Transcript
[0:50] Thank
[1:06] you.
[1:26] Most respected teacher, most respected
[1:28] elder sister,
[1:30] dear
[1:32] beloved community,
[1:35] today is the 2nd of November
[1:39] in the year 2025.
[1:43] We are in the lower hamlet in the
[1:46] assembly of stars
[1:49] meditation hall
[1:52] in the
[1:55] dua camlau the dharmcta temple. Yeah.
[2:01] And uh today we continue uh the topic
[2:05] that we began last reigns retreat.
[2:12] the topic of um
[2:15] have we really understood the Buddha
[2:21] something like that.
[2:23] One time I asked Tai how we should
[2:26] translate
[2:30] but I said uh maybe have we understood
[2:36] the Buddha? Yeah.
[2:50] Let the water breathe.
[2:57] I don't need to breathe.
[3:04] Let the Buddha sing.
[3:10] I don't need to sit.
[3:17] The Buddha
[3:20] is breathing.
[3:24] I enjoy the breathing.
[3:30] The Buddha
[3:33] is sitting.
[3:37] I enjoy the sitting.
[3:44] The Buddha is the breathing.
[3:51] I am the breathing.
[3:56] The poor. I is the wall
[4:01] sitting.
[4:04] I am the sitting.
[4:11] There is only breathing.
[4:17] There is no one breathing.
[4:23] There is only sitting.
[4:29] There is no one sitting.
[4:37] Peace
[4:38] while breathing.
[4:43] Joy while sitting.
[4:49] Peace
[4:51] is the breathing.
[4:55] Joy
[4:57] is the sitting.
[5:05] So yeah,
[5:25] So this is a meditation that uh Thai
[5:30] enjoy very much.
[5:32] I think we also enjoy this meditation.
[5:43] Maybe we right on the water.
[7:10] So here we talk about Buddha. Huh?
[7:14] Buddha
[7:18] And uh we also talk about I
[7:24] and we see that Buddha
[7:27] and I are not the same.
[7:32] Maybe we are also not different. But now
[7:37] we just see we are not the same.
[7:40] Today I
[7:43] cannot get myself together
[7:46] to do the practice of breathing and uh
[7:51] sitting meditation.
[7:54] So I have to call up
[7:57] the Buddha
[8:00] and invite the Buddha to do the
[8:04] practice.
[8:14] And then because I have
[8:18] been in touch with my spiritual
[8:21] ancestors
[8:23] and I've been able to touch my spiritual
[8:26] ancestors in myself,
[8:29] I suddenly find that the quality of my
[8:34] breathing is uh Like the quality of the
[8:41] what I imagine
[8:43] the quality of the Buddha's breathing.
[8:50] The quality of my sitting is like the
[8:53] quality of the Buddha's sitting.
[8:58] The Buddha's sitting. Uh we've seen uh
[9:01] many uh
[9:04] statues
[9:05] of the Buddha sitting
[9:08] straight
[9:09] solid a smile.
[9:14] Yes. And that is not something outside
[9:16] of my consciousness.
[9:18] It's something I can touch and something
[9:22] I can
[9:24] I can bring in. I can realize I can
[9:27] bring.
[9:28] But still
[9:30] that idea of Buddha is idea of Buddha
[9:34] outside of me.
[9:42] So then we go on the next part.
[10:33] So the next part is we really feel the
[10:36] breath of the Buddha. We really feel the
[10:39] sitting position of the Buddha
[10:43] and we enjoy it. It's very enjoyable to
[10:46] breathe like that, to sit like that.
[10:51] But still we feel that I and the Buddha
[10:56] are two separate realities.
[11:07] So far so good, huh? Easy to understand.
[11:12] And then we go deeper. We begin to go
[11:18] deeper. You know the um
[11:23] the diagram we had from last winter
[11:26] retreat.
[11:37] Do you remember?
[11:40] So we start off uh here with a sense of
[11:45] I a sense of a separate self
[11:49] and then we go down here
[11:53] and we arrive at a place where there is
[11:56] no longer a separate eye.
[12:27] So now we beginning that is uh when we
[12:30] start the first two we are up here. Now
[12:33] we begin to go down this line here.
[12:38] Here
[13:02] you
[13:34] So this is a verb here. Huh? Buddha is
[13:37] breathing. Buddha is sitting. This is a
[13:40] noun here. Huh? Buddha is the breathing.
[13:44] Buddha is the sitting. I am the
[13:47] breathing. I am the sitting.
