My Way or The Middle Way | Ajahn Amaro | 20.08.2017

No [Music] [Music] welcome to another of these Sunday afternoon Dhamma talks the theme of Felina afternoon is my way or the middle way believe so and a few reflections on this this particular area so as many people recognize the the title was hatched from the famous Sinatra song written by Paul Anka sung by Frank Sinatra my way and it's a kind of anthem of self-confidence through it all when there was doubt I ate it up I spat it out this kind of idea in my way so confidence is definitely a part of the Buddhist path faith having confidence and resolution these are all aspects of it but Kenny Amell Silva had spent much time in life trying to follow that say voice of self-assurance and just well even though there's resistance or there's difficult I'm just gonna keep pushing I'm gonna just do it my way and over man living in community or working with other people and we're in a role of leadership we can see that when you adopt the attitude of my way or the highway as I say like I need to like I wanted what on your bike they say that yeah you're kicked out that leads to stress and difficulty and conflict so reflecting on this team my way or the middle way that yes there are certainly beneficial aspects to that quality of self confidence self assurance and have the quality of resolution but if that is out of balance if that is wrapped up with as we say in Buddhist philosophy is wrapped up in their policies of selfie self-centered thinking then necessarily the results is going to be painful you might get what you wanted but then there might be a lot of wreckage of damage created along the way and probably most of us here had a situation in life where we come to the conclusion well god I wanted that was it really worth it I didn't realize it was gonna be like this so I thought so it's gonna make me happier you know I got what I wanted but yeah so in terms of these reflections and what will be useful for us to look at I felt that it's good to consider the whole way that we we work in life how we relate to to doing directing to choosing how intentions and actions work together so when we need to take confidence from Frank Sinatra say yes I'm going to do it my way then if we take that approach in life again I don't have the ability to read anybody's minds but just the way most of our lives function when we act from a place of self assertion and just keep pushing and say working with our occupation were from the family working with the rest of the traffic on the road working with our minds in a meditation Hall if we have that contentious self-assertive attitude I'm going to just make this happen I'm going to get Jonah and the bread through there's ten day retreat this is soda panel or bust stream entry or ask my money back so when we have that of self-assertive and contentious attitude when that's wrapped up with self viewed then any kind of work I would suggest becomes exhausting the even if it's the work of training your mind to be to be peaceful how many of us have noticed that the most peaceful moment of the meditation is when the dog goes at the end finally I can relax and it's not always just because your knees have been released from their prison but if you notice it's almost universal when the dog goes this isn't the sense of its not curious it's been curious because when the dog goes I don't have to do something I then have to do something so there's a letting go of eyeness and letting go of of having and letting go over of doing that in that moment of the Belgae there's particular aspects of of self self identity of ownership and personal action there are all emptied out these for the time it takes for the bell to be rung before we get on to the next thing so this is important to look at it's that what I like to call that the thang it's Friday metallicy you know waiting for daughter vo oh and when there when this meditations over then the Wednesdays retreat so but then when the week's over then when I've retired then and we kind of pursue peace and contentment happiness like that pursuing the horizon which like the Hulk is retreating you can't walk to get to the horizon because no matter how far you walk but behind the horizon always retreats it's always but so this is a very common habit again I'm not reading anybody's mind you're right but this is what conditions thinking does the way that we we pick up action and choice and work is that we we create this kind of or this is that sure this is difficult or you know if I didn't have to do this then everything we find I didn't have to deal with my children could be fine I didn't have to deal with this job foni was the weekend family was my holiday only it was on the retreat but in the retreat was over [Music] yeah if only I could become a nun if any have to become a month I think become a senior monk right now wasn't a monk anymore but it's the same mentality whether it's just working in a grim job waiting for Friday or trying to get into the monastic life or out of the monastic life or longing for the retreat to begin on longing for the retreat to to end it's the same condition I would suggest is the the mind picking up action from a self-centered way like me doing and meanest doing this and thickness there's no sense of compulsion I have to buy sure the the theme of the return of this talk is also kind of contained within this famous soliloquy from Hamlet Hamlet's probably one of the most if not the most famous passage from Shakespeare it's where Hamlet he's discovered that his uncle has probably killed his father and has married his mother and he's wondering what to do or should he do something he's he's pretty sure that his evil uncle is - far his good father's death and then cruelly seduced and married his mother and he's pretty sure this is what's happened but he's wondering what to do so there's this soliloquy this the solo speech they dance faces and this is in Shakespearean English so even though English is not the first language of most people here it's probably familiar enough but what he says is to be or not to be that is the question whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them so is it better to suffer slings and arrows of outrageous