1207-The-Truth-is-in-Your-Heart

0:00 Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:34 So Report an error in the passage at 0:34 Highlight the passage at 0:34

0:46 this is the new moon of December, 1999. How many shopping days left? It's not a concern with us, is it? Report an error in the passage at 0:46 Highlight the passage at 0:46

1:13 And next Sunday is the Papata for the three candidates for... Going forth to become a filidara, that's something very good, something very inspiring to see people doing that. Like Report an error in the passage at 1:13 Highlight the passage at 1:13

1:43 going forth is a bapata, translated as going forth, and it implies this going into the unknown out of this image of, you know, just don't look back. Report an error in the passage at 1:43 Highlight the passage at 1:43

2:00 I remember that biblical story of Lot's wife. When Solomon and Gomorrah were burning, she looked back and she turned into a pillar of salt. Report an error in the passage at 2:00 Highlight the passage at 2:00

2:11 It's a significant pillar of salt. But in the holy life, you see that there's a symbol that's going forth. If you keep looking back at the world and things like that, then you... You just can't, you don't get anywhere. It's like Sodom and Gomorrah were symbols of that kind of life where, you know, comfort, luxury, status, all the best things, the pleasures of the senses and all that. Report an error in the passage at 2:11 Highlight the passage at 2:11

2:56 And yet, part of it is kind of destruction. Report an error in the passage at 2:56 Highlight the passage at 2:56

3:02 The longing for it again, the wanting to have that. So Report an error in the passage at 3:02 Highlight the passage at 3:02

3:11 going forth also implies going into the unknown. The destination isn't known. It's an act of faith. Report an error in the passage at 3:11 Highlight the passage at 3:11

3:24 These words, you can give them significance just by contemplating them. Because in holy life you go into what you don't know. Report an error in the passage at 3:24 Highlight the passage at 3:24

3:41 If people want guarantees, if I commit myself to being a monk or a nun, will I get rewarded for that? Or, you know, that's trying to make a deal. You know, you can guarantee, if you do so many years, you'll get so much merit, or you'll guarantee of reaching nibbāna. Report an error in the passage at 3:41 Highlight the passage at 3:41

4:09 But it's the... The holy life depends on not knowing rather than knowing or having guarantees. Then Report an error in the passage at 4:09 Highlight the passage at 4:09

4:26 we get into mystery because we, you know, the religion oftentimes points to what's mysterious, what's a mystery. A mystery is nothing you can get hold of. It's the unknown. Report an error in the passage at 4:26 Highlight the passage at 4:26

4:45 And when you look at your life, you know, it is a mystery. Even though we can surround ourselves with the securities of the known, have everything, you know, that we feel safe and comfortable with and makes us feel all right and secure and put all our attention into that, you know, so that, you know, what our consciousness is continually dominated by what we're used to. Report an error in the passage at 4:45 Highlight the passage at 4:45

5:15 And that's one way of avoiding it. I suppose at the end of one's life, you know, especially if you've never bothered to contemplate the mystery. Report an error in the passage at 5:15 Highlight the passage at 5:15

5:28 then it be quite a shock, you know, going to death must be the ultimate mystery. Report an error in the passage at 5:28 Highlight the passage at 5:28

5:38 so many people just are not prepared for that, so they resist, they fight, and they get terrified. They want all the things they have. Like people dying oftentimes can want their husband or wife, their money. They get very kind of obsessed with holding on to what they've valued and what they've known and not prepared to relinquish and just trust in going through the mystery. Report an error in the passage at 5:38 Highlight the passage at 5:38

6:18 So Bapuja, of course, can be seen as kind of a death experience. Report an error in the passage at 6:18 Highlight the passage at 6:18

6:36 Not knowing, not being aware, not being sure, the don't know mind, the uncertain, these are concepts that make us feel very ill at ease. Report an error in the passage at 6:36 Highlight the passage at 6:36

6:57 Well, we want to, you know, we want to... To make sure that everything is going to be all right, so much of daily life is just a kind of affirmation of everything's all right, rather than seeing each moment for what it is. Report an error in the passage at 6:57 Highlight the passage at 6:57