[13:50] So now we begin to see
[13:53] that we cannot separate
[13:56] Buddha from the breathing.
[14:06] The Buddha is the function.
[14:10] There's no separate uh self.
[14:14] The person is the function.
[14:18] Yeah.
[14:21] So
[14:24] because this kind of breathing
[14:28] which now I am enjoying
[14:34] is
[14:38] tell me that the Buddha is there.
[14:44] That kind of breathing is the the Buddha
[14:48] breathing.
[14:54] But I am also breathing
[15:00] actually I'm breathing the breathing of
[15:02] the Buddha
[15:06] and I am the
[15:09] I am the breathing. I am the function.
[15:13] There is no I outside of that uh
[15:16] function.
[15:49] There is no oneness, no separate self.
[16:00] So now we uh we continue come down here
[16:07] and we
[16:10] we see that
[16:12] because the person breathing
[16:17] and the breathing
[16:19] cannot
[16:21] be separated.
[16:25] Therefore,
[16:28] we only need the breathing.
[16:30] We only need the the sitting.
[16:36] There is no longer a separate self that
[16:40] is uh breathing and sitting.
[17:19] So now the while practicing like this
[17:23] we experience uh there is the experience
[17:26] of peace there is the experience of joy
[17:31] when we can let go of that uh idea of I
[17:37] and there's just the breathing and the
[17:39] sitting at the same time there is peace
[17:42] and there is joy
[18:18] And then we recognize that
[18:24] outside of this uh breathing
[18:28] we
[18:30] don't have the
[18:32] we have the peace and the breathing they
[18:35] go together.
[18:38] The joy and the sitting go together.
[18:41] They are not two separate uh they are
[18:44] not two separate realities.
[18:47] So this uh this uh stage we can uh if we
[18:51] like we can call it uh
[18:56] we practice not separate self coming
[18:59] down here.
[19:17] And here we have what we call
[19:26] we call nirvana.
[19:30] Now you don't have to wait till you die
[19:32] to uh to experience nirvana
[19:36] in your sitting meditation.
[19:39] If you are skillful, you can experience
[19:44] the extinction of ideas which take you
[19:48] into a a a
[19:51] space. We call the space outside of
[19:54] space.
[19:59] Every 15 minutes.
[20:55] The one who bows and the one who is
[21:00] bowed to
[21:03] are both by nature
[21:07] empty.
[21:10] Therefore, the communication
[21:13] between them is inexpressibly
[21:18] perfect.
[21:20] Yeah, we can stop there.
[21:27] So, this little bit connected, huh?
[21:32] The one who bows that is I
[21:36] and the one who is bowed to that is
[21:40] Buddha or bodhic satwa
[21:44] and we are both we we share the same
[21:47] nature.
[21:56] So uh the practice of touching the earth
[22:00] is very helpful.
[22:03] It to go along with the this kind of
[22:05] practice. It is also a practice that can
[22:09] take us from the
[22:13] separate eye at least to the notseparate
[22:17] eye.
[22:26] But uh we have to uh it we have to
[22:32] guide ourself in doing this practice.
[22:36] So we join our palms.
[22:40] We place our
[22:43] two thumb on our forehead
[22:46] and we say to ourself
[22:49] with my brain. This is my brain
[22:54] intellect.
[22:55] And then we bring our palms down and we
[22:59] say to ourself with my heart.
[23:03] So now your heart and your brain are
[23:06] working together. They are not
[23:09] fighting or doing two separate things.
[23:13] And then you say with my whole body.
[23:17] So it's not just your heart and your
[23:20] brain that are working together.
[23:23] It's your liver, your spleen, your
[23:27] kidney, your lung, your blood.
[23:30] Everything
[23:32] everything is working together
[23:35] with my brain, with my heart, with my
[23:38] whole body. I touch the earth.
[23:42] I would like to do it, but it'll mess up
[23:44] my microphone.
[23:46] So
[23:48] then we touch the earth. So we are very
[23:51] close, as close as we can get to the
[23:55] earth.
[23:56] We feel the solidity of the earth and we
[24:01] turn our two palms up like that
[24:06] and we can say I am nothing if we like
[24:11] if you like to say that
[24:14] this I is nothing.
[24:17] Let go of everything.
[24:21] But there's another thing that I sorry I
[24:23] I left outuh I said I touched the earth.
[24:27] I shouldn't have said that. With my
[24:30] brain, with my heart,
[24:33] with my whole body,
[24:36] my mother, my father,
[24:40] all my blood ancestors, all my spiritual
[24:44] ancestors
[24:45] are touching the earth.
