Freedom Starts From Refreshing Your Way of Seeing Things

[Music] h [Music] good morning dear s today is uh the 13th of December 2012 and we are in the tangram meditation Hall full moon meditation Hall New hamlet in the Winter retreat 2012 2013 last time we spoke about home and uh we know that once we are home we don't we no longer feel lonely if you're at home warm comfortable safe ffi so home is a place where uh loneliness disappears but where is home and the Buddha said it very clearly that home is in us and there is an Island that you have to go back to the island of self and this is a practice not a theory loneliness is the your being of our time we feel very lonely even if we are surrounded by many people we are lonely together and there is a vacuum inside of us you don't feel comfortable with that kind of uh vacuum so we try to fill it up by connecting with uh other people we believe that when we can connect with other people and then the feeling of loneliness will disappear and Technology supplies us with a lot of uh devices in order to connect stay connected we only stay connected but we feel lonely continue to feel lonely we check email several times a day we send email several time a day you post messages every time a day you want to share you want to receive and we busy yeah get busy during the whole day in order to connect but that does not help with loneliness with uh reducing the amount of loneliness in us this is what happens in the present moment in our modern civilization our relationship is not good we are not in good relationship with our partner without our brother without our sister without our parents without our society if feel very lonely and uh we have used Technologies in order to dissipate to try to dissipate that feeling of loneliness but we do not we have not succeeded and uh in the tradition of plumish every time we sit down on question that is uh to connect with ourselves because we in our daily life we are disconnected with ourselves we walk and we don't know that we are walking we are there but we do not know that we are there we are alive but we do not know that we are alive we are losing ourself we are not ourselves and that is happening almost all all day long long so the act of sitting down is an act of uh Revolution you sit down and you cut off you stop that state of uh being losing yourself not being yourself and when you sit down you connect to yourself and you don't need an iPhone or a computer to do that you just need to sit down mindfully and breathe in mindfully and in a few seconds you connect with yourself you know what is going on what is going on in your body what is going on in your feelings in your emotions what is going on in your perceptions and you are already home and to take care of home you have left home for a long time and home has become a mess so going home means to sit down and be with yourself and connect with yourself and accept the situation as it is it is a mess yes but I accept it because I have left home for a long time I have allowed things to happen like that at home so now I am home I I will rearrange everything and with my in breath my out breath my mindful breathing I begin to smile at everything and I will tidy up my home I allow my body to release the tension while breathing in and breathing out and the Buddha told me how to do that how to breathe in and how to release the tension in my body I'm aware of my feeling of loneliness of sadness of fear of anxiety I smile to the feeling of loneliness of of anxiety I say my dear loneliness I know you are there I'm home to take care of you and you make peace with your loneliness you make peace with your fear there's a wondered child in you you recognize her you recognize him and you Embrace him her tally in your arms that is the act of going home and taking care of home every time you make a step whether you are breathing in or breathing out you go back to yourself every step bring you home to the here and the now so that you can connect with yourself your body your feelings and that is real connection and you don't need uh a lot of uh technology to do that and this is the revolution this is the uh the way to heal ourselves and our society we are losing ourself we are lost we have to find ourself again we have to go and Christmas is a time when we have to practice going home there is a a illusion of uh connection you think with that technology with these uh devices you can connect but you cannot really connect how can you connect with another person when you cannot connect with yourself so the teaching of the Buddha going home to the island of self is the way to heal our society to heal ourselves [Applause] so with uh the act of uh breathing in you go inside the way out is in when you take a step you go in yourself because that step bring you home to the here and the now help you to connect with your body your body is your breathing your body is your feet your body is your lungs and you are connecting with body with feet with uh breath with lungs you at home because body is part of your home when you spend two hours with your computer you forget entirely that you have a body and with you without your body how can you be alive so in blish many uh of us uh uh program a b mindfulness in our computer and every 15 minutes we hear the bell and we stop working we stop thinking we go back to our in breath we enjoy what is and we connect with ourselves and we smile we become alive again we know that we have a body which is a Wonder our body is a wonder and connect is first of all connect with body and then there is a feeling whether that is a feeling of sadness or anger or l it is us we connect