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- 4:54
And if you start observing the world that you create in your own mind, you begin to understand that... That's the way the world is. When you create yourself as a separate person, as an identity with gender or with race, nationality, ethnic background or whatever, then you're complicated. The problems increase.
- 8:05
When we're looking at the world as the world from the position of awareness, then We're no longer judging it. We're no longer putting onto it any value judgment that we might have or feel about what we're experiencing, but recognizing, realizing all conditions are impermanent.
- 36:27
is like this. It's sankara, it's anicca, it's impermanent, it's anattā, it's not self. So even a memory of I was, I grew up in this place is a memory and it's anattā, it's not a personal reality because it's seen in terms of dharma rather than in terms of personal attachment that is based on ignorance.
- 45:22
So awareness is the option we have. It's through this ability to pay attention, observe, notice the way it is, that we begin to free ourselves from just blindly reacting to the pressure, pleasure, pain, whatever feelings and state. That our body and bodily condition might be experiencing at this very moment.
- 57:41
But usually, relationships bring up this sense of superiority, inferiority. And to note, there's nothing wrong with this. I keep repeating. It's not a judgment, but just an observation. It's like this. Because superior, inferior are feelings that we create. It's the world. It's about the way we, you know, how we...
Transcript
0:09 TASA Report an error in the passage at 0:09
0:10 [chanting]
0:23 SAMPU TASA APARU TADE SANGAMATASA THAWA RAKYE SOTAVANTA BAMUNCHANTU SATAM So this evening I've been invited to give reflection of a desana, teaching or whatever you want to call it. Anyway, here I am. Report an error in the passage at 0:23
0:58 And over the past few months I've been in Thailand, as most of you know. Report an error in the passage at 0:58
1:11 Thailand, of course, is a country I'm very, very fond of. It gave me every opportunity to ordain, practice, and develop in a tradition, monastic tradition. Report an error in the passage at 1:11
1:37 And today, of course, I've seen the whole kind of Thailand from 1965 up to the present times of 40 years. I've been in some way connected to that particular country, seeing the kind of enormous changes that have taken place from 1965 up to 2006. Report an error in the passage at 1:37
2:08 So we were invited to, in Bangkok, somebody's, the wealthy people invited us to a dana in their condo, which is in a part of Bangkok where I used to live. When I was a layperson, when I was teaching English in Bangkok, it's called Sathorn Road, and when I lived there in 1966, there were no high-rise buildings, mainly, and there weren't any high-rise buildings at all in Bangkok. Report an error in the passage at 2:08
2:45 And the Golden Mountain Monastery, Wat Suket, was supposed to be the highest point. And the story was they weren't supposed to build anything higher than what's a cat. They certainly forgot about that. Report an error in the passage at 2:45
3:04 But anyway, we're on the 19th floor of this condominium and there's these views over the whole city and I couldn't recognize one, hardly any landmark that I could remember. Report an error in the passage at 3:04
3:21 They're so highly developed now. Modern buildings. And Report an error in the passage at 3:21
3:36 seeing this material development, it's a kind of privilege to see something like that be part of one's life. At this time of my lifespan, I've seen this rapid change from the... Report an error in the passage at 3:36
4:01 way it used to be to a totally kind of new way of looking and experiencing life and still with all the modernity and material advancement you know the problems increase for the society what wasn't a problem say 40 years ago in Thailand they've created so many other problems because that's The world is a problem, basically. And I think that's important to recognize that. Report an error in the passage at 4:01
4:42 There's nothing wrong with it. I'm not criticizing the world or being pessimistic about it, just noting that that's the way it is. And if you start observing the world that you create in your own mind, you begin to understand that... That's the way the world is. When you create yourself as a separate person, as an identity with gender or with race, nationality, ethnic background or whatever, then you're complicated. Report an error in the passage at 4:42
5:21 The problems increase. Report an error in the passage at 5:21
5:25 So now, say, in the modern world, international world that we live in, where, say, the The connectedness that we're all affecting each other very profoundly in a country like Thailand and Britain are not kind of totally separate in distance anymore. The Islamic world in the West and the African and European, American, they're all in some ways affecting each other in all kinds of complicated ways. Report an error in the passage at 5:25
