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DHARMA ELEMENTS
Talk from 2015, Bangkok
Many people have read or listened to many of the teachings in Buddhism, but rarely are they all put together in context. Hopefully, this talk addressed the issue.
Be sure to show the subtitles if you need them. Use controls above ↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑
This video took a full month to make. There are some 280 slides. And 280 ish subtitle lines, all of which need to be precisely timed.
The full text with time stamps, is here below:
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so
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I’m gong to attempt something today
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that I’ve never attempted before
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You can hear me ok at the back there ?
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part of the reason for this is my own abbot
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my own upajjaya
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and he’s the one who gave me ordination
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he’s now around 86, very lively
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and he’s a real meditation master
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and when I went to ordain in his temple
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I didn’t speak Thai
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and so I said to him – you know when you’re giving these talks
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which would sometimes go on for like an hour or two hours
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I said you know ‘I can’t understand what you’re saying’ because it’s in Thai
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-he speaks fluent English, fairly fluent English –
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I said I can’t understand what you are saying, so
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maybe I just go back to my room while you give the talk
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and he said ‘no, you have to stay’
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and I thought that was very unreasonable at the time
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but actually the truth is you often get more out of a dhamma talk
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even if you can’t understand it
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I don’t know if you’ve come across this
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sometimes put on a dhamma talk from Ajahn Chah –
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there’s plenty on youtube, in Thai, in NE Thai
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so even Thais complain that they can’t understand.
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it can actually be very nice just to stop your self and know
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this is dharma
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just the sound of the dharma and the flavour of the dharma
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by the way that’s what this fan was for
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which just now I was covering my face with this
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this is called a ‘Talabat’
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and the idea of a Talabat is it hides your face
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so even when we do talks we are supposed to hide our face with this
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people find it a little strange so we don’t do it so much these days
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Back in the day they would make these out of sugar cane palm
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-sugar palm-
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so the actual word ‘Tan’ comes from the palm tree – Ton Tan
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and a ‘bat’ means like, a stick
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so the sugar palm stick – when you put these two words together in the Thai you get Talabat
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and the idea is that you hide the face
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the dharma should be self evident by itself
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and not dependent upon the person who is speaking it
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so that’s why they would always hide their face
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and so I would go and listen to these talks by my abbot
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and quite soon – I mean I knew the teachings – basic teachings of Buddhism
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and then I realised that he was running through all these basic teachings
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of Buddhism every time.
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and very often they would be very formulaic
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I felt like he was just trotting out the formulas
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He’s not really talking.
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but after a while I really started to appreciate that he was consistently and regularly
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putting all of these different teachings of Buddhism into place with each other
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so it occurred to me that maybe many people or many of you have come
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and heard talks, and heard the 4 of this, and the 6 of that, and the 12 of something else
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but have never really placed it – put all of these teachings in their places with each other
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so I am going to attempt something a little strange today
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in the history of dharma talks
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I’m going to run through all of the key teachings
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I’m going to rattle them off, one after the other
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So some of you with pens and pencils, I wouldn’t even bother trying to keep up
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writing it down
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all of these particular teachings – you know –
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there’s plenty of stuff around that you can do each particular teaching in itself
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hundreds of great talks
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The idea today is just to put it all together – put this jigsaw puzzle together
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so you can see all of these little bits and pieces of Buddhism that you will have heard
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or picked up from around the place
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where it fits into the overall picture
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some of the points may be a little controversial or a little surprising
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But nonetheless I’m going to rattle straight on through them
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so the first key part of the teaching is this word ‘Amata’
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Amata means ‘Deathless’
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And the deathless is what the Buddha was seeking before he became enlightened.
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He had heard about some aspect of your being
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that does not arise, does not change and does not die
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you may consider it like an essence with-in-side you
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but for those people who attain to it they always describe this essence as the bigger picture
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and the ‘YOU’ are the little spark that’s come up and will disappear
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so the Buddha went in search of this Amata and
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he tried the Brahmana, Brahmin system of reciting Vedas and learning the cosmology
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probably for around 12 years
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and then he went back to his wife and he had a baby
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and his baby he called a ‘fetter’
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fancy naming your child ‘fetter’
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like ball and chain
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realising that this was going to be something that keeps him in the world
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and keeps him from this attainment.
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so he then tried the other religious tradition in India at the time
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which was the Samana tradition
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which probably – it’s very hazy – probably goes back to the Indus Valley Civilization
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and there the people would emulate animals
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in the hope of gaining the power of that animal
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so they might walk around on all fours like a dog
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to get the dog power
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they might eat only raw leaves like a bull to gain the strength of a bull
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The civilization was well known for its sewage pipes
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which are still in existence today
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and the sewage pipes from the Indus Valley Civilization are the same as the ones on Crete
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where you have the story of the Minator
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again this half bull half man figure
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so it seems the Samana tradition had begun with this idea that if you do an ascetic practise
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you gain a power of some kind
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and this is still very much the idea in India today
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if you do a renunciation or a self mortification practise
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you will earn spiritual credits
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and you will become powerful
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When you use your power you use up those credits
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and you start to lose your powers
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so you see in the various Hindu texts a lot of these ideas
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so after leaving the home he tried the Samana tradition
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which is where the robes and the shaved head comes from
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and found that that also did not get him to the Amata
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the deathless
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that was when the Buddha, or the Prince, took milk rice from Sujata
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-not our Sujata- the official Sujata
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who offered this milk rice, or food to the Buddha who was highly emaciated and starved at the time
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and you may see this from time to time around Thailand
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these highly emaciated Buddha images
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usually with a beard, and you can see the backbone through the front of the body
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so these represent the Buddha doing his ascetic practises
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it’s said that he held his breath for so long that the wind whistled in through his ears
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so …
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so after trying the ascetic practises he took food again, and then he sat under the Bodhi tree and attained to this thing called …
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that we now call enlightenment
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He called it the ‘Amata’. Later on he called it ‘Nibbana’
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he called it Asankhata – the Unconditioned
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usually we use the word ‘unconditioned’
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because it points to a state of mind that is not conditioned by any factors
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you can’t add to it, you can’t take away form it,
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nothing you can do to make it bigger or brighter
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there’s nothing you can do to attain to it
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there’s nothing you can do to diminish it
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this is the thing that Saints and Sages throughout the world have been trying to get get to
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and according to Buddhism there have been many people have attained to this
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but they are not necessarily a Buddha
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a Buddha is special because he has the charisma – which we’ll come to later
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to teach and lead other people to the same experience
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so most people who hit upon enlightenment
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they’ve finished, they’re done, they have nothing left to attain
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so they kind of fizzle out, or disappear, or go on Youtube
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one or the other
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so after attaining to this thing he said
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You know, people in this world will not understand what it is that I have attained to
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because it is very abstruse, very hard to see, very difficult to understand
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and this generation of people are caught up in lust and desire
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and are not able to see the stopping of ‘Sankhara’
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Now, what does the word Sankhara mean?
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there is some debates, but here for the moment we’ll say Sankhara means ‘intentionality’
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and intentionality means an intention to move by means of the three actions
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action of body, action of speech, or action of mind
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Usually in Western philosophy we have, you know, body and mind
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in Buddhist or Hindu, Indian philosophy you have three actions
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body, speech or mind
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this is why we do the recitation, the bowing [recitaiton] is an offering of speech
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– we do the bowing which is an offering of the body, we do the meditation which is an offering of the mind
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three kinds of offering when we do a puja
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So how did he … how did the Buddha himself get to this attainment?
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I’m going to speed up here
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so listen carefully
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how did the Buddha attain to this enlightenment?
