Evening Dharma Talk

This track features a live dharma talk by Ajahn Candasiri. She discusses the systems of how we put different things in life in different boxes depending on how we perceive them. She teaches that these self-constructed standards lead to labels and judgments that aren’t an accurate reflection of truth. This, among other topics she touches on, is a very enlightening listen.

Transcript

Maitasa Bhagavato Arahato Sambhasambuddhasa Maitasa Bhagavato Arahato Sambhasambuddhasa Maitasa Bhagavato Arahato Sambhasambuddhasa Maitasa Bhagavato Arahato Sambhasambuddhasa Maitasa Bhagavato Arahato Sambhasambuddhasa Maitasa Bhagavato Arahato Sambhasambuddhasa Ajan Dhamanian Marathi It was a major event.

And I have to say,

For me,

It was very joyful.

I really enjoyed his presence and his teaching very relevant.

And there's just something very lovely about his presence.

And it also slightly blew my mind,

I suppose.

One of those kind of experiences you just don't quite know what to think about.

What category do we put this in?

My sense is it's actually very good for us to have those kind of experiences.

Because for so much of our lives,

We have a system of classification,

And things can go in very neat boxes.

This is OK.

That's absolutely fine.

This is wonderful.

That's definitely not OK.

And with Adhyantamnayana,

There was just no way to put it,

Really.

And as I said,

I think that's very good for us,

Realizing just how much of our lives we're comparing and trusting ourselves with other people.

And that's the tendency to judge ourselves,

To measure ourselves,

Either according to some kind of standard that we construct,

Or else according to one another.

And the way that we label people and make judgments about people.

This one's OK.

That one's pretty much OK.

That one's definitely not OK.

And I see myself doing it,

Both about myself and about other people.

And I realize just what a very unfortunate habit that is.

Even making nice judgments about people,

Putting people in a kind of favorable box,

Putting ourselves in a favorable box,

Is still really to,

It's not a kindness.

It's a way of limiting ourselves and limiting each other,

Rather than allowing one another to really be fully and completely what they are,

And allow ourselves to be fully and completely what we are.

All these ways,

We'd be coming around to the same theme of selfhood.

All these ways that we create a sense of selfhood,

A fixed perception of ourselves and of one another.

The fixed perception can change,

But nonetheless,

It is a fixed perception that is very different from the reality of the person that we're in contact with.

And perhaps one of the delightful things about someone like Adjahn Jammian is that he doesn't do that,

Either about himself or about anybody else.

One just had the sense of something very delightful,

Delightful kind of fluidity about his whole presence and his way of relating to the situation here.

And one could have a sense,

I think,

One of the things why it's delightful is because it's liberating,

Like a way of liberating us from viewing ourselves in a fixed,

Solid way.

So I can see this is something,

Certainly,

That I would like to aspire to,

To be able to relate to myself and to relate to all people I meet in that way.

And so I think that's the sort of thing that I would like to do,

To be able to relate to myself and to relate to all people I meet in that way.

And clearly,

It happens sometimes,

Maybe much of the time,

But just to see the danger of fixing one another and fixing ourselves.

I think this afternoon in one of the groups,

Just about,

I think it was this afternoon,

This morning,

The Buddhas and the Sages,

The Sages and this morning the Buddhas' instruction,

Which comes up very often in certain collections of the teachings,

Where he says something like,

If you compare yourself,

You think you're better than somebody else.

That's wrong view.

And if you think that you're worse than somebody else,

That's wrong view.

And if you think that you're the same as somebody else,

That also is wrong view.

Any kind of comparing is a fixing not only of oneself but of the other person.

And as we all know,

There's no fixed,

Solid person in any of these beings here.

We're all a continuous flow of conditions in the ultimate sense.

Body is continuously changing and the states of mind are continuously changing also.

Conventionally speaking,

There is a degree of fixity.

We have a mind.

We have a designation.

We have a mind.

We have a mind.

We have a mind.

We have a mind.

We have a mind.

We have a mind.

We have a designation.