6:05 permutations. Report an error in the passage at 6:05
6:11 so to see the world as a web, a network, conventional, it's trying to make order, it's chaotic, all the extremes, it's good, bad, right and wrong, beautiful, ugly. So in meditation, Report an error in the passage at 6:11
6:42 the aim then is to Like vipassanā, the insight practices of vipassanā or looking into the way it is, is we're no longer looking at the qualities of the condition. We're no longer giving our attention and reacting to the goodness, badness, rightness or wrongness, the beauty or ugliness of the conditions we're experiencing, but recognizing them. Report an error in the passage at 6:42
7:12 as condition. So Report an error in the passage at 7:12
7:19 this is, in order to be able to do this, you need to recognize in yourself the ability to awaken and observe, to listen and pay attention. It's not an analytical process. It's not a judgment. When we get caught in the world, the complications of the world are all around. the conflicts between good and evil, heaven and hell, right and wrong, old age, youth, birth and death, what should be and what shouldn't be, morality and immorality. Report an error in the passage at 7:19
8:02 order and chaos and all the rest, peace and war and When we're looking at the world as the world from the position of awareness, then We're no longer judging it. We're no longer putting onto it any value judgment that we might have or feel about what we're experiencing, but recognizing, realizing all conditions are impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 8:02
8:40 So this is the opportunity we have in a monastery like Chithurst. This is our... This presents an actual physical location where this particular kind of development or cultivation is encouraged. We try to empower people or encourage people to develop in this way because without this development then of course we just get caught in the sticky web of the... Report an error in the passage at 8:40
9:28 Endlessly complicated worldly conditions. There are many things to like. Look at this body and the conditions, the emotions, the thoughts, the memories, the feelings that you have. Report an error in the passage at 9:28
9:48 They are on the worldly level when we look outward at the world and we look at all the problems, the economic and political problems of just Britain alone. Now you can't separate Britain from the rest of the world. The social problems, the ethnic problems, the religious problems, now there's all this, you know, the Muslims get very upset when their religion is insulted or misrepresented in any way. Report an error in the passage at 9:48
10:26 So then there's all kinds of... of reactions because in Denmark they printed some cartoons kind of very sacrilegious and tendentious portrayals of Mohammed and for this the Muslim world has been reacting protesting Danish embassies around the world. Report an error in the passage at 10:26
11:00 And then the French decided they've got to stand up for free speech. And so they reprinted the cartoons in French newspaper. And so it goes on and on like this. This gets increasingly more complicated. And then they kind of, you know, how far can we carry free speech or religious, you know, do we have the right to make fun of other people's religions? Report an error in the passage at 11:00
11:28 And if it's, well, it's my right. I have free speech. People have this love for the idea of I can say what I want and they have a point. And then various religions also feel very encouraged to or feel compelled to resist any kind of insult or disparagement. So these are the kind of complicated emotional, ...reactions we have, just to say we've been attached or identified with a particular religion. Report an error in the passage at 11:28
12:14 Now, I'm not judging it. I'm not saying... I'm not even going to tell you what's right or wrong about it. But just noticing how, you know, how attachment to conventional world does create this kind of indignation if what I treasure and value and identify with is... criticized unfairly, fun of, then Report an error in the passage at 12:14
12:45 I do Report an error in the passage at 12:45
12:50 have a western perspective on it. I don't have the kind of that happens, then my emotional reactions are like this. Report an error in the passage at 12:50
13:14 You know, I can appreciate the Western sectarian attitude of free speech. It's not that I don't, you know, I have no connection with that one either. Report an error in the passage at 13:14
13:25 But the important thing in terms of practicing, of developing, is to get beyond just the blind attachment even to the best conditions, even the best religion or the truest or the most right. Report an error in the passage at 13:25