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When he sat underneath the Bodhi tree
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he remembered a kind of meditation that he had done when he was young
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A kind of mindfulness concentration that he’d spontaneously attained to at an earlier age
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but had kind of forgotten about
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going into this his mind became very concentrated
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and when his mind became very very concentrated
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the legend goes …
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that Mara, the God of delusion, who was a very high god
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… not like a demon – he was a very high god …
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attacked the Buddha with his armies to try to distract the Buddha from becoming enlightened.
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So you may take this as being actual
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or you may take this as being the forces of delusion in his own mind .. started to try to disturb him
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as the army threw their weapons at the Buddha
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the arrows and spears … these arrows and spears turned to flowers
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and fell over him
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so the legend goes …
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I’m telling you this chiefly because a) it’s a very beautiful story
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and the story informs what actually happens
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and what actually happens is when you sit and meditate
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you get assailed by this confusion, by desires and things like this
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so the story informs our action
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but also you will see this scene depicted in front of Buddha images
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throughout central Thailand
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so the wall that the Buddha image faces – you will see the Mara’s army attacking the Buddha
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the flowers coming down
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and then the Buddha is sitting there with one hand on the ground
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one hand on the knee, one hand on the ground
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and underneath him is a beautiful lady holding her hair
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and this is the earth goddess Dharani
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and she’s washing her hair because throughout countless lifetimes
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every time the Buddha did a good deed, he would pour water on the ground as a offering
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which is something we still do today
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so she was a witness to how many good deeds the Buddha had done through many lifetimes
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so when she’s washing her hair you can see on these scenes,
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the water comes out of her hair and is washing away the demons
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so look out for this when you see the … a Buddha image in central Thailand
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you will nearly always see this scene depicted in front of the Buddha
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After overcoming the .. Mara’s army
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the Buddha had three attainments
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the first attainment was the remembrance of past lives
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“here I was born in such and such a clan
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I had such and such a work or livelihood
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I had such and such clothes, I was male, I was female
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I was with these families, I was rich, I was poor
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I ate this kind of food –
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I always find that funny for some reason – but it’s in there in the description
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and so he remembered manifold past lives, ten, a hundred, a thousand past lives
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and through remembering all these past lives
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he broke his attachment to this body, this mind, this ego, these thoughts,
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these views, these opinions
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because he realised he’s done all of it before.
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He’s been good, he’s been bad, he’s been everything before
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so it breaks your attachment to yourself
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Second attainment that he made was the seeing the arising and passing away of
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beings according to their karma, in heaven and hell
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so with the psychic vision he sees beings get born somewhere
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and can ask the question ‘What is the karma that got this being born in this realm?’
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Be that a high heavenly realm or be it a very low realm
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you can see well, all beings are just being propelled by their own karma
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and then the last attainment he made was the ending of the Asava
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The Asava means the outflowings of the mind
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Now remember just before I said that the Amata, the Deathless
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must already be there – you can’t add to it, you can’t subtract form it, you can’t attain to it
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you can’t change it. This is the thing that we are trying to attain to
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why don’t we see that part of ourselves – according to Buddha (and all Indian traditions in fact)
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is because the mind flows out. And flows away from its source
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so these Asava are called the ‘outflows’ or sometimes they are called the ‘floods’
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and these floods are four in number
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sometimes 3 sometimes 4
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The first one is the asava of avicca – ignorance
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second one is the outflow of sense desires
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third one is the outflow of being
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and I will talk shortly about what ‘being’ is
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and the fourth one, if it is in the list, is the flow of views and opinions.
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so once these flows stopped – that was when he attained to enlightenment
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this is all according to the legend and the myth
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So, after this attainment he goes walking along and he thinks
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‘Who will I teach?’
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and he decides to teach the .. first of all his former teachers, but they are no longer available
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so he goes back to the five ascetics who he used to be travelling around with
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doing ascetic practises.
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So when he finds them they say to him, you know,
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‘you’re just you’re useless because you took food’
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and anyone who takes food can’t have any attainment.
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then the Buddha did something apparently quite interesting
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at the time in India when a doctor would come to your house
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the doctor would have a very formalised method of talking to you.
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He’d have a look at you
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and then after he’s looked at you would go and stand in the middle of the room
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and make a formal declaration
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OK this is what’s wrong with you
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this is why you’ve got this problem
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this is how we can .. this is the ending of the problem, we have to stop this
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and this is the medicine to get to that end, or the prescription
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So you’ve got the flu.
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You got the flu because you went to bed with wet hair
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The .. getting over the … flu symptoms, or getting past the fever
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breaking the fever is the cure
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and the way we break your fever is you wear socks (to bed)
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and you drink hot water
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Something like that ……
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so it was a very formal declaration that doctors did in this manner
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I got this from Alan Watts – so if I’m wrong, blame Alan Watts
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So the Buddha went up to his disciples, former fellows
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and said ‘guys, I found it!’
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‘never before did I say to you I have found enlightenment, but now I’m telling you
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I’ve actually found what it is
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and then he makes this formal declaration
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He said the problem is Dukkha, or suffering
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and Dukkha means ‘shaking’, instability
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he said this dukkha needs to be investigated
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the cause of this dukkha is desire, Tanha
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Specifically three kinds of Tanha, three kinds of desire
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1. desire for sense pleasures
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2. desire for ‘becoming’ which is a kind of Jhana – deep concentration meditation
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or 3. desire for annihilation which is an even deeper form of meditation
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where you can completely obliterate all sense of your self
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He said all three of these are the cause of your suffering
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This cause should be put away
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then he said the cure of it is cessation
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when everything stops, that’s when the process ..
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that’s when the cure can occur
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to make things stop needs to be made real – sacca
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sacchakiriya – saccikatabanti me bhikkhave .. if you know the sutta
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And then there is a path leading to this cessation
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and that path needs to be developed
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so these were the four noble truths
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dukkha – needs to be investigated
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the arising of dukkha needs to be put away
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the cessation of dukkha needs to be made real
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and the path leading to the cation needs to be … to cessation, needs to be developed
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and this was the Four Noble Truths
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What is the ‘Path’ that needs to be developed?
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first of all Right View, Right intention Right speech
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Right action, Right livelihood, Right effort, Right mindfulness and Right concentration
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I’m going to rattle through these very quick
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RIGHT VIEW – most people think that right view is ‘my view’
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and anybody that agrees with me has right view
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anyone who disagrees with me – they’ve fallen into wrong view
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and they need to have their view corrected
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that’s the usual view, that’s the usual understanding of right view
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but when we go back to the source, right view was very specific
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and rather controversial, and rather interesting
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we could do a whole session just on this one topic
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But I’m just going to rattle through it, and leave it with you
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Right view is ‘there is what is given, what is offered, what is sacrificed
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there is the fruit and result and result of making offerings
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[see slide for more correct information] there is this life, there is the next life
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there are recluses and brahmins who have seen directly for themselves both this life and the next life
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that was Right View – basic level
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higher level right view was the Four Noble Truths – which we’ve just gone through
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So that was right – that’s right view
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RIGHT INTENTION, or right thought which is the second of the eightfold path
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is of three kinds
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three kinds of right thought or right intention
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three kinds of wrong intention,
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the wrong intention is 1. sense desire, the right intention is renunciation
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instead of thinking of getting stuff, you start thinking about giving stuff up
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The second one is .. the second wrong thought is anger – vyapada .. in Thai payabaht
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The right kind is non-vyapada, non-anger
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which often we call Metta, loving kindness
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the third one is vihingsa, but you may know it as himsa …
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this is what Gandhi called himsa and ahimsa,
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in the Pali it is vihimsa and avihimsa, but it is the same meaning
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it means violence or cruelty
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so Gandhi picked up on this one phrase and had a non-violence method of his politicking
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so non-violence is the right intention
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so right intention is 1. to give things up
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2. non-hatred and anger, or metta, loving kindness
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3. non-violence, which is also compassion
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non-violence, non-cruelty – also [can mean] compassion
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RIGHT SPEECH is the next one of the eight fold path
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refrain from telling lies, refrain from harsh speech
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refrain from gossip, and refrain from slander ok?
