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- 0:55
So just beginning to just notice, observe the body, the state of mind, just paying attention. It's nothing extraordinary, just ordinary attentiveness. The body is like this, the breath is like this, the mind condition, motion, feeling, the jitta is like this. Through this simple reflectiveness, and notice it's not stating anything about it. It's not about how well or unwell you might feel.
- 2:51
This is pointing out its ability we have to open to the present rather than sitting down with a purpose, something you've got to pay attention to, what Ajahn Sumedho is saying, or trying to get something or get rid of something. But let's say at this moment, if you don't like the way it is, that's the way it is, not liking. And so it's...
- 6:54
Reflect on what it is, this realm that we have to exist in as a form, as a human form. And that's why I keep emphasizing This is a sense realm. It's about feeling. It's not an ideal realm. It's not how everything should be according to the best perceptions we might adhere to or want. But this is about feeling, about sensation, about change. And so the more we keep informing, reminding ourselves that this is the way it is, it's not a statement of
- 9:23
So, like reflections on the dependent origination, paticca, samupada, avicca, bhaja, saṅkhāra. That says a lot right there. Ignorance, not understanding in this term, avicca, isn't about being illiterate or not.
- 11:52
So the real problem lies with avicca. And how do you deal with that? If I try to get rid of a vija, you know, I think I shouldn't have a vija. I've been a monk for nearly 50 years and I shouldn't, you know, I should have wisdom. I'm operating, if I take that position, then I'm operating from a vija. That would be sakya-ditti, the first fetter that blocks the path, that hides us, that blinds us to the reality of the path.
Transcript
0:07 [chanting]
0:55 So just beginning to just notice, observe the body, the state of mind, just paying attention. It's nothing extraordinary, just ordinary attentiveness. The body is like this, the breath is like this, the mind condition, motion, feeling, the jitta is like this. Report an error in the passage at 0:55
1:32 Through this simple reflectiveness, and notice it's not stating anything about it. It's not about how well or unwell you might feel. It's just a noticing. It's like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:32
1:51 This is a skillful use of language, because usually we depend on language. We want to know, well, how do I really feel right now? And then we start observing something. Report an error in the passage at 1:51
2:06 Do I feel peaceful or am I uncomfortable, angry, frightened or whatever? Then we look for something. It's not looking for anything but just observing, bear attention, and Report an error in the passage at 2:06
2:29 the emotional mind state at this time is just as it is. You don't even have to have a name for it or define it in any way. It is the way it is. Same with the body, the breath. Report an error in the passage at 2:29
2:51 This is pointing out its ability we have to open to the present rather than sitting down with a purpose, something you've got to pay attention to, what Ajahn Sumedho is saying, or trying to get something or get rid of something. But let's say at this moment, if you don't like the way it is, that's the way it is, not liking. Report an error in the passage at 2:51
3:20 And so it's... You can always win in this game, in this way of contemplating. It's not about trying to get a perfect mental state or posture or peaceful mind state, but trusting yourself to just be the observer. This is what we can do. You can't always have a pleasant mind state or physical comfort or the things that we desire. Report an error in the passage at 3:20
3:56 But we can observe, learn from everything always in the present the way it is. It's not a statement of its qualities, it's just a pointing, a noticing, an attentiveness to feeling. We're feeling creatures. This is a feeling realm. This is a sense realm. And, you know, it's an incessant, ongoing experience of feeling because from the time you're born, Through the time you die, you're going to be feeling something or other through the body, through the mind. Report an error in the passage at 3:56
4:51 And learning to trust this ability we all have. It's not special. Because I've been a monk for so long in practice, I can do it where you just knew and you can't do it. That's another mind state you create. How you see yourself in regards to... The saṅgha here, your position, whether you're an anagarika, samanera, bhikkhu, silandhara, or just a lay person. Report an error in the passage at 4:51
5:24 What does that say? We're special, aren't we? Because we're committed to summoning life. But lay people, just lay people, just. Report an error in the passage at 5:24
5:34 And that's sometimes how we think about ourselves or how even monks might be thinking about you. Just a lay person. Report an error in the passage at 5:34
5:46 And these are thoughts that we have or habits of defining, of separating, you know, and identifying ourselves with our position of senior, Mahatera, junior, Bhikkhu, Siladhar. These are conventions, but we identify with these conventions a lot. Report an error in the passage at 5:46
