Talk On Opinions

Ajahn points out how the grasping of opinions of our busy mind prevents the creation of a wise and useful form to develop and appreciate the peace and light that is the natural mind.

Transcript

The things that get in the way of our practice of the Dharma is clinging to opinions and views.

This is a,

You know,

You say,

How,

What should I do?

Should I do intensive practice or non-intensive practice?

Or ordinary practice or special,

I have no opinion.

I mean,

It's not a matter of intensity or of special or ordinary,

These are qualities of condition.

If you're attached to intensive practice,

Then you think that meditation is impossible under ordinary condition.

If you think that you have to meditate only under ordinary conditions,

Then you look down on intensive practice or avoid it.

Whatever opinion you're attached to,

You're bound to that opinion.

How many,

Look at this,

That's what I've been trying to suggest for you to do,

Is just look at the nature of opinion.

Which is not a way of denying,

Maybe the opinions are based on good reasons and all that,

I'm not saying that opinions are bad.

Or that you shouldn't have opinions.

But to know opinions as opinions,

Not as a self or a reality.

To know the limitation of opinion frees you from being obsessed with opinions and views.

That's as simple as that.

We have some cherished opinions,

Admittedly,

That we're not ready yet to let go.

And there are a lot of opinions we like to throw away.

There are a lot of faults and weaknesses and unpleasant habits we have that we like to get rid of.

And there are a lot of things we like about ourselves that we're afraid,

I don't want to give up this stuff yet.

I'm not ready to let go of that.

Because you think letting go is throwing away.

When I say renunciation,

It's like terror in the hearts of people.

I give up money,

Give up my apartment,

Give up my girlfriend,

My boyfriend,

Give up my car,

Give up all these things.

I'm not quite ready for that kind of enlightenment.

But that's another opinion in view,

Isn't it?

Because this kind of dualistic way we think,

It's either one or the other.

It's either black or white.

It's either you keep everything or you throw everything away.

It tends to make it this kind of simplistic reasoning process that we are attached to and regarded as me and mine.

Now by letting go,

I'm not saying throwing away.

Because throwing away means also aversion,

Doesn't it?

You throw things away you don't want or you're frightened of,

You don't know what to do with.

That's an act of self,

Isn't it?

This I don't want,

I'm going to get rid of it.

But letting go is nothing much at all.

Like this,

This fist is tight,

Grasping fist.

It's really grasping hold,

Things like that.

And throwing away is like that,

Get out of here.

That movement in grasping is come here.

And throwing away is get out of here.

Now between those is just this.

Now that doesn't look like much,

Does it?

It's not this nor is it that.

This is ordinary.

But say it's relaxed.

Not grasping nor is it rejecting.

Well apply that to the mind.

Get out of here,

Come here.

I want this,

I don't want that.

Now just say the relaxed position is to just observe that as a changing condition.

Because if you start thinking I shouldn't have desires to get rid of,

I shouldn't have desires to grasp.

You may complicate it,

Getting terribly complicated.

I've got to do something about this grasping.

I've got to get rid of this grasping and you just don't know what you're doing.

It's not a matter of getting rid of or of getting more of.

But observing,

When I say it's an inner peace,

A relaxation of the heart maybe.

It's like a sigh.

Just being at ease with things.

But before it was,

What should I do next?

What should I do next?

I've got so many faults.

I'll never get enlightened in the next ten thousand lifetimes.

I'm so mad.

I've got to do this and do that and do this and do that.

Everything's going crazy,

Isn't it?

Then you think,

I know I'll never be able to do it.

So you go take some kind of sleeping pill.

Zoc.

That's why there's inner listening.

Listen to it.

Develop that gentleness of metta.

When you go home,

Practice that.

Try really developing that in your layman's life,

In your work,

With yourself mainly.

If you can do it with yourself,

You'll be able to do it for others.

This gentleness,

Kindness.

No matter how awful,

What a really wretched and miserable person you are.

Have metta for it.

Because it's not really you.

You just think it is.

Just have this kind of peacefulness with it.

Peaceful coexistence.

Well,

I've got these terrible weaknesses and problems and I should do something.

Do you think I'm just going to spend the rest of my life just having metta for this miserable being,

Me?

Do you think it's permanent?

Do you think you're permanently a miserable wretch?

No,

The miserable wretches come and go just like everything else.

There's nothing permanent about them at all.

So,

If you have this metta,

Gentleness and patience and peacefulness with these conditions,

You'll be able to see miserable wretches are quite alright.

They come,

They go.

Sometimes there's crossness,

Grumpiness,

Selfishness,

Pride,

Conceit,

Jealousy,

Envy,

Anger and hatred and greed,

Lust,

Doubt and fear,

The whole gamut of miserable conditions will come and go.

But that's alright.