13:46 These are all value judgments, aren't they? They say, whose religion is the best, and what is superior or inferior, and then we have various opinions, or we may have a more magnanimous approach. They're all equal, all pointing at the same thing, at liberation, freedom, immortality, and that's the kind of grand... Report an error in the passage at 13:46
14:17 And then we might emotionally have, that's very intellectual, then emotionally we might, well, you know, Theravāda really, it's most direct and it's pure teaching from the Buddha and we can go on and justify our own preference. Report an error in the passage at 14:17
14:36 Watch this in yourself, the way one wants to justify or defend, say, being a monk or a nun or a Theravadan Buddhist. Whatever, just observing, not saying there's anything wrong, right or wrong about it, but noticing. This way then is awareness. Report an error in the passage at 14:36
14:59 It's sati sampatanya in Pāli, or satipanya, mindfulness, wisdom, apperception. It's a natural ability that every human being has. Report an error in the passage at 14:59
15:20 Before we become anything, before we separate into I am this body, I am this personality. So Report an error in the passage at 15:20
15:41 when we attach even to the finest ideals, we can get very indignant and very upset and very angry and abusive and wanting to avenge, wanting to... Make the other person suffer for their insulting behavior towards us, wanting to make everything right, to get it right so that we're treated properly. These kind of ideals are still the world, wanting to make everything better, wanting to make everything fair and just as it should be according to the ideal. Report an error in the passage at 15:41
16:33 But then when you're looking at the reality of this moment, this moment sitting here in this high seat in front of you is like this. Report an error in the passage at 16:33
16:48 And this is not an ideal. It's the way it is. An ideal would be maybe, you know, if I, you know, could influence everybody, awaken all humanity to their true nature so that Everyone within the next week would become a completely enlightened Arahant and all the ethnic problems and that would dissolve into nothingness and we'd live harmoniously with wisdom, compassion and joy and fairness and that would be an ideal. Report an error in the passage at 16:48
17:33 So the ideal one can only feel slightly cynical towards. You know, at least at my stage of life. Because I know that's not going to happen. I'm pointing to an ideal where you can carry something off into the most kind of exalted possibilities. Report an error in the passage at 17:33
17:57 But the reality of this moment is like this. So then I observe the Report an error in the passage at 17:57
18:07 way it is at this very moment here and now. Because this is what is within. This is what I can do. I can't make a force or compel humanity to fit into the ideal, even though it's probably the most wonderful ideal, that would be good for absolutely all of us. Report an error in the passage at 18:07
18:39 It's the best. But this is the way it is. And this is not a cynical resignation. into a kind of fatalistic attitude but a recognition that salvation, liberation, freedom lies always here and now through this simple attentiveness, awareness and Report an error in the passage at 18:39
19:07 that one can't expect others or demand others to do this because this is something that once you If you recognize or realize the value of this, then the only possibility is to develop, to cultivate this awareness. Report an error in the passage at 19:07
19:45 Now in my journeys in this past last year, I've had opportunity to visit Seattle, where I was born and grew up, and Berkeley, San Francisco. Report an error in the passage at 19:45
20:04 Back to Thailand where I ordained. Report an error in the passage at 20:04
20:11 Went to a funeral in one of the chief disciples of Lungpho Cha. Ajahn Mahasupong died last year and they had his funeral in December. So I went to that and we went to a place on the Cambodian border in that part of northeast Thailand. Report an error in the passage at 20:11
20:37 There's Sisiket province and Ubon province are on the Cambodian border. So then we drove from Wat Nanana Chat in Ubon. It took an hour, just an hour to drive in a very smart van with leather upholstery and air conditioning on good roads all the way down to the Cambodian border to... Upper Gantanalak, where this branch monastery was established that Ajahn Maha Supong, it was his monastery. Report an error in the passage at 20:37
21:17 So then, this going back to a place that you've been before, I remember when I first went to this very same place 40 years ago. Report an error in the passage at 21:17