with our in breath and out breath and then --- go to the other whether they are an individual or they are a society a group of people so this is the way prescribed by the Buddha everything has to begin for yourself and the teaching the practice is very clear every breath every step every sitting every act like uh drinking uh cleaning if uh done in mindfulness help you to go home and to enjoy the wonders of life around you and in you your body is a wonder and the heel the clear streams of water they are all wonders and they have the power to [Applause] heal brother is uh submarine is trying to put these ideas into a a little page and send to our friends so that they can practice uh during the Christmas season the practice of going home to heal ourselves and help heal the world now we have to go back to the Sutra [Applause] you know that uh that uh H formation Sam scar s Sam samcara formation is a Buddhist term a technical term to designate uh everything like a flower uh a marker a uh book a person uh a tree everything is a formation we don't see things we don't say things but we say formation or sometime call them dhama dhama dhama F entities essences the cloud is a Dharma the cloud is a formation the rock is is a dharm the rock is a formation as far as te is concerned the Dharma should be in capital letter the D should be I take refus Dharma but Dharma here means than formations and the word formation is a good word because everything is have to lean on other things in order to to to be formed formation is called compos things composit and agglomeration and coming together of many elements but there are many ways of looking at things those who do not have uh Insight they call it uh regular uh uh people [Laughter] regular people who do not people f farm food Ordinary People Ordinary People they see formations as having their own nature solid permanent as self as essences they see formations as self and uh and and uh Essence Atma and DH and they see that uh there is action there is an actor and there is uh a person who receive the fruit of the action there is uh the actor and there is uh someone who receive uh the fruit of his action and uh Ordinary People the people who have not got the Insight they believe in formations as separated uh entities permanent having self and they believe that there is uh uh there are uh owners of the body of the mind that is uh a actor that act and there is a filler a receptor receiver of uh the fruit of uh action of his action and also looking at formations like that they see uh they see things in terms of uh of uh uh being and non-be baa and ABA they look at things in terms of being and non-be they look at things in terms of actor and and receiver and they also see uh uh birth and death production and destruction creation and destruction so this is uh the the historical in the histal dimension we see there is a birth and death being and non-be uh actor and receiver uh and all these uh phenomen phenomena that exist outside others having separate own uh nature and that is the conventional truth but when we uh when we look more deeply We Touch uh the ultimate truth which which is uh uh which is uh which has which is of the nature of no birth and no death [Music] no being no non being no actor no receiver and finally no no formation uh M formation and uh this sentence this utterance of the Buddha can be found in the I vaka and also in the and the and the sentence is like this big big mons that is uh the bone the becoming the doing and the formation but there is also the no not born not becoming not acting and not formation if there there was no if this uh non not born not becoming not non-acting not no formation is not there and there will be no Escape for what is born for what is becoming from what is acting and from what is uh uh compositing that sentence is an up of the Buddha utterance of the Buddha that can be found in both uh in both U uh scriptures itaka and udana and in the Chinese um scripture we find it again in the DAP sh D so if you base if we base on this we can set up five uh kind of uh Nas first of all there is ignorance aidia and because uh of uh ignorance you see the word as uh formations formations as self and Essence self and Essence and that is why you you can see the owner the after and the receiver self and as you see uh a permanent self a separate self and you see that he can be there or he cannot be there she can be there or she cannot be there and uh you have the notion of uh being and non being [Music] so you have 1 2 3 four need n and as you see you see things in terms of being and non-be you see all things on in terms of birth and death clear enough simple enough and you you you get a set of five Nas that are very uh uh very very um [Music] harmonious if there is no ignorance and then you look at uh the world not in terms of uh self and separated Essences so the stealing the the pacification of uh the formations you see you see formations not in terms of uh of self and separate uh own beings but you see them as uh co co arising of Co being inter being into arising you see in in the light of uh go arising with uh ignorance you see them as self and separated Essence but with uh with uh Insight which means with the Right View with Right View we see formations as uh leaning on each others in order to manifest sometime we call it basing on other things in to arise this is a so with ignorance you see formations as self and uh Essence but with inside with Right View you see them as uh co-arising entities and then if you see them as a CO Rising entities you don't see them as uh in terms of uh actor and reer anymore no no [Applause] self no s there is a the r