You're not asking you to build a fence around yourself and refuse to let anything come and go.

But to watch the comings and goings,

That which comes and goes is not you,

Is not yours.

Now,

Inner listening also,

When you listen to the conditions of the mind,

You begin to hear the mind itself,

The silence of the mind.

You kind of listen beyond the conditions that rise and pass away,

Listen to the inner silence.

Now,

When you can hear that inner silence,

Then conditions come and go in that silence.

You can actually concentrate on inner silence.

If you're trying to think about it,

Then that's another condition,

But just this bare attention will allow to hear a kind of sound or silence that is not something that doesn't arise or pass away.

It's like space in this room here.

We're attached to the things,

We don't,

Space we don't notice.

Oh,

Look at the curtains,

Look at the walls,

Look at the shrine,

Look at the monks,

Look at the meditators.

We can spend our time here just looking at the things in this room,

Thinking how could we improve it,

Make it more beautiful or whatever,

Trying to create the perfect meditation hall.

You can be fascinated or look at the people and wonder what he's like,

Wonder what she's like,

Look at him,

Why is he smiling like that,

Look at her,

Why is she falling like that,

Get completely caught up in the conditions of the room here.

But the most important thing that makes this room livable so that we can all fit in it is the space.

If there wasn't any space in this room,

We couldn't be here,

Could we?

This was a solid room,

Solid with no space in it.

It would not serve our purposes as a shrine room anymore,

It would be a block.

Now the space is contained with form,

Like the walls of this room contain the space.

You don't have infinite space,

You have a contained space that kind of protects you.

But the space is the most important thing in this room,

As far as the room goes.

The rest isn't all that necessary.

But it's the thing we would least notice,

Because it doesn't have any particular characteristic,

Not red,

It's space,

Blue space,

Not interesting space,

It's not boring space,

It's not important space or unimportant space,

It's not female space or male space,

It's just space.

The space around you and the space around me is just a space,

You can't say,

There's a Sumeto space there and a Venable Sujito space over there.

Doesn't make sense,

Does it?

Space is,

We can all fit into this space,

There's room for us all.

In the mind there's space,

A silence or space,

An emptiness that we never notice,

Because we're so caught up with the conditions.

Look at the drinks,

Look at the coffee,

Look at him,

Look at her,

Look at this.

And we go on,

We keep becoming fascinated or averse to the qualities that come and go,

Red,

Yellow,

Blue,

Green,

Orange,

Pink,

Purple,

Jumping for joy,

Falling down in despair and weeping,

Jumping for joy,

Falling down in despair and weeping.

Now when you take refuge in the space of your mind,

Then the meditation is very easy.

There's nothing really to do,

Just let everything dissolve into space,

Because everything that arises will pass away into that emptiness.

And that's definite,

There's nothing that will,

Anything that arises will not stay,

It will arise and pass.

Now when,

Then you have a perspective that you don't have,

It's hard for you to understand this because you're still very much identified with the conditions of the mind itself,

Your habitual ways of thinking,

Your attitudes,

All are based on the idea of being,

Becoming,

Of being this or being that.

So that's why in this Vipassana practice you're not annihilating conditions,

You're not saying,

We're not getting rid of conditions,

But we're looking at them in a different way so we have a perspective on them.

Like an artist looking at the space,

Becoming more aware of a perspective rather than just absorbing into a condition that's out of perspective,

Being obsessed with one condition and lose the perspective on it,

Thinking that it's the ultimate reality or the real.

Now Buddhism,

Buddhist teaching makes it very clear,

What is conventional reality and what is ultimate reality.

It's probably the most clear presentation of any known religion of the present time,

Because this is where religion seems to get lost,

Is not knowing what is conventional reality and what is ultimate reality.

So many people get trapped into the conventional realities,

Like the form of religion itself,

Thinking that that's the ultimate reality,

Thinking that a belief in God is the ultimate reality,

Thinking that during all these rituals and rites and precepts and all that is ultimate reality.

Regarding that is real in itself rather than just a convention.

But ultimate reality doesn't have a form.

You can't say it's this or that.

The conventional reality is always formed,

It is beginning and an end.

Whatever begins and ends is only conventional reality.

We're not denying that it,

We're not saying it doesn't exist.

Like it's silly if I said you just don't exist,

You know,

You're not really here at all,

You're a delusion.

That one's hard to take.

I certainly feel like I exist.

But we're not saying that these bodies are illusions and that they don't really exist.

We're saying the perception of it,

Our attachment to the perception of it,

Makes us see it as something other than what it really is.

So it's the attachment to the perception rather than the perception itself or the body or any condition.

It's the attachment.

Now this way of seeing the impermanent nature of condition is a way of letting go,

Of non-attachment.

First we say letting go because our habitual,

Our ways are always so to grasp everything.