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RIGHT ACTION is the next clause
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there are three kinds of right action
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to refrain from sexual misconduct,
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refrain from killing animals and refrain from stealing
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So right action is not action at all – it’s just ‘don’t do bad stuff’
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Now it’s interesting you may note here that we have four of the five precepts
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one of the precepts being speech, the other precepts being killing stealing and sexual misconduct
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so, in India at the time there were only four precepts
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the Buddha added in the fifth precept later,
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which was the ‘suramerya’, to refrain from drugs and intoxicating substances
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So … if you’re a Buddhist and you want a drink, you say
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‘I’m following the eightfold path, not the five precepts’
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because the drink and drugs is not included on the eightfold path [Not really!!]
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So probably this is because the Buddha added that extra precept in later
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later on this … or next month, I’ll be doing the dharma talks here,
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and we’ll see that Patanjali, when he’s giving the path of yoga, also had only four precepts, not five
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Next up – RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
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to refrain from buying and selling human beings
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from buying and selling animals for slaughter.
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You can buy and sell animals, just not for slaughter
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To refrain from dealing in weapons
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to refrain from dealing in poisons
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RIGHT EFFORT was the next one – there are four kinds of right effort
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wholesome .. Unwholesome states of mind that have arisen, you strive to abandon them
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pahana – means to cut off, to destroy them, eliminate, exterminate [for WHO fans]
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it’s quite a hard, tough word
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Unwholesome states that have not arisen, you strive to prevent them from arising
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wholesome states that have not arisen, you strive to arouse them
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and wholesome states that have not arisen, you strive to cultivate them .. or spark them, bring them up
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ok?
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It doesn’t say what ‘wholesome’ states are, the Buddha left that for you to decide what you think wholesome states are.
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To a meditator you….. it’s quite clear, because a wholesome state is one that
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starts to center you, and ground you, and make you stop still
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and an unwholesome state is one that starts to agitate and move you and disturb you
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and that’s why lie detector tests test for stress in the body, because when you are telling a lie
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that starts to stress you out, and when you are telling the truth, it starts to calm you down
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so these days you have… you can actually buy cheap lie detector tests off the internet,
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that you put your hand on.
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and they have another lie detector test that detects tremors in your voice,
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and then you have another one based on the webcam
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that measures your micro-expressions – so very soon
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human beings – we are going to be able to tell if somebody else is lying or not
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very easily. Can you imagine how that will change our society?
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All these guys getting … “ooh I was working so late at the office ..!”
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What about courts? I mean, would courts or the police be able to test you … to see if you’re telling lies or not
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What about Google Glasses?
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Right? if you … google glass,
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which puts up a little information stream in front of you –
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what if that while you are speaking to somebody – it can come up “He’s lying!!”
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I think this will really have a .. actually quite profound affect on our human society
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when it becomes very easy to tell when someone is lying
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So after right livelihood, we have right … which is … right effort, which are the the four kinds
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we have RIGHT MINDFULNESS
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Now mindfulness here is the word ‘Sati’ and sati means to ‘recollect’
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so it’s the right recollection, and this is very important
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it’s not mindfulness practise that we do normally – that is called sati-sampajanya
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if Georges was here today he would be telling you there are many kinds of sati
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not just sati sampajanya
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so the mindfulness meditation that we do is called sati sampajanya
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mindfulness with awareness
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but just ‘sati’, samma sati means the right recollection
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now remember earlier I said there is nothing that you can do to get to enlightenment
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you can’t add to it, you can’t attain to it, and this is why Saints and Sages have had trouble putting it across
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to other people
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Whereas a Samma Sambuddha differs, or one who can teach differs.
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He is able to say, actually there are certain things that you can do
401
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if you maintain certain perceptions they will take you towards enlightenment
402
00:31:26,240 –> 00:31:31,000
if you maintain other perceptions they will take you away from enlightenment
403
00:31:31,010 –> 00:31:35,840
so some perceptions are wise, and some perceptions are not wise
404
00:31:37,120 –> 00:31:42,360
so right now you can pay can pay attention to, for example
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your own mortality – that you are going to die
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that’s one kind of sati – marana sati, recollection of your own death, your own mortality
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this is a wise reflection because it orders your way of thinking and starts to prioritise
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ok what are the things I am wasting time on
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TV, and movies, and silly things – what better ways could I be spending my time?
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On the other hand there are unwise perceptions
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for example
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you might be thinking about the cricket
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and if you are English you will be very happy – I believe right now .. about the cricket
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… me too – cricket is one of the few things that I find even worse than football
415
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but apparently we beat the Australians, so that’s something to be happy about.
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So if you’re Australian right now and you’re thinking about cricket, that’s not a very wise perception
417
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so there are certain, certain perceptions, and that’s what SATI means
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what do you call into your mind?
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so Samma [right] sati means
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make sure you are calling the right things into your mind, you are paying attention to the right points
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we’ll come back to that
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The last one is SAMMA SAMADHI or RIGHT CONCENTRATION
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Concentration was four kinds – four kinds of jhana
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jhana is absorption concentration
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so when you concentrate on something very deeply until single-mindedness
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your mind will suddenly click and become very blissful, extremely blissful, very happy
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after a while the bliss will start to go and the mind becomes very stable and steady
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after a while it just becomes very equanimous.
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After these four levels of concentration you then have the four formless kinds of concentration
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I told you you have to pay attention to keep up
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normally each one of these things is something that we would do a dhamma talk about on its own
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Four formless kinds of concentration :
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infinite space, and then infinite consciousness
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infinite space is object looking, infinite consciousness is what perceives infinite space
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so it is subject looking
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and usually when you are object looking things become quite dull, quite dark, quite empty
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but when you are watching the observing mind it becomes very bright and very awake
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Then the next two was the .. neither perception-nor-non-perception and then nothingness [mistake, see slide]
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so nothingness was the subjective perception
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all of these together are called the eight jhanas
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and the Buddha recommended that people practise these
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he had actually practised these himself long before he became enlightened
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so they are not an answer in themselves, but they are part of the path
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so that’s the Eightfold Path, which is the last of the Four Noble Truths
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Now, why is it that we can’t see this enlightenment, or normal beings can’t see this enlightenment?
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The Buddha said ‘well, your mind is luminous, all expansive, all pervasive, but it is covered by extraneous defilements’
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Extraneous defilements – covered by other things
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so one analogy for this is like a Gem in a bucket of mud
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the gem is still perfectly pure and is untainted by the mud
450
00:35:33,880 –> 00:35:37,080
but the mud is blocking or obscuring the gem
451
00:35:37,090 –> 00:35:40,450
but to get to the gem you still have to clean away the mud
452
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even though the mud has never affected the gem in any way
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so this was the analogy – that actually came much later –
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for this enlightenment that we have, but it’s covered by muck
455
00:35:53,890 –> 00:35:59,610
by our mud. And these are called the Kilesa, or in Thai it is called Gilet
456
00:35:59,610 –> 00:36:02,400
and the Kilesa are 10 in number
457
00:36:03,280 –> 00:36:06,680
First three are called the roots of unwholesome action
458
00:36:07,760 –> 00:36:11,080
Lobha – which is ‘desiring’
459
00:36:11,920 –> 00:36:16,800
a different kind of desire to the one mentioned in the Four Noble Truths, BTW
460
00:36:17,000 –> 00:36:24,450
desiring. The second one is dosa, which is hating and the third one is moha, which is delusion
461
00:36:25,040 –> 00:36:31,040
these three are usually considered by themselves because, as I said earlier
462
00:36:31,840 –> 00:36:35,040
the problem is the mind goes outside of itself
463
00:36:36,840 –> 00:36:39,350
why does the mind go outside of itself?