but we don't need a rain to --- cloud so because of ignorance you see birth and death and because you see birth and death you see being and non-being and because you see things in terms of being non being you see that our self doer and receiver self I am not you father is not [Applause] son Israeli are not Palestinians and when we see we see self like that we see formation as uh as self and uh we see you see things as uh permanent formations as uh as self and uh Essences outside VI is having their own true nature and when and this uh this uh this word you live in having birth and death having been and non being having self having uh uh permanent uh entities they are a construction of your mind and you suffer and you up and down you suffer because of these Notions and that is why uh you suffer samsara Sam so according to the Sutra if Daka and udana you can begin with birth and death being a non-be doer and receiver and formations but you can do the other way because of ignorance there is this world of mental construction and in the world of mental construction you see self you see being and nonbeing you see birth and death and you suffer some s and uh what is wonderful is that the six nanas the engender each other not only in a linear way but also like this because of ignorance you see birth and death and as you see things in terms of birth and that your ignorance become stronger so this the first and the second and the second with the third and the third with the second and we you go like this and the first not only produce the second but the F the the third the first also produce the third and the third produce the first and the same thing is through with the fourth the fifth and the sixth and vice versa so one thing one of the need cont contribute to strengthen to form the other ganas so we are not in the linear linear uh uh structure and this is more uh of the Buddhist Insight because the according to Buddhist insight there is no first course there's no first cause that notion of first cause is contradictory uh to itself because we we we we uh we need a go for everything it will not be satisfying if they something without cause so the first cause is uh absurd and in Buddhism every cause is at the same time an effect like the cloud is the conation of the vapor it is an effect but it is onto the cause of brain so cause must be effect at the same time [Applause] so now let us go to the T Nas as it is presented in many many Su ignorance leaning on ignorance there are formations and leaning on formations are consciousness leaning unconsciousness there is uh name and form basing on name and form we have uh the six organ look and because of the organ sense organs you have uh the contact the touch so be leaning on contact we have uh feelings and lineon feelings you have a craving I and because of craving we are caught grasping to and because of grasping we have being [Music] becoming and because of being we have to to suffer birth again and because we suffer of birth you have to suffer also of uh all age and death so last time we see that there are many uh winess in this kind of presenting first of all it is presented in the linear way and they gave the impression that uh ignorance is the first cause but everything here contribute to strengthen to make ignorance so it's better to follow this uh way of uh of presenting the need onas not only uh ignorance uh create formation but also formation the way we see things strengthen ignorance and the same thing is through with all the other needers so the laner structure is not the best and we know that uh in the light of uh independent uh Co Rising the notion of uh only cause is not acceptable the notion of first cause is not acceptable because when we observe things we don't see anything as the first cause because everything is also an effect of everything else so if we demand that is a safe uh first C uh is not consistent is goes against our logic uh reason and then if there is this first cause there is only cause which is uh also an error because when you observe things we never see one go can bring an effect there there is a multitude of causes in order for something to to manifest so both notion of first cause and only cause should be uh should be removed and presenting uh the T Nas uh in know linear linear way uh can bring about that kind of misunderstanding uh it uh leads to misunderstanding the second weakness of the set is that in presenting like this and then we cannot explain samsara samk as formations in the in the original sense [Applause] anymore in the other set we know that from ignorance we see the word as formation and formations are the phenomenal World there are physical formations like a tree like a rock the mental formation like our anger our fear and there's a physiological formation is like body and everything is a formation and because of ignorance we see formations as separated entities and this is very logical and here you have to explain formation here is uh Samra Sam here is not formation some SC here is some kind of impulses some kind of Karma and many teachers described thisas in terms of uh uh mind mind the the action of the Mind the action of uh the body and the action of uh of the speech but how how can it be possible to have that kind of uh Karma formation when mind and body and Cogan are only appear here down here so it's not logical that uh formation as explained as a Karma as action comma uh come first and and then the action of the mouth and of the body and of the Mind come later on much later that is the second weakness not as formation formation should be understood as uh Damas as uh phenomena as uh formations as composite