We have,

Some of us have jobs,

A profession,

A label that we can give ourselves.

We also have a position in our family,

Son,

Daughter.

We may be a daughter and a mother.

Maybe a daughter and a mother and a grandmother or a granddaughter or a sister or a brother,

Cousin,

Half sister,

Half brother,

Step sister,

Big brother.

These ways that we relate within a family,

These are all absolutely true from a conventional point of view.

And in the world of convention,

There are these ways that we have of designating each other in relation to one another.

And in certain of the Asian cultures,

The way that you're referred to within the family is according to whether you're the oldest sister or the older sister or the younger sister,

You're very,

Very clearly defined.

But according to Buddhist teachings,

There's a very clear distinction between these designations,

These labels,

And the ultimate truth of who and what we are.

So certainly we have relationships.

And within our monastic community,

We have relationships.

I'm senior to Sister Chittapala because I've been a nun for longer than she has.

So we have a certain,

I sit in a certain place and she sits in another place.

And we relate with each other in a particular way.

But in terms of Dharma,

In terms of practice,

There's no such distinction.

And in fact,

One of the things I really love about all of this is that it's not on the basis of our attainment.

So even though I've been a nun for longer than Sister Chittapala,

Doesn't mean that we can't learn from each other.

And similarly,

Within this whole group of people,

I learn from you all all the time.

And I really like that because it makes life very rich.

We're not fixed into the role that we have.

So my designation right now is teacher.

I'm Ajahn Chandrasuri and I'm here to teach you.

That's a conventional relationship.

But also,

I recognize that I can learn from you also.

In a more ultimate sense,

That we can all learn from each other.

We can all support each other.

Several people have commented on the phrase I used the other day when I spoke about the unshakable deliverance of the heart.

This wonderful phrase that is used to describe perfect liberation.

And I think maybe for some of us it's very refreshing because when we come on retreat,

We can think that we're coming to learn how to meditate and to get our practice together.

This idea of attaining something,

Getting good at something,

Being the best,

Getting full marks for our practice.

Our report card at the end of the retreat says,

Well done,

You've got a gold star.

And in one sense,

That's what we're here for.

We're here to practice and to cultivate certain skills,

Like the quality of presence that I keep talking about,

Mindfulness,

Cultivating mindfulness,

Cultivating the capacity to be present with whatever's happening.

But really,

Practice in the way that I understand it goes far beyond,

Say,

Becoming good at concentration.

And perhaps mindfulness is really what I'm talking about.

But even that is a term that feels a little bit narrow.

And yeah,

The unshakable deliverance of the heart feels as though it's getting closer.

I think maybe we can all in some way relate to this.

And I was encouraging some people today to think about what we mean by the unshakable deliverance.

What is it that we're trying to deliver ourselves from?

I think at an intuitive level,

Maybe it's something that resonates for us,

Something kind of inspiring about it.

But I think for some,

Certainly,

When people commented on it,

There was a kind of puzzle there.

What does that actually mean?

It sounds very nice.

What does it actually mean?

And how on earth do you do it?

So I thought maybe this evening just to take a little time to reflect around this phrase and what it might mean for us,

How we can relate to it.

So it's not something that is too grand and lofty that we can never possibly hope to get to.

OK.

And it's actually very,

Very simple.

And I an see myself.

At the moment a real desire to express it in as clear a way as possible and not to take too long about it because I have a sense that some of you are quite tired.

When I was thinking about it before I was remembering something else that I really love which is when the Buddha is talking about the way of practice and what he says is,

He said something like that because of not understanding,

Not seeing clearly four things,

You as well as I talking to his disciples have had to wander through countless lifetimes in the realm of samsara.

But having understood these four noble truths,

The truth of suffering,

The origin of suffering,

The cessation of suffering,

The way leading to the cessation of suffering,

Finally there is a way to escape from the realm of samsara,

The realm of rebirth,

Birth and rebirth and this constant realm of becoming.

And I guess for me what I like is just the sense that the Buddha also wandered through countless lifetimes in this realm of samsara.