464
00:36:39,350 –> 00:36:44,650
because it wants things – it wants to get rid of things or it wants to get absorbed in nonsense
465
00:36:46,040 –> 00:36:50,080
So wanting things [lobha] usually you are forward looking
466
00:36:50,080 –> 00:36:52,990
or you are looking into the future, what you want to get
467
00:36:53,560 –> 00:37:01,280
usually if you are hating or disliking kind you are looking to the past, looking at what isn’t good enough in life
468
00:37:01,290 –> 00:37:12,730
and moha is looking at stuff that – things like TV – TV is not bad, it’s not immoral, it’s not evil in any way
469
00:37:13,280 –> 00:37:19,760
but it’s not wise either – but it is absorbing so it will suck your attention out
470
00:37:20,360 –> 00:37:24,680
So that’s why Moha is actually considered worse than greed or hatred
471
00:37:25,680 –> 00:37:33,280
So the first three of the 10 kinds of muck that block you from enlightenment – lobha, dosa, moha
472
00:37:33,290 –> 00:37:36,910
greed, hate and delusion – is the usual translation
473
00:37:37,920 –> 00:37:42,560
the next one is Mana – which is translated as ‘conceit’
474
00:37:43,360 –> 00:37:47,520
conceit is of 3 kinds – also very interesting point
475
00:37:48,560 –> 00:37:54,960
I am superior to you, I am more advanced than you are
476
00:37:55,920 –> 00:37:57,800
is the first kind of conceit
477
00:37:57,800 –> 00:38:02,640
you are more advanced than I am, is the second conceit
478
00:38:03,400 –> 00:38:07,880
you and I are about the same level, is the third kind of conceit
479
00:38:07,900 –> 00:38:10,270
three kinds of coneit
480
00:38:10,270 –> 00:38:15,480
so you can see you are not supposed to be comparing yourself with other people in any way
481
00:38:17,800 –> 00:38:20,600
then the next one is ditthi, or views
482
00:38:20,610 –> 00:38:24,620
and you might remember we had views earlier as one of the outflowings
483
00:38:24,620 –> 00:38:28,420
views was one of the out-flowings of the mind
484
00:38:28,420 –> 00:38:34,850
here also views is considered to be on of the things that obscure your real nature
485
00:38:36,440 –> 00:38:40,150
Next one vicikiccha – which means doubt.
486
00:38:40,150 –> 00:38:44,310
doubting is something that obscures your own real nature
487
00:38:44,760 –> 00:38:52,270
Thina – which is sloth, indolence – it means that you don’t want to do it
488
00:38:52,270 –> 00:38:53,760
that you are unmotivated
489
00:38:53,760 –> 00:39:00,960
uddhacca, which is restlessness of the mind
490
00:39:00,960 –> 00:39:11,160
ahiriya and anottappa – which is translated as moral shame and moral dread
491
00:39:11,160 –> 00:39:17,970
moral shame means that if you do something that you consider to be unworthy
492
00:39:17,970 –> 00:39:21,750
but you don’t care that other people will see you or know that you’ve done that thing
493
00:39:21,750 –> 00:39:24,900
you don’t have a sense of conscience
494
00:39:24,900 –> 00:39:31,410
and moral dread is you don’t feel the consequences of doing something immoral
495
00:39:32,480 –> 00:39:38,910
these days it is called a ‘sociopath’, and a sociopath tends to have no conscience
496
00:39:38,920 –> 00:39:44,520
so they will lie or cheat or do whatever they want to get their aim because they have no
497
00:39:44,520 –> 00:39:47,960
sense of right and wrong or duty
498
00:39:48,220 –> 00:39:54,050
So these 10 things are what obscure enlightenment
499
00:39:55,800 –> 00:39:58,960
What things are worth developing?
500
00:39:58,960 –> 00:40:03,060
Another list of 10 things, and these are called the Parami, paramitta
501
00:40:03,060 –> 00:40:07,980
and the parami are the things that the Buddha has practised to perfection
502
00:40:07,980 –> 00:40:10,700
which is what qualifies him as a Buddha
503
00:40:10,700 –> 00:40:13,320
so if you have practised these 10 clauses
504
00:40:13,320 –> 00:40:18,150
it means that you will have a great charisma, or influence over other people
505
00:40:18,960 –> 00:40:23,360
you may know these are the … very famous for being the Jataka Tales
506
00:40:23,370 –> 00:40:26,540
stories of the Buddha’s previous lives
507
00:40:27,960 –> 00:40:31,440
there are hundreds and hundreds of stories of the Buddha’s previous lives
508
00:40:31,450 –> 00:40:35,550
but the last 10 lives are considered very special
509
00:40:35,550 –> 00:40:42,150
so you often see these around in temples, depicted around in the murals on the temples
510
00:40:42,720 –> 00:40:48,880
And mot Thais, and certainly Sri Lankans, can tell you in detail these 10 stories
511
00:40:48,890 –> 00:40:54,310
The 10 Parami [in Thai Barami] the 10 perfections
512
00:40:54,310 –> 00:41:00,410
which in Mahayana are only 6, but in Theravada Buddhism we have 10
513
00:41:00,410 –> 00:41:02,740
first one is dana – giving
514
00:41:03,040 –> 00:41:07,040
there are different kinds of giving, the 3 kinds, the 10 kinds, etc..
515
00:41:09,200 –> 00:41:14,440
but in short, giving can be giving of material gifts,
516
00:41:16,560 –> 00:41:20,360
it can be giving of spiritual qualities
517
00:41:20,380 –> 00:41:23,890
so things like being patient or loving kindness
518
00:41:23,890 –> 00:41:25,890
is also a kind of giving
519
00:41:26,000 –> 00:41:31,600
it can be giving of morality – so if you lead a moral lifestyle
520
00:41:31,610 –> 00:41:33,170
or if you’re a good person
521
00:41:33,170 –> 00:41:35,800
that is also considered a high gift
522
00:41:35,810 –> 00:41:39,830
and then the highest gift that you can make
523
00:41:39,830 –> 00:41:44,850
is the gift of doing meditation, which is the purification of the mind
524
00:41:45,480 –> 00:41:50,440
so by purifying the mind, that’s the highest gift that you can give to mankind
525
00:41:50,450 –> 00:41:52,000
according to Buddhism
526
00:41:53,560 –> 00:42:00,040
Second one is Sila, morality – the 5 precepts, the 8 precepts
527
00:42:00,050 –> 00:42:04,360
interestingly the monks also used to take 8 precepts
528
00:42:04,960 –> 00:42:09,350
these days you probably heard that we have 227 precepts
529
00:42:09,350 –> 00:42:14,240
which is not true! There is probably over 3 or 4 thousand precepts in there
530
00:42:14,240 –> 00:42:18,610
in the vinaya iself – 227 is just what we recite
531
00:42:20,040 –> 00:42:23,200
a lot of these precepts we don’t even know what they mean
532
00:42:23,200 –> 00:42:27,710
some of them we know what they mean but they still don’t mean very much
533
00:42:27,710 –> 00:42:34,590
for example, I’m not allowed to have a needle case – for a needle and thread – a needle case
534
00:42:34,600 –> 00:42:38,480
made out of bone – that is against my precept as a monk
535
00:42:39,960 –> 00:42:43,950
not a precept I find difficult to keep
536
00:42:44,720 –> 00:42:46,160
another one
537
00:42:46,160 –> 00:42:52,750
you should not sit on a collapse chair on the second storey of a building that has an incomplete floor
538
00:42:55,560 –> 00:42:59,160
– so make out of that whatever you will
539
00:42:59,160 –> 00:43:02,780
so there are a lot of precepts we don’t even know what they really mean
540
00:43:02,780 –> 00:43:06,660
There’s another precept that you shouldn’t take a … in the rainy season
541
00:43:06,660 –> 00:43:10,050
you shouldn’t take a bath more than once every two weeks
542
00:43:12,520 –> 00:43:15,440
so we don’t even know what that means
543
00:43:15,460 –> 00:43:17,260
does that mean you’re supposed to stand out in the rain
544
00:43:17,260 –> 00:43:20,960
instead of going into a pond – that’s one explanation
545
00:43:20,960 –> 00:43:28,470
was it a specific rule for that group of people in that place at that time for a particular reason?