7:23 Contentment, for example, in the holy life, this attitude of contentment is the kind of essence of the holy life, to be content. With this moment as it is, and the way it is, without any kind of conditions, you know, demands made on it. Now that's quite a demand, that's a demand in itself, isn't it? Contentment. In the samana life, the contentment with the four requisites, with the way things are, with the way you are, means that you're not necessarily... Report an error in the passage at 7:23 Highlight the passage at 7:23

8:06 You know, waiting until everything is what you want or like or think the way it should be. Being content in this moment. Learning Report an error in the passage at 8:06 Highlight the passage at 8:06

8:26 to have this gratitude for the food that we received today or the shelter for the night. This kind of thing helps to develop this sense of contentment. Where when we're not content, then we're always thinking we need something that we don't have. And so that's an endless trap. You can always think of something you'd like or something you think you need. And as long as the mind goes out into that, then you're going to need... Report an error in the passage at 8:26 Highlight the passage at 8:26

9:03 There's so many things we think we need anyway that it's endless. There's no contentment in that. And Report an error in the passage at 9:03 Highlight the passage at 9:03

9:15 the desire... Desire mind is very much based on that, always trying to improve things, make things better, trying to get more or get rid of or kind of control, manipulate the world around oneself to try to always strive for progress, for improvement, for success. Report an error in the passage at 9:15 Highlight the passage at 9:15

9:50 So sometimes a holy person seems like a fool to a clever person in the world because it sounds like we're becoming rather foolish and irresponsible and impractical and unreasonable and stupid Report an error in the passage at 9:50 Highlight the passage at 9:50

10:14 because it looks like we're... We don't have even common sense, because the holy fool, as they often call it, in religious traditions, in every tradition there's a holy fool, which is a character that is contrasted, say, to the ambitious minds of the worldly life. Or even in the holy life you can become a religious... Report an error in the passage at 10:14 Highlight the passage at 10:14

10:53 organizationally become ambitious. Report an error in the passage at 10:53 Highlight the passage at 10:53

10:57 a of high rank, become an authority, a scholar, a teacher, become an abbot, get a title, become something that in worldly terms makes you feel like you're really successful in getting somewhere. Report an error in the passage at 10:57 Highlight the passage at 10:57

11:25 can see in any religion the kind of political struggles that go on for titles, for rank, for and all that under the name of religion. Report an error in the passage at 11:25 Highlight the passage at 11:25

11:49 as a seminar, then, is, know, I'm sure most of us are not really interested in that. are in black I've never been ambitious for worldly things. Anyway, it's never been a kind of foremost interest in my life to attain something in the world. Report an error in the passage at 11:49 Highlight the passage at 11:49

12:17 But those elements can affect one's life within the monastic style. So you can see just tendencies towards You know, wanting success, wanting to be respected, wanting to be acknowledged, gain approval, have a following, have an entourage, get praise, accumulate wealth, have a Rolls Royce, have all the best. Report an error in the passage at 12:17 Highlight the passage at 12:17

13:05 Because these things can come to us, and people want to shower us with all kinds of marvelous inventions, material things. So the kind of irony of becoming an ombudsman is I found everything I've ever wanted I've been given. And when I wanted it, I couldn't get it. Report an error in the passage at 13:05 Highlight the passage at 13:05

13:36 Be careful what you want because you'll eventually get it anyway, probably when you don't want it anymore. Report an error in the passage at 13:36 Highlight the passage at 13:36

13:52 Summon our life in the sense of here and now, contentment, very simple practices of learning to relax, to trust in the present, to just give yourself totally to this moment. And I've found things like I contemplate Contemplating, don't have to become anything, don't have to prove anything, not going anywhere, don't have to do anything, because my tendency, my conditioned mind is very much programmed for the other. Report an error in the passage at 13:52 Highlight the passage at 13:52

14:30 I've got to do something, got to earn my keep, got to get something I don't have, got to develop, got to get my samādhi. I've got to have my insights even in the life of the samana one can still be kind of pushed the pushiness of one's conditioned mind to always even make meditation is some kind of challenging experience where you've got to get rid of your defilements and But then Report an error in the passage at 14:30 Highlight the passage at 14:30

15:15 they... Report an error in the passage at 15:15 Highlight the passage at 15:15