21:36 Because when I became a bhikkhu and went to stay with Ajahn Chah, That very year, 1967, he was given this land in this place in southern Sisikat province near the Cambodian border to establish a branch monastery. At that time, there were only three branch monasteries. In 1967, there was the main monastery, Wat Pa Pong, and then there were three other small branches. Report an error in the passage at 21:36
22:12 And then this was the fourth branch. And of course it was in those days, in the 60s, the borders of Thailand were still very undeveloped. Report an error in the passage at 22:12
22:27 And so this area was just like all, like jungly and the roads were very, very, they were unpaved. And to get there you had to It took all kinds of, it took hours to get from Ubon to this Amphigantanarak. And I remember sitting there and we spent several nights in this place and of course there were no buildings or anything, there were just kind of temporary structures and platforms. Report an error in the passage at 22:27
23:02 And we were sitting out in this, and it was the rainy season, so it was, everything was wet and moldy. It's a very fertile area that has huge mosquitoes. And sitting there in this heat, in this sweaty feeling and heat, and these Report an error in the passage at 23:02
23:31 huge mosquitoes kind of trying to stop them from biting, whatever they do, and sitting in this jungly... In this jungle place with Ajahn Chah and all the village people had gathered and they were all, of course, having quite a good time. And I couldn't understand anything they were saying. And I remember sitting there thinking, this is the most horrible place in the world. Report an error in the passage at 23:31
24:06 It's like, you know, in those movies about green hells where they send you as a prisoner to some horrible place. Sticky, jungly, sweaty place with big mosquitoes. This was like, this is what it was like for me at that time. Report an error in the passage at 24:06
24:27 And so then going there this time, this whole area has been developed. So Amper Gantanulak is quite a big town now. And the monastery has nice buildings and, you know, proper sala and uposatha hall and kutis. And then they've been given land outside the monastery itself where Ajahn Liam is developing into a kind of Buddhist park in memory of Ajahn Maha Supong. Report an error in the passage at 24:27
25:05 So they spent the previous months building this kind of structure, a kind of chedi-like structure. And then they were with the idea that They were going to cast a buddharupa, one of these kind of walking buddharupas, huge one in bronze, and put it on top of this stupa. But what they had temporarily was a kind of pink lotus bud dome over this. Report an error in the passage at 25:05
25:43 So it looked like a kind of Russian Orthodox church, actually. With a pink dome. It was rather pretty. And then there was a big funeral that Ajahn Liam, the head monk of Wat Vapong, had arranged. Report an error in the passage at 25:43
26:11 Ajahn Mahaspong was very highly regarded. So all the monks that I trained with over the years in Thailand were attending this funeral. pretty. Report an error in the passage at 26:11
26:08 arranged, he Report an error in the passage at 26:08
26:22 And then it would bring back memories of when we were all together 40 years before at Wat Pa Pong. We were all considerably younger, 40 years younger. And they were in their 20s, most of the monks. And I was about 33. And now we're all quite old and didn't quite have that youthful... Vigour in our walk anymore. We shuffle along. Report an error in the passage at 26:22
27:01 But the power of memory, of what we remember, of Gantanarak 40 years ago, I can still remember that even if I'm sitting here. Because memory is like that, isn't it? Something impresses you from past experience. It becomes memory. Report an error in the passage at 27:01
27:25 So that's the way it is. A memory in the present is like this. along. Report an error in the passage at 27:25
· · · silence, 1 minute
27:31 Just the memory, remembering Ampa Gantanalak. You know, it's a way of training, observing what memory, how it affects you. Report an error in the passage at 27:31
27:45 You know, the memory of it is a green hell, a jungly hell. And then now the memory is one of a Buddhist park and a very happy memory because it was a very beautiful funeral. Report an error in the passage at 27:45
28:08 How do your memories affect you? You know, so you remember... Something pleasant or unpleasant. We had this World Abbots Meeting. And I found this kind of humorous title, World Abbots Meeting. Report an error in the passage at 28:08
28:30 It's slightly tongue-in-cheek, I think. I think Ajahn Sajid, he likes these acronyms because it comes out, WHAM! Which always has a kind of, like being slapped in the face. meeting Report an error in the passage at 28:30
28:48 Because the memories of previous WAM meetings are quite unpleasant, actually. Report an error in the passage at 28:48
