1222-a-Quantum-Leap-Into-Natural-Awareness-(111)

0:33 So this is the observance night, and then the anagarikas, five new anagarikas, taking on the training for one year. And it's the winter solstice, just to bring into awareness the conventions, conditions that we're experiencing. And Report an error in the passage at 0:33 Highlight the passage at 0:33

1:15 actually it's like the new year, actually. It always seems to me like the new year begins at the winter solstice because it's actually a new day. The light increases and the dark decreases. So there's a reflection on just the natural conditions of our planet and universe and how we can interpret it, reflect upon it. Report an error in the passage at 1:15 Highlight the passage at 1:15

1:53 way of just contemplating the way things are it's like bringing into consciousness what is most obvious and all around us that which is so immediate that we tend to not notice it unless we make uh intentional and we intentionally determine to do so you Report an error in the passage at 1:53 Highlight the passage at 1:53

2:19 know most we can live in a world completely abstract world of delusions Much of our life is spent in that way. And so it's totally out of touch with anything other than kind of our own ways of looking at experience or the momentum of our habits that we've acquired in our lifetime. And so the awakening to that, like the attitude of awakened attention, which we're paying attention to the way it is rather than than just creating more delusions like we can create delusions about being anagarikas or monks and nuns or buddhists or whatever we can you know we can use the conventions that we have to create more delusions or we can use them for awareness the Report an error in the passage at 2:19 Highlight the passage at 2:19

3:35 the three refuges Then, these become even more increasingly real for me as I, in my practice of Buddhadharma, the value of these three refuges, Buddha, Dhamma, Saṅgha. Because at first, when I first ordained, I didn't, you know, I had kind of intellectual definitions of them and they were exotic words. Report an error in the passage at 3:35 Highlight the passage at 3:35

4:11 That, you know, didn't... I just saw through defining them with English definition. But then, because of the reflective nature of our life, then it became apparent that they meant something, you know, real, and they weren't just romantic kind of images or just ceremonial statements that... That, you know, didn't have any, that were not pointing at reality. So Report an error in the passage at 4:11 Highlight the passage at 4:11

4:51 the Buddha as a refuge is this awakened state. This is how I interpret this, how I experience Buddha is the awakened attention. That's a refuge that I really value and respect. Report an error in the passage at 4:51 Highlight the passage at 4:51

5:15 And you can call it something else if you want, but since this is a convention that we're using, Buddha, Buddha Dhamma, then why not use it so that it, you know, begins to, it helps you to remember, to wake up, to be present here and now. Report an error in the passage at 5:15 Highlight the passage at 5:15

5:41 Dhamma as a refuge in the truth, ultimate truth, reality, the way it is. And the Buddha knows the way it is, the refuge in truth. And this word truth, translating dharma as truth, isn't some kind of idealized truth or abstraction. The truth is right now. When we awaken and pay attention and we observe that which is witnessing and experiencing, Reality now is like this. And then the Saṅgha are those who practice accordingly. Report an error in the passage at 5:41 Highlight the passage at 5:41

6:31 The human aspect, you and I, the monks and nuns, those who are practicing, living in this state of awakened attention as human individuals, Supatipanno, Ujjupatipanno. Report an error in the passage at 6:31 Highlight the passage at 6:31

6:58 So then these refuges are something to, I've used them a lot. The power of this sense of refuge increases from just some kind of vague idea or abstract kind of view about it or seeing it as just ceremonial, Theravāda Buddhist ceremonial. Report an error in the passage at 6:58 Highlight the passage at 6:58

8:00 Being fully with the moment, opening to reality of the present. It's not dangerous. It's not going to betray you. And it's always here and now. So it's not even dependent on being in a monastery or being in a safe place in a geographical location. Report an error in the passage at 8:00 Highlight the passage at 8:00

8:30 Then the eight precepts are... Determination, they're guidelines, criteria for behavior. Report an error in the passage at 8:30 Highlight the passage at 8:30

8:41 So, you know, it's this sense of restraint where we're putting limits or boundaries on behavior and not as some kind of penance or anything, not to see it in terms of moral rules that you'll be punished if you don't. Report an error in the passage at 8:41 Highlight the passage at 8:41

9:16 agreements on behavior, how we're going to live with each other, in harmlessness, in mananibbata, respecting in general, in the Report an error in the passage at 9:16 Highlight the passage at 9:16

