Reading and Commentary of the Sutta on 'Not-Self'

In this talk Ajahn actually reads from two Suttas on the subject of Contemplating 'Not-Self.' This theme of contemplation is perhaps the most central and important in the Buddhist Traditions, and
understanding and seeing 'not-self' clearly can be a truly liberating Insight. Yet it can also seem an abstract and challenging concept to people who are not yet adept. Ajahn offers clear simple and encouraging commentary throughout the readings, giving a useful sense of context for the modern practitioner.

Transcript

Hello,

This is Ajahnachalo.

In this talk taught while giving a retreat in Malaysia,

I'm giving a brief synopsis of the Buddha's discovery of the middle way which led up to his formulating ways to teach and then there's a reading of and commentary on the Anathalakana Sutta which is the second teaching Lord Buddha gave and this teaching led to the complete enlightenment of the first five bhikkhus,

The first five disciples.

I'm also giving a commentary to a second sutta called the Kadaka Sutta which also investigates this theme of contemplating Anathar or not-self.

I just wanted to put a little introduction in because I want to encourage people,

Ask people to try to be patient with the repetition that's contained in the suttas.

For people unfamiliar with suttas it can seem a bit monotonous but it's very important to recognize and understand that the way these suttas were passed down to us was through memorization and repetition was a very important way that the teachings could be formulated so that they could be memorized and passed down.

Another thing that is very important to recognize is that for those of us who aspire to complete liberation or enlightenment or at the very least some insight it is most commonly through sustained repeated contemplation and focused contemplation is what ripens the mind to have such insight.

So the repetition plays a very important function.

I have tried to give some commentary throughout to make it a little more interesting.

Hopefully my comments are helpful but if we can bring an attitude of gratitude,

A sense of reverence and respect for these teachings which are the words of Lord Buddha,

It's quite amazing really that we can hear these and contemplate these things more than 2,

500 years later.

So I hope that this reading and this commentary is helpful to you wherever you find yourself now and sometimes it can be pretty lofty and pretty heady and it can be good to come back again later and consider these things again because in different sessions we will hear and assimilate different understandings.

So I hope something here is helpful wishing you all well.

Mastery of Samadhi practice of extreme austerity,

Discovery of the middle way,

Combining concentration with focused contemplation investigation,

His realization,

Discovery of the cause of birth,

He was trying to find the deathless,

He realized that the cause of death was birth,

So he was striving to find the cause of birth,

He discovered that ignorance was the cause of birth.

Ignorance has to do with the true nature of conditions and investigating those conditions with laser-like adeptness,

He saw these three characteristics very clearly impermanence,

Unsatisfactoriness,

Not self,

His mind was liberated under the Bodhi tree,

Then he considered what he'd realized and thought of ways he might communicate that to other spiritual practitioners,

He wandered in stages to the Deer Park near Varanasi,

Banaras,

He taught a group of five bhikkhus who had practiced austerities with him and Anya Kondanya realized the first stage of enlightenment while Lord Buddha uttered the Dhammacakkha Puvattana Sutta,

The Sutta describing the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path,

When a person attains stream entry apparently they glimpse the deathless,

Nibbana and the first three fetters fall away from their mind,

Belief in self-view,

Belief in rites and rituals as being the path to liberation and doubt about the correct way of practice,

They have unshakable faith in the Buddha,

The Dhamma,

The path,

The goal and have seen through the self to a significant degree but there are subsequent stages,

In the following days Lord Buddha taught this sermon on not self which I'm about to read,

At the end of this sermon all five bhikkhus are actually arahants amazingly enough,

Due to several things,

The Buddha's mastery in presenting his doctrine that points to the truth but also obviously past spiritual practice,

The spiritual faculties,

The spiritual powers are very ripe,

So once pointed very clearly in the direction where it would be skillful to contemplate,

They uprooted all of the fetters from their mind and their minds were purified and liberated,

So thus have I heard,

At one time the Blessed One was dwelling at Banaras in the Deer Park,

There he addressed the group of five bhikkhus,

Form bhikkhus is not self,

If bhikkhus form was self then form would not lead to affliction and one might be able to say in regard to form,

Let my form be thus,

Let my form not be thus,

But since bhikkhus form is not self,

Form therefore leads to affliction and one is not able to say in regard to form,

Let my form be thus,

Let my form not be thus,

So I'd like to do this as a contemplation as well,

Just since we're in meditation retreat,

I ask you to consider these statements,

If form were self,

One might be able to say in regard to form,

Let my form be thus,

Let my form not be thus,

So can any of you decide to be 15 years old again?

