This way of speaking about it is so radically simple that it has taken me months to start to understand it, but it is possible to understand. See the video "Stop wanting the wanting of sensuality " also on this channel for more good information on this particular topic
Im halfway through and hey, Ive listened to spiritual teachers for about a decade; this level of wisdom is RARE. As Im listening, there is a comforting sense of truth within, even as if a knife is separating my mind from body, whereas before mind believed in body through the senses. As if the talk is a map, the signs on the road were sense objects pointing along the way, and yet only now have I put two and two together to realize where I am is the destination. Good for you, teacher 🙏🏽 great talk.
It's sinking in. This video seemed the most direct and clear of all. Thank you. Thanks for putting all this on video. I've struggled with addictions/confusions for all my life. This video, and so many of your other one's too, are truly getting to the place I've been looking for all along. I've already noticed some cessation of the pressures, and this is encouraging me to continue discerning. As a lay person I thankfully live by myself. Now I no longer resist isolation, as society tells me to get out there and socialize, and do stuff in the world. I don't have a question at this moment, other than, how do I find a print copy of the Suttas, that's the correct one? Thank you.
after almost listening to all of your video, finally i could understand what you said in this video Bhante, im very glad that i could hear this message Bhante, pleasant and joy arise understanding this message.. sadhu
Thanks, very clear. Just added following note after listening. Human apply various techniques when taming a wild elephant. Wild elephant never wants to change his behaviour at first but eventually it will. Take your body and mind as a human and the sensuality is the wild elephant. First he has to capture a wild elephant in order to apply the techniques. Listening and researching Dhamma is the way for capturing it. Technique is the discerning, anything and everything is an instant impermanence, which is just a rising and ceasing of sensual thought. We have no clue of this turh, we practice a wrong view. This is my body and my mind and that is my own property, I am the owner of all of these. We forgot, we can leave them alone at this present moment. First, we have to capture the behaviour of wild elephant, our sensuality. Then apply the technique. To do this, we need an intention to tame it knowing the benifits out of it. Benefit is the complete liberation from liabilities of current suffering. If we don't do it, mind will be wild anyway and current practice will continue with all liabilities. It's our choice. The technique is nothing other than discerning how sensuality occurs at each and every moment. We cannot hold a single thought moment but we are trying to hold it for longer. Even highly satisfied thought, definitely ends up with suffering, because it will never be the same. That's the nature. With proper understanding of this instance impermanence, we eventualy let it go without attempting to hold it, if it's created accidentally by forgetting this ultimate truth. No suffering remain. Wild elephant has the same outlook but internally it is completely different, no way of generating sorrow.
Thanks Bhante. Should the mind and mind objects be seen in exactly the same way as the other senses/sense objects? (eg. Its not my eye that likes, its just an eye there peripherally liking things on its own; likewise its not my mind, it too is just there in the world liking things on its own). It seems to me that without perception, the senses wouldn't have anything to like/dislike, I wonder how perception fits into the whole picture? 🙏🙏🙏
I see it this way. Upon sense contact at first you are confronted with a feeling, pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Now the problem is that we lack the ability to discern the feeling for what it is , the moment that it arises. This lack of momentaneous recognition forces us into habitual reactions. You then create the assumption that you should have less of it if unpleasant or more of it if pleasant. When a neutral feeling is not discerned for what is is, it also becomes a unpleasant feeling. After that a process begins which is only triggered due to the fact that you haven't fully discerned the feeling for what it is on a conscious level of awareness. You are forced to react to the feeling by not fully recognizing and reflecting weather it is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral the moment that it arises. That way when you come to the understanding of what that present feeling is that you actually endure, it is already to late because it already has foreced you into reaction. You basically then start to claim ownership of that feeling assuming that that feeling is something controllable. So that assumption is part of your perception. And yes , if you wouldn't perceive it as something controllable, something that should be owned by you there would be no need for liking or disliking it.