6:16 We always distort the present moment through this kind of blind attachment to them without knowing what we're doing. We're just caught in the momentum of habit, of conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 6:16
6:54 Reflect on what it is, this realm that we have to exist in as a form, as a human form. And that's why I keep emphasizing This is a sense realm. It's about feeling. It's not an ideal realm. It's not how everything should be according to the best perceptions we might adhere to or want. But this is about feeling, about sensation, about change. And so the more we keep informing, reminding ourselves that this is the way it is, it's not a statement of You know, there's anything wrong with it, or it should be otherwise, but it is an acceptance, a knowing. And you can only find the escape from suffering by not creating suffering around the conditions of the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 6:54
7:56 Because this realm, this sense realm, is about suffering. We can't sustain an ideal situation Pleasurable sensation. They come and go and change according to other conditions. And this is an ongoing, unrelenting process that we're involved in. And sensitivity means both pleasure and pain, happiness and suffering. It means love and hate, like and dislike, good and bad, true and false. Report an error in the passage at 7:56
8:31 It's Report an error in the passage at 8:31
8:36 what we want, what we don't want. This is a feeling realm. And so this is opening to feeling, being aware of feeling as an object, because in awareness, when we're aware of feeling, that awareness is aware of the changingness of feeling, but the awareness itself is not caught in the feeling of the moment. Report an error in the passage at 8:36
9:05 It's a pure conscious moment. It's an openness. From the position of knowing, of wisdom, rather than from desire and ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 9:05
9:23 So, like reflections on the dependent origination, paticca, samupada, avicca, bhaja, saṅkhāra. That says a lot right there. Report an error in the passage at 9:23
9:40 Ignorance, not understanding in this term, avicca, isn't about being illiterate or not. Not being clever, not understanding dharma, not knowing reality, not having investigated or had insight into the Four Noble Truths. This is how we describe it in this particular conventional form. So it's not like ignorance as we generally use the term. Report an error in the passage at 9:40
10:10 We can have PhDs in nuclear physics. So forth and still be suffering from avicca. Report an error in the passage at 10:10
10:25 Avicca bhajya saṅkhāra. So this is like, if we always operate from avicca, from ignorance, then that affects everything in our lives from this moment on. If you operate from this sense of I am this body, this body is me, it's mine, I am this personality, I am my thoughts, my memories, I am a good person, bad person. Report an error in the passage at 10:25
10:51 I'm a good meditator. I'm not very good. I'm a Buddhist, or I'm not really a Buddhist, or whatever position you're adhering to at this moment affects consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 10:51
11:06 Saṅkhāra, bhajya, vijnana. Report an error in the passage at 11:06
11:12 So you're experiencing consciousness through avicca. And there's the sankharas that come through avicca. Sankharas are not the problem. It's the avicca that's the problem. Not understanding dhamma, then from that point, how long we meditate, whether we're ordained, whether we're mahateras, what we are, we're still operating from avicca, bhajya, saṅkhāra, saṅkhāra, bhajya, vijnana. Report an error in the passage at 11:12
11:52 So the real problem lies with avicca. And how do you deal with that? If I try to get rid of a vija, you know, I think I shouldn't have a vija. I've been a monk for nearly 50 years and I shouldn't, you know, I should have wisdom. I'm operating, if I take that position, then I'm operating from a vija. That would be sakya-ditti, the first fetter that blocks the path, that hides us, that blinds us to the reality of the path. Report an error in the passage at 11:52
12:31 I have to practice meditation in order to get samādhi. I have to get rid of my defilements before I can become enlightened. I have to do something now to get something in the future. I've got to get rid of my weaknesses, my bad thoughts, my anger in order to become enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 12:31
13:04 Get samādhi and get enlightened. These are positions of avicca. So even in monastic life where we've got these very valuable teachings, very direct, very wise teachings from the Buddha, we can still be blinded by clinging to the teachings, by not breaking through the basic problem, which is avicca, bhajya, saṅkhāra. Report an error in the passage at 13:04
13:34 Like saṅkhāra, It is a generic term. It includes everything, you know. All sankharas are impermanent. Anicca, dukkha, natta. Report an error in the passage at 13:34
13:46 Sankharas, no matter whether they're big or small, macrocosmic, microcosmic, personal, impersonal, whatever, refined or coarse, they're sankharas or sankharas. They arise and they cease. And as long as we... Create sankharas, that's a vicha, and cling to the sankharas, then that affects consciousness in the present moment, which becomes namarupa, divide into body and mind, salayatana, the Report an error in the passage at 13:46