But as we are more aware we begin to not grasp and then we just don't do not attach.

We just let things come and go.

We don't feel compelled to manipulate,

Control,

Repress or annihilate or possess because we know those themselves are just changing conditions,

Conventional reality.

So the Buddhist monk lives in the world of conventional reality like you do.

Ajahn Chah has to eat food,

Walk on the arms round,

Go to sleep,

Sit down,

Lie down,

Go to the toilet,

Just like any other human being.

Conventional realities are that way.

But the ultimate reality is Ajahn Chah no longer attaches to any of those things,

No longer deluded by the conventional realities.

He has no more doubts,

He no longer sees himself as being this or that or he should become anything or should get rid of anything.

So he is at ease,

He is a human being,

Conventional,

He is a man,

Thai,

Man,

A monk,

Buddhist monk,

64 years old,

Conventional reality,

But not attached.

He hasn't thrown it away either,

He hasn't killed himself,

He still can laugh and talk and visit America.

It's not like he is kind of a ghost floating through space,

He just looks as physical as anyone else.

But there is no attachment to it,

No longer deluded by it.

Now it's just that mud,

If you start thinking of meditation as being anything special,

Or that you have to do anything special,

It might be wise to do something special,

But realize that that's only a thought and opinion,

Don't grasp it as that,

You know,

Cling to the ideas of meditation as being special.

But listen to that thing in your mind that always opinionates,

Has views,

Fears,

Doubts and worries,

Seeing the impermanent nature of that.

Conform the bodily actions in speech,

As I was saying last night,

To the form of the moral precepts,

As a householder,

As a layman to the five,

That's very important.

To have a good container,

A good form is necessary.

See,

Too many people meditating without a form and they just kind of drift around.

They don't,

You really can't get anywhere that way.

You really can't,

You know,

It's just not possible.

You just flit about,

Fooling yourself.

So establish the bodily action and speech in the form of five precepts,

Eight precepts,

227 rules of the monk,

Whatever.

In the future,

I know it's hard for many of you who don't have to live in conditions where people don't respect those kind of precepts.

So you just have to do the best you can,

Really.

But keep in mind that the form is a guide for action and speech.

Eventually,

Hopefully,

Communities will grow up around monasteries and that,

Where people will be able to join in community.

And that's always nice.

It's very nice to live in dharma communities where you support each other,

Where your interests in the dharma are shared so that you don't have to always fight off the people who think,

Get angry because you're being very moral.

Well,

You have to fight against people.

But you have to,

As I was saying,

You have to take into account how you have to live and work it out.

Don't be discouraged by what might seem impossible situations.

Or if you do,

If you feel that it's impossible,

Just know that.

Just keep aware of that.

Start from where you are right now.

These are ways of developing skillful life.

Now,

This as a human being is a form,

Isn't it?

You have to live.

This isn't a form you voluntarily chose.

It's a form you find yourself in as a man or a woman,

A human being in this 20th century,

1981.

This has a form,

Doesn't it?

Looks like a monk,

Looks like a man,

Looks like a human being.

Well,

This contains,

Doesn't it?

It's a container,

Like any other form.

So this body is a form that we have to learn how to live within this form also of a human being.

Now,

The human form means you're stuck to the ground.

You can't fly up in the air.

And you have to suffer pain because the body is quite a painful condition.

You have to get hungry and cold.

Just look at the society we live in,

How people are obsessed with convenience.

These bodies are so heavy and so cumbersome that we have to spend all this technology,

Develop this incredible technology,

Just to make life less painful for us anyway.

We think we're making it less painful by having all these gadgets and trying to make life convenient because the body is a kind of clumsy condition.

And it gives us a lot of pain and it gets old,

Gets sick and dies.

When it's dark,

We can't see,

We have to have electricity and we can switch on the lights.

Because in the dark it's rather frightening,

We don't know.

In less advanced societies like North East Thailand,

Where they don't have electricity,

You learn to sit in the dark,

Which is quite peaceful actually.

When it gets dark,

You just sit in the dark and meditate.

Peaceful,

The dark is very peaceful.

So in a less technologically advanced society like in North East Thailand,

Things are much more primitive.

You have to draw water from wells,

Don't have electricity,

Don't have electric washing machines,

Dryers,

Dishwashers,

All these things.

And Dhan Chah wouldn't even allow electric pumps put on the wells.

The monks have to work together.

The well rings at three in the afternoon,

We have to go out to the well and help draw water in buckets.

Bucket on a rope,

Pulley,

It goes down into the well,

We all pull it up in a big can like this.

The monks get on several monks on the rope and pull it up,

And another monk grabs the can and pours it into smaller buckets.

Then you put these buckets on a bamboo pole and two monks carry these buckets of water around to the different bathing places or the kitchen to fill up the water jugs.