[24:48] That is more correct
[24:50] because I am not touching the earth as a
[24:53] separate
[24:55] entity. We are all doing it together.
[25:00] And then uh when I say like that I
[25:03] realize that I am empty of a separate
[25:07] self.
[25:09] And I have to realize also that
[25:13] you uh dear Shakyauni Buddha you also
[25:19] are empty
[25:22] of a separate self. You also made up of
[25:25] mother father all your spiritual and
[25:28] blood ancestors
[25:30] and that is why we can have a perfect
[25:35] communication.
[25:37] We are both of the same nature.
[25:42] And uh you know if you're brought up in
[25:46] the western uh tradition you may like
[25:49] think that God is up here and you are
[25:52] down there and that uh the nature of God
[25:57] is not the same as the nature of the
[26:02] of the human being. So it is uh only by
[26:08] uh devotion that you can be in touch
[26:11] with uh with God. Well, that's okay to
[26:15] start with but we need to go deeper like
[26:19] the Christian mystics have done to be
[26:23] able to see that
[26:26] uh God is not a reality outside
[26:29] of
[26:32] the human being. All other beings, all
[26:35] other creatures created by God.
[26:50] So this is uh what we have been learning
[26:53] about uh the practice of no self.
[26:59] very um
[27:01] necessary uh teaching
[27:04] of
[27:06] Buddhism.
[27:09] Not easy to understand.
[27:13] especially not easy to understand
[27:17] in terms of
[27:19] what we call action,
[27:22] karm
[27:23] and the
[27:25] fruit or the retribution of action
[27:31] because normally we think that
[27:35] there is someone who does the action
[27:39] and someone who
[27:43] received the fruit of the action
[27:48] and then people ask are we the are they
[27:51] the same or different?
[27:57] The other day when I was leading the
[28:00] chanting in the hermitage,
[28:05] I thought I knew the chanting off by
[28:07] heart,
[28:09] but I suddenly came to a part and I
[28:11] couldn't remember.
[28:13] So I stopped and none of my sisters
[28:16] could remember either. So we all stop
[28:23] and then uh we opened the book and uh we
[28:27] found out what we should have should
[28:29] have chanted.
[28:33] And uh my instinct
[28:36] was as soon as the chanting was over to
[28:41] kneel up and to
[28:45] repent. express my regret that I had let
[28:50] the chanting in such a
[28:53] not
[28:55] uh not a fruitful way because when we
[28:59] chant we don't just chant for ourselves.
[29:04] We we know that
[29:09] above us below us there are invisible
[29:13] beings who have come to hear the
[29:16] chanting.
[29:17] So we are not just and all our ancestors
[29:21] also come to hear the chanting.
[29:24] So we are not uh just chanting for the
[29:28] sisters who are there, the brothers who
[29:31] are there.
[29:34] So I feel that yes now I have to kneel
[29:37] up and I have to
[29:41] repent. Yeah that I did that and after
[29:45] that I feel better. Yeah.
[29:51] So that is uh we are responsible
[29:56] for what we consider to be our actions.
[30:02] Even though
[30:05] strictly speaking
[30:08] the one who forgot the chant and the one
[30:13] who kneels and repents are not the same
[30:19] because all kinds of things in my body
[30:22] have changed since then. My feelings
[30:25] have changed, my perceptions have
[30:27] changed. We are not the same.
[30:31] But also
[30:33] we are not different
[30:38] but we take the responsibility.
[30:40] If I don't take the responsibility for
[30:43] that, who is going to do it?
[30:47] Yeah. Someone needs to take the
[30:49] responsibility.
[31:05] One time in one sutra in the Samyukta
[31:08] Akama
[31:10] I think 236 I'm not sure the Buddha said
[31:15] something like
[31:17] if there is a self
[31:20] it is a self that is always changing
[31:26] impermanent
[31:30] not uh
[31:32] yeah not a soul that is a permanent
[31:36] entity.
[31:40] So we can look at our our self like that
[31:45] and we can look at other other selves
[31:49] like that also.
[31:52] We just uh we just we talk in these
[31:56] terms. Uh
[31:59] when we lose someone
[32:02] whom we are very close to.
[32:13] We
[32:18] we have a way of uh looking
[32:24] We feel that
[32:28] that person has died.
[32:31] That person doesn't exist anymore.
[32:39] And while that person was what we call
[32:41] alive,
[32:43] we consider that person exists.