546
00:43:28,470 –> 00:43:30,150
That’s another explanation
547
00:43:30,510 –> 00:43:36,100
But suffice to say that … originally the monks only followed 8 precepts
548
00:43:39,720 –> 00:43:43,040
So that’s the second of the Parmi
549
00:43:46,200 –> 00:43:51,640
the third one is nekkamma which we had earlier as one of the Right Thought
550
00:43:51,660 –> 00:43:53,700
and Nekkamma is renunciation
551
00:43:53,700 –> 00:43:58,510
so thoughts about giving up, letting go, dropping off, leaving be
552
00:43:58,720 –> 00:44:04,040
are more useful than thoughts about getting stuff, having stuff, attaining to things
553
00:44:04,060 –> 00:44:07,460
and this applies to meditation also because people want to …
554
00:44:08,480 –> 00:44:11,080
especially one of our friends who you know well
555
00:44:11,090 –> 00:44:15,110
he’s always looking for attainments in meditation
556
00:44:16,440 –> 00:44:18,510
and somebody came to me the other day and said
557
00:44:18,510 –> 00:44:20,860
he did this meditation off youtube
558
00:44:20,860 –> 00:44:24,650
and he had this really amazing experience, inside his chest
559
00:44:25,040 –> 00:44:29,160
and then he came to do meditation with me, and he didn’t get the experience
560
00:44:29,160 –> 00:44:31,850
and he’s wondering if my meditation is no good
561
00:44:34,840 –> 00:44:36,910
he was very frank with it
562
00:44:38,080 –> 00:44:42,560
experiences will come and go – you will have all kinds of experiences in meditation
563
00:44:42,580 –> 00:44:47,210
the important thing is to always be thinking about giving up, dropping, letting go
564
00:44:47,210 –> 00:44:51,860
and when weird experiences come up if you latch on to them
565
00:44:51,860 –> 00:44:54,390
that’s going to disturb your meditation
566
00:44:54,390 –> 00:45:00,600
there are however, certain experiences in meditation that ARE legitimate
567
00:45:00,600 –> 00:45:02,900
which I will talk about shortly
568
00:45:03,680 –> 00:45:05,950
so nekkamma – to give up
569
00:45:05,950 –> 00:45:09,150
the next parami is panya, or wisdom
570
00:45:09,920 –> 00:45:12,840
and again there are 3 kinds of wisdom
571
00:45:12,860 –> 00:45:15,580
wisdom that comes from listening to other people
572
00:45:15,580 –> 00:45:19,910
wisdom that comes from looking into things for yourself
573
00:45:19,910 –> 00:45:26,950
and wisdom that comes from meditation, from bhavana – developing a particular quality
574
00:45:26,950 –> 00:45:30,020
then you have wisdom as to what that quality is
575
00:45:30,020 –> 00:45:31,890
so there are 3 kinds of wisdom
576
00:45:40,000 –> 00:45:49,200
There there is viriya – effort, and we saw this earlier in in samma vayama – the four kinds of right effort
577
00:45:49,200 –> 00:45:52,610
wholesome states that have arisen, you arouse them
578
00:45:52,610 –> 00:45:56,130
unwholesome states that have arisen, you let go of
579
00:45:56,130 –> 00:45:58,240
well viriya [energy] is the same kind of concept
580
00:45:58,240 –> 00:46:00,830
it means putting in energy
581
00:46:00,830 –> 00:46:07,450
and sometimes with meditation, if you have too much concentration, everything just kind of stops dead
582
00:46:07,450 –> 00:46:11,080
in the water, and there is no progress, and we say there is no vipassana (insight)
583
00:46:11,080 –> 00:46:13,220
so then you need the viriya
584
00:46:13,220 –> 00:46:17,130
viriya also means ‘heroic struggle’
585
00:46:17,130 –> 00:46:22,020
so if you think, you know, I’ve had my coffee this morning and I have energy
586
00:46:22,020 –> 00:46:25,900
that’s not enough. You need to actually have heroic struggle
587
00:46:27,260 –> 00:46:32,380
the next Buddha by the way, is supposed to attain to Buddhahood through heroic struggle
588
00:46:32,720 –> 00:46:36,070
and thereby he will be a greater Buddha than the previous Buddha,
589
00:46:36,070 –> 00:46:38,660
who was a Buddha through wisdom
590
00:46:40,400 –> 00:46:43,400
– part of the legend of Buddhism –
591
00:46:44,040 –> 00:46:48,000
Khanti – patience, develop patience
592
00:46:48,000 –> 00:46:54,510
it is said that the Buddha once … somebody came and chopped off his leg and he thought ‘patience’
593
00:46:54,510 –> 00:46:57,650
then they chopped off his other leg and he thought ‘patience’
594
00:46:57,650 –> 00:47:00,730
and they chopped off his arms, and he thought ‘patience’
595
00:47:00,730 –> 00:47:03,020
and eventually they chopped off his head
596
00:47:03,020 –> 00:47:05,010
and guess what his last thought was as he died????
597
00:47:05,010 –> 00:47:07,740
[duh!]
598
00:47:07,740 –> 00:47:09,140
PATIENCE !!
599
00:47:10,800 –> 00:47:13,560
that’s how strong your patience has to be
600
00:47:13,560 –> 00:47:17,460
I’m a little lacking in that department myself
601
00:47:18,480 –> 00:47:21,000
next one, sacca – truthfulness
602
00:47:22,160 –> 00:47:28,040
not just truthfulness of speech, but truthfulness of intention, integrity
603
00:47:28,060 –> 00:47:32,960
sacca means to one of very pure intention and integrity
604
00:47:32,960 –> 00:47:35,560
adhitthana – resolution.
605
00:47:35,560 –> 00:47:42,400
So that you can make a resolution to do your practises and stick to it, a firmness of the mind
606
00:47:42,950 –> 00:47:46,760
metta – loving kindness – you need to develop
607
00:47:46,760 –> 00:47:51,060
and the last one upekkha, which is equanimity
608
00:47:51,060 –> 00:47:55,980
so just now we had the 10 things that obscure your real nature
609
00:47:55,980 –> 00:47:58,750
these are the 10 qualities that you should develop
610
00:47:58,750 –> 00:48:03,650
these are not enlightenment, these will not make you enlightened
611
00:48:03,650 –> 00:48:08,660
but these are 10 qualities that will help take you in the right direction
612
00:48:08,660 –> 00:48:14,900
you notice that the 10 … kilesa are all things that shake you
613
00:48:14,900 –> 00:48:18,080
conceit is something that shakes you, disturbs you and blocks you
614
00:48:18,090 –> 00:48:23,350
but these 10 parami are things that brighten you and make you more stable
615
00:48:23,350 –> 00:48:25,350
Ok?