Is it something that you have the power to will,

To have any control over the age of your physical organism?

Can you shed 5 kilograms in an instant?

If you'd like to be taller,

Can you make yourself taller?

Like to be a bit shorter,

Can you do that?

So we have this habit,

Don't we?

My body,

My face,

My teeth,

My hair,

We actually have very little control over it other than trying to keep it healthy and even then it gets sick.

So as the Buddha says,

One is not able to say in regard to form,

Let my form be thus,

Let my form not be thus.

Feeling is not self,

If bhikkhus feeling was self,

Feeling would not lead to affliction and one might be able to say in regard to feeling,

Let my feeling be thus,

Let my feeling not be thus.

But since bhikkhus feeling is not self,

Feeling therefore leads to affliction and one is not able to say in regard to feeling,

Let my feeling be thus,

Let my feeling not be thus.

How many people have been sitting meditation wanting to feel peaceful at times?

Were you able to be peaceful every time you wanted to be peaceful?

How many people have wished the knee pain would go away?

Did the knee pain go away when you wished that it would go away?

Therefore,

Feeling leads to affliction and one is not able to say in regard to feeling,

Let my feeling be thus,

Let my feeling not be thus.

Perception is not self,

If bhikkhus perception was self,

Perception would not lead to affliction and one might be able to say in regard to perception,

Let my perception be thus,

Let my perception not be thus.

But since bhikkhus perception is not self,

Perception therefore leads to affliction and one is not able to say in regard to perception,

Let my perception be thus,

Let my perception not be thus.

So we are all nice Buddhists.

We would like to be able to hold everybody in kind regard.

Has there been an occasion where there was someone that you didn't like in the retreat?

A moment,

Be honest.

And sometimes we don't want to be grumpy,

We don't want to hold a grudge,

We don't want to dislike a person but it seems that that perception,

That person is such and such.

Why are they like this?

They shouldn't be like that.

Anybody had thoughts like that?

And we can't necessarily drop them.

We can take some time,

Forgiveness,

Etc.

If we could perceive things as beautiful over time,

We probably would.

We could make that choice.

Can anybody in the room perceive everything as beautiful over time?

Nobody.

Therefore perception leads to affliction and one is not able to say in regard to perception,

Let my perception be thus,

Let my perception not be thus.

Mental formations are not self.

If bhikkhus mental formations were self,

Mental formations would not lead to affliction,

And one might be able to say in regard to mental formations,

Let my mental formations be thus,

Let my mental formations not be thus.

But since bhikkus mental formations are not self,

Mental formations therefore lead to affliction and one is not able to say in regard to mental formations,

Let my mental formations be thus,

Let my mental formations not be thus.

I wonder if anybody has experienced some painful memories during the last few days.

And I wonder if you've thought to yourself,

I want to drop these thoughts,

I just want to let it go.

And sometimes we can,

And sometimes we can't.

Filled by karma,

Filled by past clinging.

Did anybody have that experience?

A painful thought formation about the past that one wanted to let go of but couldn't let go of straight away?

Lots of nodding heads.

The Ajahn keeps saying,

Be present in the moment,

One breath,

Aware,

Beginning,

Middle and end,

Aware of the space.

How many people's minds rushed off into the future at some point?

Probably already replanned the rest of your life.

It's already four days.

So,

Mental formations do what they do,

Filled by past karmas,

Past habits.

And one is not able to say in regard to mental formations,

Let my mental formations be thus,

Let my mental formations not be thus.

Consciousness is not self.

If bhikkhus,

Consciousness was self,

Consciousness would not lead to affliction.

And one might be able to say in regard to consciousness,

Let my consciousness be thus,

Let my consciousness not be thus.

But since bhikkhus,

Consciousness is not self,

Consciousness therefore leads to affliction.

And one is not able to say in regard to consciousness,

Let my consciousness be thus,

Let my consciousness not be thus.

So I think one easy way to,

One easy example is most Buddhist meditators want to experience blissful states of absorption in the path of practice.

Many people would like to have the jhanas.

We talk about the bodhisatta mastering,

The seventh and eighth jhanas.

Was anybody able to enter the eighth jhana at will?

Not yet.