15:20 Mindfulness has been the kind of the emphasis the Buddha made on practice to be aware of this, to see the results of this ambition or desire to get or get rid of, become something. Report an error in the passage at 15:20 Highlight the passage at 15:20

15:41 Even desire to become enlightened is desire. Report an error in the passage at 15:41 Highlight the passage at 15:41

15:49 Desire to get rid of defilement is desire. Very good desires too. Not that desire necessarily is bad, but it's still desire, and if it's not recognized and understood, not known for what it is, then we tend to get attached to those kind of things, and then always striving, trying to become. So in the present moment, we're not with the moment, because we're always busy trying to do something, get something, get rid of something. Report an error in the passage at 15:49 Highlight the passage at 15:49

16:29 So the challenge of the holy life is learning to relax in the present, to fully be present, totally present, accepting whatever is present the way it is, whether it's physical pain or discomfort or bad thoughts or good thoughts or... Or confusion, mental confusion, emotional confusion, or peacefulness or tranquility. Report an error in the passage at 16:29 Highlight the passage at 16:29

17:15 Even tranquility is not the goal, or peacefulness, but this understanding, this willing to totally accept the way it is in the present. Report an error in the passage at 17:15 Highlight the passage at 17:15

17:30 So the vehicle, as you see this bapa cha going forth as siladar, is a vehicle. Siladar is only a vehicle. It's like getting into a certain kind of coach or boat or something like that. That's aimed at, you know, just going on the middle way. Report an error in the passage at 17:30 Highlight the passage at 17:30

17:56 And so you have this vehicle to kind of help you, to hold you from just... Getting lost and being caught up into all the temptations and attractions and repulsive things and so forth that one has to experience through the body and mind condition. So Report an error in the passage at 17:56 Highlight the passage at 17:56

18:25 it's learning to stay in the vehicle. No matter what all the kind of impingements, both external or internal, are going on. Report an error in the passage at 18:25 Highlight the passage at 18:25

18:42 One of the monks disrobed several years ago. Just before he disrobed, he published an article about don't get off the train. I Report an error in the passage at 18:42 Highlight the passage at 18:42

18:54 think it was a talk somewhat like this one. It was later he disrobed. This Report an error in the passage at 18:54 Highlight the passage at 18:54

19:07 is a reflection only on how to look at this convention. Report an error in the passage at 19:07 Highlight the passage at 19:07

19:17 You can look at a convention in all different kinds of ways, too. It's not that this is the only way. This is the way that I found of value, to see it as like a train. Report an error in the passage at 19:17 Highlight the passage at 19:17

19:40 Transports, a vehicle you're getting into. So it is limiting. Once you're in a vehicle, you're bound into the limits of that vehicle. Report an error in the passage at 19:40 Highlight the passage at 19:40

19:51 And sometimes, you know, you don't. You see something off to the right, it's much more tantalizing than the vehicle itself. So, you know, you can feel pulled wanting to get out. Report an error in the passage at 19:51 Highlight the passage at 19:51

20:15 track can be rather boring you're looking at something that looks much more exciting. because you've determined to stay in the vehicle, then it more or less helps you to not wander off. Report an error in the passage at 20:15 Highlight the passage at 20:15

20:35 To the right or the left, keep going in a straight line. Now Report an error in the passage at 20:35 Highlight the passage at 20:35

20:49 taking that as a kind of metaphor, a symbol for the holy life, then applying that to the mind itself. I Report an error in the passage at 20:49 Highlight the passage at 20:49

21:03 generally encourage this use of the sound of silence. It's like a straight line. It's like a train track. It's not particularly interesting in itself. It's not like anything you can really, certainly not exciting or entertaining. Report an error in the passage at 21:03 Highlight the passage at 21:03

21:30 But if you use it as a kind of reference point to return to when your mind wanders off thinking, oh, isn't that fascinating, or get kind of caught into all the worldly problems. Report an error in the passage at 21:30 Highlight the passage at 21:30

21:48 political strife or the human rights problems or economic difficulties, social problems. Report an error in the passage at 21:48 Highlight the passage at 21:48

22:01 around all the important things of a society that could be quite demanding on our attention and we can easily be pulled into, say, all these kind of activities which are... you know quite good activities in themselves trying to help the poor and uplift the society not to despise or think these things are something to look down on but there's no end to it if we endlessly try to to solve all clean up the world by trying to solve every problem every political Report an error in the passage at 22:01 Highlight the passage at 22:01