14:27 senses, so namarupa salayatana, pasaveda. Now these are the forms of the paticca samuppada to reflect upon. If you start with a vicha, Report an error in the passage at 14:27
14:41 Then you can... If I'm operating from this, I've got to get samādhi, get rid of defilements, you can observe that, like I've been pointing out in the very beginning, being aware of I've got to get something I don't have or get rid of something I have that I don't want. Report an error in the passage at 14:41
15:05 And you can only observe that through this awareness of it. If you keep operating from trying to become... Wise or enlightened or get rid of defilements, you're just going around in circles. There's no way out of that trap. It's a trap of the thinking mind, of the conditioned mind. And as long as that's operating, that's our basis for experiencing life, whether, you know, whoever you are, whatever your position is, you'll always end up in the same Same paritewa tuka tomanasa upayasa. Report an error in the passage at 15:05
15:47 Grief, sorrow, despair, and anguish, dukkha, in other words. So vicha is the cause, is the reason why we suffer, why we create suffering around the sensitivity of the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 15:47
16:08 So sensitivity implies, you know, that it's not just pleasant senses. We'd like to have maybe just pleasant sensations, beautiful thoughts and high-minded thinking, feelings, love, mettā, karuṇā, muditā, upekkhā. We'd like to operate from the highest position of sankara, the finest possible thoughts that you can... Report an error in the passage at 16:08
16:39 But that's not the present, isn't it? That's not here and now. That's an ideal, a desire to have something you may not have in the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 16:39
16:51 That's why it's important to establish this now, here and now, the body's like this, sitting posture, the four postures, they're all good for reflection, sitting, standing, walking, lying down, breathing. Inhaling, exhaling is like this. Report an error in the passage at 16:51
17:16 And jitanupasana, saripatana, the state of mind, the feeling of the moment, is like this. Tamanupasana is when you start seeing it in terms of dharma rather than in terms of personal identities. Report an error in the passage at 17:16
17:40 Like using the Four Noble Truths, the Paticca Samupada. So what I'm doing now is... It's a conventional form, but it's not for grasping. It's not something to believe or deny or form opinions about. It's something to use. It's for use. It's to help us. It's to encourage us to see the result of grasping out of ignorance, grasping Sankara's out of ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 17:40
18:22 So it's of each a very important word, actually, because it, and that is the basis of human suffering, why we create suffering through this basic not understanding of dharma, not realizing, not recognizing dharma. Now we have these dharma teachings like the Four Noble Truths and the Dependent Origination, and they're not for grasping. Report an error in the passage at 18:22
18:56 You can form opinions about Four Noble Truths and Paticca Samuppada on an intellectual level. People have various ideas and interpretations. But it's not about that. It's about using something for what it's meant to be used for. Report an error in the passage at 18:56
19:20 My simile of the key to the prison cell is that sometimes we... We have the key to open the door of the wretched cell we're stuck into, but we don't use it. Report an error in the passage at 19:20
19:39 We might hang it on the wall and bow to it every day and talk about how wonderful the key is, but you never use it for what it's meant to be used. So a key is not something to worship. It's something to use. And then you use it, then you find out for yourself. I found in Report an error in the passage at 19:39
20:08 these years of my monastic life where I've meditated and the whole point is to develop this awareness, develop these teachings, trying to use these teachings for dealing with the karmic tendencies, habits that I experience through this form. Report an error in the passage at 20:08
20:35 And that's the point, to apply it. ...to the reality of the present moment rather than... So many of us have started, most of us, all of us probably started the idea, I have a lot of faults, a lot of defilements, I've got to meditate in order to get rid of them and become something like a Sotāpanna, a stream-enterer, or, you know, at best, you know, if you're... Report an error in the passage at 20:35
21:07 If you're very ambitious, you want to become an Arahant. You know, that's the ultimate, that's the top. You know, that's like getting a PhD. It's the best to become an Arahant. Even Sotāpanna, you know, seems a bit inferior. Report an error in the passage at 21:07
21:29 Because the thinking mind is like that. We have good, better, best, bad, worse, worst, the top and the bottom. And then the desire that comes, we want the best, we don't want the worst, we want to get to the top of the pile, we don't want to be at the bottom of the pile, we want to become a stream enterer. Report an error in the passage at 21:29