Quite primitive isn't it?

But it has its advantages too in the sense that you develop,

You help each other in things like that.

It's not the sense of don't bother me I'm meditating,

It's a necessity of everybody has to help do very simple chores like that.

So that this is seemingly inconvenient,

But it's not really.

Life is really much easier because it's simpler.

When you have a lot of gadgets and convenient technology,

Life becomes more complex.

Like finding it like chit-huts,

Plumbing,

Then the sewers clog up,

The toilets.

Then you have to have electric bills,

Telephone,

You have to have rates and taxes and mains water.

It goes on,

Endless kind of complexity just for some kind of what we think is convenient.

So sometimes a less,

A more primitive,

A less technologically advanced way is really more peaceful.

I've found so easier.

But we have to take into account we live in a very technological age where technology has gone rampant.

So don't dwell in discontent on that,

Just live in a peaceful way with it.

You can certainly use electric washing machines,

Dryers,

Mains water and so on,

Electricity.

But to see that it's not really necessary,

If those things stop working,

It's not the end of the world.

You can just sit in the dark,

It's very peaceful in the dark.

You don't need to have all kinds of fancy food and luxuries and things like this to be happy.

Because you find out if you train your mind,

If you sit and are at ease with yourself,

You're happy wherever you are.

You can be in the middle of New York or in the middle of jungle.

You can have everything or nothing and you can be content.

If your mind is good,

Then there's no sorrow anymore.

The dark is fine,

The light is fine.

Because the mind itself is bliss,

Is peace,

Is light.

You don't need to depend upon the conventional reality of the senses anymore.

If you go blind,

It's all quite alright,

It's not the end of the world.

Because the sensual world can easily be destroyed or harmed.

The bodies can easily be damaged,

You can go blind or deaf.

Tongue can be cut out.

You can have leprosy.

You can have cancer,

Internal diseases and all kinds of.

.

.

Your legs can be cut off,

Arms.

All kinds of dreadful things can happen but that's to the body only.

The mind is not damaged,

Even if all that happens.

The worst possible thing is having the mind be alright.

If you know that,

If there's wisdom.

So there's nothing to fear.

Just think what will happen if the technology fails.

When I was living in London I used to think,

I don't want to be here in this city when it all starts falling apart.

Because nobody will know what to do.

And everybody will start going crazy.

When the underground doesn't work anymore,

Electricity and all the things stop functioning.

And there's no more food.

And really frightening,

Millions of people all crammed in one area together.

That's really frightening to think of.

You know,

You become so dependent upon everything working,

The technology going on forever.

You think it's kind of permanently going to be there.

But when I was in London,

The first year they used to have electricity strikes.

And suddenly the lights would go out and the whole city would be dark.

And they had a dustman strike.

Dustmen are garbage men.

For how long was it?

A couple of months?

Nobody collected the garbage in London.

Pretty bad actually.

Now this,

We think we have to have all these things for our happiness.

But like this morning,

Contemplation of the four requisites,

You really don't need very much.

If you,

This note here,

When you're really at peace with yourself,

When you're calm,

It's just nice to just sit.

It's very nice just to be.

Just sitting or standing,

Walking,

Lying down.

You don't need anything.

You don't need books or television or anything.

The mind itself is so nice,

So good and so perfect that it don't,

You don't,

The rest seems rather,

Very unnecessary.

You can just eat to survive,

Just take care of the body.

You don't have to spend your life eating food,

Munching,

Escaping through,

Habitual munching on things,

Smoking cigarettes,

Dope,

Drinking,

Going to shows,

Bars,

Hanging around for something to do.

Okay.

In,

I've spent one Vasa,

One rainy season with our Ajahn Chah.

After that rainy season,

It was about in January,

The following year,

I took leave of Ajahn Chah because I wanted to go meditate through intensive practice up on a mountain.

So I,

Ajahn Chah gave me his blessing,

And off I went to this place up in Sukul Nakor,

In the North,

In the North,

In the North of the province of Pormen.

And there I,

Pupek Hill,

I spent six months up on this hill.

I always had this great desire to be a hermit,

Live out in caves or on mountains alone.

And so,

I found Wat Bapong,

Two civilized here,

They're morning chanting,

Evening chanting,

You have to carry water in the afternoon and this and that,

And they're interfering with my practice,

My meditation practice.

I thought,

I'll do this intensive practice up on this mountain.

I went up there,

There's a couple of Thai monks with me.

We had,

There was an old Cambodian Jedi or Stupa there,

From the Angkor Wat period.

And it was quite a big,

Huge stone,

Kind of big square stones.

Now they've gotten all those stones up,

Nobody really knows how they built it.

It was quite nice,

High up on this hill,

Nice flowers and trees.

