1222 Break Through

0:08 [chanting]

0:23 Sambhutasak Aparuta Dei Sangamata Sattvaraya Suryavanta Vamunjantu Sada For Report an error in the passage at 0:23 Highlight the passage at 0:23

0:46 the moon of December and the winter solstice, one Report an error in the passage at 0:46 Highlight the passage at 0:46

0:57 week left of this millennium, these Report an error in the passage at 0:57 Highlight the passage at 0:57

1:04 are the conventions, which is time, millennium, centuries, dates and so forth. To establish the winter solstice, of course, as I've reflected many times, when the light element starts returning and days start getting longer. Report an error in the passage at 1:04 Highlight the passage at 1:04

1:32 This is the shortest day of the year today. So Report an error in the passage at 1:32 Highlight the passage at 1:32

1:42 we watch, we observe the way it is, how things change and move. So we're mindful. Mindfulness is our vehicle. When we establish this awareness, it's reminding ourselves to be awake, pay attention, here and now, just to the way it is on both the conventional level and the level of the dharma. We can see the conventional realities of millennium, century, December, winter solstice. Report an error in the passage at 1:42 Highlight the passage at 1:42

2:30 The perceptions that we give to this time, this moment, and observing it, knowing it as dharma, is that all conditioned phenomena is impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 2:30 Highlight the passage at 2:30

2:48 And so we keep contemplating this impermanent, this transient nature of what we see, hear, smell, taste, touch, think, feel. Report an error in the passage at 2:48 Highlight the passage at 2:48

3:07 And in this position of knowing, of witnessing, observing, paying attention, we're no longer asked to make judgments about it in terms of whether it should or shouldn't be or it's good or bad, but it is what it is at this moment, no matter what you're experiencing. Experiencing, or emotionally, mentally, the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 3:07 Highlight the passage at 3:07

3:42 and it can be present, painful, Report an error in the passage at 3:42 Highlight the passage at 3:42

3:56 we don't pay attention, then we tend to get caught in our preferences, you know, wanting things to be pleasant, not wanting things to be painful. Report an error in the passage at 3:56 Highlight the passage at 3:56

4:05 When things are neutral, we tend to just get bored and seek kind of exciting or interesting experience or pleasant experience. Report an error in the passage at 4:05 Highlight the passage at 4:05

4:25 of birth and death is our delusion that we create endlessly of seeking, wanting to become something, wanting to get rid of something. Report an error in the passage at 4:25 Highlight the passage at 4:25

4:37 judgements about how things should be. come from society, a culture that's very... That has idealized how things should be, if everything was what we wanted, if it was perfect. Report an error in the passage at 4:37 Highlight the passage at 4:37

4:58 But the Buddha was pointing to the way it is, the changingness of phenomena, rather than phenomena at its best or its peak. In Report an error in the passage at 4:58 Highlight the passage at 4:58

5:16 order to really know this, we use this awakened state of mind. Report an error in the passage at 5:16 Highlight the passage at 5:16

5:33 trying to control or make life into what we it should be. doesn't mean that we don't do anything, we just sit back and witness the change, it means that we... And that our actions and our speech are adapted appropriately to and responding appropriately to the conditions that we are experiencing, rather than always being caught up in not noticing how it is and live our lives, say, for future rewards. Report an error in the passage at 5:33 Highlight the passage at 5:33

6:17 How many of you live your life for the future? So that you think, you know, you're working hard now or meditating or praying or whatever you're doing is so that you will get some reward for the future, some good result, hopefully. Report an error in the passage at 6:17 Highlight the passage at 6:17

6:37 But the future, as they say, the certain thing about the future is that we're all going to die. So when you contemplate death, then it gives this moment much more importance. important and Report an error in the passage at 6:37 Highlight the passage at 6:37

6:55 It's significant that all we ever have really is this present moment. That's all there ever is. Even Report an error in the passage at 6:55 Highlight the passage at 6:55

7:15 meditating, the idea of practicing meditation in order to get rid of defilements, get rid of your kilesas, or to purify yourself in order to become pure. Or in order to become enlightened in the future. There's very assumption that I am this person, this body, I'm this body and this person here who needs to do something now in order to become something in the future. Report an error in the passage at 7:15 Highlight the passage at 7:15

7:50 If that's your basis, that's what you start with, then you'll always end up feeling somehow discontented and unfulfilled with your practice. Report an error in the passage at 7:50 Highlight the passage at 7:50