[32:49] So now we look at the the the
[32:53] sutra uh
[32:56] which is called the theella the uh
[33:05] what do we call in English be an island
[33:08] to yourself
[33:10] being an island to yourself.
[33:15] There's a very uh interesting uh part of
[33:18] that sutra
[33:22] because at that point uh
[33:26] Shariputra and Mahamod Galagayana
[33:30] had uh died had what did they call her
[33:35] passed into Nirvana
[33:42] and many of The
[33:46] monks were very distressed
[33:50] because they lost their two elder
[33:53] brothers
[33:58] and the Buddha said when when the Buddha
[34:02] looked over the community of monks
[34:08] that day they were come together to
[34:10] recite the prati moa.
[34:14] The Buddha said, "I see a a an empty
[34:18] space left by
[34:22] those two brothers."
[34:26] And then the Buddha went on to praise
[34:28] those two brothers.
[34:34] And uh then the Buddha said something
[34:37] like
[34:41] something that is born
[34:45] that
[34:47] becomes
[34:49] that
[35:00] something that is conditioned.
[35:05] something that is uh subject to decay.
[35:12] Is how could it be possible
[35:16] for that something
[35:19] to not
[35:22] uh dissolve? It's a word like a
[35:25] dissolve.
[36:23] So now we're up on this line here.
[36:42] Something
[36:44] Y
[37:01] sat.
[37:14] P.
[37:17] Poama.
[37:53] Something
[37:56] a phenomena that is born
[38:00] that becomes keep becoming something
[38:04] different
[38:06] that is
[38:10] conditioned. Ed
[38:12] that condition means it's there because
[38:15] of causes and conditions. It's not there
[38:17] because of itself
[38:21] conditioned
[38:23] and something that is uh
[38:27] subject to dissolve
[38:31] to fall apart.
[38:34] How
[38:37] how can it not dissolve? How can it not
[38:41] fall apart? And in the Chinese, but I
[38:45] cannot write Chinese. I'm sorry.
[38:48] We have this
[38:50] sin
[38:53] p
[39:04] There
[39:11] go
[39:16] back.
[39:27] Fever.
[39:37] Why papa
[39:58] some a dharma? That something that is
[40:02] born, something that
[40:07] arises,
[40:11] something that is made,
[40:15] something that is conditioned,
[40:19] something that is uh
[40:23] disintegrate.
[40:26] How can it not my How can it not
[40:35] uh be destroyed? Yeah. How can it not be
[40:38] destroyed?
[40:46] So this is what the this is what the
[40:49] Buddha uh taught the monks on the day
[40:53] that uh they heard that their two elder
[40:57] brothers had had passed away.
[41:03] And uh there is another uh sutra
[41:09] that is in connection with this uh
[41:12] sutra.
[41:13] It is called the anorata sutra sutra if
[41:18] you like. And uh it is about
[41:24] when a young monk called an or I don't
[41:27] know if he's young or old actually and
[41:30] he's going on the arms round. He is
[41:33] stopped by a number of non Buddhist uh
[41:38] practitioners
[41:39] and they uh say, "Oh, you are a disciple
[41:43] of Gautama Buddha." What does the Buddha
[41:47] teach about these four propositions?
[41:52] After death,
[41:54] the tagata continues to exist.
[41:58] After death the taga does not continue
[42:02] to exist.
[42:04] After death that a target both continues
[42:07] and doesn't continue to exist. That is a
[42:10] bit funny. Huh? And after death that a
[42:13] target neither continues nor ceases to
[42:16] exist. This is what in India at that
[42:19] time they were all discussing.
[42:23] And Gotama Buddha, he must
[42:27] agree with one of those things because
[42:30] outside of those four things, what can
[42:32] there be?
[42:35] And then Anurada thought when the other
[42:38] ones asked him that, he thought, "Oh, I
[42:40] never heard the Buddha talk about that."
[42:45] But uh he was uh concerned because he
[42:49] could not answer them.
[42:52] and he's concerned if they ask me again
[42:54] what will I say.
[42:56] So when as soon as he came back from the
[42:59] arms he he went to visit the Buddha and
[43:04] he told the Buddha about these four
[43:06] propositions that he'd been asked about
[43:10] and
[43:13] and then the Buddha said okay I will
[43:16] give you an answer.
[43:21] So now
[43:23] the Buddha after death the Buddha exists
[43:26] or doesn't exist. Now the Buddha is
[43:28] alive.