Nobody,

It was so far away that nobody,

Hardly anybody ever came to it.

And in the morning we'd have to climb down this hill,

Very steep,

Took us quite a long time.

And in the dawn we'd leave and walking barefoot we'd go down this,

All these rocky paths down to wait at the base of this hill.

And there by this reservoir,

This little kind of tin roof hut.

And then there,

Some villagers would come with food.

They'd put it in our bowls and we'd climb back up to the top of this hill and eat the food.

And then the rest of the day we'd just meditate.

I'd put up my umbrella,

I have this called Tudanga umbrella,

Made out of bamboo,

Kind of big umbrella and you put a mosquito net around it.

And sit there during the day and practice meditation.

Well then I was quite elated at first with this place,

It was so peaceful,

So beautiful,

So quiet.

Just what I'd always wanted.

I'm going to spend the rest of my life here.

I love it so much.

But then after a couple of weeks of that,

I didn't like it anymore.

And I felt very annoyed by everything.

One of the monks I began to hate intensely.

I became so obsessed with hatred for him,

I just couldn't eat with him anymore.

I had to go off and eat by myself.

I'd sit there and say,

Get rid of this hatred.

I came up here to have peace.

This blasted monk is bothering my practice.

But he fortunately left and went away for long periods of time.

So when he was gone,

The hatred would cease.

And then I'd find something else would start disturbing me.

Then one day in the middle of the hot season,

Really hot,

I was coming back up the hill and I stubbed my toe on a rock quite severely.

And that evening I became very ill.

Next morning I couldn't even stand up because my leg was terribly infected.

There was no cut or anything on the toe,

Just the stubbing in the toe set something off inside.

And I couldn't walk.

I had a terrible fever.

So the other monk,

A tiny little Thai monk,

Rushed down to the bottom of the hill and brought up the villagers and they carried me down the mountain.

And there I lay in this little tin hut in the hot sun in a terrible fever.

And they had to bring in some kind of local medic riding on a horse.

It was so out of the way that he traveled around by horse.

And he would give me penicillin shots.

And then the villagers lived quite far away,

They'd prepare food,

But they didn't,

Even though they were very kind,

The kind of food they prepared I couldn't eat.

And there was no tea,

No coffee,

No fruit juice,

No ice,

Nothing but kind of ditch water,

Coarse food,

And I couldn't walk.

I had to lay under this tin roof the hot season.

And day after day for about three weeks just in this kind of miserable state,

I was all dirty,

Stinking,

Rash on my skin,

Little tiny little gnats that would crawl in your eyes all day long,

In your ears,

Up your nose.

Every time you open your eyes they'd hover,

Fly right in.

Sometimes they'd fly in your ears and go right down inside.

And I was just laying there thinking,

I came here to meditate,

Now it's ruining my practice.

Nobody to talk to.

You'd hear the planes,

Airplanes flying overhead.

And this friend of mine who was in the Peace Corps with me was working up in Vientiane making about $800 a month teaching English.

He had a very nice place to live and there was a quite interesting active social life.

Vientiane on $800 a month was that you could live like Maharaja in those days.

And I thought,

What am I doing here?

I could be up in Vientiane making $800 a month because I had better qualifications than he did.

I listened to the airplane flying,

I could go home,

Go back to California and thought about my mother,

If she needed my mother again,

She would take better care of me.

And I began to really feel sorry for myself,

This kind of dreary hopelessness of being in the most impossible situation where you might even die and you couldn't talk to anybody and couldn't eat the food.

There was nothing pleasant,

Nothing,

There was no relief from the pain or the heat or the annoying things around you.

There was no pleasant tea in the afternoon.

Sometimes the monk would boil hot water and you'd just drink plain old boiled water,

Kind of a treat.

And so for a few days I lay there just feeling really depressed and I felt sorry for myself and complaining.

Then I realized,

Well I kept,

I started reflecting on what was happening so then I decided that I would meditate on it.

So I started practicing meditation,

I started doing Anupama Sati.

I tried to sit up for a while,

Just keep a straight posture in the heat and be at peace with the heat and the nuts and the flies and develop a firm mind,

Not just get carried away by my feelings and the annoyance and the pain and unpleasantness of the present.

And within a couple of days I was really peaceful.

There was nothing else to do,

Nothing to read,

Nobody to talk to,

Nothing to do.

I was kind of at a dead end,

There was no place to go,

No way to get out of it except through mental meditation.

And after that I didn't mind anymore,

I was very peaceful,

I'd sit there and felt quite a lot of metta for the flies and began to be cheerful to the monk.

The villagers would come and try to entertain me a bit,

Began to feel quite happy.

Just through letting go of the habitual tendencies of the mind,

To be discontent and nervous to the conditions because they're not what you want.