That for many lifetimes,

Each lifetime,

The Jataka tales which are the tales of his previous lifetimes,

Kind of like mythical tales really,

And how in each lifetime he would perfect one or other of the paramitas,

The ten perfections,

Dana,

Generosity,

Sila,

Ethical conduct,

Nekama,

Renunciation,

Panya,

Discrimination or discernment,

Virya,

Effort,

Antipatiens,

Sachha,

Truthfulness,

Adhitaana,

Resolve,

Metta,

Kindness,

Upekha,

Equanimity.

And finally,

His final birth,

When he finally attained to perfect liberation,

He had perfected these qualities and so he was able to liberate himself from the realm of samsara.

So,

Samsara is what we're all involved in,

Caught in it to varying degrees and basically it's just wanting things to be nice,

Wanting things to be pleasant and comfortable,

To find some kind of comfortable,

Pleasant resting place.

And so we try to get ourselves physically comfortable,

We try to get ourselves comfortable in terms of material well-being,

We try to get ourselves comfortable through succeeding in various ways or through being famous or well-known or having a position and just making things alright.

And my sense is that partly the reason why you're all here is because you've begun to see that it's completely hopeless.

This following of desire,

The desire to get rid of what we don't like,

The desire to find some permanent peace and happiness or some position for ourselves,

Some standing place,

Some firm position so I can really feel that I'm here and I exist and I matter and I'm alright and I'm going to be alright forever.

When I talk about it,

It sounds ridiculous,

We can laugh,

But how much of the time are we trying to do that?

So how much of our life is a kind of a continuous sort of restless sort of manipulation of things either externally or in our own minds so that we feel okay about ourselves?

When we don't feel okay,

The kind of movement to try to make ourselves feel okay.

It's kind of an interesting little image,

I don't know why these things pop into my head but anyway they do.

At Chithurst years ago I remember we used to have a cat called Babu and those of you who have had cats will know that cats have a tremendous dignity.

They're cool,

Cats are cool.

And if they fall out of a tree,

Somehow or other they manage to right themselves so they land and they're cool.

They get up and they walk away as if nothing had happened.

And if for some reason they don't manage to land okay,

They kind of somehow or other manage to get themselves up and there's a clear sense,

Well I hope nobody noticed that,

And they carry on with life as though they were completely alright.

Cool.

And we used to have a conservatory at Chithurst and we used to have the windows of the conservatory open sometimes and there was a kind of pond inside the conservatory and there were lots of plants.

It was a very nice sort of leafy kind of cool place.

And one day I was sitting in there talking with somebody and Babu jumped through the window and landed in the pond.

And there was something so pathetic about him climbing out of the pond,

Completely drenched and pathetic,

Trying to look as though nothing had happened.

And I mean there was no way he could pull it off but he tried.

And I mean I think this is what we all do isn't it?

Sometimes.

We're just trying to rearrange things so that we can feel okay about ourselves.

So when things happen that are upsetting or difficult there's a tremendous kind of shaking and a trembling and they're trying to find a place to re-establish a sense of all-rightness so that we can stand up and feel dignified,

Feel we're okay.

This is what we do in the realm of samsara.

This is why in some ways we're so vulnerable,

Like sometimes you meet people who are just incredibly successful,

Oozing with charisma,

Pots of money,

Surrounded by all kinds of beauty,

Comfort,

All the latest gadgets,

Big house,

Beautifully manicured lawn and flowerbeds.

And you meet these people who've kind of built themselves up on the outside.

They've done everything they can to make a fortress for themselves,

A castle for themselves.

And yet when you meet them you just have this sense that inside they're so vulnerable.

And that this outside,

Whether it be physical surroundings,

Wealth,

Well-being,

Or just a very powerful personality,

That in some sense they know that it's not going to do it and yet they keep on building it up and building it up.

One has a sense that they're not unshakable,

That they haven't found that unshakable deliverance of the heart.

So for all of us,

My sense is we're still vulnerable in some way.