[43:30] It's not a matter of after his death
[43:32] he's alive.
[43:34] And so uh Anura
[43:39] now I am alive. Now Buddha is alive.
[43:44] Is the Buddha
[43:46] the body?
[43:50] And Anurata said, "No, the Buddha is not
[43:55] just the body."
[43:57] Is the Buddha the feelings?
[44:01] No, it's not the feelings, the
[44:04] perceptions, the mental formation, the
[44:07] consciousness.
[44:09] And to each thing Anurat had to say,
[44:11] "No, I cannot find the Buddha in the
[44:15] body. I cannot find in the feelings."
[44:19] And so and and so the Buddha asked then
[44:22] after
[44:25] uh
[44:26] then
[44:29] outside is is the Buddha something
[44:32] outside of the body outside of the
[44:35] feelings the perception the mental
[44:37] formation of consciousness and and said
[44:40] no I cannot find the Buddha outside
[44:43] and then the Buddha said
[44:46] now I'm alive sitting in front of you
[44:48] you cannot find me. How do you expect to
[44:51] find me after I
[44:54] have passed away?
[44:56] The Buddha has only taught two things.
[44:59] Illbeing and the end of ill-being.
[45:05] This a cut through all the specul
[45:08] speculations.
[45:12] But uh when we uh
[45:16] when we lose someone
[45:18] who is uh dear to us,
[45:26] we have an idea about
[45:30] how they existed.
[45:38] We have an idea about
[45:41] how they walked, how they
[45:47] how they sat, how they talked.
[45:51] And then we have an idea that now
[45:55] that uh
[45:58] that doesn't exist anymore.
[46:05] But they are both uh both ideas
[46:12] actually. While that person
[46:39] was uh
[46:43] walking and talking. Our mind was
[46:52] grasping,
[46:55] catching
[46:58] that person,
[47:01] putting them in a box
[47:04] which we think is a reality.
[47:08] But even at that time
[47:12] they were dissolving.
[47:16] Their feelings were dissolving. Their
[47:19] body was dissolving
[47:22] and being renewed.
[47:36] So that is very when my uh my father my
[47:41] mother pass away.
[47:45] I also practice to meditate
[47:51] to see my perceptions that I had of them
[47:55] when they were alive
[47:58] and to see that those perceptions that I
[48:01] had were not correct. They were not the
[48:05] reality of my father and my mother
[48:08] although I grasped to them and thought
[48:10] they were reality.
[48:12] And now I feel that I have lost that
[48:16] reality which was never a reality.
[48:20] So I practiced like that.
[48:27] And not only uh my mother and my father
[48:30] but also myself. I put myself in a box,
[48:35] a reality.
[48:39] So the Buddha taught the
[48:44] the causes and conditions
[48:49] in order to help us uh
[48:52] not get caught in in that kind of
[48:55] reality.
[48:57] This is because that is this is not
[49:00] because that is not
[50:01] So this uh this is from the the the the
[50:06] sutra on being an island to yourself
[50:10] when the two brothers pass away.
[50:22] is also a wonderful practice to be an
[50:25] island to yourself.
[50:29] Of course, there is no no separate self
[50:34] but uh
[50:38] you can still be an island to yourself.
[50:41] That is the only way we can express in a
[50:43] human language.
[50:45] When you say being an island unto myself
[50:49] as an island unto myself,
[50:53] you come back. You come back to your
[50:56] your five scandas
[50:59] and you feel that you are deeply uh in
[51:02] in inside your five scandas
[51:07] and you are not uh thinking about what
[51:10] other people are doing or to you or or
[51:14] what other people think of you. You are
[51:16] just completely
[51:18] in in what we call myself. Yeah.
[51:23] So that is uh also a wonderful practice
[51:26] and it is the practice that was
[51:28] suggested by the Buddha.
[51:32] When you uh come back to yourself and
[51:36] you see that yourself is
[51:41] so vast, it is made up of everything
[51:44] that is not your yourself.
[51:49] Then you also see that those two
[51:52] brothers
[51:54] who passed away
[51:56] are like that
[52:00] and uh the communication between
[52:04] between you is uh perfect.
[52:16] So then there is the other uh sutra we
[52:20] call the Odana or the itibbutaka.
[52:24] And that sutra the Buddha said monks
[52:29] there is
[52:32] something born
[52:35] something that becomes
[52:40] something that is conditioned
[52:46] something that is made.