22:46 social, economic problem. Report an error in the passage at 22:46 Highlight the passage at 22:46

22:51 Which is, you know, we end up feeling quite kind of stressed and embittered. because it doesn't, you know, we can manage to maybe in some things. Report an error in the passage at 22:51 Highlight the passage at 22:51

23:09 if we have the right attitude, then our attention towards the strife and problems of the world is much more effective than if we're just being distracted by it and caught up in our own desires, our own views, our own perceptions of it. Report an error in the passage at 23:09 Highlight the passage at 23:09

23:30 the sound of silence acts like a straight line, a railroad track, you keep to that, then you can see. Pleasant, unpleasant, beautiful, ugly, and neutral experiences that will come to you, will reach you through consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 23:30 Highlight the passage at 23:30

24:05 But your observance of them then is more looking at them in terms of dharma, of the fleetingness, of the impermanence, of the ephemeral. A nature of conditioned phenomena. Learning Report an error in the passage at 24:05 Highlight the passage at 24:05

24:28 to rest in that point of stillness and silence. To trust in it. Because the emotions are not content with that. Emotionally we want, it's boring for us emotionally. Our emotional habits are usually conditioned through wanting interesting activities or be excited. Stimulation of some sort. Though in terms of emotional reactions to the silence, it can be quite negative. Report an error in the passage at 24:28 Highlight the passage at 24:28

25:10 Or it doesn't seem like anything worthwhile. It doesn't seem important. It seems like nothing much at all to pay attention to. But as a reference point, if you don't have any reference, but merely... Your own ideas and thoughts and interpretations of Buddhism and the power of your own habits. And it's easy to just get even more confused and lost. Report an error in the passage at 25:10 Highlight the passage at 25:10

25:47 Then on the convention itself, like the Selandara Convention, is in regards to action and speech. So you're giving up a kind of your... Report an error in the passage at 25:47 Highlight the passage at 25:47

26:03 Your rights as a personality to express yourself, to be who you really are, to wear what you really like, to just do what you feel like doing for your impulses, and to, you know, be free as a personality. Because the samanat life is... is externally one of conformity, learning to restrain oneself within the limits of the Vinaya discipline, the moral precepts and training precepts. Report an error in the passage at 26:03 Highlight the passage at 26:03

26:47 So these precepts are, remember, they're precepts. They're to help us. They're for reference. They refer to them. They're not like orders from above. They're not laws that you have to keep or you'll be punished, things like this. Report an error in the passage at 26:47 Highlight the passage at 26:47

27:12 They're guidelines. They're criteria, standards that we use for mindfulness. It helps us to be aware of our relationships with each other, of our... ...relationship to the material world, to the society, to the planet that we live on. Report an error in the passage at 27:12 Highlight the passage at 27:12

27:43 They're based on harmlessness, nonviolence, on honesty, on fearingness of needs, being content, being responsible for how we live. Report an error in the passage at 27:43 Highlight the passage at 27:43

28:07 what we do with our bodies Report an error in the passage at 28:07 Highlight the passage at 28:07

28:16 guidelines for that. Report an error in the passage at 28:16 Highlight the passage at 28:16

28:21 and in a time now when there are not really many guys. there's so many social problems, at least you hear it so much and read about it so much, of the endless social problems that exist a society that is. Free, you know, as free as you can wish for, I think. Report an error in the passage at 28:21 Highlight the passage at 28:21

28:49 In my life I've been given enormous freedom to do what I want to do, to go where I want to go. There isn't a lot of pressure on me to just, you know, to do, to follow anything in particular. Report an error in the passage at 28:49 Highlight the passage at 28:49

29:13 I chose a monastic life. My parents didn't encourage me to come into this life. In fact, I think they would have discouraged me. Report an error in the passage at 29:13 Highlight the passage at 29:13

29:26 The recognizing that just following my impulses led me into a lot of trouble. Just impulsive behavior, doing what I felt like, doing what I wanted. I ended up in a state of total mental confusion. That Report an error in the passage at 29:26 Highlight the passage at 29:26