What is the "you" that chooses what to engage with or present to the animal? And do you have control over that "you" and the choices it makes, or is that also determined by further factors down the chain?
What does he mean by peripherally? to look at body's attachments through their objects of attachments(indirectly) vs directly observing the sensation that the attachment causes? Thank you
Sir, when one questions themselves, how should they do so that they can see the background and don’t just use part knowledge to answer it or just psychologize it? My current understanding is that Dharma is currently enduring. I make sure I remember it and when I ask a question, I make sure that question will lead me to that direction where everything is enduring. Which is usually on the level of feelings. Please help me clarify and improve on it so I don’t not make wrong practice out of it.
Permanent liberation is the result of sufficient dwelling in the discernment of the extent of the body that constitutes at least the first jhana or higher.
So in other words, the level of seeing the body for what it really is , in terms of identification with the khandas, directly determines the level of recognition of the first two noble truths. Whereby the full recognition of the first two noble truths automatically leads to avoidance and loss of interest in all processes which include desire, as well as the attainment of fearlessness towards loss and death in any of its forms. Haven't attained that, one can reckon that his understanding of the true nature of the body as well as his recognition of the first two noble truths is still on a shallow level.
Is "Rupupadanakhando, Vedanupadanakhando, Sannupadanakhando, Sankharupadanakhando, Vinnanupadanakhando" - discerned in terms of clinging aggregates, complementary to the practice of discerning sense spheres as the 'clingers' in a physical bodily sense? Is one way of practising more accessible and/or effective than the other ?
Ajahn, I have a question (not necessarily related to this particular video): You speak often about the body as an enduring (dependently arisen) phenomena, and the necessity of discerning that enduring body as a necessary condition for any particular experience. My question is how do you square this with the first two verses of the Dhammapada, which insist upon the primacy of mind? Perhaps these two verses could have taken any of the 4 satipatthanas as their object? Thank you for your eye opening exposition
The only way to discern the enduring body is through your mind learning how to disown it correctly. So the primacy of the mind remains unchanged - it determines whether the body and the world will all be taken as "mine" or as "not-mine".
@@HillsideHermitage what about those attachments that are associated with the mind itself? Cause as far as I understand there are six senses, and intellect has its own cravings.. purely intellectual for example...so basically the very tool that you have to use for discerning is also messed up eh? Or am I not getting something correctly? Thank you
Dear sir. when one understands that craving is suffering and giving into craving induce more craving and more suffering, however, they still value sensuality. what else do I need to understand to remove the value of sensuality?
Hi. There is a video on this channel about that topic, title is 'sense pleasures make you an addict'. One of my favourites! It's also in the Nyanamoli's new book Dhamma within reach under the title 'addiction to sensuality'. You should definately listen/read those! :)
Thank you sir. I have a few questions. 1. Why do we see sensuality as the only means of escape from painful feeling? 2. by looking at the body preferably, do you mean looking at the body on the levels of feeling that is currently present?
Dear Bhante how should we restrain mind objects when they seem to appear like a train of thought s one after the other like just as one is trying to sleep? By not engaging in proliferation or try to direct the mind towards more wholesome state's like Metta or maranasati ?
Hi. When mind goes wild and wild thoughts just keep coming, you should make an effort to calm the mind and especially do not try to distract yourself from that unpleasant mind state. You must calm the aversion towards the enduring. You should read the 'how to calm your mind' from Nyanamoli's book. I hope this helps!
What if we don't feel ready to step back from the world? Too much solitude causing panic attacks, too much sense restraint triggering binges, etc. What do you recommend?
First admitting to oneself that not feeling ready still does not exempt one from such work. Then gradually making oneself ready (by taking on the precepts, responsibility for choices, discernment of intentions) before time runs out.
This way of speaking about it is so radically simple that it has taken me months to start to understand it, but it is possible to understand.
See the video "Stop wanting the wanting of sensuality " also on this channel for more good information on this particular topic
Im halfway through and hey, Ive listened to spiritual teachers for about a decade; this level of wisdom is RARE.