And the question is,

Well,

How do we get less vulnerable?

How do we find that firm standing place which is not shaken by the inevitable vicissitudes of this human realm?

How can we find a firm standing place that is not shaken?

By the worldly winds,

By praise,

By blame,

By success,

By failure,

By happiness,

By suffering,

By gain,

By loss,

By.

.

.

There's eight of them.

I can never quite remember what they are,

But praise and blame,

Fame and obscurity,

Happiness and suffering,

Gain and loss.

Great worldly winds.

One of the things I've been emphasizing and that I'll continue to emphasize is the importance of the refuges,

To really make them real.

And the word refuge itself,

If we think of a refuge,

A place of safety,

Somewhere that you can go to when there's a storm,

A place that you can find shelter and security.

These refuges are not a material thing,

But they're an inner place of security,

An inner place that we can go to,

We can have as a reference,

A place of knowing,

A place of presence and a place of integrity or aspiration.

And also drawing comfort from the fact that all of the other beings who have practiced in this way and found peace.

And the other thing that we can do is to use the things that happen to us as well grist of the mill.

When we practice,

We can turn the events of our life to our advantage,

Even the most devastating things.

When we have this understanding of the refuges,

We can use them to really strengthen that sense of refuge.

Without the refuge,

It can be something that can completely destroy us.

If we have placed all our sense of security in having lots of money in the bank or having a fine house or our relationships,

All of these things make us vulnerable because they can disappear at any moment.

Or our health,

Our beauty,

Our vigor,

This too can change at any moment.

Sometimes it's a gradual deterioration,

A slow wearing away,

But for some people it can happen very suddenly that we lose these things.

The Buddha encouraged us to really contemplate everything that happens to us and to study it in order to find that place of security.

One of the most fun pairs of worldly wins is praise and blame.

I don't know about you,

But I actually quite like a bit of praise.

People say that was a really good talk.

I do like it.

And if somebody blames me,

I don't like that so much.

I find that more difficult.

Or if they criticize me for something.

And even if they don't actually do it in words,

If they don't respond in a favorable way,

Or if they maybe ignore me or something,

I can easily take that very personally as,

Oh,

They don't like me,

Some sense of rejection.

And we can be very,

Very sensitive to these things.

And particularly on retreat,

When we're not talking,

Well,

I'm talking,

But most of you aren't talking very much.

Little gestures,

Little bits of body language,

We can really take very,

Very personally.

I remember one time in the monastery,

Just quite soon after I'd arrived,

And one of the monks didn't smile.

I was used to smiling at people,

And people would smile back.

And I smiled,

And he didn't smile back.

And I was devastated.

I felt terrible.

And I thought,

Oh,

He doesn't like me,

Or I've done something wrong,

Or I've blown it in some way.

And afterwards,

I thought about it.

I thought,

Well,

Actually,

He's probably just having a bit of a bad day.

Maybe it's nothing to do with me at all.

And it's interesting just to notice how strongly we can be affected,

Certainly by actual blame.

I mean,

That can be devastating to us.

But even something that was not intended for us at all,

We can take very,

Very personally.

So the Buddha encouraged us to really contemplate praise and blame,

So that we're not.

.

.

We can enjoy praise,

But we don't get carried away by it.

We don't keep looking for it.

We don't pin all of our sense of well-being on whether we've been praised or not.

We can get through life with sometimes being praised and sometimes not being praised.

And we can cope with being blamed,

And even being blamed unfairly.

That can be quite interesting to notice what happens when somebody criticizes us or accuses us of something we definitely haven't done.

We know we haven't done it.

How do we respond to that?

Over these days,

We've been practicing mindfulness,

Practicing holding steady with conditions,

Avoiding reaching out and grasping and trying to make the nice ones last longer,

And equally trying to hold steady with the unpleasant ones,

The difficult ones.

Blame is a very interesting one.

If we get blamed,

How do we respond to that?

I've noticed in my own practice,

I can either turn it inwards and feel really,

Really terrible,

Or I can retaliate.