9:35 Animal realm and so forth, being non-violent. And so this means, of course, that even though we might have violent feelings, we don't act on them. It's a reflection, a reminder, an agreement that even though we might have moments or periods where we feel like committing a violent act, we don't do it. Report an error in the passage at 9:35 Highlight the passage at 9:35

10:06 This precept is our agreed way of behaving. Report an error in the passage at 10:06 Highlight the passage at 10:06

10:14 In Buddhist morality, then, it's recognized that it's about behavior when we talk about sīla. We're not talking about mental states. We're talking about action and speech. So the sīla is what we determine. We do have, you know, control over action and speech, or we can have. About the mental conditions that arise in our consciousness, we don't have all that much say about. Report an error in the passage at 10:14 Highlight the passage at 10:14

10:47 We have to experience our karma as that ripens and conditions move or change in a way that we can have very violent feelings or anger and greed and lust and all these kinds of emotions or energies. ...instincts can, you know, come into our consciousness. But then in terms of action, we don't act on them or speak in ways that are divisive or dishonest or misleading. Report an error in the passage at 10:47 Highlight the passage at 10:47

11:31 The Report an error in the passage at 11:31 Highlight the passage at 11:31

11:40 refraining from intentionally taking the life of other creatures is inevitably our... Just our existence on this planet means that we are going to, you know, the fact that we breathe the air and that, you know, that other creatures are going to die because we're here. This is just the way it is. But our intention, the thing is about not intentionally trying to destroy living creatures. Report an error in the passage at 11:40 Highlight the passage at 11:40

12:17 If you get too idealistic, you couldn't live. You'd have to give up living totally. This is a boundary limit on action and speech that we agree to. Report an error in the passage at 12:17 Highlight the passage at 12:17

12:34 Then Adinadana's in regards to property, things that, you know, we're learning to respect the property and the belongings of others so that we're not, you know, taking things or misusing or... Abusing the property, the places, the belongings of other people. Report an error in the passage at 12:34 Highlight the passage at 12:34

13:10 And Brahmacharya regards it to sexuality. In celibate life, we determine to not act on the sexual impulses that we feel. Intentionally act on those impulses. Report an error in the passage at 13:10 Highlight the passage at 13:10

13:33 Since these bodies are sexual bodies, you know, they have, that's their nature, and that's how they got here in the first place, was through sexuality. Report an error in the passage at 13:33 Highlight the passage at 13:33

13:46 Then these kind of energies and conditions arise in our consciousness. But our relationship to that is not to intentionally act on them. Report an error in the passage at 13:46 Highlight the passage at 13:46

14:02 So that gives us a relationship to the body. That we're incarcerated in for this lifetime. A way of looking at it and studying it and investigating it rather than just going along with its powerful energies. Report an error in the passage at 14:02 Highlight the passage at 14:02

14:29 Then mutawala in regards to speech. Learning to speak in ways that are communicating in a direct, honest way. To insult or abuse others, curse or mislead, tell lies and that. So taking responsibility for our speech. And then the Suramaya Raya in regards to refraining from addictive substances. Report an error in the passage at 14:29 Highlight the passage at 14:29

15:10 Vikalaposha in regard to food. Limitations so that we learn to eat the food in the designated time rather than just following our habits. A lot of people live life just eating things day in and day out. Report an error in the passage at 15:10 Highlight the passage at 15:10

15:37 Munching on biscuits and most people have refrigerators and you can get anything you want. And when you get upset and lonely and distressed, you can eat something. But putting limitation on food, on eating, is for reflection. It's not to conquer greed and some kind of condemnation of eating, but it's an agreement to make this more simple. Report an error in the passage at 15:37 Highlight the passage at 15:37

16:17 So we can begin to recognize all the ways that we can distract ourselves through eating, through drinking, you know, taking drugs and drinking liquor and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 16:17 Highlight the passage at 16:17

16:35 Refraining from distracting yourself with just entertainment, games and so forth, you know. and Nadja, Keetha, Martina, Report an error in the passage at 16:35 Highlight the passage at 16:35

16:47 This is not a kind of moral condemnation of that, but it's renunciate to put limitation so that we begin to be aware of the tendency to distract the mind. Report an error in the passage at 16:47 Highlight the passage at 16:47

17:04 And then Ujjasa and Amahasana regards to sleep, not to spend your time this year as an Agarika sleeping through it. So these are, you know, there's a point in getting to the kind of the very basis of our humanity with regards to sleep and pleasure seeking, food, drugs and drink, and then speech, sexuality, property, and respect for life. Report an error in the passage at 17:04 Highlight the passage at 17:04