fortune just to let life don't want you to be known to be passive just to let it happen to do nothing or is it better to take arms against a sea of troubles to rise up and and pretend to attack to take action and so this is his dilemma so I hope you can follow that clear to to be numb and passive and to do nothing or to take action and to contain that against the way things are what's what's the right thing to do so you know in a way I suspect that Shakespeare realized that and he put those words into Hamlet's mouth because the point is that neither of them are correct and certainly from the Buddhist perspective neither of them are correct because they're both they're creating the polarity of me doing nothing or me contending against the way things are so me being passive in relationship to the way things are on me contending against the way things are but the middle way here is something else the middle way I would I would suggest that the middle way is essentially learning how to work with the way things are so you're not just being passive and not be contentious but learning how to work with the way things are and to work from a place of selflessness when we we look at the kind of habit of of doing I hope I'm not presuming too much but there's certainly my experiences that the more that there is me trying to do something even if it's me trying to do something very wholesome very noble very useful it does create this kind of goodness stressful in the heart and so that we might think all this work is too too difficult or too quit or this meditation is making me stressed you know I'm suffering a lot maybe I should just stop meditating yeah so that instead of trying to follow my way and sort of push and get things to go the way that we would like to just say force things to a conclusion that we want that the we instead drift to the other extreme in Hamlet's soliloquy that are being passive to just go now to give up or switch off water to to try to not engage and so this is again asking where we get so stressed and and learnings my life then the way we get away from that is we switch off by consuming alcohol drugs or distracting the mind essentially to not feel so I said before I was a monk I drank a lot and I think so the conclusion that while I was drinking I had a kind of epiphany here he'll have sit at a friend's 21st birthday party it's my first visit to him little did I realize that was in 1977 so listen I realize that 8 years later as me moving here but anyway that's another story but I realized by the time I was 20 that the reason why I was drinking so much was to not feel I just wanted to switch off and that was the only way I could I could deal with just feelings of insecurity and frustration and basic disconnection was to try and gloss it all out but when I was around an inch from the bottom of a bottle of teachers Highland cream whiskey Harris attune the seven or eight inches I came to the provision it's not working I can't drink enough to get to the place where I feel good I can't it won't go down and so it's actually eight that the thought at the time this is a waste of good scotch but then it was it was quite even though I was obviously a little bit blurry and having drunk apprentice scotch it was quite an insightful moment because it was really clear that I'm just trying to to not feel I tried to switch off and then this is not the way to go so my 21st birthday present to myself was discovering deliberately turn in the other direction and say well that's not working so numbing is not working so let's try something else I don't know I can't read anybody's minds I don't know your life stories but I would suspect just by the law of averages that a few of us in this hall also tried that dealing with life's difficulties by just trying to switch off just to be distracted to to not feel to forget as they say you know believe that's in the French culture that's one of the reasons given why that's probably a few French people probably to get you want to lose yourself in the drink or the drugs to it again but it doesn't work and this is whether the Buddhist path to the end of suffering doesn't involve barbiturates or morphine or alcohol because it doesn't work this is not the way in suffering in any of us who have been addicted to things and then come after them you realize that that the numbing that happens well what is say taking a medication or a distraction of some kind when you haven't got you a supply of your drug of choice it's even worse than it ever was before you know they're being there's some that are recovering heroin addict or recovering alcoholic then it's a its life is even more tender even more painful in more suffering than before the person has started to use that particularly kind of escape so the so we have done these two horns of this dilemma that if you try to contend against the way things are and just force it to be go your way you end up feeling burdened and stressed and frustrated and if you try to just switch off and not feel that doesn't work either so this is why the Buddha taught what we call the middle way the the different path that it's not just sort of half obsessive and active and half drunk but many of us live our lives that way probably if you're gathering for Sunday afternoon everybody yeah yeah have only decided there must be a different way so the middle way that the Buddhist path wants to is is a whole different perspective because if you notice the the dilemma that Hamlet was in it's very much based around soft dude that I should I do something should I do nothing what should I do and that I also what's the right thing I should push or I should stay I should do nothing so the Buddha had the approach of turning the attention back onto the so called doer so in the attention back onto the attitude with which the heart engages in any activity I would suggest that we are live so we are in a process of work we are living we're feeling we are engaged with the world in a sense we can't not work our bodies our minds function in such a way is that we we have to be now solve it to protect ourselves from the weather we have to look after ourselves to some degree so we we are required by the laws of nature to engage so