, Report an error in the passage at 49:36 Highlight the passage at 49:36

49:59 then the suffering is seen, is learned from. We have the insights into the Four Noble Truths and let go of it. Let suffering be what it is. When we let go of suffering, suffering is not ultimate reality. Report an error in the passage at 49:59 Highlight the passage at 49:59

50:22 It arises and ceases according to conditions. You're allowing suffering to be what it is. Letting it go doesn't mean getting rid of it, but letting it be and then it ceases. The awareness. Report an error in the passage at 50:22 Highlight the passage at 50:22

50:40 Awareness of suffering and its cessation. Now this is what intuitive awareness is all about. You realize the cessation of suffering. Not as something, you know, suffering ceases forever and never arises again. That's another ideal. If I really experience cessation, that means I'll never suffer again. You'll be terribly disappointed if you hold on to that expectation. Report an error in the passage at 50:40 Highlight the passage at 50:40

51:14 But this realm is like this, and having a body is like this, having senses, being sensitive, feeling, and in this realm that is a totally sensitive realm, it's not an ideal, it's not what things should be, but it is the way it is. You've got good and bad, right and wrong. I have, you know, beautiful butterflies and... Report an error in the passage at 51:14 Highlight the passage at 51:14

51:45 And nasty little mosquitoes. Report an error in the passage at 51:45 Highlight the passage at 51:45

51:54 So you've got saints and sinners and all the rest, because that's the way it's supposed to be, the way it is, the changingness of conditioned phenomena. Report an error in the passage at 51:54 Highlight the passage at 51:54

52:08 And the relationship is to be the knower, the witness to change, allowing change. Because if... If you don't allow change to change, then you'll never notice its cessation. You'll always be looking for something, expecting something, caught in the delusions again. Report an error in the passage at 52:08 Highlight the passage at 52:08

52:36 So I offer this for your reflection. Report an error in the passage at 52:36 Highlight the passage at 52:36