We're working on it.

So evidently,

Consciousness is not self.

It leads to affliction.

And one is not able to say in regard to consciousness,

Let my consciousness be thus,

Let my consciousness not be thus.

What do you think about this bhikkhus is form permanent or impermanent?

Impermanent Lord.

But is that which is impermanent painful or pleasurable?

Painful Lord.

But is it fit to consider that which is impermanent,

Painful,

Of a nature to change?

As this is mine,

I am this,

This is myself.

It is not Lord.

What do you think about this bhikkhus is feeling permanent or impermanent?

Impermanent Lord.

But is that which is impermanent painful or pleasurable?

Painful Lord.

But is it fit to consider that which is impermanent,

Painful,

Of a nature to change?

As this is mine,

I am this,

This is myself.

It is not Lord.

What do you think about this bhikkhus is perception permanent or impermanent?

Impermanent Lord.

But is that which is impermanent painful or pleasurable?

Painful Lord.

But is it fit to consider that which is impermanent,

Painful,

Of a nature to change?

As this is mine,

I am this,

This is myself.

It is not Lord.

What do you think about mental formations?

Permanent or impermanent?

Impermanent.

Painful or pleasurable?

Painful.

Is it fit to consider that which is impermanent and painful,

Of a nature to change?

As this is mine,

I am this,

This is myself.

It is not.

What do you think about this bhikkhus?

Consciousness.

Permanent or impermanent?

Impermanent.

Is that which is impermanent painful or pleasurable?

Painful.

But is it fit to consider that which is impermanent,

Painful,

Of a nature to change?

As this is mine,

I am this,

This is myself.

It is not Lord.

So the Buddha is asking the bhikkhus to examine what they have been perceiving as a self and question how can it be so.

The next part of the sutta,

The Buddha suggests a different way of seeing these things.

Wherefore bhikkhus,

Whatever form there is,

Past,

Future,

Present,

Internal or external,

Gross or subtle,

Inferior or superior,

Whether it is far or near,

All forms should,

By means of right wisdom,

Be seen as it really is thus.

This is not mine.

I am not this.

This is not myself.

Whatever feeling there is,

Past,

Future,

Present,

Internal or external,

Gross or subtle,

Inferior or superior,

Whether it is far or near,

All feelings should,

By means of right wisdom,

Be seen as it really is thus.

This is not mine.

I am not this.

This is not myself.

Whatever perception there is,

Past,

Future,

Present,

Internal or external,

Gross or subtle,

Inferior or superior,

Whether it is far or near,

All feelings should,

By means of right wisdom,

Be seen as it really is.

This is not mine.

I am not this.

This is not myself.

Whatever mental formations,

Past,

Future,

Present,

Internal or external,

Gross or subtle,

Inferior or superior,

Far or near,

All mental formations should,

By means of right wisdom,

Be seen as they really are thus.

This is not mine.

I am not this.

This is not myself.

And lastly,

Whatever consciousness there is,

Past,

Future,

Present,

Internal or external,

Gross or subtle,

Inferior or superior,

Whether far or near,

All consciousness should,

By means of right wisdom,

Be seen as it really is thus.

This is not mine.

I am not this.

This is not myself.

Seeing in this way,

Bhikkhus,

The wise,

Noble disciple becomes disenchanted with form,

Becomes disenchanted with feeling,

Becomes disenchanted with perception,

Becomes disenchanted with mental formations,

Becomes disenchanted with consciousness.

Being disenchanted,

Their passions fade away.

With the fading of passion,

The heart is liberated.

With liberation there comes the knowledge.

It is liberated and they know.

Destroyed is birth,

The holy life has been lived out.

Done is what had to be done.

There is no more coming into any state of being.

Thus spoke the Blessed One,

Delighted the group of five bhikkhus rejoiced in what the Lord had said.

Moreover,

While this discourse was being delivered,

The minds of the five bhikkhus were freed from the defilements through clinging no more.

Thus ends the discourse on the characteristic of not-self.

So it's a pretty awesome last paragraph,

Becoming disenchanted with form so that other words come to mind.

It's like,

I think it's in the Pali,

It's nipita,

Weary,

Becoming weary of it.

So there's a process occurring that when the mind with clear mindfulness,

A lot of clear mindfulness really has a look at this phenomena in the way Lord Buddha is asking us to.

Is it suffering?

It is.

Is it really appropriate to be referring to this as a self?