I can get really nasty,

Get back at somebody if they've hurt me,

Blamed me in some way.

Or I can try to justify it.

You find all kinds of reasons,

Why,

Whatever it was that happened,

Happened.

Another very interesting thing about blame,

I don't know if you've noticed this,

But if something goes wrong,

It can be something quite small.

I can think of an example that's happened in the last few days,

Say on the retreat.

It's nice to find examples.

But anyway,

If a small thing happens that goes wrong,

There's a misunderstanding.

It can happen.

And also,

At a kind of bigger level,

At a political level,

Something awful happens.

The immediate response of the media,

Or in the case of the retreat,

Our immediate response is to look for someone to blame.

Whose fault was it?

Because we don't want to take responsibility.

But can we just,

If we're blamed or if something happens,

Can we just hold steady with that feeling,

Cultivating that sense of unshakability?

If we've done something wrong,

Can we bear when we're blamed?

If we've not done something wrong,

If we're blamed unfairly,

Can we hold steady with the feeling of being blamed?

Or do we have to deflect it in some way?

Can we make peace with failure?

We try to do something,

But we don't succeed.

We fail at it.

We put all our efforts into something.

And it doesn't work out the way that we'd intended.

How is it when we succeed,

And when we do really well at something,

Can we manage to stay steady with that,

And we can enjoy the feeling of pleasure,

But not invest too much in that,

In our success?

We can study this in very,

Very small ways.

During our winter retreat,

We had a very small incident that I found very interesting.

I'd been contemplating a verse from the Dhammapada,

Preparing for a study day on the Dhammapada,

And looking through during the winter retreat.

Every now and again,

I'd come across a verse that would kind of arrest my attention,

And I would take a little time to ponder it.

And there was one verse,

Victory breeds hatred.

The defeated live in pain.

Happier those who have gone beyond victory and defeat.

And it's the kind of verse that you think,

Oh yes,

Of course.

But I was kind of puzzled by this going beyond both victory and defeat.

And there was a situation,

We were having our meditation in the Recruit Center Shrine Room at Amarawati,

And I actually had control of the light switch,

Which is a position of great power actually.

And we were taking turns,

Myself and the senior monk were taking turns to lead the chanting.

And I happened to know that the senior monk had a particular strategy with the chanting.

Like in the evening we would have the lights on,

So people could read the chanting.

And in the morning,

He wanted to have the lights off as an incentive for people to learn the chanting.

And so every evening we would do the chanting with the lights on,

And in the morning the lights would be off.

And the reason I knew this was because the first morning I switched the lights on,

And he told me to turn them off.

He said,

No,

I didn't want the lights on.

So,

Okay.

So about the second or third day,

One of the visitors,

Who had sort of been receiving some comments about the lights being off,

Said,

Oh,

Bonte,

Can we have the lights on?

And he said,

No.

And this was kind of in the middle of the whole community,

And it was one of those kind of slightly awkward silences.

And everybody kind of had a thought about what had happened.

And for me it was a very.

.

.

It was the kind of situation where there could have been a sense of one person having won and the other person having lost.

Like the person who had asked if the lights could have been put on and who hadn't had their way could have felt defeated,

And the one who had kind of had it done the way that they wanted could have felt like that they'd won.

And I realized that there was another way of seeing that situation,

That it wasn't about winning or losing or getting one's way,

But more just that this is the way that we've decided to do it.

I don't know if I really explained that very well.

But anyway,

For me it was a very clear example of how we can invest in having our way.

And if we don't get our way,

We can feel that we've failed and we can feel unhappy about it.

Whereas if we make a suggestion,

Just because it seems to us to be a good idea,

On the understanding that it may not be something that everybody else would agree to,

Then when it doesn't work out we can feel it's all right.

So it's to do with attachment to our ideas,

Attachment to a position,

And to see how if we attach to a particular position it does make us quite vulnerable.

That's the point I was trying to make.

It was interesting talking with someone today about just being in community and how they can make suggestions but realize that it may not happen that their suggestion is acted on,

That the decision is taken by the whole community.