616
00:48:27,360 –> 00:48:31,960
So then we come to do the practise [meditation]
617
00:48:31,980 –> 00:48:35,320
and then sit down and we do meditation
618
00:48:35,320 –> 00:48:39,330
and what we find with the meditation is the mind wanders away, right?
619
00:48:39,880 –> 00:48:45,720
You establish the mindfulness with yourself, and the mind very quickly wanders away onto other things
620
00:48:46,720 –> 00:48:50,080
your mind gets lost, or caught up in some kind of thinking
621
00:48:50,080 –> 00:48:55,040
now you are aware of the thinking, but you are not aware THAT you are thinking
622
00:48:55,050 –> 00:48:57,680
there’s a difference. Right.
623
00:48:58,320 –> 00:49:03,760
You may be desiring – there is a difference between desiring something and being aware of desiring
624
00:49:04,680 –> 00:49:10,560
when you become aware of qualities, you don’t worry about the object, you are more interested in the qualities
625
00:49:11,280 –> 00:49:13,920
so when I walk through Panthip Plaza [computer centre]
626
00:49:13,920 –> 00:49:19,560
and I see the new Asus hybrid laptop, and I get caught up in desiring
627
00:49:19,560 –> 00:49:24,660
I catch myself – ahh it’s not the computer, it’s desiring
628
00:49:24,660 –> 00:49:29,210
so I get interested in that, this disturbance, this shaking, this
629
00:49:29,210 –> 00:49:34,290
“I want to have it”, “how much does it cost”, “how can I get hold of it”, “what will I use it for”?
630
00:49:34,290 –> 00:49:37,670
I start to justify, you know, having it
631
00:49:38,400 –> 00:49:40,120
My big one is power tools
632
00:49:40,120 –> 00:49:41,520
whenever I walk through Klong Thom [area in Bangkok]
633
00:49:41,520 –> 00:49:45,800
and I see power tools – electric drills and sanders
634
00:49:45,810 –> 00:49:49,010
I saw this beautiful little mini router the other day
635
00:49:49,010 –> 00:49:52,490
4000 baht (120 USD in 2015)
636
00:49:52,490 –> 00:49:55,920
Just so beautiful that I wanted it so badly …
637
00:49:57,160 –> 00:50:03,750
I have no use for it whatsoever. It’s just a beautiful machine with all these beautiful little heads
638
00:50:03,750 –> 00:50:05,530
that you can change and that … just …
639
00:50:05,530 –> 00:50:09,050
so what I’m interested in is that desire,
640
00:50:09,720 –> 00:50:11,040
that shaking right?
641
00:50:11,560 –> 00:50:14,950
and when I drop it, like ahhh… it’s just desire
642
00:50:14,950 –> 00:50:20,260
I’m separated from that desire and I can see it for what it is
643
00:50:20,260 –> 00:50:23,130
I can see desire for what it is
644
00:50:23,130 –> 00:50:28,810
so – when you are engaged with something that’s called Bhava
645
00:50:29,960 –> 00:50:32,270
in Thai it is called Pop 3.
646
00:50:32,270 –> 00:50:38,190
And there are 3 kinds of bhava – one which is engaged with things that you want
647
00:50:38,610 –> 00:50:40,730
like the disturbances
648
00:50:40,730 –> 00:50:44,030
the other is engaged with deep meditation and
649
00:50:44,030 –> 00:50:47,460
the other is engaged with annihilation meditation
650
00:50:47,460 –> 00:50:50,860
where you just like ZZzzzzz zone everything out
651
00:50:50,860 –> 00:50:58,430
and these three kinds of becoming will propel you into rebirth, into … after you die
652
00:50:58,430 –> 00:51:04,640
it’s that tendency to go outside of yourself and become something that leads to rebirth
653
00:51:04,640 –> 00:51:07,860
according to the program
654
00:51:07,860 –> 00:51:09,960
how does this come about?
655
00:51:09,960 –> 00:51:12,820
This is called the arising and cessation of the world
656
00:51:12,820 –> 00:51:14,980
and I’m going to run through it very quickly
657
00:51:14,980 –> 00:51:17,270
it is also called paticcasamupada
658
00:51:17,270 –> 00:51:20,990
or dependent origination, or dependent arising
659
00:51:21,160 –> 00:51:22,880
I call it ‘production’
660
00:51:22,900 –> 00:51:29,110
and what happens is the mind is in avicca –
661
00:51:29,110 –> 00:51:32,590
vicca means ‘method’, and the mind doesn’t know the method
662
00:51:32,600 –> 00:51:34,560
it doesn’t know what to do
663
00:51:35,200 –> 00:51:38,640
so it leads into the second clause which is Sankhara
664
00:51:38,660 –> 00:51:42,060
which is the word we heard earlier – the Buddha said when Sankhara stop,
665
00:51:42,060 –> 00:51:43,720
you become enlightened
666
00:51:44,200 –> 00:51:47,080
Sankhara are the intentionalities
667
00:51:47,100 –> 00:51:50,900
so the intention to act by body, speech or mind
668
00:51:51,360 –> 00:51:56,880
when this intention arises and your mind flows out
669
00:51:56,900 –> 00:52:01,810
you get consciousness – you become conscious of something, somewhere
670
00:52:01,810 –> 00:52:05,850
and conscious – we mean conscious engagement
671
00:52:06,400 –> 00:52:09,640
because you are now conscious of a particular thing
672
00:52:09,660 –> 00:52:14,780
for example, last month when we were here there was building work going on
673
00:52:14,780 –> 00:52:18,200
and they started drilling through the masonry drill, just outside
674
00:52:18,210 –> 00:52:24,500
and immediately my mind goes to that, and that’s pulled up into my consciousness
675
00:52:25,280 –> 00:52:29,750
But while I was doing the talk, because I’m thinking about the talk, I had forgotten all about it
676
00:52:30,240 –> 00:52:32,080
so is it there or not there?
677
00:52:32,600 –> 00:52:35,960
well, it’s either in my conscious attention or it isn’t
678
00:52:37,440 –> 00:52:39,920
same as the sound of the air conditioner
679
00:52:39,940 –> 00:52:44,950
you’ve heard it for an hour, but you may not have been conscious of it for an hour
680
00:52:44,950 –> 00:52:50,440
so consciousness arises – consciousness has two aspects – Nama and Rupa
681
00:52:50,440 –> 00:52:57,860
this is the answer to the question is the world material, or is the world non-material?
682
00:52:57,860 –> 00:53:02,850
The materialists, and the ideologists [idealist] in philosophy
683
00:53:02,850 –> 00:53:06,380
the materialists say everything is just matter, there’s nothing else
684
00:53:06,380 –> 00:53:10,220
and the idealists say no no, everything is mind, there is nothing else
685
00:53:10,220 –> 00:53:14,340
well in Buddhism, it says well when something arises in your consciousness
686
00:53:15,150 –> 00:53:18,850
there is always a mind element and there is always a matter element
687
00:53:19,280 –> 00:53:24,040
so if it’s the sound of the drill – the matter element is you can hear the sound
688
00:53:24,050 –> 00:53:26,960
it’s a physical impingement on your senses
689
00:53:26,960 –> 00:53:32,290
the mental element is of four kinds
690
00:53:32,290 –> 00:53:33,620
you have an intention towards it
691
00:53:33,620 –> 00:53:36,000
you have attention with it
692
00:53:36,000 –> 00:53:39,120
you have a sanya, or perception of what it’s about
693
00:53:39,120 –> 00:53:42,420
and you have a vedana – whether you like it or dislike it
694
00:53:42,420 –> 00:53:49,210
so the sound of the drill comes up we have an intentionality to point towards it
695
00:53:49,210 –> 00:53:50,500
we hold our attention on it
696
00:53:50,500 –> 00:53:52,430
we have a perception about it
697
00:53:52,430 –> 00:53:54,790
and then we decide whether we like it or not
698
00:53:55,600 –> 00:54:00,760
So according to Buddhism there is no such discussion between materialism and idealism
699
00:54:00,780 –> 00:54:05,270
anything that arises, must have both kinds and they can’t be divided.