No.

Does it make sense actually?

In seeing that,

The mind sees the dukkha,

Is aware of the dukkha,

Is weary,

And I think the fascination drops away.

And so there's a process occurring in this seeing the dukkha,

Seeing that it's not really a self,

A sense of weariness of why hang on to this heavy burden that is so painful.

And then this weariness plays an important function in sobering up the mind and in not being fascinated,

No longer wanting after the pleasant tastes,

The pleasant sights,

The pleasant sounds,

The pleasant consciousness,

The pleasant mental formations.

Something's occurring there.

The mind isn't,

It sees that it's a raw deal.

It doesn't pay off.

It's dukkha,

And the mind is weary.

In being wearied,

It's not just weary,

It's weary with a great deal of mindfulness and composure and wisdom.

And then it's within that process,

The passions shrivel up,

Because the passions rely on ignorance and delusion.

You have to perceive something as attractive and worth grasping,

Worth clinging to.

When you see very clearly that it's not worth grasping at,

Not worth clinging to,

There's much more dukkha than there is pleasure,

Then the mind can let go of that.

The passions fade.

The mind is liberated through not clinging.

It's good to know where the practice goes,

And it's good to become aware of some of these concepts about the process.

And I think a lot of spiritual practitioners,

What we want is unceasing bliss and peace.

And that's going to be the final result,

But it's only a part of the process.

So as Ajahn Chah was saying in the talk I was reading earlier,

It's necessary to put up a fight to starve the kilesa and destroy the delusion.

And he used quite strong speech in talking about that.

So if ever you find that you feel weary,

That's actually I think something that brings people to meditation retreats,

And it's certainly something that brings people to monasteries.

A sense of,

There's a few things usually,

Getting a bit weary of it all.

But also this intuition that we have that there is something better.

Most Buddhist practitioners have that deep intuition.

Actually we know we're being ripped off.

We know there's something much better than what we're experiencing.

There's some kind of intuition about the potential of a mind.

And so I think the combination of these things,

There is something better.

And that something better is right inside,

But it's covered over with our habits,

Ignorance and delusion,

Grasping.

But we do glimpse,

Practice very hard,

You glimpse for moments,

Periods where the kilesa are not in the mind in a coarse way,

Periods where there's strong mindfulness and clear comprehension,

Not identifying with the body.

And even in those moments I think there's so much more.

Happiness isn't really a good word to describe it,

I don't think.

And it's an absence of suffering.

It's a sense of the mind putting down things which are painful.

And a sense of just okayness,

Normalcy,

Balance,

Tranquility,

Serenity.

And we have to practice a lot and develop a trust in this,

Because this is glimpsing,

Beginning to glimpse the nature of the mind.

These kind of words,

Tranquility,

Serenity,

Wellness,

Balance,

Peace.

And Lord Buddha says,

Peacefulness is the highest happiness.

But for people like us who are still struggling with the kilesa,

The mind tends to fall into being fascinated with pleasure.

So it wants to become intoxicated and fascinated with pleasure and we actually have to train ourselves to be content with peacefulness.

Incline the mind to peacefulness and be content with peacefulness.

And we have to train ourselves to recognize an absence of suffering is a superior state than temporary fleeting pleasure.

It's a training that we have to kind of pay attention,

Pay attention.

This coolness,

Fullness,

Sanity,

Wellness,

If you take care of it,

It's actually much more rewarding than running after that thing that you think you want.

But this is a training that we have to commit to quite sincerely.

And just pay attention and learn,

Learn about your mind.

Learn the way it tricks you.

And that's how we learn.

We think that when we get a certain thing we're going to be happy.

We get that thing.

There's a certain amount of happiness which is impermanent.

The mind wants something else.

I decided I'm going to read two suttas today because the second sutta,

A similar theme,

Shows a similar process but it shows a monk practicing in between.

He's not yet quite fully enlightened.

And I like to,

Because sometimes this sutta,

We read it,

We understand it conceptually.

All of the five bhikkhus are Arahants.

But we're not yet.

And so it's nice to glimpse a bhikkhu who's contemplating in these same ways,

Who is not fully an Arahant.

But once again,

By the end of the sutta,

He was.

Maybe you will be too.

The sutta is a Kemeka.

On one occasion a number of elder bhikkhus were dwelling at Kosambi in Gosita's park.