21:54 It's interesting, you know, both in Thailand and in the West, people talk about these four stages. As if they're attainable, as if, you know, some monks have attained, some lay people have attained, well, even lay people, they think, some lay people, even lay people can attain stream entry. And so we operate from these perceptions that we hear from other monks or from how we interpret scriptures or whatever, but we're not actually... Report an error in the passage at 21:54
22:34 Getting to the source of the problem with these kind of thoughts, these kind of perceptions, this kind of grasping of sankara, you'll just go around in circles, you'll never be sure. Report an error in the passage at 22:34
22:53 So it's this simple reality of awakening to the present, and of course it's nothing you can grasp. When you try to grasp the present, I'm going to be aware now, present moment, and then you're looking for something you think is a present moment in order to grasp it. Report an error in the passage at 22:53
23:12 You know, that doesn't work, does it? It's frustrating. And you think, I don't know what that old monk sitting on that high seat is talking about. Report an error in the passage at 23:12
23:23 I've got a lot of problems, a lot of defilements, and I've got to really do something about them. I just can't sit here and say, the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 23:23
23:42 So the way it is isn't a kind of resignation, resigning yourself to, you know... What you're thinking, it's not about just, you know, it's the way it is kind of thing where you, it's a kind of passive statement that you might use, might think you're, that's the way, that's what I'm saying. But the way it is, it's not about just saying, well, it's the way it is, you know, life is like this. Somebody dies, your mother dies, and you're upset, and you're... Report an error in the passage at 23:42
24:22 It's the way everybody dies. Now that's being reasonable, isn't it? It's the way it is. Everybody dies. You know, your mother was 120 years old. Report an error in the passage at 24:22
24:33 And why are you crying? You know, everybody has to die. And that's an intellectual statement, isn't it? It's not the way it is in terms of the reality of now. It's the kind of way it is in terms of... All Sankaras are impermanent, you know, so you can quote that. But your mother dies at 120 years old, and this is what you're feeling, is like this. Report an error in the passage at 24:33
25:07 And I can't tell you what, you might be glad or happy or grief-stricken or, you know, whatever, but it's not a part that you should even be sad or glad or anything, it's the way it is. It's what you can know, actually. When these events happen, loss of a loved one, disappointment, despair, these kind of events happen to all of us in our lives. Report an error in the passage at 25:07
25:36 It's not about just saying, well, you know, life is like this, you just got to accept it. That's the advice generally given, but it's not that the advice is wrong, but advice of that nature isn't. About the way it is in that person who's experiencing loss, is it? You know, I never knew you're a 120-year-old mother. Report an error in the passage at 25:36
26:07 So, you know, I can say, everybody dies, you know, 120 is long enough. And it's all unreasonable, I'm even right. You don't make a scene, don't, you know, you're a monk, and then you should just let go of it. You know, that's good advice. Report an error in the passage at 26:07
26:26 But the person that's grieving is like this. And then if I'm just handing out that kind of advice, I can be aware that what I'm saying might be right but not true, true but not right. Report an error in the passage at 26:26
26:46 What I'm saying is true, but is it really right? Is it going to help? Is it going to help this person that's experiencing the loss of someone? Report an error in the passage at 26:46
27:01 That they love and that love them. You know, if I never knew your mother, you know, I can be quite cool about the whole thing. Report an error in the passage at 27:01
27:13 But around my own mother, then it's something else, isn't it? Some mother I never met, but my own mother, this is what I feel. This is the mother is dead, is like this. Report an error in the passage at 27:13
27:39 And that knowing, it's a knowing, it's not about... You know, we can feel guilty that we even cry or grieve because you've got the idea that if you were really attained, if you were really mindful, you wouldn't shed a tear. You just say, yeah, all some cards are impermanent, and let it go at that. No, this is about feeling, and feeling is like this, and to know feeling, to... Report an error in the passage at 27:39
28:14 To have that perspective, perspective on feeling, that knowing feeling is wisdom, it's pure, it's knowing, and that's where wisdom operates, from knowing. And then the karma of loss of a loved one, you feel this way, this feeling of grief. Report an error in the passage at 28:14
28:42 Lamentation, crying is like this. And so you're not trying to get rid of it or change it, but receive it, recognize it, be patient with the results, with the present condition you're experiencing, allowing it to be what it is, and then you're with it until you sustain that acceptance and awareness of it, and it ceases. Report an error in the passage at 28:42