And that struck me as being like a very skillful way of holding one's bright ideas.

Because we tend,

Well certainly I tend to,

If I have a good idea,

Then I don't actually like it if somebody doesn't agree with me.

I usually want to have things work out my way.

But I can see how that actually makes me very vulnerable.

Whereas if I can learn how to accept the fact that it may work out according to what I want or it may not,

Then I have a much more firmer footing.

So seeing the way that our attachments can make us very vulnerable may perhaps give us some sense of what this unshakability is referring to.

Another word for unshakability is like equanimity,

Which is like the fourth brahma vihara,

The seventh enlightenment factor,

The tenth paramita.

It's a very big quality,

Upekha.

And sometimes this is translated as indifference,

Which strikes me as being a very flat kind of word,

Indifference.

Does it really mean that the Buddha is just indifferent,

That we're supposed to be indifferent,

Indifferent to the happiness and to the suffering of humanity?

Was the Buddha indifferent to it?

Or was it talking about something else?

Is this equanimity,

This unshakability something much larger?

And when I was trying to understand this,

One of the things that helped me to come to a little bit more of an understanding of it was quite a number of years ago,

Just reading some of the suttas on the beginning of things.

The Buddha talked about the.

.

.

He uses a number of very powerful similes to just give a sense of this human condition,

This human realm,

What it is that we're living in,

What it is that we're a part of,

And just how vast it all is.

And he said something like,

What is larger?

A mountain,

Mount Meru,

A huge,

Enormous,

Maybe Mount Everest,

Say.

Which is larger,

Mount Everest?

Or the pile of bones of all of the bodies that you've ever had in countless lifetimes?

And the answer is,

Well,

The number of bones,

If you pile them all up,

Will be larger than Mount Everest.

Which is greater,

The water in the four great oceans or the number of tears that have been shed over the loss of loved ones?

The answer is the number of tears that have been shed over the loss of loved ones.

Which is greater,

The water in the four great oceans or the amount of blood that has been shed in battles since the beginning of time?

Somehow or other,

Just reading these suttas,

There's a number of them in the Sanyasannikaya,

One of the chapters,

Somehow I found that strangely comforting in relation to the things that one hears about these days.

Whereas I think in my practice I'd had the sense of,

Well,

If I just practice hard enough,

Somehow or other,

The world will come right.

Just this sort of subtle sense that somehow one could make things all right.

And reading these suttas just kind of gave a sense of the fact that it was completely hopeless.

That one was never going to sort out the world.

That beings have always been horrible to each other,

They've always been brutal,

They've always been,

People have loved and then grieved over the loss of loved ones.

And that for oneself there was going to be sorrow over the loss of loved ones.

And reading this just sort of somehow or other took a great weight off my shoulders.

I realized that this is not something that I can get rid of or that I can make all right,

But I can bear it.

Actually,

I'm not sure if I can bear it much of a time.

But I can see that human beings,

That there is the capacity,

Like say for the enlightened one,

The Buddha,

The Arahants,

Kuan Yin,

The Bodhisattva of Compassion,

That there is the capacity within the human heart to bear it.

And I find that very,

It's like something to aspire towards.

That it's not a shutting down or a blanking out,

But in a way this practice leads to an ever increasing sensitivity.

As we become more aware of our own suffering,

As the capacity of the heart increases to be able to bear with our own suffering,

Our own pain,

Sorrow.

And equally,

Our own gladness and joy,

The capacity to bear with the pain and suffering and sorrow of others seems to increase.

Sometimes we think compassion is making everything all right.

I'm going to help you,

Oh you poor thing,

Let me help you.

But true compassion is a very different quality,

Is my sense of it.

Where there's an entering in to the pain of another.

So no longer is there a sense of me and you,

But there's just an abiding with another,

With their sorrow,

With whatever it is that they may be going through.

Or maybe we're with somebody who's dying,

Just being able to stay steady when someone is going through that process.