Then the foot eventually healed and I went back up to stay on top of the mountain again.

Now I learned a very important lesson from that because I really learned that what I had to do was just to,

One thing I had to develop effort when my mind went into negativity,

Like self-pity and depression,

I had to put forth effort and to rouse the mind doing something like anapanasati,

Doing something positive rather than just laying there in a kind of misery and indulging in misery.

And then I resigned myself to being there,

I didn't allow myself to think of leaving or changing,

Complaining about anything,

I just gave up to the moment,

To the situation and was at peace with it.

And in that condition I began to find joy and peacefulness.

Now that's when things are going very badly for you.

There wasn't anything there that one could say that I felt at that time was positive.

I mean the villagers were nice,

Doing the best they can,

But I wasn't all that grateful.

I was complaining about the food.

You know,

There's a lot of self-pity and fear.

But that effort of training the mind,

Like just doing something mentally,

Even when you're crippled and can't move,

The mind,

You can still concentrate the mind on the breath.

Or development of meta,

Of being at peace with the discomfort,

The pain,

The annoyance.

But you have to do it in a constant way.

You can't just start and then fail and start feeling sorry for yourself.

You have to do it like one inhalation,

Being constant,

One exhalation,

Developing so that they connect,

So that you have things connect one thing to the next rather than doing it and then getting lost in this.

Develop just say one mindful inhalation first.

Make everything so that it's simple and you can do one thing at a time rather than just trying to meditate to get rid of the annoyance.

Become like a perfectionist almost,

One who's very fussy about just the beginning of the inhalation,

And then you're going to move into the middle.

So that you're arousing that kind of scrutiny and intensity in your mind to watch this breath,

This cycle of the breath,

The inhalation,

Exhalation.

Or with the meta-practices,

Use the meta-practices just as a way of a concept,

A meta,

Friendliness,

Kindness,

Peacefulness,

With,

An unpleasant condition.

Just keep reminding yourself that it's all right,

Be at peace with it,

In that kind of way of just allowing things to be as they are.

And using the like the Anapanasati or mantra to arouse,

Put forth that kind of concentrated effort.

So sometimes the most miserable situations are the best teachers.

This blasted foot is ruining my meditation.

It seemed like it,

Didn't it?

This foot ruined my meditation many times.

Several years later,

I went out to stay on an island in the Gulf of Thailand.

I did five years with Ajahn Chah.

After five years,

According to the Vinaya,

You can leave your teacher with his permission and kind of go off by yourself.

So this was a great moment.

I thought I'm going to go off by myself and practice.

So I went to Bangkok because I had to get a new passport.

And then I wrote to Ajahn Chah and said,

I've had five,

I didn't dare ask him in person because I was afraid he'd say no.

So I've had five years with you now and I would like to spend the rainy season retreat on this island,

Gotthichan,

Because Westerners were beginning to come to Wat Bapong and I wanted to get out of teaching.

I didn't want to,

I still had this idea,

I wanted to practice meditation like a hermit.

I had this kind of obsession with hermetic practice.

So I went out to this island.

It was ideal,

Just superb.

It was a lovely island right out in the Gulf.

And they had a village there where the people gave vegetarian food of all things.

There was a monk,

A hermit monk living there,

Ajahn Arun,

And he arranged so that you'd get vegetarian food.

A fishing village of all places.

Then it had little huts and caves and things.

So Ajahn Arun took me several days,

We walked all over the island and we found this wonderful spot,

A little bamboo hut on a cliff looking over the sea,

Ideally.

And then you walked down from the hut apart and there was this cave with a beautiful meditation path built right into the cave so that you could walk during the rain.

And then a chamber inside the cave,

It was completely black,

You could do sensory deprivation,

You could just sit in this black chamber without hearing or seeing anything.

This is perfect,

It's just what I want.

I'll be able to do all this samatha practice and develop all these jhanas.

And then you go up to the top and you get tired of the cave,

You walk right up to the top and sit in this lovely little hut.

Look over the sea and I like to concentrate on water.

I'm just looking at the sea,

It's very tranquilizing,

Listening to the sound of the waves on the shore.

And then you could,

On the morning you'd go on the alms round,

Not very far,

You didn't have to walk very far to this village,

People were very nice.

They didn't ever bother you,

They knew you were a hermetic monk,

So they never came to see you but they gave you the food you needed.

Ideal.

I was really enthusiastic about this.

And then my foot became infected again.

So I had to cross over to the mainland,

Go to the hospital,

And there I was in the hospital for 20 days.

And the foot,

Huge,

Like a big elephant's foot,

All red,

Cellulitis.

In this wretched hospital where the monks sitting in these beds were reading sex magazines.

That was disgusting.

I was stuck in a ward full of Buddhist monks who were reading these magazines.