29:14 You're also aware of its absence. So, like, this is how wisdom operates. You're discerning the presence and absence rather than criticizing whether, you know, you should feel anything or whether you should cry when your mother dies. Report an error in the passage at 29:14
29:45 Now, the Paticca Samuppada, you have the Vijnana. Report an error in the passage at 29:45
29:57 Nama rūpa salayatana, pasa vedanā. Pasa is feeling, contact, or touching. And vedanā, upādāna. So you have this impinging on your mind, on your senses, creates desire, and then out of heedlessness, not knowing dharma, we attach to the desire. Report an error in the passage at 29:57
30:31 And then it's about becoming, and that takes us to grief, sorrow, despair, and anguish. Report an error in the passage at 30:31
30:42 Now, it's interesting to think, you know, if you're grieving, if you feel grief at the loss of a loved one, an awareness of the grief, you know, the grieving is a part of our humanity. It's, you know, this is being human. We're not robots. Report an error in the passage at 30:42
31:07 So, you know, like manufacturing robots, when the manufacturer dies, the robot doesn't grieve. I don't think so. Report an error in the passage at 31:07
31:23 You know, it's not a feeling condition. It works on, you know, on programming, on being conditioned to do things or react in certain ways. And we're very much the same. We're merely conditioned robots. We react to life according to the way we've been conditioned to it. Report an error in the passage at 31:23
31:52 So that's why we suffer. Because like a robot, when the manufacturer of the robot dies, the robot doesn't have this kind of feeling about mother and father. But we do. These are about... Being human, a feeling realm, a sense realm. And this whole realm is the experience of sensitivity. That's why we have senses. Report an error in the passage at 31:52
32:22 And so when you contemplate the reality of this, it seems, you know, I remember in the early years thinking it's hopeless because you're so bound into a physical form. You know, the reality of this present. Physical condition is you're feeling all the time, you know, it's not, you know, sometimes it's pleasant and a lot of time it's not. Report an error in the passage at 32:22
32:46 It gets hungry, it has its functions, we have to deal with the functions and physiology, the organs of the body, to get tired, thirsty. Report an error in the passage at 32:46
33:05 The body is an ongoing sensitive form that we're... That we're experiencing consciousness through this form. And we let this form distort consciousness. So we operate from the conditioned realm all the time. That is, you know, wanting and not wanting sensory sense pleasures, wanting all the pleasant, exciting, interesting sense pleasures, and not wanting the unpleasant ones. Report an error in the passage at 33:05
33:46 And being human beings, we also get ambitious, like wanting to become famous or important or become prime minister of Great Britain or head of the UN or president of the United States. Report an error in the passage at 33:46
34:06 Or maybe we don't want that. We want to become famous or have lots of money. We have desires for becoming. A lot of these desires, or even in monastic life, a desire to attain, to achieve, to spend your time in the monastic form and feel you've actually attained something out of it. Have you really gotten what you were expecting in the beginning, or are you disappointed that after all these years you haven't become a stream-enterer yet? Report an error in the passage at 34:06
34:42 These are like the desire, bawadanha, desire for becoming. Report an error in the passage at 34:42
34:49 So we not only want sense pleasures, because the mammalian realm is, you know, dogs like to have pleasant experiences. They like to have good food and feel comfortable and so forth. They have sexual desires. They have anger. They get jealous. Report an error in the passage at 34:49
35:14 We share these kind of conditions with the animal realm. But the human beings, we think we're better than animals. We think we're higher. I don't know these days, but in my generation, we didn't consider ourselves animals. They were below us. God created the animals for us to eat. Report an error in the passage at 35:14
35:44 But it's wrong to eat another human being. My mother told me cannibalism is not allowed. So this is conditioning, isn't it? It's cultural conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 35:44
36:01 But, you know, why do people, why do English people love dogs so much? Dogs and cats. Why do we want pets? Because there's a lot of commonality, you know, in emotional name. Report an error in the passage at 36:01
36:17 Experience in needs, in basic needs and desires. Report an error in the passage at 36:17
36:30 And to go around thinking that I'm somehow much better than a dog or a cat is a human identity. I'm a higher form or a special form, much better than... This is thinking, isn't it? This is thinking. This is cultural. That's what I was told. You know, part of the cultural conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 36:30
36:58 And then we can develop all kinds of attitudes. We can become, you know, full of compassion for all. We join the green movement, environmental, trying to save the whale, and all these things are based on a kind of intention to respect life more, maybe higher-minded. Report an error in the passage at 36:58