28:56 The first WAM meeting, I was really slapped in the face. And the first WAM meeting was at Wat Nanachat, at Ajahn Chah's funeral, after Ajahn Chah's cremation. Report an error in the passage at 28:56
29:18 So then the second one was at Amaravati. When was that? you, Louis. Report an error in the passage at 29:18
29:23 About four years ago, five years ago. That wasn't quite so heavy, but it wasn't particularly pleasant memory either. So these are memories. So before this WAM meeting took place again at Wat Nana Chhat this year, early January, they say, are you going to the WAM? And then they, of course, bring back memories. Report an error in the passage at 29:23
29:55 of the first wham and the second wham and Report an error in the passage at 29:55
30:04 so then this sense of you know feeling dutiful you know I have to go to these kind of things I should go to these kind of things and then also feeling you know having to put up with something or confront something you know or be slapped in the face again wham for the third time Report an error in the passage at 30:04
30:34 But in reflecting on this, these are just memories, aren't they? So something like wham can be, you know, suddenly take on a significance that it, you know, it wouldn't have for most people. So somebody said to you, are you attending the wham? You think, well, what's he talking about? But if you said, did you attend the wham? Report an error in the passage at 30:34
30:56 I know, I know. I definitely have a certain feeling that would arise from that, from that. Report an error in the passage at 30:56
31:21 in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, U.S. from Britain and from and Italy. Report an error in the passage at 31:21
31:38 from the... We're the western branch monasteries in Thailand, so there were about 20 or so of us, even one from Penang, from Malaysia. So we spent three days, and it was nice, a very pleasant kind of meeting, and I think we've all matured considerably, obviously benefiting from our investment in the holy life, because our... Report an error in the passage at 31:38
32:18 The way of relating to each other is definitely much more, you know, pleasant and useful than, say, the previous two experiences. Report an error in the passage at 32:18
32:32 So now I have the third wham, which brings back pleasant memories. So the fourth wham will take place in 2008 in Western Australia. Report an error in the passage at 32:32
32:48 problem around that or not, you know, it's up to me really how I want to relate to that because that's in the future, that's not a memory, something that will happen. Report an error in the passage at 32:48
33:02 years? Two years, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 33:02
33:14 July, I went to Seattle and we visited the two places that I lived in there when I was from one to six in one house. From 6 to 17 and another. And both these houses had been demolished and they're building areas now. Seattle's become a very kind of smart city. It wasn't when I lived there. It's like backwater of the United States. You're kind of embarrassed. Report an error in the passage at 33:14
33:48 I remember going to New York City and people asking me, Seattle, because I feel, you know, That we were looked at as kind of country cousins, backward, a bit backward. And even though Seattle was always quite a modern city, it was in a rather remote place, the northwestern part of the United States. Report an error in the passage at 33:48
34:20 But now it's become very wealthy and it's very beautiful, very modern. Very desirable place. But I've noticed just by observing the areas where these two houses, I could remember in the first place, the first house that doesn't exist anymore, but where it used to, I could still, the memories would come back of just a certain place, the pavement outside the house or various other things in the landscape. Report an error in the passage at 34:20
34:56 Memories. Then come back that I hadn't remembered from 60 years or so. So, over 60 years. So this is just observing, because I'm quite interested in memory, in how memory affects consciousness. And how, especially when you're my age, you do, you have a lot of memories coming back from your life that you've lived. Report an error in the passage at 34:56
35:32 Because memory is very much what the world is all about. It's all a memory. We have to remember this is England, this is Chithurst, this is like this and this is like that. Language and so forth. It's all about memory, being able to remember, conditioning the mind to hold on to perceptions and memories. Report an error in the passage at 35:32
36:03 Views, opinions, and how these different memories, different views, different words affect our consciousness. So this we can actually observe how a memory, we're not trying to get rid of memory or to deny it or to judge it, but to recognize memory Report an error in the passage at 36:03