29:51 was my experiment with hedonism, was almost suicidal, just hating myself and totally confused by the endless options and just seeking, just following impulses that oftentimes weren't very wholesome or skillful. Report an error in the passage at 29:51 Highlight the passage at 29:51

30:17 It's the moment, what you felt like doing and saying. So then in coming into monastic life, the problem was still there, but then I had training rules that said you can't do that, you can't say that. Report an error in the passage at 30:17 Highlight the passage at 30:17

30:40 And so then because of that, then I learned to stop myself. I'd have ways of... of... You know, learning to just live a more simple life, a more trusting life, in the company of people who were doing the same thing, who were in the same vehicle, really. So I wasn't just left on, you know, alone by myself. I had the people around me were very much, and we all, you know. Report an error in the passage at 30:40 Highlight the passage at 30:40

31:18 Gave up our individuality, shaved our heads, wore the same kind of robes and followed the same training rules. So even though on the personal level we were all very different characters, personalities, I was for the first few years only with Thai monks. I was the only Western monk. It was like a kind of... Report an error in the passage at 31:18 Highlight the passage at 31:18

31:48 the odd one in the group, you know, stood out, didn't fit into the visual perception of monks look Report an error in the passage at 31:48 Highlight the passage at 31:48

32:05 in Thailand. You see, I saw a picture of how they took a wapapong, this row of Thai monks sitting in a long row. And I was very junior at the time. It was a long road. And so it goes like this, and suddenly this big Report an error in the passage at 32:05 Highlight the passage at 32:05

32:30 white thing kind of juts forth. Report an error in the passage at 32:30 Highlight the passage at 32:30

32:37 But in another way it was, you know, it was conforming to the same, I mean, using the same convention. So it wasn't important whether, you know, how tall I was or what nationality or color scheme or that, it's not important. But it's the common... common, uh... Aspiration that we all share and found that very supportive to be with other men who had the same aspiration. Report an error in the passage at 32:37 Highlight the passage at 32:37

33:11 That Report an error in the passage at 33:11 Highlight the passage at 33:11

33:16 is very supportive towards the Holy Law. And then you can become just a conforming monk or nun if you want. You know, trying to get the prey. People would say, oh, Report an error in the passage at 33:16 Highlight the passage at 33:16

33:37 Sumedho is really a good monk. I like that. It really made me feel good to be considered something really good and to be admired. So it was a tremendous effort to conform, because the more I conformed and renounced and practiced, then I'd get that much more praise. Report an error in the passage at 33:37 Highlight the passage at 33:37

33:59 On that level also, you can just use the convention as a... just blind conformity But that's not really going forth. It's not to just join a club and become a member of an organization and fit into it. But to use the convention for awareness so you begin to see the results of even your attempts to To conform, or to be considered a good monk, or a good nun, or to, you know, if you're really reflecting, you begin to see the suffering the ego creates through attachment to the convention. Report an error in the passage at 33:59 Highlight the passage at 33:59

34:57 So then, you don't have to get rid of the convention, but just learn to see the, after contemplating the suffering that comes from attachment to it, you let go. I mean, you stop relaxing. Report an error in the passage at 34:57 Highlight the passage at 34:57

35:10 You start feeling at ease within the convention. At first, I didn't feel at ease in the convention. It was all like climbing uphill, hard work. It was going against everything I was used to. It was having to limit myself, having to live within restrained behavior. Report an error in the passage at 35:10 Highlight the passage at 35:10

35:44 And at first it just seemed so kind of suffocating. I remember feeling like I'm being suffocated by this life. It's suffocating me. And I used to get averse to it. I remember having periods where I just hate it and see everybody around me as kind of with very negative critical eyes. It Report an error in the passage at 35:44 Highlight the passage at 35:44

36:17 wasn't because... There was part of me that didn't want to conform, didn't want to have to live with these people or conform to this, give up to this particular way of living. The Report an error in the passage at 36:17 Highlight the passage at 36:17

36:41 awareness allows us to see that, our own kind of rebelliousness, conceit, stubbornness, reactivity. Because it is a moral convention, so his purpose is to help us toward doing good and refrain from doing evil, to be able to get some perspective on desire, because desire is just, if you don't understand, if you don't recognize desire, then we just get completely mesmerized by it, we get lost in it. Report an error in the passage at 36:41 Highlight the passage at 36:41