8:04 Because you've not really come to the root of the problem. You're still operating from the basic delusion. I am this body. I am this person. And then I am this person means that there's something where we all see ourselves in this way, seeing ourselves in terms of faults, weaknesses, habits. Report an error in the passage at 8:04 Highlight the passage at 8:04

8:38 And so we naturally assume the logic from that is that there's something wrong with me the way I am now and I need to do something. Hopefully, you know, pray a lot or do a lot of good works or meditate hours on end or become a monk or a nun or do something in order to become something, some ideal state, the way I should be in the future. Report an error in the passage at 8:38 Highlight the passage at 8:38

9:14 Even though they ordain Saṅgha, the monks and nuns have this teaching, many of you still operate from that basic delusion in your monastic life, don't you? You still operate from the fact that you're somebody who's got to do something in order to become something. But yet the actual value of, say, the convention of monasticism is... Report an error in the passage at 9:14 Highlight the passage at 9:14

9:43 We give that delusion up, basically, when we ordain. Refuge is in saṅgha, not in personal karma, or the delusion of being somebody. The idea of being saṅgha is that you lose your race, nationality, class, identity, personality, gender. Report an error in the passage at 9:43 Highlight the passage at 9:43

10:15 Identity, all your memories are then no longer taken in the personal way. The refuge is in saṅgha rather than in some kind of ideal that you might have for yourself as a person. Report an error in the passage at 10:15 Highlight the passage at 10:15

10:35 Reflecting on this, I am this person that needs to do something in order to become something. But if we really be consciously recognized as... As something you're creating in the present. Maybe it's an assumption. Maybe it's just a force of habit. You've never questioned that. You've never examined it in any way. Your whole life has been operating from that assumption. I am this body, this person. Report an error in the passage at 10:35 Highlight the passage at 10:35

11:12 When we talk about mindfulness, mindfulness is our ability to observe that. The assumptions we make. Assumptions aren't always all that conscious. We don't consciously Report an error in the passage at 11:12 Highlight the passage at 11:12

11:31 think I am somebody who has to do something in order to become something, but we can live our lives using that assumption as a basis and a motivation for becoming monastic or meditating or doing something in the world. Report an error in the passage at 11:31 Highlight the passage at 11:31

11:57 the mindfulness and the... We examine that, like I would just think to myself, a kind of deliberately thing, I am this person, I am me, and then I can think of all the things that I don't like about myself, the weaknesses, faults, habits that aren't very good, and there's anger, and there's anxiety, and there's... Report an error in the passage at 11:57 Highlight the passage at 11:57

12:33 and jealousy and things I want to become somebody who's, you know, really noble and good, and I want to become somebody who does not lower one's mind into states of jealousy, but is always joyful at the goodness of... I want to become somebody who doesn't get angry, who feels only love for all beings equally, the ideal. Report an error in the passage at 12:33 Highlight the passage at 12:33

13:15 That can be very high-minded, isn't it, to want to become this idealized person that is a saint, a perfect person that is full of love and understanding, compassion, kindness. Report an error in the passage at 13:15 Highlight the passage at 13:15

13:37 I look at myself as a person of presence, I can feel all kinds of lower emotional habits coming forth into consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 13:37 Highlight the passage at 13:37

13:51 oftentimes quite petty or very nice at all. then we think, oh, we've got a long way to go because, know, we still have these emotions and away from that ideal. Report an error in the passage at 13:51 Highlight the passage at 13:51

14:07 Perfect ideal that I have of what I should become or should be. Report an error in the passage at 14:07 Highlight the passage at 14:07

14:14 Just by consciously thinking it out, that which is aware, you listen to yourself creating this idealized person and then comparing the realities of what you think you are, the conventional realities of what you think you are with the ideal, and always feeling somehow kind of despairing. In comparison to the ideal, this is what you create, isn't it? It's a creation that you do. You're making this up in your mind now. Report an error in the passage at 14:14 Highlight the passage at 14:14

14:50 So the awareness is the vehicle rather than the ideal. We're not trying to become something, but to trust in our ability to pay attention to life as we're experiencing it. So Report an error in the passage at 14:50 Highlight the passage at 14:50

15:13 we're not trying to become. Perfect bhikkhus and perfect siladharas and loving kind of beings, even though these are very lovely ideals, there's not any judgment against it. But we can observe, what we can know is the desire to become something, desire to get rid of our bad habits. So Report an error in the passage at 15:13 Highlight the passage at 15:13