36:27 is like this. It's sankara, it's anicca, it's impermanent, it's anattā, it's not self. So even a memory of I was, I grew up in this place is a memory and it's anattā, it's not a personal reality because it's seen in terms of dharma rather than in terms of personal attachment that is based on ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 36:27
37:00 This is called awakening, waking up to the way it is. In Buddhist terminologies then, the Buddha knows the nama. So this way of knowing is the Buddha, the conscious awareness, ability that each one of us has to be aware and to observe. Report an error in the passage at 37:00
37:29 It's discerning, it's a discerning function rather than a critical one. Report an error in the passage at 37:29
37:40 Now some people, we've all had suffered a lot because we have developed our critical faculties to a very high level. So in terms of, you know, like being a monk, for example, a Buddhist monk, one can take monastic conventions and identify with them very much and then be very critical of other monks, of other traditions. Report an error in the passage at 37:40
38:10 Or of oneself. Because according to the ideal, the ideal Buddhist monk is one who practices hard, obeys all the rules, is not greedy, is content and grateful with the requisites and so on like this. This is the ideal monk, Bhikkhu, in other words. Report an error in the passage at 38:10
38:44 But then we can become very critical of ourselves because we may not, at this particular moment, be anywhere near this ideal. Report an error in the passage at 38:44
39:01 So this is where this investigation or looking into the way it is, is the way of liberation. Not trying to live up to ideals and try to control and force things into ideal forms, but to use form. For reflection, for observing the way it is as we experience life from the way we are, the way we react, the kind of emotional quality we're experiencing, the state of our health in this present moment. Report an error in the passage at 39:01
39:46 So when we talk about the way it is, this is a reflective statement. helps helps us to observe because it's not saying how it should be but how it actually is the way it is at this moment is like this as you awaken to just the experience of having a physical body in the present moment it's like this so Report an error in the passage at 39:46
40:19 you you begin to open to say the the levels of energy or Or pressure or feeling that you're experiencing in your body at this very present moment. Report an error in the passage at 40:19
40:35 The way certain conditions will affect consciousness. So people praise. Somebody praises you. You feel like this. People are criticizing you. Giving you a wham. It's like this. The way it is. So the way it is, is not a kind of passive resignation, some kind of fatalistic attitude, but it's a reflection. Report an error in the passage at 40:35
41:12 So you can observe the way the conditioned realm affects consciousness from this particular position of being incarnated in this particular form at this very moment. It's like this. Report an error in the passage at 41:12
41:42 Many people suffer a lot because of fear. Report an error in the passage at 41:42
41:51 We live in a realm where fear is a very kind of primal experience. And it is, you know, this is a fear realm that we're experiencing. The sense realm, the planet Earth, the universal system that we're experiencing this time is. In itself quite frightening because Report an error in the passage at 41:51
42:22 from the position that we're in as one little human being looking out into the vast universe around us and into the society and all the problems and memories and attitudes and possibilities that exist for us to experience pleasure and pain. We also recognize that having a physical body is quite frightening because it's so easily harmed, hurt. Report an error in the passage at 42:22
42:58 It's such a kind of unrelenting source of irritation. So in terms of having a human body, it's like this. It's basically the experience of being continually irritated from birth to death. Report an error in the passage at 42:58
43:22 And so this is the way it is. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, unless you want to blame God or put the blame on somebody like that. But that doesn't help at all towards liberation. What does help is your willingness to learn from the way it is. See it as an opportunity, as a challenge. as this lifetime as a human individual within the human form that we're experiencing at this time. Report an error in the passage at 43:22
43:56 This way of bringing into consciousness, this is a transcending. Report an error in the passage at 43:56
44:30 merely be a source of habitual irritation that we react to endlessly till we die. with awareness, we begin like with observing, having a physical body, the sitting. Standing, walking, lying down, postures, the breathing, the pressures, the sensitivity, it's pleasurable, painful, neutral sensations. Report an error in the passage at 44:30