700
00:54:05,270 –> 00:54:09,110
We can’t have something purely mental and not physical
701
00:54:09,110 –> 00:54:12,490
and you can’t have something purely physical, and not mental
702
00:54:13,240 –> 00:54:17,680
Have I lost you all? I was hoping I had lost you !
703
00:54:17,700 –> 00:54:28,150
ok so, because of that name and … now the your attention has gone into this name and form – the mental and physical
704
00:54:28,150 –> 00:54:31,350
this activates the six senses
705
00:54:31,350 –> 00:54:39,850
so it activates that sense – your mind is now turned to your ear and is fully engaged with hearing consciousness with that sound
706
00:54:39,850 –> 00:54:42,110
that you either like or dislike
707
00:54:43,400 –> 00:54:48,400
so there are 6 senses engagements
708
00:54:48,410 –> 00:54:53,130
eye, nose, tongue, ear, body sense, …
709
00:54:54,880 –> 00:55:02,400
eye, nose, tongue, hearing, body sense, and thinking – yes taste, and hearing – and thinking [duh!]
710
00:55:02,830 –> 00:55:06,060
so maybe a thought that has distracted your attention
711
00:55:06,060 –> 00:55:08,840
and your mind gets engaged with the mind sense
712
00:55:08,840 –> 00:55:12,960
this why in Buddhism mind is considered one of the senses
713
00:55:14,160 –> 00:55:15,800
because you can sense it
714
00:55:16,240 –> 00:55:20,600
if you couldn’t – if mind wasn’t a sense you wouldn’t be able to know you are thinking
715
00:55:20,600 –> 00:55:23,440
but you can sense thoughts right? so …
716
00:55:23,440 –> 00:55:25,880
it’s got to be a sense, according to Buddhism
717
00:55:28,440 –> 00:55:33,440
This we then call conscious engagement, or phassa
718
00:55:33,450 –> 00:55:37,150
which is ‘contact’ – now you are fully engaged with that thing
719
00:55:37,150 –> 00:55:42,760
when you are fully engaged with that thing you are propelled into a really strong liking or disliking of it
720
00:55:42,760 –> 00:55:47,750
notice we had liking/disliking earlier but now it’s taken on a much stronger form
721
00:55:47,750 –> 00:55:49,850
six kinds of liking and disliking
722
00:55:49,850 –> 00:55:53,880
ear, nose tongue, hearing etc… the six senses
723
00:55:55,200 –> 00:55:57,000
Then you have craving.
724
00:55:58,200 –> 00:55:59,720
Craving arises.
725
00:55:59,720 –> 00:56:08,080
Craving, or Tanha, craving in a sense sense – you like it, dislike it, want to get it, you want to not get it
726
00:56:08,100 –> 00:56:15,450
craving for the deep concentration or craving for the annihilation
727
00:56:16,760 –> 00:56:20,640
Now that’s a little bit abstruse, that’s getting into the Four Noble Truths
728
00:56:20,650 –> 00:56:24,130
so sometimes the texts say ok there are six kinds of craving
729
00:56:24,130 –> 00:56:27,760
craving by the eye, craving by the nose, craving by the tongue …
730
00:56:30,360 –> 00:56:33,360
After the craving arises, attachment arises
731
00:56:33,960 –> 00:56:36,840
and there are four kinds of attachment
732
00:56:37,800 –> 00:56:40,120
attachment to sense desire
733
00:56:40,130 –> 00:56:43,600
attachment to views and opinions
734
00:56:43,600 –> 00:56:47,010
attachment to rites and rituals
735
00:56:47,010 –> 00:56:51,110
or attachment to a sense of your own self
736
00:56:51,110 –> 00:56:55,030
and these are four – and when we talk about letting go of attachment,
737
00:56:55,030 –> 00:57:01,860
we don’t mean you let go of being attached to your children or your house or your job or your retirement, your health
738
00:57:01,860 –> 00:57:05,150
those are perfectly natural things to be attached to
739
00:57:05,150 –> 00:57:10,050
we’re talking about the attachment in the mind with this production
740
00:57:10,960 –> 00:57:16,750
that starts from avicca (not knowing) and has been propelled or caught up in the world around it
741
00:57:18,640 –> 00:57:22,390
After the attachment is the bhava, becoming
742
00:57:22,390 –> 00:57:24,860
which we said earlier there are three kinds of becoming
743
00:57:24,860 –> 00:57:28,260
in the 1. sense realms 2. becoming in the form realms
744
00:57:28,260 –> 00:57:29,990
which is deep concentration
745
00:57:29,990 –> 00:57:34,550
and 3. becoming in the formless realms, which is the annihilation concentration
746
00:57:36,040 –> 00:57:39,760
Because of these three kinds of becoming we get caught up in rebirth,
747
00:57:39,780 –> 00:57:44,340
and because we are caught in rebirth – we are caught in old age, sickness and death
748
00:57:45,650 –> 00:57:48,110
So this was the process of production
749
00:57:48,110 –> 00:57:50,620
the Buddha called it the arising of the world
750
00:57:50,620 –> 00:57:53,420
starts just from not knowing what to do
751
00:57:53,420 –> 00:57:56,710
getting engaged or caught up in consciousness and
752
00:57:56,710 –> 00:57:58,650
getting deeper and deeper enmeshed
753
00:58:00,800 –> 00:58:06,560
The third Noble Truth, which was cessation, was the unraveling of this process
754
00:58:06,560 –> 00:58:11,900
if there’s no avicca, there’s no sankhara, there’s no intention
755
00:58:11,900 –> 00:58:15,100
if there’s no intention there’s no consciousness etc….
756
00:58:16,000 –> 00:58:24,680
so what he’s pointing to is in meditation you can see the world arising by this process and coming up into a problem
757
00:58:24,700 –> 00:58:29,350
into a construct – you can see it unraveling or unwinding
758
00:58:29,350 –> 00:58:31,660
when your attention just comes home
759
00:58:31,660 –> 00:58:33,940
and it’s empty and it’s still
760
00:58:35,680 –> 00:58:39,750
OK so that’s Production – paticcasamupada
761
00:58:39,750 –> 00:58:45,880
and I do intend to do a full .. probably 6 weeks teaching on this at some point
762
00:58:45,880 –> 00:58:55,020
because this is a topic of my thesis, which I have been hard at work on for 9 years
763
00:58:55,020 –> 00:58:57,820
Ok, we’re nearly done
764
00:58:57,820 –> 00:59:02,810
There are – when we’re watching this process of the world arising
765
00:59:02,810 –> 00:59:03,690
and the Buddha said
766
00:59:03,690 –> 00:59:06,560
if you see the world arise, you can’t deny that it’s real
767
00:59:06,560 –> 00:59:11,160
when you’ve seen the world cease, you can’t pretend that it is real
768
00:59:11,160 –> 00:59:14,280
So that’s an interesting paradox
769
00:59:14,880 –> 00:59:19,000
So to help us in that there are certain perceptions that we maintain
770
00:59:19,000 –> 00:59:22,420
that stop us from getting involved in this process
771
00:59:22,420 –> 00:59:26,500
the first of these perceptions is the perception of impermanence
772
00:59:26,500 –> 00:59:30,390
when you see things [experience] as just impermanent – arising and ceasing
773
00:59:30,390 –> 00:59:32,750
you see the whole production behind it.