17:50 These are precepts, not commandments. It's so easy for us to look at them as kind of, you know, breaking a precept is like committing a sin. Report an error in the passage at 17:50 Highlight the passage at 17:50

18:04 So we get into tremendous anxiety around our discipline and our precepts because we're very conditioned, culturally conditioned, to see things in terms of sinning and being punished for sinning. I recognize this is a cultural tendency we have been brought up in Western civilization. That's how Western civilization, the religions of the West tend to think and to view life. Report an error in the passage at 18:04 Highlight the passage at 18:04

18:43 But notice that these are called precepts. They're not commandments from God or from... Above, you know, they're guidelines for behavior. They're to help to be used for awareness, not for intimidating, making you feel guilty, and making you worry. Report an error in the passage at 18:43 Highlight the passage at 18:43

19:09 So keep that in mind, that this is a way of training, of developing wisdom. It's not a form to kind of you into conformity and punish you when you're naughty and reward you when you're So it's the developing of satipanya, mindfulness and wisdom. So Report an error in the passage at 19:09 Highlight the passage at 19:09

19:44 it does reflect also our own cultural assumptions and attitudes that it's so easy to get obsessed, worry about are we pure in the precepts and to feel You know, the fear of being punished or being condemned or rejected. Report an error in the passage at 19:44 Highlight the passage at 19:44

20:10 But the awareness, we're getting to the root of ignorance and suffering by awakening to it. Report an error in the passage at 20:10 Highlight the passage at 20:10

20:29 This life is, you're taking responsibility for how you live here in this community, too. You're not here to expect somebody else to be responsible for you. Report an error in the passage at 20:29 Highlight the passage at 20:29

20:51 You're asking to join this community, taking that responsibility for how you live in it. So it's like really a very mature and wise way to live. if you you Determined to see it and use it skillfully. It's easy too, to see institutions in habitual ways. You know, to see it as a, to get institutionalized by it. To become a Buddhist monk or a nun or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 20:51 Highlight the passage at 20:51

21:39 to Toe the party line, to wear the uniform, to say all the Buddhist things, memorize all the chants, and get caught up in identity and measure yourself accordingly of how good a Buddhist you are in comparison to somebody else. Report an error in the passage at 21:39 Highlight the passage at 21:39

22:06 So is that mindful? Is that wise to do that? Or are we here just... Is it another game, just a costume change? You know, put on, shave your head and put on another kind of costume. Or is it how to use this costume for awakening? Report an error in the passage at 22:06 Highlight the passage at 22:06

22:32 So I always, you know, I found the robe over the years. I've learned a lot because it's, you know, wherever you go, you don't have a holiday from it. You don't, you know, take it off, put on lay clothes and then... Going to London, have a night out on the town, and then come back, put it on again. It's an ongoing challenge. Report an error in the passage at 22:32 Highlight the passage at 22:32

22:59 These robes are not all that easy to wear. I don't know how many times over my monastic life I've wanted to change the style of robes, just because I get so impatient with having to hold a... This thing on and put it on and take it off and so forth. But in terms of mindfulness, it can be used very skillfully to remind you. Report an error in the passage at 22:59 Highlight the passage at 22:59

23:35 This is the samana and alms mendicant. I no longer can live as just a worldly person living according to my own desires and feelings at the moment. I have to... I respect the fact of the lifestyle that I've chosen, the life of the samana or the alms mendicant. So that is reflected upon, to see how to use that for awareness rather than identity. You know, to go around thinking I am a samana in a highly personal way is not the point, is it? Report an error in the passage at 23:35 Highlight the passage at 23:35

24:21 But to keep... Report an error in the passage at 24:21 Highlight the passage at 24:21

24:25 Investigating what is this life about? What are you doing? What is the point of being a Buddhist Samana? Report an error in the passage at 24:25 Highlight the passage at 24:25

24:38 How can I use it so it helps me? Or how do I misuse it? You can also observe that. How do I misuse this convention? So you learn from both your... Successes and failures. There's time when we talk about the state of the world, and there's a lot of concern, naturally, because of this war that's been going on since 11901. Report an error in the passage at 24:38 Highlight the passage at 24:38

25:24 And the terrorists, problems and the the kind of endless conflicts that seem to arise no matter what in on this planet amongst human beings and Report an error in the passage at 25:24 Highlight the passage at 25:24