15:46 this awakened state is what the Buddha is pointing to. He isn't pointing to some future goal that we've become, but the awakened mind in the present, which is now. There's no matter of becoming somebody who's mindful by practicing meditation, but by being mindful right now of whatever it is, whatever way you're feeling, whether you're feeling full of inspiration, hope. Report an error in the passage at 15:46 Highlight the passage at 15:46

16:26 Positive feelings, optimistic ideas. Are you feeling despair, hopeless, depressed, anguished, fed up? Or are you just feeling bored and indifferent, weary? The fact that you can be aware of what you are feeling, that which is aware is not the same as the feeling that you're witnessing to. Report an error in the passage at 16:26 Highlight the passage at 16:26

17:02 It's important to know that a feeling is a changing condition in the present. We don't feel the same all the time. Report an error in the passage at 17:02 Highlight the passage at 17:02

17:14 Feelings are material, aren't they? They change all the time. You can feel high one moment and depress the next. Report an error in the passage at 17:14 Highlight the passage at 17:14

17:34 Awareness doesn't have a feeling. It's not something you can't be aware of being aware of, but you can be aware. I'm never weak. It's just a barrier. Report an error in the passage at 17:34 Highlight the passage at 17:34

17:44 It's like you can't be aware of awakeness, but you're awake. And so to recognize and appreciate and to value this awakened state of just attention in the present, it's not a refined state that takes years to develop and something that you have to have supportive conditions. We want harmony, we want peace. Report an error in the passage at 17:44 Highlight the passage at 17:44

18:33 We don't want disharmony. We want this ideal of a real concentrated mind, tranquilized mental state. And Report an error in the passage at 18:33 Highlight the passage at 18:33

18:48 so anything that disrupts it is... people who cry, and I only want harmony. Report an error in the passage at 18:48 Highlight the passage at 18:48

18:50 seen as a threat or an enemy or we don't want. But in knowing the world from the way the world is a world, the world is something that changes and we can't, you know, how much we try to control it and make everything so it's beautiful, pleasant, harmonious, we Report an error in the passage at 18:50 Highlight the passage at 18:50

19:19 can't keep it that way. And then some of the most miserable people are people who are trying to control everything so that they can feel safe and secure. They're control freaks. They want to manipulate conditions always for their own benefit. But with mindfulness then we're no longer preferring one thing. Report an error in the passage at 19:19 Highlight the passage at 19:19

19:48 We're not following preferences but opening to the flow of experience. So it includes disharmony, harmony, Peacefulness, war, boredom, and all possible, the whole gamut from A to Z in terms of changing conditions emotionally from refined to most refined to the most coarse. Report an error in the passage at 19:48 Highlight the passage at 19:48

20:17 So mindfulness then is opening to life as a flowing experience rather than Trying to control experience so that we try to control it to make it into what we want it to be as some ideal we have, following some ideal. Report an error in the passage at 20:17 Highlight the passage at 20:17

20:39 That takes an act of trust, doesn't it? To trust in this present moment. How many of you really trust yourselves to do this? Well, you know, I've got a lot of problems here. I've still got to work out this. About problem, about authority, about my anger and about fear and stress. I need to, you know, do something about all these first before I can ever really be mindful. That's another creation, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 20:39 Highlight the passage at 20:39

21:16 The fact that we, there's always something, even on the personal level, we have to do. And that always seems to be important. Report an error in the passage at 21:16 Highlight the passage at 21:16

21:49 dharma done now, this is the innately seeking pleasure through the senses, sensual pleasure. Report an error in the passage at 21:49 Highlight the passage at 21:49

22:00 As I've said before, dharma or desire isn't something we're even trying to get rid of dharma. We're not trying to get rid of desire and have no desires, because this is a desire realm. There's a realm of desire that we're existing in at this time. You know, wanting to get rid of desire is another desire. Report an error in the passage at 22:00 Highlight the passage at 22:00

22:29 So, since there's so much desire, the natural state of... of this realm is desire then we study desire we get to know desire we become experts on desire and Report an error in the passage at 22:29 Highlight the passage at 22:29

22:48 that which knows desire is not desire so this awakened awareness you know desire you know exactly Report an error in the passage at 22:48 Highlight the passage at 22:48

23:04 what it is what it feels like and then and so by knowing then we break through the The tendency to just be intimidated, lost and enslaved by the desires. If we don't understand desire, we don't know what it is, we don't even know what it feels like, then we're merely just helplessly caught into it. You know, trying to get lost in following it or trying to get rid of it, trying to control it, judging it. Report an error in the passage at 23:04 Highlight the passage at 23:04

23:40 Then Report an error in the passage at 23:40 Highlight the passage at 23:40