Now on that occasion,

Their venerable Kemeka was living at Jujube tree park,

Sick,

Afflicted and gravely ill.

Then in the evening those elder bhikkhus emerged from seclusion and addressed the venerable Dasaka thus,

Come friend Dasaka,

Approach the bhikkhu Kemeka and say to him,

The elders say to you friend Kemeka,

We hope that you are bearing up friend,

We hope that you are getting better,

We hope that your painful feelings are subsiding and not increasing and that their subsiding,

Not their increase,

Is to be discerned.

Yes friends,

The venerable Dasaka replied and he approached the venerable Kemeka and delivered his message.

The venerable Kemeka answered,

I am not bearing up friend,

I am not getting better,

Strong painful feelings are increasing in me not subsiding and their increase,

Not their subsiding is to be discerned.

Then the venerable Dasaka approached the elder bhikkhus and reported what the venerable Kemeka had said.

They told him,

Come friend Dasaka,

Approach the bhikkhu Kemeka and say to him,

The elders say to you friend Kemeka,

These five aggregates,

Subject to clinging friend,

Have been spoken of by the blessed one,

That is the form aggregate,

Subject to clinging,

The feeling aggregate,

Subject to clinging,

The perception aggregate,

Subject to clinging,

The volitional formations aggregate,

Subject to clinging,

The consciousness aggregate,

Subject to clinging.

Does the venerable Kemeka regard anything as self or as belonging to self among these five aggregates,

Subject to clinging?

Yes friends,

The venerable Dasaka replied and he approached the venerable Kemeka and delivered his message.

Venerable Kemeka replied,

These five aggregates,

Subject to clinging,

Have been spoken of by the blessed one,

That is the form aggregate,

Subject to clinging,

Etc.

,

The consciousness aggregate,

Subject to clinging.

Among these five aggregates,

Subject to clinging,

I do not regard anything as self or as belonging to self.

Then the venerable Dasaka approached the elder bhikkhus and reported what the venerable Kemeka had said,

And they replied,

Come friend Dasaka,

Approach the bhikkhu Kemeka and say to him,

The elder say to you friend Kemeka,

These five aggregates,

Subject to clinging friend,

Have been spoken of by the blessed one,

That is the form aggregate,

Subject to clinging,

Etc.

If the venerable Kemeka does not regard anything among these five aggregates,

Subject to clinging as self or as belonging to self,

Then he is an arahant,

One whose taints are destroyed.

Yes friends,

The venerable Dasaka replied and he approached the venerable Kemeka and delivered his message.

The venerable Kemeka replied,

These five aggregates,

Subject to clinging,

Have been spoken of by the blessed one,

That is the form aggregate,

Subject to clinging,

Etc.

I do not regard anything among these five aggregates,

Subject to clinging as self or as belonging to self,

Yet I am not an arahant,

One whose taints are destroyed.

The notion I am has not yet vanished in me in relation to these five aggregates,

Subject to clinging,

But I do not regard anything among them as this I am.

Then the venerable Dasaka approached the elder bhikkhus and reported what the venerable Kemeka had said and they replied,

Come friend Dasaka,

Approach the bhikkhu Kemeka and say to him,

The elder say to your friend Kemeka,

When you speak of this I am,

What is it that you speak of as I am?

Do you speak of form as I am?

Do you speak of I am apart from form?

Do you speak of feeling or perception or volitional formations or consciousness as I am?

Or do you speak of I am apart from consciousness?

When you speak of this I am friend Kemeka,

What is it that you speak of as I am?

Yes,

Friends,

The venerable Dasaka replied and he approached the venerable Kemeka and delivered his message.

Enough,

Friend Dasaka,

Why keep running back and forth?

Bring me my staff friend,

I'll go to the elder bhikkhus myself.

Then the venerable Kemeka,

Leaning on his staff,

Approached the elder bhikkhus,

Exchanged greetings with them and sat down to one side.

The elder bhikkhus then said to him,

Friend Kemeka,

When you speak of this I am,

What is it that you speak of as I am?

Friends,

I do not speak of form as I am,

Nor do I speak of I am apart from form.

I do not speak of feeling as I am,

Nor of perception as I am,

Nor of volitional formations as I am,

Nor of consciousness as I am,

Nor do I speak of I am apart from consciousness.

Friends,

Although the notion I am has not yet vanished in me in relation to these five aggregates subject to clinging,

Still I do not regard anything among them as this I am.