25:49 of course it's you know they want to you know wipe out the evil forces by just blasting them with bombs and things like this but uh you know this uh that the to me what what is Most needed is agreements on behavior. It's like the first precept, banadi bata, is quite an obvious one. Not even taking it to the refinement of respect for animal life, just on its most coarse interpretation of not intentionally killing other human beings would be an enormous improvement and move towards world peace. Report an error in the passage at 25:49 Highlight the passage at 25:49

26:39 But because this time we don't have moral agreement, we try to, you know, intimidate and force and threaten and so forth until people just kind of obey. Report an error in the passage at 26:39 Highlight the passage at 26:39

27:01 But to have moral agreement means, you know, it allows us to rise up, to take responsibility for For how I'm going to live, use my physical body on this planet, in this society. It ennobles me to take this precept. I'm not saying you have to be responsible for my actions anymore. I'm not asking the government or anyone else to be responsible for me. Report an error in the passage at 27:01 Highlight the passage at 27:01

27:36 To me, this, I find, is a way of honoring oneself. One's own existence is taking that responsibility rather than expecting external forces to be responsible or just not take responsibility, just live according to impulse or habit. When Report an error in the passage at 27:36 Highlight the passage at 27:36

28:14 we fail at this, then we can always renew. It's not like... Report an error in the passage at 28:14 Highlight the passage at 28:14

28:35 that more and more we have the confidence, it's not just an idealistic, taking responsibility for my actions and speech as some ideal, but you trust in In the practice of awareness, in your own ability to open to life and investigate experience, then it becomes quite obvious. Report an error in the passage at 28:35 Highlight the passage at 28:35

29:05 It's no longer just a romantic ideal or something that you can't do or can't be as good as you think you would like to be. Learning how to accept your own existence the way you are in a way that through wisdom rather than through criticism. Report an error in the passage at 29:05 Highlight the passage at 29:05

29:34 If you idealize morality where, you know, you think a good monk should never have a bad thought, then that's an ideal, isn't it? And we'd like to think of, you'd probably like to think that Ajahn Sumedho just never has any bad thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 29:34 Highlight the passage at 29:34

29:58 He's so pure and so good. He's been at this long time. And he's just so, you know, never has nasty feelings or never has any of that. He's just perfect. And then when you start having nasty feelings, you feel, I'm just, I'm so unworthy. And you feel intimidated by me. Report an error in the passage at 29:58 Highlight the passage at 29:58

30:57 Our feelings, our emotions, our thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 30:57 Highlight the passage at 30:57

31:07 But being human is like this, isn't it? When the conditions arise and anger arises or greed or lust or various delusions, fear and jealousy and anxiety and worry and despair and grief and that's the part of being human. Our relationship to it now is Through awareness rather than through judgment or criticism. So Report an error in the passage at 31:07 Highlight the passage at 31:07

31:39 if I idolize, you know, the bhikkhu should have only pure thoughts and so forth, then when my thoughts aren't so pure, so good, then I can only feel unworthy and guilty and going back into a habit of self-loathing and self... Aversion. Or, if I'm using this convention rightly, then I'm aware of these conditions. Report an error in the passage at 31:39 Highlight the passage at 31:39

32:14 To be able to accept your own, the darkness, the dark forces that go through our consciousness, to be able to accept them equally with the good ones means that we're fully aware. Report an error in the passage at 32:14 Highlight the passage at 32:14

32:34 A way of no preferences. In regards to action and speech, we do the good and refrain from doing the bad. Report an error in the passage at 32:34 Highlight the passage at 32:34

32:45 Because that we can take responsibility for action and speech. That we can do. Report an error in the passage at 32:45 Highlight the passage at 32:45

32:57 But in terms of practice, then the awakenedness, the awareness allows us to learn that all conditioned phenomena is impermanent. So whether it's a good condition or a bad condition or mediocre condition or high or low or whatever is not the point anymore. It's not the quality, but it's the characteristic. We're looking, we're observing the nature of condition of this relentless changingness, impermanence that we experience through consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 32:57 Highlight the passage at 32:57

33:37 So at this moment now, now... We're all conscious. We're all experiencing consciousness. Now being aware means that we're using awakened attention with consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 33:37 Highlight the passage at 33:37