23:47 the second normal truth is this investigation of The three kinds of desire. The inside is letting go, but letting go isn't getting rid of. It's wanting to look at desire and really know it. Take an interest in it. What does it feel like? What is it anyway? Report an error in the passage at 23:47 Highlight the passage at 23:47

24:18 Like Bob and Dunlop, there's this kind of ambition or desire to become something, the feeling I've got to do something. That's a desire, there's something I have to do yet, a Report an error in the passage at 24:18 Highlight the passage at 24:18

24:34 need to do something, that kind of compulsiveness that we have. I found in my own life as well, what a compulsive person, what compulsive habits I had. Report an error in the passage at 24:34 Highlight the passage at 24:34

24:50 I just thought there was something I've got to do, something more to do. And it always seemed like, you know, no matter how much you did, there was still more, because it was never seen, and it was believed in. It would be intimidating. So it was always like partying. We never gave any peace. But Report an error in the passage at 24:50 Highlight the passage at 24:50

25:28 that was always... I don't care anymore. And you go the opposite direction. Just annihilate everything. Fed up. Don't care anymore. Not Report an error in the passage at 25:28 Highlight the passage at 25:28

25:45 even going to try anymore. It's all rubbish anyway. Meditation. Waste of time. Religion. Just eat, drink and be merry. Report an error in the passage at 25:45 Highlight the passage at 25:45

26:06 The desire to Report an error in the passage at 26:06 Highlight the passage at 26:06

26:24 get rid of is a letting go. In this term, it's like to just get rid of something you don't like or you don't want to be bothered with it. Because the other, it just puts you back into the compulsive, in this compulsive habits that never seem to cease. Report an error in the passage at 26:24 Highlight the passage at 26:24

26:52 Instead of just going from one extreme to the other, we awaken to these extremes. We observe them. We witness them. We notice them. This is what sati, sampatjana, mindfulness, comprehension, observing, knowing the way it really is. Report an error in the passage at 26:52 Highlight the passage at 26:52

27:17 And when you trust in that simple ability we have to pay attention to life, it's very simple. There's nothing complicated about it. Report an error in the passage at 27:17 Highlight the passage at 27:17

27:28 That's not like asking you to do something that you can't do, but it's encouraging you to do something that is quite simple, but not recognized often, and not appreciated, not valued, because we've been brought up to always think that we've got to be doing something. We've got to try to get... Get something we don't have yet or get rid of something we have that we shouldn't have now. You Report an error in the passage at 27:28 Highlight the passage at 27:28

28:10 can see in some of my life, in my life, if you're really using the life properly, then you look at your, use your robes, the shaven head, the convention, not as some kind of personal identity. Report an error in the passage at 28:10 Highlight the passage at 28:10

28:34 Because then it doesn't work. It's the same just as a costume you're putting on. You know, just to, I'm now a monk rather than a lay person. And then I'm putting on a different, wear this robe and act like a monk, become a Buddhist monk. Report an error in the passage at 28:34 Highlight the passage at 28:34

28:57 Which is easy to do, isn't it? If you're just following the momentum of your habits, that's what happens. You just become some kind of monk or some kind of nun. And then you judge yourself accordingly to ideals about what a good monk should be, a good nun is like this. And in any tradition they hold up kind of role models for it. Report an error in the passage at 28:57 Highlight the passage at 28:57

29:25 So you have Ajahn this and Ajahn that. And so forth, it's kind of, you know, especially when somebody's dead, they get placed among the stars. So, you know, like Ajahn Chah now, he's had this apotheosis. He's now up among the stars. He's in the sky. I quote Ajahn Chah, and he's a role model for us as a seminar. Report an error in the passage at 29:25 Highlight the passage at 29:25

30:06 If you're actually living with somebody, then you say you don't see them anymore as being up in the stars, but you see them as a human just like yourself. Report an error in the passage at 30:06 Highlight the passage at 30:06

30:17 The human condition is like this. I'm not a star up in the sky. I'm human. I'm blood going through my veins just like everyone else. Nerve endings, pain and pleasure, getting old and all the rest. Report an error in the passage at 30:17 Highlight the passage at 30:17

30:40 body we have in common. Report an error in the passage at 30:40 Highlight the passage at 30:40

30:47 not ideal, are they? They're not what you get recorded in the biographies, Report an error in the passage at 30:47 Highlight the passage at 30:47

30:57 can usually select the best moments. when they, when they... great people have, know, you don't keep a running... A commentary on the daily life of any Buddhist monk. You pick and choose, so the kind of things, even the faults become kind of heroic in a biography. So Report an error in the passage at 30:57 Highlight the passage at 30:57