Suppose friends there is the scent of a blue,

Red or white lotus.

Would one be speaking rightly if one would say,

The scent belongs to the petals,

Or the scent belongs to the stalk,

Or the scent belongs to the pistils?

No friend.

And how friends should one answer if one is to answer rightly?

Answering rightly friend one should answer,

The scent belongs to the flower.

So to friends I do not speak of form as I am,

Nor do I speak of I am apart from form.

I do not speak of feeling as I am,

Nor of perception as I am,

Nor of volitional formations as I am,

Nor of consciousness as I am,

Nor do I speak of I am apart from consciousness.

Friends,

Although the notion I am has not yet vanished in me in relation to these five aggregates subject to clinging,

Still I do not regard anything among them as this I am.

Friends,

Even though a noble disciple has abandoned the five lower fetters,

So that means he is an anagami,

A non-returner,

Still in relation to the five aggregates subject to clinging there lingers in him a residual conceit I am,

A desire I am,

An underlying tendency I am that has not yet been uprooted.

Some time later he dwells contemplating rise and fall in all the five aggregates subject to clinging.

Such is form,

Such is origin,

Such is passing away,

Such is feeling,

Such is perception,

Such are volitional formations,

Such is consciousness,

Such is origin,

Such is passing away.

As he dwells thus contemplating rise and fall in the five aggregates subject to clinging,

The residual conceit I am,

The desire I am,

The underlying tendency I am that had not yet been uprooted.

This comes to be uprooted.

Suppose friends a cloth has become soiled and stained and its owners give it to a laundry man.

The laundry man would scour it evenly with cleaning salt or lye and rinse it in clean water.

Even though that cloth would become pure and clean,

It would still retain a residual smell of cleaning salt that had not yet vanished.

The laundry man would then give it back to the owners.

The owners would put it in a sweet scented casket and the residual smell of cleaning salt or lye that had not yet vanished would vanish.

So two friends,

Even though a noble disciple has abandoned the five lower fetters,

Still in relation to the five aggregates subject to clinging,

There lingers in him a residual conceit I am,

A desire I am,

An underlying tendency I am that has not yet been uprooted.

As he dwells thus contemplating rise and fall in the five aggregates subject to clinging,

The residual conceit I am,

The desire I am,

The underlying tendency I am that had not yet been uprooted,

This comes to be uprooted.

When this was said,

The elder bhikkhu said to the Venerable Kemuka,

We did not ask our questions in order to trouble the Venerable Kemuka,

But we thought that the Venerable Kemuka would be capable of explaining,

Teaching,

Proclaiming,

Establishing,

Disclosing,

Analyzing and elucidating the Blessed One's teaching in detail.

And the Venerable Kemuka has explained,

Taught,

Proclaimed,

Established,

Disclosed,

Analyzed and elucidated the Blessed One's teaching in detail.

This is what the Venerable Kemuka said,

Elated the elder bhikkhus delighted in the Venerable Kemuka's statement,

And while this discourse was being spoken,

The minds of sixty elder bhikkhus and of the Venerable Kemuka were liberated from the taints by non-clinging.

So I like this sutta because it shows a process.

There is a lot of repetition,

You have to be patient with the repetition,

But here you have an anagami,

Somebody who has attained the path of stream entry,

The fruit of stream entry and dropped the lowest three fetters,

The path of sakadagami and then the path and fruit of anagami.

So even at that stage I think it's helpful to understand that this elusive feeling of I AM or this consistent,

Persistent feeling of I AM,

The way the mind conceives of the five khandhas is still there to some degree in an anagami.

They have the insight that they can look at any one of these things and know that it's not a self and there's no clinging to any one of those things.

Yet the conceit,

The tendency to conceive of the whole package of the self pervades like the scent of a lotus.

It's very interesting.

So one of the reasons I like to share this is don't assume that if you have an insight into not self that you'll never be conceiving of the self again.

You have to understand the self-views of view,

Have to understand it as a habit and not believe it.

So in cultivating right mindfulness and right view,

It's about seeing things in context and seeing things in perspective and it's only at the arahant stage that you can't conceive of it as a self anymore at all.

And so obviously we have several steps before us,

Before we get to that stage.

But it's interesting and what I like about it is the practice that I've been taught by my teachers and the practice that I've been recommending to you during this retreat,

Aware of the feelings as they arise,

As they stay for some time and as they cease,

Aware of thoughts as they arise,

As they stay for some time and as they cease.