37:20 Or we might go the other way, thinking, look, they're there for us to use, to exploit. They're lower than we are. They don't really count. So we can just exploit the animal realm for our own needs. We have to eat. We need protein. We have to survive. And so we can justify anything you want to justify, really, with your rational mind. Report an error in the passage at 37:20
37:53 But pointing out, it's not about being superior. I'm not pointing to... to a sense of superiority or being better than anything. I'm pointing to a reality that we have at this moment that's not personal. It's not like somehow I have it better than you have or I have, you know, I'm superior to a dog because then that is really, you know, creating thoughts and grasping perceptions, grasping conditions. Report an error in the passage at 37:53
38:26 Through language, through memory, opinions and views arise around that. But I can be aware of that. And that's what these teachings are pointing at, this awakened attention. And this we can do. All of the human births is considered a very fortunate one because of this. We can actually reflect on the conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 38:26
38:59 That we're experiencing in the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 38:59
39:08 And then this reflection isn't about forming judgments. It's not judgmental, it's not critical, it's just discerning. It's conditioned phenomena is like this. Whether it's subtle or coarse, good or bad, whatever it might be, whatever its quality, quantity, whatever form it takes. It is impermanent. It's anicca. It's dukkha anattā. And in this sense, dukkha doesn't mean unsatisfactory because conditions are always changing. Report an error in the passage at 39:08
39:46 So you can't sustain, keep a condition and expect it to stay in its peak form. Report an error in the passage at 39:46
40:03 Anattā, non-self. What is self? So then you have the fetter of Sakyaditi. Now there are ten fetters, and the first fetter is Sakyaditi. What does that mean? A Pāli word? It's a self-view. It's identity with the body, with the form we have. Report an error in the passage at 40:03
40:31 It's the most obvious form of Sakyaditi. I am this body. And then we form opinions about it. Whether you're short or tall or male or female or black or white or young or old, I mean, we're identifying with the changing condition of our form and the cultural attitudes about it, about gender, about... About race, about cloth, about age. These are all important issues at this time. Sexism, ageism. Report an error in the passage at 40:31
41:14 These are causes that we shouldn't notice the differences. They're all equal. And in terms of Panya, they are. All conditions are impermanent. And Anicca Dukanata. But when we're caught in the identity with the condition, then that's sakya ditti. Report an error in the passage at 41:14
41:39 So like nationalism and political views in Thailand, whether you're red shirt or yellow shirt, that sparks off a lot of emotions. Report an error in the passage at 41:39
41:56 Thai people I know that have been practicing meditation for years. can really lose it when you talk about, like in Bangkok, if you talk about red shirts, some of them go absolutely crazy, condemning the red and I suppose the opposite when you're with somebody who's a red shirt. Now this is attachment to a perception, sakya ditti. Report an error in the passage at 41:56
42:26 I'm not saying taking sides and just pointing out. Whatever side you take, you know, it's an attachment to a condition. And it is the way it is. You feel like this. Report an error in the passage at 42:26
42:39 And in our practice, then we're observing the way it is, not trying to discern which is the right condition to attach to, but observing condition as the attachment to condition, dana upata, desire, and clinging, attachment to desire, out of ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 42:39
43:07 Now this works in every possible way, whether you're in the Saṅgha or not, whether you're Buddhist or Christian or Muslim or whatever, problems are the same. Report an error in the passage at 43:07
43:20 Avicca is the cause, and once we know the cause, we can let go of the cause. But if we don't know the cause of suffering, then we can't let go of it, really. We're blaming somebody else. The cause of my suffering. Like now, listening to the news reports from Israel and Gaza. Report an error in the passage at 43:20
43:53 Both sides are blasting the hell out of Gaza in a righteous way. They feel justified in doing it. The Hamas in Gaza is sending 100 rockets a day over into Israel. And so there's all these righteous feelings in the air. Nobody knows quite what to do because who are you going to take sides with? So you might prefer one side to the other. Report an error in the passage at 43:53
44:36 But both are caught in the momentum of Avicii, isn't it? Avicca is the real cause. It's not the Israelis or the Hamas. It's Avicca Bhajya Sankara. Once Avicca operates, that's the modus operandi for the present action, then the result is like this. It's going to be suffering, fear, anxiety, resentment, anger, rage. Report an error in the passage at 44:36