44:59 Observing it rather than trying to just ignore it or judge it, criticize it, blame somebody for its unpleasantness. Take it personally, Report an error in the passage at 44:59
45:17 identify with it. Report an error in the passage at 45:17
45:22 So awareness is the option we have. It's through this ability to pay attention, observe, notice the way it is, that we begin to free ourselves from just blindly reacting to the pressure, pleasure, pain, whatever feelings and state. That our body and bodily condition might be experiencing at this very moment. Report an error in the passage at 45:22
46:07 Well, that same thing applies to the emotional conditioning. Like we have, our emotions are conditioned. So we have love and hate, like and dislike and so forth. And we have fear, anger. Report an error in the passage at 46:07
46:33 Greed, lust, envy, jealousy, resentment, all these different emotional qualities we can observe. They are the way they are. Greed is like this or anger is like this. Fear, we Report an error in the passage at 46:33
47:01 can observe fear when we feel a sense of being threatened or frightened or worried. When we worry about the future, there is a... A monk in Bangkok who is very keen on this, he's reading all these books and going into these websites around the oil crisis. Report an error in the passage at 47:01
47:25 So he had these books that I read on the oil crisis. And it was, this kind of information is so distressing. Report an error in the passage at 47:25
47:42 After a while, I decided I don't want to read these books. It has just that kind of information about the total collapse of the economy in the near future. In fact, he's expecting at any time. It could be tomorrow. Report an error in the passage at 47:42
48:03 One can observe this, how you're reading in this book about Possibilities for the future or even certainties, whatever, and how they affect consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 48:03
48:26 So, you know, one could worry and also dread or expect. These are the kind of emotions one might project after reading such literature. Kind of worry. What's going to happen to Chitrst in an oil crisis? Report an error in the passage at 48:26
48:48 Amaravati! Report an error in the passage at 48:48
48:53 Well, you know, we won't be able to even fly to Western Australia in 2008 because there won't be enough, airfares will be too expensive or something like that. These are the possibilities of, you know, anguish or despair that we can create just by what we're reading. Report an error in the passage at 48:53
49:17 So it's not to discount what we're reading or to, you know, to deny it. I found like reading that material created this kind of dread of the future. Dread is like this, or worry, anxiety. And yet I was reading this in a very nice place in Bangkok. Bangkok, -conditioned. Townhouse. Report an error in the passage at 49:17
50:31 Spend the day worrying about the future. Well, it's not a matter of, you know, of just trying to avoid consideration for the future. But what I'm pointing at is trusting in the awareness to observe how things do affect consciousness, Report an error in the passage at 50:31
50:52 such as the wham, the word wham, which before this word was used for World Abbots Meeting. You know, it was just a kind of slang term. Wham, bam, alakazam. It's kind of a jokey word. And, you know, it didn't have a great impact on the consciousness. But then once you associate it with the memory of something, you know, meetings where monks get together. Report an error in the passage at 50:52
51:31 And confront each other, criticize each other, and so forth in very aggressive ways, and then wham becomes, the word W-A-M becomes, has a stronger effect when that's mentioned. Report an error in the passage at 51:31
51:50 Now that's just noticing how it is. I mean, from the way I am, the way it affects me, how words, how memories affect consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 51:50
52:03 How going back to The first house, the first place I lived in for six years of my life, memories would arise. Report an error in the passage at 52:03
52:19 Now if I took you there, you wouldn't have anything. You might form a memory at the time, but you would have no memory of the place like I would. Report an error in the passage at 52:19
52:35 Then remembering who you are, like the self you. Now in Thailand, I'm quite well known in Thailand. I'm quite famous in Thailand. And so, and I have this title. So I'm quite high up in terms of, you know, the position I hold in Thai Buddhism. So this is, these are titles that have been given to me. They're not that I've sought them. But then being Ajahn or being Tanjau Kun or these, These are Thai ways of addressing, conveying, kind of like teaching positions or high ranks. Report an error in the passage at 52:35