[52:53] We accept that. Then the Buddha said,
[52:57] "Munks, there is something that is not
[53:01] born,
[53:05] not become,
[53:08] not made, not
[53:12] conditioned.
[53:17] If there were not
[53:21] the thing that is not born not become
[53:24] etc
[53:25] there would be no escape
[53:28] for what is born
[53:33] become condition and so on.
[53:37] So
[53:40] when we talk about something that is
[53:42] born, something that is conditioned,
[53:49] it means that there is a something.
[53:53] There is
[53:56] an identity, a separate self that is
[54:01] born and is conditioned.
[54:10] So we are up here with separate eye
[54:15] and so that thing it also has to be come
[54:19] to an end. It has to be destroyed
[54:24] but we need an escape from that.
[54:34] I don't know if we should say we need an
[54:36] escaper but there is an escape from that
[54:46] and by
[54:48] going here we
[54:52] understand
[54:55] that which is not born
[54:58] that which does not become.
[55:07] And
[55:08] when we talk about that which is not
[55:10] born, it is also not correct
[55:14] because
[55:15] there is no separate self that is not
[55:19] born.
[55:21] It doesn't become.
[55:27] So this uh this uh the not born is still
[55:32] coming down here. Huh? It's not the
[55:34] touching the reality
[55:39] because that reality it is cannot be
[55:41] grasped. It cannot be cannot be
[55:44] expressed
[55:46] but it can be realized. It can be
[55:51] experienced
[55:53] like when you touch the earth with all
[55:56] your ancestors and you you realize the
[56:00] communication
[56:03] or like when you uh
[56:07] touch the one who has uh your loved one
[56:11] who has passed away.
[56:17] You can uh you cannot express that with
[56:21] words.
[57:47] So I think that uh our teacher has
[57:50] described very well these um
[57:54] these different uh
[57:57] uh concept these different teachings of
[57:59] the Buddha.
[58:01] Um
[58:07] I don't know whether
[58:12] laden you with some more concepts. I
[58:14] don't know whether I should
[58:55] So there's a teaching of the Buddha
[58:57] which is uh
[59:00] which we find in in all the the sutras
[59:04] well nearly all of them every very
[59:06] often. It is called the teaching of the
[59:09] 12 nidanas.
[59:11] The 12 uh links of causes and
[59:15] conditions.
[59:17] Actually we know that uh at some point
[59:21] when the sutras were being handed down
[59:24] orally
[59:26] the um there was a a tendency to replace
[59:33] uh
[59:36] maybe five six uh 10 uh nidanas with 12
[59:43] because for some reason the number 12
[59:47] was considered to be the final word of
[59:50] the Buddha. But actually we know that
[59:54] the Buddha taught uh many other numbers
[59:59] of causes and conditions.
[1:00:01] And even um in um
[1:00:08] the the sutra which is called the Maha
[1:00:10] Nidana Sutra.
[1:00:26] That is number 15 of the diaya.
[1:00:33] It's equivalent. I think I may have
[1:00:36] forgotten. I'm sorry if I get it wrong.
[1:00:38] Somebody put me right.
[1:00:41] In Chinese is I think
[1:00:45] the diagama number 13.
[1:00:48] And
[1:00:51] in this uh sutra the Buddha only talks
[1:00:54] about 10
[1:00:56] nidanas
[1:00:59] and I think that is correct. I think at
[1:01:02] that time the Buddha just taught 10. But
[1:01:06] if we look in the equivalent sutra in
[1:01:09] the diga argama we see that
[1:01:13] he taught 12.
[1:01:16] So I think they just put in 12
[1:01:20] because they don't like it always to be
[1:01:22] different.
[1:01:24] That's my feeling.
[1:01:28] So the um
[1:01:32] yeah that day uh Anand came to the
[1:01:34] Buddha and said
[1:01:37] that Anand had been meditating
[1:01:40] and he'd been meditating on the
[1:01:43] causes and conditions
[1:01:46] And he came to the Buddha to report
[1:01:49] about his meditation. And he said this
[1:01:53] teaching of causality of conditioned
[1:01:56] co-arising
[1:01:58] is very deep
[1:02:01] very complex
[1:02:03] and I have understood it.
[1:02:07] And then the Buddha said, "Don't say
[1:02:10] that, Ananda.
[1:02:12] It is indeed very deep and very
[1:02:15] complex." And yeah, so please don't
[1:02:18] think you've understood it. And the same
[1:02:20] is true for us. Don't think that you uh
[1:02:24] you've understood it. You can always go
[1:02:26] deeper.