33:55 Now we can be conscious but totally unaware. Like when we're not aware, when we're not mindful, then we identify and get bound up in our habits, emotional states. Views and opinions, thoughts, desires and fears. So when I lose, when I'm not being mindful, then I become this person, Ajahn Sumedho, and I feel like this and I don't like that and I want this and I don't want that. Report an error in the passage at 33:55 Highlight the passage at 33:55

34:36 And the world that I create then seems very real because I'm so used to it. you know we're conditioned to believe in in ourselves as personalities who identify so strongly with the physical body with its appearance with its gender with with our emotions emotional habits cultural assumptions and Report an error in the passage at 34:36 Highlight the passage at 34:36

35:11 prejudices and so forth that we you know when we're when i'm heedless then that stuff takes over you know that There's consciousness, but there's no awareness. So consciousness and all the emotions, thoughts, and that are all kind of mixed up together. We aren't aware of how they really are. We're just lost in it, in that soup of conditioning and ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 35:11 Highlight the passage at 35:11

35:45 So the awareness then allows us to... Suddenly we... We wake up to this. So then consciousness acts as a mirror for the conditions that we experience. Report an error in the passage at 35:45 Highlight the passage at 35:45

36:04 So we can actually observe, you know, anger or greed or whatever emotions, thoughts that can arise where now our relationship to it is through awareness rather than through attachment. Report an error in the passage at 36:04 Highlight the passage at 36:04

36:27 Consciousness doesn't have any gender. It's not male or female, it's not even monk, nun or lay person, not racial or anything, but it reflects all of those things if we awaken, if we are mindful. So Report an error in the passage at 36:27 Highlight the passage at 36:27

36:54 then we begin to break down the identity we have, the assumed identity we have with the body, the five khandhas. Veda, Nasanya, Sankara. All that kind of attachment, identity, assumptions that we make from all that, that begins to lose its power and its seeming reality. Report an error in the passage at 36:54 Highlight the passage at 36:54

37:23 We're breaking through the illusions and the delusions that we tend to abide in and live in if we're not fully not paying attention. So Report an error in the passage at 37:23 Highlight the passage at 37:23

37:42 with sati sampacanya, satipanya, with awareness and consciousness in this moment, then what am I then? Report an error in the passage at 37:42 Highlight the passage at 37:42

37:58 You know, so there's no, we're not assuming any, there's nothing to identify with the body as we begin to see through the attachment and identity we have with the physical body. and the way to now with Report an error in the passage at 37:58 Highlight the passage at 37:58

38:20 not even trying to claim as what I am. it seems to be pointless to try to yourself. Report an error in the passage at 38:20 Highlight the passage at 38:20

38:37 a waking up. Report an error in the passage at 38:37 Highlight the passage at 38:37

38:43 trusting in that awakened. Report an error in the passage at 38:43 Highlight the passage at 38:43

38:48 of, natural state of being. It's not, not a A condition that you create and that's dependent on other conditions to make it work. So Report an error in the passage at 38:48 Highlight the passage at 38:48

39:04 it's like realizing your true nature, having to use words again, or our real home, or where we, you know, what we really are. We're no longer trying to find ourselves, define ourselves. ourselves thoughts, ideas. Report an error in the passage at 39:04 Highlight the passage at 39:04

39:31 assumptions, but up to the unconditioned reality. Ajahn Report an error in the passage at 39:31 Highlight the passage at 39:31

39:41 Sumedho, Report an error in the passage at 39:41 Highlight the passage at 39:41

39:47 what is the deathless? And, Report an error in the passage at 39:47 Highlight the passage at 39:47

40:07 you know, is there... What is the unconditioned? We want to analyze it and figure it out according to maybe philosophical concepts or various views and opinions that people have. Report an error in the passage at 40:07 Highlight the passage at 40:07

40:23 But even if you've got a very clever intellect and can kind of work it out in all kinds of clever, with clever definitions and manipulations of thoughts and ideas, that's not the point, is it? It's an act of trust, a simple, imminent act of paying attention, open receptivity to the present. Report an error in the passage at 40:23 Highlight the passage at 40:23

41:02 In community life, recognize that it's going to push the buttons, having to live under restraint, live with others. Report an error in the passage at 41:02 Highlight the passage at 41:02

41:22 And we inevitably irritate each other and we have to, you know, personality clashes, different views and opinions, all kinds of emotions will arise in regards to our life together. Report an error in the passage at 41:22 Highlight the passage at 41:22

41:44 But then how to use that for awareness rather than to just be overwhelmed by it. Of course the basis of our... Report an error in the passage at 41:44 Highlight the passage at 41:44