37:22 We're used to desire, but we don't know desire. The desire realm is what we're used to and what we most easily kind of sink into because it is what we're used to. It's our habits that have been formed through that. So to get perspective on desire means to start recognizing desire. Report an error in the passage at 37:22 Highlight the passage at 37:22

37:53 Contemplating it, not just trying to get, not getting rid of it and trying to kill off desire, but with getting to know what is desire, what does it feel like? Report an error in the passage at 37:53 Highlight the passage at 37:53

38:09 Desire to become something, desire to get rid of something you don't like. Sensual desire is desire for sense pleasures, for exciting sense experiences. Report an error in the passage at 38:09 Highlight the passage at 38:09

38:22 These are all part of our life. Now it's not trying to get rid of these, not the desire to get rid of desire, which is not the way. So in order to understand desire, we contemplate it, we reflect on it, get to know it, understand it, know Report an error in the passage at 38:22 Highlight the passage at 38:22

38:54 what it feels like, that kind of feeling of something I've got to do yet. Report an error in the passage at 38:54 Highlight the passage at 38:54

39:03 Or just the aversion, wanting to get rid of something I don't like. Report an error in the passage at 39:03 Highlight the passage at 39:03

39:11 So then that desire, we begin to, through being aware of desire's desire, then you can see desire as an object, as a mental object, because you're not desire. If you're just a, if all you are is a bundle of desires, then one desire can't see another. Report an error in the passage at 39:11 Highlight the passage at 39:11

39:37 So you couldn't possibly get out of it or get any perspective on it. So the way that we do have perspective is through awareness of desire. So the second noble truth is this reflection, contemplating gama dana, pava dana, vipa dana, desire for sense, pleasure, desire for becoming, desire for getting rid of. Report an error in the passage at 39:37 Highlight the passage at 39:37

40:01 So Report an error in the passage at 40:01 Highlight the passage at 40:01

40:11 this awareness of desire is transcending the desire. There's others. It allows us, it's the way out of the trap, is to awaken in the present. Report an error in the passage at 40:11 Highlight the passage at 40:11

40:29 So in the holy life you still have all the desires that anyone else has, because this is a desire realm, this realm that we live in, these bodies are desire bodies, the senses, the eyes, ears, nose, tongue. tongue, itself are all about desire you see something you like, you want it you desire, you see something you don't like This is the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 40:29 Highlight the passage at 40:29

41:19 there's nothing, there's no... Report an error in the passage at 41:19 Highlight the passage at 41:19

41:23 No kind of looking down on it, saying it shouldn't be like that, because that's the way it is. This realm that we're experiencing through this physical body is a desire realm. But we can contemplate, we can reflect on these desires. So Report an error in the passage at 41:23 Highlight the passage at 41:23

41:49 this is the Buddha encouraged to become an expert on desire, rather than somebody that doesn't have any more desires. That's another ego. I want to become somebody who doesn't have any desires. It's the same problem. You're never going to get out of it that way by trying to not have any desires, but through understanding, recognizing, and then through that you have the insight, letting go of desire. Report an error in the passage at 41:49 Highlight the passage at 41:49

42:23 Letting go isn't suppression, isn't annihilation. To let go means that you can actually see desire for what it is. Now Report an error in the passage at 42:23 Highlight the passage at 42:23

42:43 in this awakened state, awakened awareness that the Buddha encouraged, it gives us this chance for the gate to the deathless, this aparuta desangamatasa taura. Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced without Mooji Report an error in the passage at 42:43 Highlight the passage at 42:43

43:22 Media Ltd.'s express consent. Pleasurable, unpleasurable and neutral aspects, qualities. And Report an error in the passage at 43:22 Highlight the passage at 43:22

43:48 then to encourage the sense of to relax, to let go, to release yourself with faith in this present moment, like encouragement. Report an error in the passage at 43:48 Highlight the passage at 43:48

44:13 Those who can hear, those who can pay attention like this, those who are awake at this moment, let go into this present moment, relax into it, so that it's an act of relaxed attention rather than striving to get something or get rid of something. Report an error in the passage at 44:13 Highlight the passage at 44:13