This is the exact same practice that the anagami is still practicing that finishes the work.

So you can really trust these teachings is one of the things I want to say and you can really trust these methods.

It's the very same practice that's going to lead to the insight into stream entry.

And it's the same practice but it just goes into more and more subtle areas and it uproots the kilesa and the conceit on deeper and deeper levels.

But obviously we've had this habit of perceiving and conceiving of self and other for a very long time and obviously it's very latent and deep.

And we have to challenge it exactly as the first sutta.

Is it in the body?

Is it in the feelings?

And you investigate,

You see that it's not.

But one has to do this thousands of times.

And if you do it correctly in the beginning stages of practice you should find that the sense of self drops away for a period of time but then it comes back.

And so Tanajana Nan talks about temporary liberations.

And you can,

If you have a peaceful mind state and you come out of the peaceful mind state and it's just peace and there's no conceiving yet.

But not very long after it becomes a story about how peaceful you were on that occasion.

The self reinterprets experience and makes stories about them.

It's just a matter of keeping on investigating,

Keeping on having little insights,

Trusting that little insights become deeper insights and that these insights are destroying the delusion and the grasping.

And the fact was,

I mean an Anagami has no greed or no hatred.

That's an important thing to know.

A Sakutagami has significantly pacified greed and hatred so he's basically a saint but there's still that residual conceiving of self.

But it's very interesting to see that insight destroys the kilesa.

It destroys greed,

It destroys hatred.

The sense of self is obviously so subtle and very pure.

It's not a sense of self that wants inappropriate things or gets angry or loses his temper.

It's a saint.

So you practice step by step,

Contemplating these,

What Lord Buddha calls the five khandhas,

Seeing a body as a body,

Feelings as feelings,

Perceptions as perceptions,

Karmic formations as karmic formations,

Consciousness as consciousness.

Tanarjuna Nan recommends that we place most of our investigation on the body.

The reason he recommends this is because one of the most important points in practice is consistency.

So the body is something that one can be consistently mindful of.

And if one trains oneself to be consistently mindful of the breath,

That's one way of being mindful of the body.

Breath meditation,

You're aware that you're sitting,

You're aware that you're breathing,

Aware when you're walking,

Aware when you're changing postures,

And then aware of the nature of the body.

That mindfulness that you develop,

Which becomes a continuous,

Resilient,

Consistent kind of a mindfulness,

That very awareness then begins to see the impermanence of feelings,

The impermanence of thoughts,

The impermanence of.

.

.

Because mindfulness is truth-discerning awareness,

But you train it to be aware of feelings in the body.

It becomes aware of the cessation of thoughts,

The cessation of thoughts,

The cessation of moods,

Mental feelings,

That kind of thing.

So continuing on with our process,

Tonight we might chant the Anattalakena Sutta.

I hope something I said was helpful.

Reviews

Very helpful, thank you🙏🏼!

Wonderful. Thankyou

This teaching goes to the core of it all. The repetition brings the insight in not self on all five aggregates. Thank you Ajahn Achalo to bring us the words of the Buddha and explaining them so well 🙏❤️

Ajahn has a beautiful way of explaining these difficult concepts and making them much more accessible to students engaged in Buddhist practice. I’ll return to this teaching often. Repeat repeat repeat. 🙂🙏🏻

It is helpful to listen to the Buddha’s words in order to remind ourselves why we practice. Thank you.

So grateful for Ajahn‘s wonderful teachings 🙏🏻🌞

Very helpful talk on anatta. Metta to you!

Wow! I️ listened while meditating to the extent that is possible. I️ think I️ have a better and more grounded sense of what “not self” means.

Also, his dialect and tone is very calming. Truest an amazing listen.

So helpful to hear about process of transformation, nuts and bolts, with metaphors to show gradual nature of realization.

Really helpful, need to hear again and again. Thank you 🙏

Always come away having learned something new and to think about. And good humored! Namaste.

Thank you very much. ❤ Always a deep topic, but one to listen to again and again. 🙏

Lovely and very helpful

Very interesting and soothing.

Thank you for this. Namaste

Appreciated the explanation ahead of the talk. Clear and insightful reading.

Very helpful. Namaste.

I will listen to this again. Thank you. I

in gratitude, Namaste 🙏

Thank you very much for this teaching. May you be happy!