[1:02:33] And so the Buddha um we will look at
[1:02:36] this mahanidana now.
[1:02:39] And so the Buddha said that uh
[1:02:43] this uh samsara
[1:02:47] this cycle of birth and death
[1:02:52] it has causes and conditions.
[1:03:08] So there is a death
[1:03:16] and
[1:03:18] and the consequent
[1:03:21] pain,
[1:03:24] ill-being, the whole mass of illbeing.
[1:03:41] so that we have that. And why do we have
[1:03:44] death? Because we have birth.
[1:03:50] Why do we have birth? Because we have
[1:03:52] becoming.
[1:03:57] Why do we have becoming? Because we have
[1:03:59] grasping.
[1:04:04] Why do we have grasping? Because we have
[1:04:06] craving.
[1:04:10] Why do we have craving? Because we have
[1:04:14] feeling.
[1:04:18] 1 2 3 4 5 6. We're feeling we have
[1:04:21] contact.
[1:04:26] One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
[1:04:29] Why do we have contact? Because we have
[1:04:31] six senses.
[1:04:38] Why do we have six senses? Because we
[1:04:40] have psychi
[1:04:45] body and mind.
[1:04:48] Why do we have namar rupa?
[1:04:52] Why do we have psychi? Because we have
[1:04:54] consciousness.
[1:05:01] Why do we have consciousness?
[1:05:05] Because we have psychoma.
[1:05:08] You cannot go any further than that. The
[1:05:10] Buddha said.
[1:05:16] So that is good the Buddha explained
[1:05:18] like that because we see that this is
[1:05:20] not a linear something. This is a a
[1:05:23] cycle.
[1:05:27] But uh uh when Tai has been teaching and
[1:05:32] then they they add the two that get
[1:05:35] added for the 12 are ignorance
[1:05:42] and formation.
[1:05:58] So this give rise to ideas like uh if if
[1:06:02] if we are die because we are born we
[1:06:05] don't want to be born anymore then we
[1:06:07] won't have to die.
[1:06:16] So after that we get idea of uh you can
[1:06:19] uh you can enjoy eternal death.
[1:06:32] But uh when uh our teacher looked
[1:06:37] at these causes and conditions,
[1:06:44] you know, you can take a little parts of
[1:06:47] them and they make a lot of sense, but
[1:06:49] then they put them all together. It
[1:06:50] doesn't make so much sense. When our
[1:06:54] teacher look at all these causes and
[1:06:56] conditions,
[1:07:00] He taught us
[1:07:03] that
[1:07:07] we cannot by meditating on this
[1:07:13] really touch the deepest uh teachings of
[1:07:16] the the Buddha
[1:07:26] because the deepest teachings of the
[1:07:29] Buddha they they teach
[1:07:33] no death, no birth, no death, no
[1:07:37] becoming.
[1:07:40] You know when you recite the praa
[1:07:45] sutra you say that uh the 12 links of no
[1:07:53] no 12 links and no extinction of them.
[1:07:57] Extinction of them means you just get
[1:07:59] rid of them by by not being born
[1:08:01] anymore. But
[1:08:05] yeah they are empty.
[1:08:15] all this thing empty of separate
[1:08:18] separate self.
[1:08:21] So there was a tendency to think that
[1:08:23] all these things are separate uh
[1:08:26] realities
[1:08:30] but in fact they are all made up of of
[1:08:32] everything else.
[1:08:40] So the question that T was asking
[1:08:46] is
[1:08:48] how can we have
[1:08:51] a series of links that
[1:08:56] help us?
[1:08:58] We have to go back to our
[1:09:01] diagram.
[1:09:04] Help us go down this uh this part of the
[1:09:08] the zed.
[1:09:10] Help us go down here from the from the
[1:09:15] concepts of separate realities to touch
[1:09:20] the the deepest reality the ultimate
[1:09:24] dimension.
[1:09:26] But this it cannot help us.
[1:09:31] So we have to uh
[1:09:35] we can um
[1:09:37] we can include these two.
[1:09:44] Ignorance means
[1:09:46] wrong perceptions
[1:09:49] and formations
[1:09:53] are
[1:09:56] conditioned things.
[1:09:59] So all phenomena all phenomena are
[1:10:02] conditioned things
[1:10:05] and because we have wrong perceptions
[1:10:09] about phenomena.
[1:10:16] We have all this uh
[1:10:21] these formations are not the reality of
[1:10:24] the formations
[1:10:28] because we have wrong perception about
[1:10:30] them.