44:41 So if you're full of desire, just the ability to pay attention to desire. Relax into the moment so that the desires then are embracing them rather than just resisting and struggling with them. Report an error in the passage at 44:41 Highlight the passage at 44:41

45:01 And in that perspective then you can let go of desire. So Report an error in the passage at 45:01 Highlight the passage at 45:01

45:20 it's all in here really. Like Luang Pu Khao told me years ago, when I couldn't understand Thai very well, I went to this old monk, a really... Wonderful old monk up in Udon, and he called me a sign, he said, it's all here, it's all here. Report an error in the passage at 45:20 Highlight the passage at 45:20

45:45 He said, truth is here, and he put a point to his heart. At that time, that's about all the time I could really manage. But it was a profound teaching for me, because it's as simple as that. It's not like... Report an error in the passage at 45:45 Highlight the passage at 45:45

46:05 complicated, abstract, abstruse, high-mindedness that the Buddha is teaching, awakeness here, you know, to the heart, open heart, heart surgery. Report an error in the passage at 46:05 Highlight the passage at 46:05

46:28 a hot bypass. Report an error in the passage at 46:28 Highlight the passage at 46:28

46:42 when you look at your heart, it... It's not like that. Like, if you're a very rational person, it sounds nice and even Report an error in the passage at 46:42 Highlight the passage at 46:42

47:07 romantic, but actually it takes a kind of relaxed attention where you're with the heart in the present and you're not making any demands on it or criticizing it in any way. You're willing to let it To let whatever is in your heart be present without judging it, criticizing it. In Report an error in the passage at 47:07 Highlight the passage at 47:07

47:48 terms of the rational mind, which most of us are highly conditioned, educated for that, we tend to criticize things a lot. Report an error in the passage at 47:48 Highlight the passage at 47:48

48:03 It's so easy to pass a judgment. or to Report an error in the passage at 48:03 Highlight the passage at 48:03

48:10 you know, to dwell on Report an error in the passage at 48:10 Highlight the passage at 48:10

48:19 good to just, you know, to really be obsessed with them, to think that it shouldn't be like that. Report an error in the passage at 48:19 Highlight the passage at 48:19

48:31 so there's always this judging, this faculty that is always judging things and comments. but the heart... practice isn't a judgmental one because it's willing to embrace the devils, the angels, all together at one moment, not preferring one over the other. Report an error in the passage at 48:31 Highlight the passage at 48:31

48:58 And so this awareness allows us to do this, allows us to realize this. This is within our potential as human beings, our humanity, the great gift of our humanity. Report an error in the passage at 48:58 Highlight the passage at 48:58

49:14 This reflective mind, the ability to open to life and to learn from it. So Report an error in the passage at 49:14 Highlight the passage at 49:14

49:30 in the strange ways of monasticism, as you go forth into the unknown, and with all the kind of restraints and precepts and that that you're taking on, Report an error in the passage at 49:30 Highlight the passage at 49:30

49:51 And it can sound rather daunting to the worldly mind to have to live within such prescriptions. But it does simplify. Monasticism is simplification of everything. On one level it looks complicated. You look at all those Vinaya rules and mind boggles. It's so complicated. But actually, they're quite simple. They're all very practical things. And once you, like learning to drive a car, once you actually get in and practice with it, you don't have to think about it. Report an error in the passage at 49:51 Highlight the passage at 49:51

50:37 You just do it. Report an error in the passage at 50:37 Highlight the passage at 50:37

50:41 Like being a monk or not is not, once you really learn how to drive the vehicle, then it's like you don't have to keep thinking about all the rules. Report an error in the passage at 50:41 Highlight the passage at 50:41

50:54 Precepts and things like that, because that's more like, they're quite, you know, like learning the majors, the kind of preliminaries that become just a part of you. At first, like anything, it seems clumsy, like learning to drive a car, per se. Remember, the first time I ever drove, I turned the car over. Report an error in the passage at 50:54 Highlight the passage at 50:54

51:21 It Report an error in the passage at 51:21 Highlight the passage at 51:21

51:25 was not auspicious. The Report an error in the passage at 51:25 Highlight the passage at 51:25

51:31 second time I was driving with my father and I saw a friend, I waved to him and nearly ran into another car. Report an error in the passage at 51:31 Highlight the passage at 51:31