things and if we --- we get if uh if uh if we don't see uh birth and death being a non-being and then there will be no age no death no birth no uh no suffering no Samara so this is samsara so if you bring that up here and then you can make the T as samsara birth should go with death and when we are free from from birth and death naturally we are free from from samsar so the 12 the 12 maybe call Sam so the nine weak uh weakness of the set is to give the impression that uh the Buddhist they they only likes one thing non being that uh that non being is the a Eternal death is a is the a this is very [Applause] serious there are already five or six Western Scholars on Buddhism who have arrived at this conclusion that n is only Eternal death that follow maybe a period of 20 30 years when the sin is still alive when the saint when the AR is still alive he experence some n and after he died he will die forever and that is n and we find out that this set of Nas aim at explaining explaining Sam the mechanism of birth and of reincarnation rather than to help us uh connect with the ultimate the conventional we look deeply in such a way that it can connect with the timate and uh the teaching and practice leading us to the ultimate uh Dimension should be able to help and not to to to stand under way so this way of presenting the 12 links can be useful elsewhere but not in the teing of uh the middle path because this teaching is this teaching is does not help us to be connected to the Ultimate Reality because it is against the middle path the the way it is uh presented there only one side craving without hating grasping without releasing being without non-be birth without uh death so this has no epistemological purpose this is uh not presented in the light of uh of uh of the practice of uh of looking deeply of uh of um uh meditation because uh we know that in Buddhism salvation Liberation is made not by prayer but by looking deeply and when you look deeply you get the insight and you get out of uh notion of birth and death being a non-being self and uh phenomena as uh separate real entities and when you have seen that Samara disappear you don't have to get out of samsar there is no samsar at all why do you have to struggle in order to get out do you think that the cloud has to struggle in order to get out of birth and death it is now free of birth and death and we also our nature of the nature of no birth and no death and we know that science has come have got a lims on that also because the first uh law of thermodynamics tell us that there is nothing born nothing died the law of of the conservation of matter and energy tell us that you cannot create matter you cannot destroy matter you cannot create energy you cannot destroy energy uh energy and matters their nature is no birth and no death but science has not been able to make use of that Insight in order to deal with their suffering with the suffering of the scientist and in uh if we work only with our mind we can see that uh freedom is possible n is possible the realm of no birth and no death is there but still we continue to suffer like someone have found a a well so deep they know that there is water they can see the water but they don't have an instrument in order to get the water down from down here up here to drink so all those scientist have have have agreed that said nothing born nothing died but I still suffer of the fear of birth birth and death being and non-be and that is why uh it's not a problem of uh Concepts intellectualizing the problem of uh meditation live in such a way that the wisdom the inside become a part of our daily life when you look at things like a cloud like uh our partner we have to see the nature of the nature of no birth and no death no being and no no non-be and if you continue like that uh we will be free from fear from uh from uh discrimination from anger and so on and that that Freedom From Fear anger and discrimination it is it is possible the five myess trainings are con very concrete uh uh expression of the of the path uh the Four Noble Truth the fourth no Noble Truth reflecting the inside of uh of uh inter being the Insight of no birth and no death and if we really try to to live according to the five trainings we can experience freedom and n every moment it's like when we uh step on a um torn when we step on the torn and you got the torn inside of our flesh we suffer we suffer and we think that they will there will be no peace un unless we take it out and when we are able to take the Thor out we feel wonderful that is freedom that is n so every every every afflictions like anger and fear and loneliness they are like Tes and you suffer because the Tor are in there so if we can extract on T we experience one freedom and we have n that part of n so to remove uh afflictions like fear anger despair loneliness is possible and if you feel free and life that is Nana don't say that Nana is something abstract far away it is possible in the here and the now with every step you make in mindfulness you get free and that freedom is n free from the past freedom from the future free from your worries that is n so there are two kinds of obstacle for n the first one is afflictions feel now and the second one is a shy anger fear despair afflictions and our PR this is our wrong perceptions perception of being and non-being perception of self and no self all these are obstacle for for NE as we remove one by one our afflictions and our uh our our wrong perceptions we enlarge our freedom and that freedom is the one in the here and the now and is not ital death like people [Applause] say is uh is clear [Music] enough [Applause] good [Applause] for for