And then here I was,

Here this ideal set up on the island,

I won't be able to go there now.

I wasn't because it was getting nearer to the Vasa or the rainy season retreat.

I obviously would not be able to take care of myself.

There's a very kind monk that lived near there and had a forest monastery and he invited me to spend the Vasa at his monastery.

He didn't really want to do,

But it was the only practical thing to do.

So I spent the Vasa at this other monastery that I didn't want to go to.

I had to give up my dream of spending this Vasa on the island and then nursing a painful and ugly foot for most of that time,

Thinking this is interfering with my practice.

But during that Vasa I learned,

I had tremendous insight.

I had to give up a lot of my ideas and my desires.

And then following that I went to India after that Vasa and I told you about that experience.

The foot started up in India again.

But by the time I finished with India,

I had realized that I would no longer try to arrange things.

I learned the lesson.

I had this sense of gratitude that arose in which I felt somehow that I needed to repay a debt for all the kind of support that had been given to me by people and the teaching by Adhan Chah.

So I decided since my Vasa was running out that I should go back to Wat Bapung where there were many Westerners who needed an interpreter,

Translator,

And help Adhan Chah in that way.

So I went back.

That time I decided I would no longer live my life on my own terms.

That I should just let life live itself and be mindful of it.

And from that time on I found meditation no problem.

I was no longer thinking,

This is ruining my meditation.

Things just are meditation whatever they are.

And since then I have hardly had any time to live quietly,

Aloof in hermetic environments.

But it's not necessary if you have no opinions or views.

Living in,

Six years ago we started this international monastery called Nanachah.

There was a lot of resistance to that.

I didn't really want to do that either.

Get myself into having to teach and receive people and run a monastery and I had never done it before and have to start building things,

Administration,

All these things that I didn't like,

Didn't want to be bothered with.

I had this mind carrying on,

I don't want to do this,

I don't want to do this.

It's interfering with my meditation.

I knew that by now.

I knew that silly thing that was always saying,

It's interfering with my meditation.

I just did it,

I just did what needed to be done.

This carried me on to England and so forth.

But that's how life is no longer a problem because one does what needs to be done and doesn't do what doesn't need to be done.

Very simple.

The form I still remain within the form of the bhikkhu.

And that's the container.

I use that as a form for a containing form.

It's the candle,

The holder of life.

Because it's a beautiful form and youthful and one knows how to use this particular form.

The rest of it is just,

Once you've learned how to use the form,

Then the rest of it is just being aware that whatever arises,

Passes away.

No matter if it's fast or slow,

Fast walking or slow walking,

Intensive practice or unintensive practice,

Whether it's America,

England,

Thailand,

Burma,

Sri Lanka,

Tibet,

China,

Whatever,

Whether you're with lay people or with monks,

Or full of being praised and adored or being criticized,

Viewed and laughed at,

It's all just the same,

Isn't it?

Anything that arises passes away.

Adaptations come quite spontaneously and things go on and you find yourself quite able to cope with anything that arises and passes away.

Now people have questions about all these different forms,

People like Krishnamurti,

Religions are a waste of time,

It spoils spontaneity and condemns monks and things like that.

And there's the Mahayana,

The Buddhist thought idea,

With different types of Buddhist practice,

There's the idea that it's better to do it as a layman than as a monk,

And there's the idea that it's better to do it as a monk than a layman.

But what can we know for sure about all these things without making preference?

Because all these opinions arise and they pass away.

That's what you can know for sure,

Whether monastic life is a waste of time or not.

Krishnamurti says it's useless.

Don't believe Krishnamurti,

But don't believe me either.

Watch the belief and disbelief,

Be with what you can know,

That whatever arises passes away.

Now this isn't an annihilation of belief,

But seeing belief is belief.

Seeing a spade is a spade.

Seeing things as they are rather than through the conditioned perceptions of doubt and attachment and aversion.

It's not up to you or to me to decide about who's right and who isn't.

Is Krishnamurti right and the Buddha isn't right?

Or is the Buddha right and Krishnamurti wrong?

Is the Mahayana better than the Theravada?

Or is the Theravada better than the Mahayana?

Should I do intensive practice or unintensive practice?

Should I ordain or not to this or that?

Endless things we have to make decisions on and form opinions about.

But what can you really know about any of these is that whatever arises will pass away.

I was in Bangkok and I was talking to some Christians,

Something was going on,

Trying to be,

With Christianity,

Trying to be very tolerant and understanding of it.

So then after that I thought,

What do you really think?

If somebody said,

What do you really think?

Do you think Buddhism is better than Christianity?

What would you say?

Or is Christianity better than Buddhism?

What do you really think?

Are you just trying to be polite and tolerant?

I asked myself this question and they said,

Well of course I think Buddhism is better.