774
00:59:32,750 –> 00:59:35,830
And you see those moments when your mind stops still
775
00:59:35,830 –> 00:59:39,230
and doesn’t produce the world, doesn’t produce all of this stuff
776
00:59:40,760 –> 00:59:48,960
Second one is Dukkha – when your mind has got engaged with something it shakes you, rattles you
777
00:59:48,960 –> 00:59:53,460
and this is a kind of suffering – it’s quite a subtle form of suffering
778
00:59:53,460 –> 00:59:58,880
and the third one is non-self – anything that you can see, hear, taste, smell, touch, or think about –
779
00:59:58,880 –> 01:00:04,460
started a minute ago, and it will end in a minute
780
01:00:04,460 –> 01:00:07,590
Because nothing stays there for very long
781
01:00:07,590 –> 01:00:11,100
you can’t keep a thought for very long – without it changing
782
01:00:11,100 –> 01:00:13,180
you can’t look at something –
783
01:00:13,180 –> 01:00:17,530
sometimes, look at the speaker or something and try and hold just your attention on it
784
01:00:17,530 –> 01:00:22,650
within seconds you can’t do it – you can’t hold it in the mind
785
01:00:22,650 –> 01:00:26,290
So something that’s come up and gone – that can’t be yourself
786
01:00:26,290 –> 01:00:27,700
because you’re still here right?
787
01:00:28,440 –> 01:00:30,910
you still have this sense of your own presence.
788
01:00:30,910 –> 01:00:34,320
But anything that you find has arisen, and passed away
789
01:00:34,320 –> 01:00:36,060
therefore it is not your ‘self’
790
01:00:36,060 –> 01:00:37,580
So these are the three perceptions
791
01:00:38,640 –> 01:00:42,390
Impermanence, Suffering and Non-self
792
01:00:42,390 –> 01:00:48,210
and again – we would often talk about these for an hour on each of the three subjects
793
01:00:51,200 –> 01:00:57,310
So then maintaining this sense of the self awareness, without sending it into the world
794
01:00:57,310 –> 01:01:02,230
we maintain this sati sampajanya
795
01:01:02,230 –> 01:01:06,350
sati – recollection : sampajanya – your own awareness
796
01:01:06,350 –> 01:01:10,990
you are maintaining the sense of your own awareness through four stations
797
01:01:11,640 –> 01:01:13,760
through being aware of the body –
798
01:01:13,760 –> 01:01:18,480
it means while you are aware of the body you recollect this sense of your own awareness
799
01:01:18,490 –> 01:01:23,420
through feelings – liking/disliking – or the pushing and pulling of the mind
800
01:01:23,420 –> 01:01:26,660
you maintain this sense of your own awareness
801
01:01:26,660 –> 01:01:30,950
through different mind states you maintain this sense of your own awareness
802
01:01:30,950 –> 01:01:32,630
and then through dharma –
803
01:01:32,630 –> 01:01:36,750
dharma is all the various bits of dharma that we’ve been talking about today
804
01:01:36,760 –> 01:01:40,680
you can hold those in the mind with a sense of your own awareness too
805
01:01:40,680 –> 01:01:43,190
and these will start to generate wisdom
806
01:01:43,190 –> 01:01:51,480
after the maintaining this mindfulness, you abandon the five hindrances
807
01:01:51,480 –> 01:01:57,490
The five hindrances are the things that stop you from becoming concentrated
808
01:01:57,490 –> 01:02:02,540
abandoning the five hindrances the mind becomes highly concentrated
809
01:02:02,540 –> 01:02:08,260
when the mind is concentrated and firm, and most importantly happy
810
01:02:08,260 –> 01:02:11,100
it is ‘ready to do work’
811
01:02:11,100 –> 01:02:14,660
and ready to do work means Vipassana
812
01:02:14,660 –> 01:02:20,760
Vipassana originally was a word that was meant for really at the very end of the path
813
01:02:20,760 –> 01:02:26,050
and if ever you see the Tibetan Buddhist path depicted with the monk
814
01:02:26,050 –> 01:02:31,820
and the monk and the monkey and the rabbit .. the hare, and the elephant
815
01:02:31,820 –> 01:02:34,450
and the monk leads the elephant up the path
816
01:02:34,450 –> 01:02:36,760
you see this at the BIA [in Bangkok]
817
01:02:36,920 –> 01:02:38,960
right at the end of the path,
818
01:02:38,960 –> 01:02:43,560
the monk drops … the rabbit’s gone, the elephant’s gone [mistake] the monkey’s gone
819
01:02:43,580 –> 01:02:46,420
and he gets a sword instead
820
01:02:46,420 –> 01:02:50,230
and that’s the sword of vipassana, because that cuts through delusion
821
01:02:50,230 –> 01:02:55,730
so when the mind is perfectly still and concentrated and attained to all these very high states
822
01:02:55,730 –> 01:03:02,820
it is ready for work and that work is – going back to the beginning –
823
01:03:02,820 –> 01:03:08,260
seeing your manifold past lives
824
01:03:08,260 –> 01:03:12,160
seeing the arising and passing away of beings in heavens and hells
825
01:03:12,160 –> 01:03:16,450
and seeing the ending of the asava – see the ending of the outflow
826
01:03:17,120 –> 01:03:22,920
At this point you’ve attained to ceto vimutti
827
01:03:22,920 –> 01:03:24,000
ceto is the heart [mind]
828
01:03:24,000 –> 01:03:25,360
vimutti is liberation
829
01:03:26,120 –> 01:03:28,440
and it is called ceto vimutti nyana dassana
830
01:03:28,460 –> 01:03:34,960
Nyana is to know – to know directly, not know with understanding, to know directly
831
01:03:34,960 –> 01:03:41,890
nyana, and dassana means to see – so you see and you know the liberation of the heart.
832
01:03:41,890 –> 01:03:49,900
From this attainment you’re still not finished, you’re still not a arahant, but that’s as far as the teaching goes
833
01:03:49,900 –> 01:03:55,960
if you’ve gotten that far, basically you’ve just got to wait for your karma to come ripe,
834
01:03:55,960 –> 01:03:58,580
and then you’re enlightened
835
01:04:00,600 –> 01:04:08,320
Ok so, these are a number of the [key] teachings that you may have heard before
836
01:04:09,440 –> 01:04:11,000
in different ways
837
01:04:11,000 –> 01:04:14,760
you know we talk about patience, but we don’t say how patience fits in
838
01:04:14,760 –> 01:04:20,140
we talk about impermanence, but we don’t talk about how it fits in with the overall path
839
01:04:20,140 –> 01:04:29,960
so this was in a nutshell, how Theravada Buddhism kind of talks about the entire path
840
01:04:30,800 –> 01:04:33,440
which is a rather big teaching right?
841
01:04:34,320 –> 01:04:39,880
When you compare to many other .. of the other saints and sages – Ramana Maharshi and
842
01:04:39,900 –> 01:04:45,490
even Eckhart Tolle, you know, Krishnamurti and people
843
01:04:45,490 –> 01:04:50,710
no one had a really complete clear set of teachings like that
844
01:04:50,710 –> 01:04:57,710
and that was why I personally I was attracted to this form of Buddhism
845
01:05:00,600 –> 01:05:02,040
OK
846
01:05:09,160 –> 01:05:13,840
so if anybody has questions about any of those things …
847
01:05:16,080 –> 01:05:20,760
I was going to say talk to me afterwards, but go ahead
848
01:05:20,780 –> 01:05:21,780