[1:10:41] If you look at the
[1:10:44] crysanthemum
[1:10:51] your um
[1:10:53] your brain your your mind will uh tell
[1:10:57] you that that is a a chrysanthemum. It
[1:11:01] is not a
[1:11:03] not uh an orchid.
[1:11:10] But uh unless you have been trained or
[1:11:13] you you can concentrate enough you will
[1:11:17] not see that what you are looking at
[1:11:20] is a formation.
[1:11:24] It is formed by
[1:11:27] myriad uh causes and conditions.
[1:11:31] sunshine, rain, earths,
[1:11:36] so many things including your own
[1:11:38] perception. And if you take anything any
[1:11:41] of those myriad conditions out that
[1:11:44] crysanthemum will no longer be there.
[1:11:48] So normally when we look at uh
[1:11:51] formations
[1:11:53] we look at another person we look at
[1:11:55] ourself we are also formations it is
[1:11:58] with the wrong perceptions.
[1:12:05] But if on the other hand we our
[1:12:09] perception is less wrong is nearer to
[1:12:12] the truth
[1:12:14] then we will
[1:12:18] see that uh
[1:12:22] that what we call that formation
[1:12:26] is not a reality
[1:12:29] like we thought it us.
[1:12:45] It doesn't really exist or not exist. So
[1:12:50] after uh ignorance formations you have
[1:12:53] the being
[1:12:57] and because you have being you have to
[1:12:59] have non-being
[1:13:07] and because you have being and
[1:13:08] non-being, you have um you have life and
[1:13:12] death.
[1:13:15] Life is being, death is non-being.
[1:13:22] And because of that you have this whole
[1:13:24] mass of ill-being separate self.
[1:13:32] So if you want you can put a separate
[1:13:34] self in here.
[1:13:45] Wrong perception lead to wrong
[1:13:48] perception of formation lead to the idea
[1:13:51] of a separate self lead to the idea of
[1:13:53] being non-being. Being non-being lead to
[1:13:57] the idea of life and death and then all
[1:14:00] the samsara the suffering.
[1:14:12] But if you remove the wrong perceptions
[1:14:16] then you have correct uh insight into
[1:14:20] you have the insight into the formations
[1:14:24] you see them.
[1:14:26] You no longer have the idea of a
[1:14:28] separate self. You no longer have the
[1:14:31] idea of being non-being. You may have be
[1:14:34] understanding
[1:14:37] because there's no idea of being and
[1:14:40] non-being. There cannot be the idea of
[1:14:42] life and death because these two things
[1:14:44] are
[1:14:46] are they they go together. We think that
[1:14:51] when you life when you're alive you
[1:14:53] exist and when you die you don't exist
[1:14:56] and therefore you you you suffer.
[1:15:03] So in the on the other side you you can
[1:15:06] say you have um
[1:15:12] understanding, huh? As opposed to
[1:15:16] ignorance.
[1:15:47] Yeah, we have instead of being non being
[1:15:49] have intervene.
[1:16:13] Oh, I left out the separate self. Huh?
[1:16:23] Nana.
[1:16:31] Formations as they are, they are not
[1:16:33] separate selves.
[1:16:50] One, two, three, four, five, six
[1:16:54] instead of 12.
[1:16:56] uh be because said that the formations
[1:16:59] it include grasping, craving, feeling
[1:17:01] and all these things. So you don't need
[1:17:04] to put them separately.
[1:17:07] But in certain context you may want to
[1:17:09] do that.
[1:18:06] So I think all I can do now is to wish
[1:18:08] you good luck and
[1:18:10] and um
[1:18:13] please continue a deep practice of
[1:18:16] touching the earth.
[1:18:18] Um yeah not to touch the earth as a an
[1:18:23] individual self and also the meditations
[1:18:28] like the meditation on let the Buddha
[1:18:31] breathe let the Buddha sit and uh also
[1:18:34] other meditation like I'm sitting with
[1:18:37] my mother's back I am breathing with my
[1:18:40] father's lungs and things and
[1:18:42] meditations like that that help you
[1:18:46] cut through a little bit the idea of a
[1:18:48] separate self and at the same time cut
[1:18:51] through the the complexes. As long as we
[1:18:54] have a superiority, inferiority or
[1:18:57] equality complex, we still are caught in
[1:19:01] separate. So yes, thank you for
[1:19:05] listening. We now listen to three sounds
[1:19:08] of the bell.