That's why I'm a Buddhist.

And then I thought,

Yeah,

That's just another opinion,

Isn't it?

That's just a view.

And then I suddenly realized I didn't have to decide.

It wasn't up to me to make decisions of that nature.

You have to pass judgment on things and rate things according to what I think.

And say this is the way it really is,

Buddhism is first.

I might think that,

The thought is there,

But that's a thought.

It's not necessary that one believe one's own thoughts.

You know that those thoughts are just thoughts.

And one doesn't even have an opinion about what Christianity is.

It's not up to me to decide.

I'm not God that has to decide who gets the front row seats when they go to heaven.

I thought,

Well,

This is really nice to know this.

I don't have to make the decisions and pass judgments and that among people in conditions of the world.

I felt very humble and very easy then,

Very at peace,

Because one realized you didn't need to have an opinion about such things.

Opinions come and go,

But they're just opinions.

You know them as such.

You wouldn't fight to the death over them or argue about it.

Because you know the limitations in the nature of opinions and views.

And you realize it's not up to you to know everything and have an opinion about everything and pass judgment on yourself and others.

On Buddhism,

Christianity,

Judaism,

Hinduism,

And so forth.

Now,

It's very peaceful to know that one can just be with the breath.

I've met it for the present and existing conditions and life is easy.

And that when life gets tough on the conventional level,

One can be at peace with the misery.

One can be at peace with little gnats flying into your eyelids,

Crawling up into your ears.

One can be at peace with big fat red painful leg,

And with coarse food,

And with a hot tin roof.

These things aren't really suffering.

They're aversion to them,

Wanting life to be other than it is.

It's a suffering.

Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where there's just nothing.

We have to just endure through what seemingly is unendurable.

But when you know how to endure through the unendurable,

Then you find out you can be as peaceful and at ease even in the most miserable conditions,

If your mind is right.

Now,

This is a great freedom,

Isn't it?

Suddenly there's nothing to fear anymore.

You don't have to spend your life just trying to protect yourself,

Make sure that you have enough money so that you can have all the things you think you have to have in order to be happy.

Because when that happens,

Then there's never quite enough because greed knows no limits.

If I just had enough money in the bank to make sure that for the rest of my life I would be able to pay the rent,

Have enough food to eat,

Pay my medical insurance,

Pay the insurance on the car,

And also allow for the inflationary rise of gasoline,

And make sure that I had at least able to take every other year vacation in the Bahamas.

And then just,

I'm not asking for very much,

Just enough money for.

.

.

At least once a week I can eat in a good restaurant.

I don't really want to be a millionaire,

But I want to have enough money to satisfy all my desires for the rest of my life.

What do you call that?

I don't really want to become rich or a millionaire,

But.

.

.

Now this is to say that the advantage of the Buddhist reflection here on the four requisites,

Suddenly you think you don't really want much of anything.

One meal a day,

Some old robes,

Make do with any old shelter orphan.

The lowest standard of medicine you wouldn't believe.

But you can live on very little,

Don't need very much.

When your standard is like that,

Then you'll be able to get by no matter what happens.

So in this sermon this evening,

This talk,

Remember this,

That there's nothing to fear,

That you're not a mortal being.

All you have to do is keep reminding,

Every time you think you are a mortal being,

You have to start believing in this and that,

Opinions,

Views,

Worries,

Anticipation,

Dread and fear,

That it's impermanent in not-self,

Seeing that all that arises passes away,

And just keep that constant reflecting on it.

Keep aware that when you're suffering,

Observe that you're suffering,

That there's suffering there.

You're obviously attached to something,

You're frightened,

You're repressing something or whatever.

Bring it up,

Look at it,

See attachment as attachment,

Then let go,

Let it go,

Relax,

Being at ease within yourself,

Being at ease with this body and the conditions of the mind that arise and pass away.

Listen attentively to the mind,

Listen to the silence,

See if you can hear the silence this evening,

Can you hear the silence of the mind?

Rather than listening to all the chatter,

Just intently listen,

Turn the organ of the ear inward and listen to the silent sound.

.

Reviews

Wonderful talk on the mind and finding one's way to an authentic practice. Also full of entertaing stories and delightful humor. Thank you!

Simply excellent and steadfast in face of adversity and some suffering :) Namaste

Thank you 🙏. The talk was delivered in 1981, but the message is timeless. 🙏
Delivered with a michievous, wry sense of humour.
Thank you again. Your talks, books and writings have been a great help to me over the years.... 🙏🐣🪷

Thanks!
Thanks

🙏 very nice insight.

Interesting talk. Thank you. Be blessed.

Great stories and valuable lessons. 🙏

Well received 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Love this monk. Lots of laughs this AM. Namaste.🙏👌☀️

I found myself laughing with you thank you.