45:10 And of course, if you know anything about history, It's the history of Of just human history is like this. It's about war, about power, about dominance, about survival. Report an error in the passage at 45:10
45:29 You know, it's an endless, you know, recorded history is about avicca, bhaja, sankara. It's about ignorance is the cause of misery. Report an error in the passage at 45:29
45:51 Now, the best the world can do is kind of... let's stop and slow this down you know to be reasonable and humane and so on you know there's the forces of reason and Red Cross workers. Report an error in the passage at 45:51
46:21 So, I mean, it's... organizations are busy in Gaza trying to help these people that are being slaughtered and even they're getting killed you know Red Cross workers Report an error in the passage at 46:21
46:24 You know, and so it's just the power of weaponry and righteousness. Both sides have a righteous feeling. Neither side is operating from evil intention, you know, because they love to destroy and kill. They're operating from righteous indignation. Report an error in the passage at 46:24
46:50 Now that comes from Avicca. You know, from ignorance of dharma, you're not aware of what you're doing. You're caught in the momentum of your cultural conditioning, your religious identities, your racial identities, your memories, the side that you prefer or that you identify with. You're caught into the momentum of that condition. And where does it take you? Where will you end up? Report an error in the passage at 46:50
47:21 It's always... Grief, sorrow, despair, and anguish. Report an error in the passage at 47:21
47:33 Now notice that the sense realm is a dualistic realm. It's not one. It's not universal. It's not oneness. It's about dualism. If you have heaven, you have to have hell. Good, you have to have bad. Right, you have to have wrong. True and false. Day and night, male and female. wrong Report an error in the passage at 47:33
48:01 I mean, this is how conditioned phenomena is. It's about if you have one thing, you have to have its opposite. It goes along with it. Two sides of the same coin. And this dualism is always a separative thing. Like now, I'm sitting here in this high seat and my body is here and I see you. You're separate from me. You're sitting there. This is This is an observation from the conventional form of thinking and identity, because the bodies are separate. Report an error in the passage at 48:01
48:45 We're not in the same body, so we all have separate identities. Now, where is the oneness? Where is the unifying? Where is the unity of this? Where are we one? Report an error in the passage at 48:45
49:06 And, you know, you try to think about that, you won't get anywhere. Because the thinking process is for division. Thinking is about comparing, is about separating, about dividing good from bad, right from wrong. Report an error in the passage at 49:06
49:26 It's about what's high, what's low. Report an error in the passage at 49:26
49:35 How things should be and how things shouldn't be. This is why thinking can't get you to enlightenment. Why you can't really think yourself into enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 49:35
49:50 Because thinking is a function of the mind that has its limitation. And we're very much identified with thinking, with ideas, with positions, with ideals. Report an error in the passage at 49:50
50:07 As Buddhists, if we attach just to Buddhism through thinking, then we feel separate from everything else. We're Theravadan Buddhists. They're Mahāyāna. That's a discrimination, isn't it? Then we can unite as Buddhists when we go and meet the Christians. They're Christian, and we're Buddhists. So we have a sense of oneness as Buddhists. Report an error in the passage at 50:07
50:35 We can also divide as Buddhists when we think about Mahāyāna, Hinayana, Vajrayana, British Buddhism, Modern Buddhism, Old Fashioned Buddhism, Thai Forest Tradition, Wat Ban, Wat Ba, Forest Monastery, Village Monastery, Tamayut Mahanikai. Report an error in the passage at 50:35
51:01 And these are conventional forms, and they're not saying there's anything wrong with it, but its function is very limited. And to be aware of the limitation of attachment to thought is what I'm trying to point to, the ability to be aware, awake, to the nature of conditioned phenomena. All Sankaras are impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 51:01
51:34 In that awareness, then we're one. That is like the gate, the door to the deathless. When I chanted that Pāli phrase, the gate to the deathless is open. Deathless is not, you know, they have to use, you know, deathless, non-dying, because you can't conceive that. You can't conceive deathlessness. The teaching that I... Report an error in the passage at 51:34
52:09 I used to use a lot. Here we've enchanted it. There's the unborn, uncreated, unformed, unconditioned. Try to imagine the unborn. Try to form an image, like imagination is being able to create an image. You know, a conditioned phenomenon, you can create anything. Report an error in the passage at 52:09
52:30 Big or small, blue or green, red, yellow, beautiful, ugly, geometrical, abstract, whatever. There's a form and a definition, a quality, a quantity. But the unborn, uncreated, I can't imagine it. Report an error in the passage at 52:30