53:28 Now these, you know, you say Tanjalkun in Thailand, it means something. Here, you say Tanjalkun, you wouldn't know what it is, would you? Most of you wouldn't have a clue. Report an error in the passage at 53:28
53:39 And then you say, then somebody informs you, you know, you say, Ajahn Sumedho is a Tanjalkun. And then you say it with kind of something, this is very important. He is not just Ajahn Sumedho, not just an ordinary Ajahn. He's Thanjalkun. And even though you might not have a clue of what that means, you know that I'm special, you know, above Ajahn Karunika. Report an error in the passage at 53:39
54:22 So this is... This is how titles affect consciousness. It's observing it. Like being an American, when I first came to England, you know, somebody was a lord. Report an error in the passage at 54:22
54:37 You know, like we had Lord Young, Michael Young, as one of the trustees. When I first met Michael Young, Lord Young, Lord, this was, you know, for an American, we don't have lords in America. So, Lord, a lord, we have a lord, a trustee. Lord. And so the mind builds up to this somebody really significant and important. But then when you meet Lord Jung, when Report an error in the passage at 54:37
55:11 you get to know him on a personal level, that sense of awe that goes with the title doesn't always operate. So just noticing how these things do affect us and how we We create ourselves. It's like thinking of yourself as superior or inferior. Report an error in the passage at 55:11
55:42 The other day I had a memory of somebody years and years ago when I was in the military who a friend, a best friend I had in the Navy who I always felt he was much superior to me. I always felt inferior. I haven't seen him for 50 years or so. But the memory, I was just noticing just the memory of this one person that I haven't seen since we were about 23, 22 years old. Report an error in the passage at 55:42
56:16 How that memory of this one person brought back this feeling of me being not quite as good or inferior. Just noticing that, how that particular memory Report an error in the passage at 56:16
56:34 Still brought back that feeling. Now, it wasn't an unpleasant feeling. It wasn't like I resented. It didn't bring up resentment of inferiority, but just noticing that how the memory of this one person that I hadn't seen for 50 years would bring up this, you know, I began to notice the actual feeling of it. And just by recognizing this, how... Report an error in the passage at 56:34
57:06 You know, when you think of somebody, whether you think of them as, you know, you feel inferior or they're better or more gifted or more good-looking or more intelligent, or I can think of people I feel superior to. Report an error in the passage at 57:06
57:31 Or, you know, I think of people, you know, then we're all the same, you know, there's no superiority, inferiority. That's the ideal, maybe. Report an error in the passage at 57:31
57:41 But usually, relationships bring up this sense of superiority, inferiority. And to note, there's nothing wrong with this. I keep repeating. It's not a judgment, but just an observation. It's like this. Because superior, inferior are feelings that we create. It's the world. It's about the way we, you know, how we... Report an error in the passage at 57:41
58:11 If we attach to these particular memories or these particular ideals or values or principles or standards, then there's always this kind of discrimination as a part of that experience of being superior, inferior, or the same. Report an error in the passage at 58:11
58:31 Because the conditioned world is like that, isn't it? It is. It's beautiful and ugly, right and wrong, good and bad, superior, inferior, equal. It's fair, it's unfair. Report an error in the passage at 58:31
58:48 There's justice and there's injustice. Report an error in the passage at 58:48
58:59 So then the relationship to the conditioned realm is one of knowing it rather than of attaching and identifying with it. Report an error in the passage at 58:59
59:12 When you know the world as the world, then you can let go of it. You don't destroy it and it's not an act of denial or revenge or annihilation. unfair. Report an error in the passage at 59:12
· · · silence, 1 minute
59:27 But no longer do you need the world to, you know, you can let it go. You can allow yourself that freedom from this insidious conditioning, from Report an error in the passage at 59:27
59:43 the limitation, the burdens we create by our blind attachments to the conditioned world, the conditioned realm, to the bodies we have, to the To the memories that we have, to the emotional habits that we have. Then the only possible way that this is possible then is through this awareness. Report an error in the passage at 59:43
1:00:20 So I offer this as a reflection for this evening. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:20
Related talks
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