31:36 what I'm pointing to is using this forum not as an identity. Or if you are, to see that, see how easily you identify or compare yourself with others. Report an error in the passage at 31:36 Highlight the passage at 31:36

31:52 Why is this monk as good as that monk? Well, sometimes we think, you know, I've been through where I think I'm a better monk than other monks. Sometimes I think I'm not as good a monk as that monk. In the early years, living with a monk that I thought I'd look down on, he was a senior to me, and I thought he's not serious like I am. Report an error in the passage at 31:52 Highlight the passage at 31:52

32:21 He's got bad habits that I don't have. I started feeling kind of snooty and supercilious. Myself is a kind of step above that one. And then some other monk, he's really a good monk. He really practices hard. He's really, really the best, you know. He's really, what we all should be is like him. And so we compare, this is worldly, this is... Report an error in the passage at 32:21 Highlight the passage at 32:21

32:55 This is like becoming a monk, isn't it? Becoming a nun by comparing ourselves with other people, other monks or nuns that we see as people and evaluate as being better or worse, good or bad. But what we can be aware of is just that alone, of our own tendency of the mind too. ...compare, to see oneself in terms of ideals or ideas, what should or shouldn't be. And then that's using the monastic form as a convention to help you to break through the sakhyaditti, the personality habits that you have, rather Report an error in the passage at 32:55 Highlight the passage at 32:55

33:54 than just developing a set of Buddhist monk habits. People Report an error in the passage at 33:54 Highlight the passage at 33:54

34:17 criticize... Religious conventions, or you can see, you know, all of us have been, you know, critical, say, of maybe our own religious background. Report an error in the passage at 34:17 Highlight the passage at 34:17

34:30 And, or, you know, we can, we have our preferences among the Buddhists, Buddhist world, and we have views about, we hold views about monasticism, its value or its worthlessness or whatever. But these are also these kind of views, we're seeing as views rather than operating from these views. Report an error in the passage at 34:30 Highlight the passage at 34:30

35:03 So in terms of right view is not having any view. We don't need to have any viewpoint. We just know a view as a view, whatever it is. It might be a good view, a bad view, right or wrong view. But when we talk about Samaditti in terms of the... Eightfold path, this is called wide view, or better to say perfect view, which is not having any viewpoint at all, but trusting in this awareness, the moment now, the open mind, the attention, the pure presence of this moment, which Report an error in the passage at 35:03 Highlight the passage at 35:03

35:55 isn't any viewpoint, is it? It's not like a thought. For more information, visit www.osho.com Pay attention that this is a habit rather than a reality. Report an error in the passage at 35:55 Highlight the passage at 35:55

36:38 It means that we become creatures of habit. So we get conditioned when we're born, think, we have our language, we have our social and cultural conditioning that we acquire, and we become habituated to it, identified with it. And Report an error in the passage at 36:38 Highlight the passage at 36:38

37:07 so you can't trust any of it. None of it's trustworthy, cultural conditioning, social conditioning, any of it. None of it is worth attaching to and using that as your modus operandi. And to be aware of that, your attentive, awakened awareness in the present. Because then that embraces all the cultural conditioning, social conditioning that you require. Report an error in the passage at 37:07 Highlight the passage at 37:07

37:49 They're not operating from a position, not even a position of being a Buddhist. Even the convention of being a Buddhist is merely a convention, not something to attach to. So Report an error in the passage at 37:49 Highlight the passage at 37:49

38:10 rather than holding on to the viewpoint of being a Buddhist, awareness of that viewpoint is enough. Or even the whole view that you're not a Buddhist is still another viewpoint. Report an error in the passage at 38:10 Highlight the passage at 38:10

38:33 It's pointing to... Something very simple and immediate, but overlooked, ignored, not recognized, not appreciated, until we're encouraged to do that, until we have this encouragement. So this reflection is an encouragement for that, not a command or a matter of... That you should do this or have to do this, but it's an encouragement pointing to the possibility. Because the reason you come here, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 38:33 Highlight the passage at 38:33

39:23 Why do you come to a place like this? Because there is a sense that there's something, you have this, something you have awakened already. Report an error in the passage at 39:23 Highlight the passage at 39:23

39:39 There's this aspiration and this kind of intuitive sense. And it brings us to situations like this. I Report an error in the passage at 39:39 Highlight the passage at 39:39

39:58 offer this as a reflection for this evening. Report an error in the passage at 39:58 Highlight the passage at 39:58