As Im listening, there is a comforting sense of truth within, even as if a knife is separating my mind from body, whereas before mind believed in body through the senses. As if the talk is a map, the signs on the road were sense objects pointing along the way, and yet only now have I put two and two together to realize where I am is the destination.
Good for you, teacher 🙏🏽 great talk.
What an amazing discourse. This is my final battle.
Thanks Bhante.
It's sinking in. This video seemed the most direct and clear of all.
Thank you. Thanks for putting all this on video.
I've struggled with addictions/confusions for all my life. This video, and so many of your other one's too, are truly getting to the place I've been looking for all along.
I've already noticed some cessation of the pressures, and this is encouraging me to continue discerning.
As a lay person I thankfully live by myself. Now I no longer resist isolation, as society tells me to get out there and socialize, and do stuff in the world.
I don't have a question at this moment, other than, how do I find a print copy of the Suttas, that's the correct one?
Thank you.
after almost listening to all of your video, finally i could understand what you said in this video Bhante,
im very glad that i could hear this message Bhante, pleasant and joy arise understanding this message.. sadhu
🙏☸️🙏 thank you Bhante
Which suttas did you refer to? I would like to read them, thank you.
Thankyou Venerable. Would it be possible to talk on the 10 fetters at some point and untangling the tangle? 🙏🙏🙏
Thanks, very clear. Just added following note after listening.
Human apply various techniques when taming a wild elephant. Wild elephant never wants to change his behaviour at first but eventually it will.
Take your body and mind as a human and the sensuality is the wild elephant. First he has to capture a wild elephant in order to apply the techniques. Listening and researching Dhamma is the way for capturing it. Technique is the discerning, anything and everything is an instant impermanence, which is just a rising and ceasing of sensual thought. We have no clue of this turh, we practice a wrong view. This is my body and my mind and that is my own property, I am the owner of all of these. We forgot, we can leave them alone at this present moment.
First, we have to capture the behaviour of wild elephant, our sensuality. Then apply the technique.
To do this, we need an intention to tame it knowing the benifits out of it. Benefit is the complete liberation from liabilities of current suffering. If we don't do it, mind will be wild anyway and current practice will continue with all liabilities. It's our choice.
The technique is nothing other than discerning how sensuality occurs at each and every moment. We cannot hold a single thought moment but we are trying to hold it for longer. Even highly satisfied thought, definitely ends up with suffering, because it will never be the same. That's the nature. With proper understanding of this instance impermanence, we eventualy let it go without attempting to hold it, if it's created accidentally by forgetting this ultimate truth. No suffering remain.
Wild elephant has the same outlook but internally it is completely different, no way of generating sorrow.
Thanks Bhante. Should the mind and mind objects be seen in exactly the same way as the other senses/sense objects? (eg. Its not my eye that likes, its just an eye there peripherally liking things on its own; likewise its not my mind, it too is just there in the world liking things on its own). It seems to me that without perception, the senses wouldn't have anything to like/dislike, I wonder how perception fits into the whole picture?
🙏🙏🙏
I see it this way. Upon sense contact at first you are confronted with a feeling, pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Now the problem is that we lack the ability to discern the feeling for what it is , the moment that it arises. This lack of momentaneous recognition forces us into habitual reactions.
You then create the assumption that you should have less of it if unpleasant or more of it if pleasant. When a neutral feeling is not discerned for what is is, it also becomes a unpleasant feeling. After that a process begins which is only triggered due to the fact that you haven't fully discerned the feeling for what it is on a conscious level of awareness.
You are forced to react to the feeling by not fully recognizing and reflecting weather it is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral the moment that it arises. That way when you come to the understanding of what that present feeling is that you actually endure, it is already to late because it already has foreced you into reaction.
You basically then start to claim ownership of that feeling assuming that that feeling is something controllable. So that assumption is part of your perception.
And yes , if you wouldn't perceive it as something controllable, something that should be owned by you there would be no need for liking or disliking it.