51:45 It's like learning a language, isn't it? Foreign languages seem so impossible at first. You can't say even, you know, an adult person and you can't even, you know, you talk like a baby, you know. Report an error in the passage at 51:45 Highlight the passage at 51:45

52:02 You know, you want to have an intelligent conversation, all you can do is make these kind of grunts and hoping that it comes out right, and it seems impossible. But then as you keep practicing, it becomes natural. You just start thinking, saying things without any struggle. Report an error in the passage at 52:02 Highlight the passage at 52:02

52:26 So the conventions are like that, and monasticism is just like that. Once it's learned, then... It's very simple. It simplifies everything. Because you're kind of clearing out. Your life isn't just endlessly like with all the accumulations of worldly life and all the stuff that one gets bound up into in the world. Report an error in the passage at 52:26 Highlight the passage at 52:26

53:00 You're actually kind of renouncing. Not because there's anything wrong with it. We're not condemning the world, but because we're emphasizing what is useful and helpful for a spiritual path and making that the whole emphasis rather than all the worldly needs and cares and problems that we would have if we didn't have a convention. Report an error in the passage at 53:00 Highlight the passage at 53:00

53:38 I probably wouldn't know what to do. I wouldn't. I Report an error in the passage at 53:38 Highlight the passage at 53:38

53:46 needed to get into something that I had to surrender to. Learn how to give myself up to something that wasn't my creation or my idea. A lot of things I didn't even agree with entirely. Some of the rules and the way they did things. Didn't even like, didn't even agree with. But I learned to, on further reflection, I realized, why not? Report an error in the passage at 53:46 Highlight the passage at 53:46

54:23 You know, why make a problem about things that aren't, you know, they were never asking me to do something bad or wrong. So Report an error in the passage at 54:23 Highlight the passage at 54:23

54:36 I determined that I wasn't going to make a problem about all that because I wasn't going to endlessly kind of make a problem about monastic life. Report an error in the passage at 54:36 Highlight the passage at 54:36

54:48 This is the way they do it. This is the way things are done here. Do it that way. And then I could see my own kind of resistance and opinionatedness around it and feelings that this is unnecessary or that's stupid or we could do it a better way than this and endlessly get wound up into... the convention itself, then you're always the convention and never get beyond the convention. Report an error in the passage at 54:48 Highlight the passage at 54:48

55:30 remember that becoming a sunidara is not just to become a good nun and... And to perfect the life of the... ...of the female samana and make everything perfect, but what is present, use that for awareness. Report an error in the passage at 55:30 Highlight the passage at 55:30

56:00 Don't make a fuss about the convention. Report an error in the passage at 56:00 Highlight the passage at 56:00

56:08 It's fair enough when we can adapt according to situations or whatnot, but in the long run, what's really... ransom. Report an error in the passage at 56:08 Highlight the passage at 56:08

56:21 It's not to just try to perfect the convention, but to use it for awareness. That's what it's for. Like to go to London, you don't need to have the best, you know, have a world's voice. You take what you get. Report an error in the passage at 56:21 Highlight the passage at 56:21

56:44 If you want to get to London, you don't wait for the best. You take what's around. Like the Buddha referred to it as a raft, his convention is a raft to get across the sea. And a raft, it's not like a nuclear submarine or a luxury liner. It's stuff you find on a shore and on a beach, driftwood and vines. Report an error in the passage at 56:44 Highlight the passage at 56:44

57:18 Things like that. You make a raft out of flotsam and jetsam that gets washed up on the shore. And so it's not going to be, you know, it needn't be a kind of the best high-tech raft. The point is to take what's around so you can get across. So I've contemplated that, you know, rather than... then... Report an error in the passage at 57:18 Highlight the passage at 57:18

57:54 I've seen so many people always thinking that this raft isn't a very good raft, and so they go around looking for better ones, where I felt, well, this raft is the one I have, this is the one I'm using. Report an error in the passage at 57:54 Highlight the passage at 57:54

58:14 So it doesn't mean that I think it's the best raft, but it's the one I'm... And it's the one that's taken me across. So after this as a reflection. Report an error in the passage at 58:14 Highlight the passage at 58:14