53:00 Imagination stops, thinking stops. But there's also awareness of non-thinking, like many things I've talked about over the years, about the way to... Report an error in the passage at 53:00
53:16 To observe non-thinking is to observe, try to imagine the unconditioned. Report an error in the passage at 53:16
53:31 And when I do that, I can't think of anything. But there's an awareness of non-thinking. Report an error in the passage at 53:31
53:44 And some people don't like that, non-thinking. I mean, because it's something that we're not prepared for emotionally. We're prepared for anything, you know, emotional. We can deal with praise and blame, success and failure in some way or another. Report an error in the passage at 53:44
54:06 But the unborn, uncreated, unformed, unconditioned, emotionally, is nowhere. Nothing. Report an error in the passage at 54:06
54:21 And then if I'm still operating from a vicha, then I don't like that. Because my personality, my cultural condition, it's all about reality is defined. It has definitions. We know what reality is because we hear, we're told by our parents, by our teachers, by the world around us, by our society, by our religion. Report an error in the passage at 54:21
54:46 This is right, this is wrong, this is real. Reality is what I tell you is real. But the deathless, what is that? You see, so even in the... In using terms like unborn, uncreated, you have to use a negation of the conditions. There's a condition and then the unconditioned. Report an error in the passage at 54:46
55:19 And then the thinking process, because we can't imagine anything that is unconditioned, it's like annihilation. And it's fear then. It's like a black hole. It's nothing. Our lives are nothing, you know. When you die, you know, death, what is the power of that word, the English word death? You know, you don't know what happens when somebody dies. Report an error in the passage at 55:19
55:51 And that can be very distressing. Why are people afraid of death? Because they can, you know, dealing with pain, with old age, with the things that we can imagine and know is one thing. But what we don't know, emotionally, we're not conditioned for that, for not knowing. Report an error in the passage at 55:51
56:17 So, like with meditation now, with power now, we're actually developing not knowing, not to increase ignorance, but to develop wisdom, to allow wisdom to inform, to operate in us so we can see dharma rather than cultural biases, personal identities. Report an error in the passage at 56:17
56:43 And all the others and karas that we're helplessly attached to, influenced by. Report an error in the passage at 56:43
56:55 So, like oneness, when they talk about unity, about oneness, the universe, one universe implies one, then Report an error in the passage at 56:55
57:12 stop thinking. Try to think about oneness, you're still caught in a perception, a perception of oneness. Report an error in the passage at 57:12
57:24 And then you try to, you know, I believe in oneness, you can believe in it or not believe it. That's not the point, is it? Not to create a belief or to deny or to believe in it, but to recognize at this moment where is there unity among all of us. We're no longer interested in the definitions and the positions that each individual has here. Report an error in the passage at 57:24
57:54 And this is a way like investigating reality of the present moment. Report an error in the passage at 57:54
58:07 And then, you know, this is what mindfulness takes us to that. Mindful sati sampatanya, these Pāli words, is our ability to pay attention to the present and to let go of this habitual blind... ...attachment to sankharas, to the body, to the states of mind, emotional habits, sensory experiences that we are having, and not to get rid of them, but to let go, to no longer grasp out of ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 58:07
58:58 Now, then it's beyond definition. You can't say anything about it. Definition always implies thinking. You've got a word, a concept. That you can argue about, you know, what does dharma really mean, you know, and we can get caught into arguments about the real meaning of dharma or the proper English translation of dharma or dukkha. Report an error in the passage at 58:58
59:25 But in doing so, we're trying to, you know, get caught in just the intellectual level, the perceptual level of Buddhism. Rather than the practice and the insight that comes through the practice. Report an error in the passage at 59:25
59:59 So then, just to encourage this, to trust yourself more to do this. I mean, it's something I can point to, but I can't make you do it. And as long as you're operating from... I've got to get something I don't have or I've got to get rid of something I have that I don't want. You can be aware of that. And that awareness of that mind state, the awareness is not the mind state. Report an error in the passage at 59:59
1:00:37 The mind state arises and ceases. The awareness has continuity, consciousness, wisdom, the deathless reality. I offer this as a reflection for today. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:37
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Talk by Ajahn Sumedho. Original at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ajahn-sumedho-dhamma-talks. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.
Talks of Ajahn Sumedho, archived on Internet Archive. More from Amaravati