It can be the greatest support that we can offer to one another.

Rather than finding some way of the inner manipulation to kind of make things all right according to how we think they should be.

Can we just hold steady with how things are?

When we can do this,

That's when there's a real sense of peacefulness.

That's like bringing peace into the world.

Not to say that there's anything wrong with peace marches or having a campaign for peace,

But this has to come from a place of peacefulness.

Otherwise it just stirs everybody up and creates more of a sense of agitation.

So to see that peacefulness begins with our own heart,

Finding that place of steadiness.

This equal equanimity,

This unshakability,

Just being able to bear with the sorrows,

The pain,

The confusion,

The fear,

The frightening things that happen that we hear about.

Rather than being pulled into this kind of agitation,

This reaction,

This looking around for someone to blame.

It can sound very passive,

All of this.

Sometimes Buddhists are accused of being just so passive that they never do anything.

They just sit and bear it.

What I would suggest,

What I try to do is not to react to things.

My response comes from a place of stillness,

A place of wisdom,

A place of clarity,

A place of discernment,

Rather than simply reacting,

Trying to make things alright because I'm agitated by what has happened.

We begin to see how the greatest service that we can do for humanity at these times is to cultivate this unshakability so that no matter how bad,

How awful the news is,

No matter how difficult our own situation is or the situation of somebody else's,

We can hold steady,

Knowing that this is how it is and this is the only way that it can be.

This is how it is because of what has gone before.

If we react,

We simply perpetuate that cycle of agitation.

If we hold steady,

Then the wisdom,

The compassion,

The clarity can arise that enables us to know how to respond.

It's not something we think about necessarily,

And sometimes we think about it,

But very often it's just an instinctive response.

It may just be that we sit still and we don't say anything.

It's just cultivating this quiet,

Peaceful presence that allows things to come into balance.

Sometimes when I've been very sick,

People have come and they've tried to make things alright.

For one time,

Somebody coming and saying,

Oh yes,

Well I had the same thing years ago.

That didn't make it alright.

Or oh,

What you need to do is this.

That didn't make it alright.

The thing that made it alright was somebody who could just sit quietly there,

Who wasn't in a hurry to cheer me up or whatever,

But who was able to sit quietly there with me,

Whatever it was I was going through.

It enabled me to actually know that I had the capacity to make it alright for myself.

And that the quality of peacefulness was what enabled me to find that sense of inner stillness and wellbeing.

It was really extraordinary how it happened.

So just to realise that this is something that we can do for ourselves,

It's something we can do for humanity.

It's not a small thing.

So how do we get there?

By being present with our own inner unease,

By noticing the trembling,

The agitation,

And just more and more just to come to that place of mindfulness,

That place of presence that allows the agitation to settle,

Holding steady.

So the verse in the Mahamangala Sutta,

The final verse,

Which is what I was quoting from in some way,

Is that,

Like living in the world,

Yet one's heart remains unshaken or does not tremble,

Free from sorrow,

Need and fear.

These are the things that one is freed from.

And that this is the greatest blessing.

So it's the final verse of a longish Sutta with many different causes of blessing,

Ranging from just associating with good friends,

With wise people,

Having reverence,

Respect for those who are worthy of reverence and respect,

Having a skillful profession,

Having,

Supporting one's parents,

One's family,

Cultivating right speech,

Refraining from intoxication,

Cultivating a heart of gratitude and contentment,

Cultivating patience,

Cultivating the insight into the Four Noble Truths.

And these are just some of the blessings that are mentioned in this Sutta.

And then the final blessing is though living in the world,

It's not that we go away to a cave somewhere and shut the world out,

Though living in the world,

Yet the heart remains unshaken,

Free from sorrow,

Confusion,

Need.

This is the greatest blessing.

I offer this to your reflection this evening.

Reviews

Deeply grateful for a discourse full of insights.

A beautifully powerful reflection, it’s given me much to contemplate. Thank you. 🙏❤️

The deeply moving gifts of insight you share with us is genuinely appreciated.

Namaste