What is the "you" that chooses what to engage with or present to the animal? And do you have control over that "you" and the choices it makes, or is that also determined by further factors down the chain?
What does he mean by peripherally? to look at body's attachments through their objects of attachments(indirectly) vs directly observing the sensation that the attachment causes? Thank you
🙏🏼
Sir, when one questions themselves, how should they do so that they can see the background and don’t just use part knowledge to answer it or just psychologize it? My current understanding is that Dharma is currently enduring. I make sure I remember it and when I ask a question, I make sure that question will lead me to that direction where everything is enduring. Which is usually on the level of feelings. Please help me clarify and improve on it so I don’t not make wrong practice out of it.
🙏
What is the difference between the discernment of the extent of the body that constitutes jhana versus that of permanent liberation?
Permanent liberation is the result of sufficient dwelling in the discernment of the extent of the body that constitutes at least the first jhana or higher.
@@HillsideHermitage Thank you
So in other words, the level of seeing the body for what it really is , in terms of identification with the khandas, directly determines the level of recognition of the first two noble truths. Whereby the full recognition of the first two noble truths automatically leads to avoidance and loss of interest in all processes which include desire, as well as the attainment of fearlessness towards loss and death in any of its forms.
Haven't attained that, one can reckon that his understanding of the true nature of the body as well as his recognition of the first two noble truths is still on a shallow level.
Is "Rupupadanakhando, Vedanupadanakhando, Sannupadanakhando, Sankharupadanakhando, Vinnanupadanakhando" - discerned in terms of clinging aggregates, complementary to the practice of discerning sense spheres as the 'clingers' in a physical bodily sense? Is one way of practising more accessible and/or effective than the other ?
Ajahn, I have a question (not necessarily related to this particular video):
You speak often about the body as an enduring (dependently arisen) phenomena, and the necessity of discerning that enduring body as a necessary condition for any particular experience. My question is how do you square this with the first two verses of the Dhammapada, which insist upon the primacy of mind?
Perhaps these two verses could have taken any of the 4 satipatthanas as their object?
Thank you for your eye opening exposition
The only way to discern the enduring body is through your mind learning how to disown it correctly. So the primacy of the mind remains unchanged - it determines whether the body and the world will all be taken as "mine" or as "not-mine".
@@HillsideHermitage Thank you, Bhante
@@HillsideHermitage what about those attachments that are associated with the mind itself? Cause as far as I understand there are six senses, and intellect has its own cravings.. purely intellectual for example...so basically the very tool that you have to use for discerning is also messed up eh? Or am I not getting something correctly? Thank you
Dear sir. when one understands that craving is suffering and giving into craving induce more craving and more suffering, however, they still value sensuality. what else do I need to understand to remove the value of sensuality?
Hi. There is a video on this channel about that topic, title is 'sense pleasures make you an addict'. One of my favourites! It's also in the Nyanamoli's new book Dhamma within reach under the title 'addiction to sensuality'. You should definately listen/read those! :)
Thank you sir. I have a few questions.
1. Why do we see sensuality as the only means of escape from painful feeling?
2. by looking at the body preferably, do you mean looking at the body on the levels of feeling that is currently present?
Dear Bhante how should we restrain mind objects when they seem to appear like a train of thought s one after the other like just as one is trying to sleep? By not engaging in proliferation or try to direct the mind towards more wholesome state's like Metta or maranasati ?
Hi. When mind goes wild and wild thoughts just keep coming, you should make an effort to calm the mind and especially do not try to distract yourself from that unpleasant mind state. You must calm the aversion towards the enduring. You should read the 'how to calm your mind' from Nyanamoli's book. I hope this helps!
What if we don't feel ready to step back from the world? Too much solitude causing panic attacks, too much sense restraint triggering binges, etc. What do you recommend?
First admitting to oneself that not feeling ready still does not exempt one from such work. Then gradually making oneself ready (by taking on the precepts, responsibility for choices, discernment of intentions) before time runs out.