the approach that the the blue net takes is a its hinges around the different usages of the word desire and so probably a number of you are very familiar with this as I expected Dharma teaching maybe some of you or not but in in Buddha Dharma I have two distinct words that we will translate as desire so the first is Tonica which literally means first so the Sanskrit word is Krishna so that is well you'd probably be better translated into English as craving so tanpa always has an agitated self-centered quality to it so in the Buddha talks about the cause of Luca in the Four Noble Truths the cause the the root cause of dissatisfaction and discontent is turnout and it can be the craving for sense pleasure you can only the craving to become becoming successful becoming approved of becoming louder appreciated that sense of identified being bicycle-powered on huh they decide to be something someone and then it's opposite leave other than the desire to do not feel to not be to switch off these are all crises of time master these are all aspects of craving there so these are the kinds of desire that necessarily will cause dissatisfaction that's that the cause of the spiritual malaise that the Buddha's teaching seeks to cure as the desire that is resolved by the the Eightfold Path so the other kind of desire is called chunda so Tom how is ta n with a doctor underneath H and then some that is CH a MD H under so Chandra is gonna be translated as desire that could be translated as interest enthusiasm it can be translated as zeal so it's a way the minds energy that all the minds motivation to direct its energy towards a particular object so chunda can be not awesome but yeah can be something that's unskillful like karma turned out for sense pleasure but it also can be extremely wholesome membership that the desire for reality and so that the these two kinds of design in English the word design works for both of them but they're and they are very very different crises so I thought I'm going to share with you one from the citizen nitrogen chart where exactly this is talked about because the when the Buddha speaks of his teaching talks about the other it's like not is it just useful it's a necessary condition for liberation this is a a synonym of liberation if you don't have gender there's no way that you can free your heart from reactive delusion spiritual development is impossible without that kind of design so that that's why it's kind of tricky we designed by one throw in the sense of you know but she's the right brand yeah and so that it's important to look at the specs so that these two messages so the first one is from the season attire that is a dialogue between Harlan that the Buddha's attendant and one of his chief disciples honor that and Brahminical who number and it took place in possibly in that in the river yeah what's now the river Yamuna that's my third from connotation that one and that was drawing a custome in the zetas part then the Brogan will not approach the venerable Ananda the exchange greetings with him but then concluded the greetings and cordials walk he sat down to one side and said to the venerable Ananda my purpose master another is the holy life lived under the ascetic Cosma it is for the sake of abandoning designer brahman the holy life is lived under the resin one another is there a path is there away neatly abandoning of this desire there is a path Brahman there is a way the imagining of this design at most another what is the part what is the way the abandoning of his desires are still very formalized down what is the part here Brahman that even the develops the basis for spiritual power that possesses concentration due to desire the initial formation volitional formations of striving either have the basis of the spiritual power that possesses concentration due to energy concentration due to mind concentration due to investigation and evolutional formations are striving this Brahman is the path this is the way the abandoning of his desire such being the case must endure the situation is interminable not terminable it is it possible that one can event desire by means of desire sup so the another this these four qualities Shanda desire in dress heel theoria energy of persistence jitter consideration examination planning and the amounts of investigation review or reflection on results so the same but hang on a minute how can you get to the end of desire by using desire this is a circular argument this its interminable not terminable I also have to stand even that people for whom English is our first language yeah it works like determinable or not sort of everyday speech the shabath for positional formations of striving these also kind of terms hopefully explain so then the venom on the response is well I'm Brahmin I don't question you about this matter Unser's he sees it what do you think Brahmin did you have the desire chunder I will go to the park I go seat is part of our monasteries and after you went to the park did the corresponding desire of society yes sir did you earlier arouse the energy thinking I will go to the park and after you went to the park to the corresponding energy subside miss sir did you earlier make up your mind jeepers I will go to the park and after you went to the park did the corresponding resolution Society yes sir did your did you earlier make an investigation the amount sir showing them to the park now he went to the park did the corresponding investigation subside yes sir it's exactly the same crime with a victim who's in our hunt his tenth son destroyed was live the holy life does not have to be done lay down the burden his uncle actually destroyed the fetters of existence and it's completely liberated through final knowledge he had the desire after the attainment of our headship and when he attained our homage if the corresponding desire subsided he earlier had aroused energies the attainment of hardship when he attained our hardship the corresponding energies subsided he earlier had made up his mind to attain hardship when you take our budget the corresponding resolution society yeah make the investigation of the attainment of our hardship and when he attained our hardship the corresponding investigation subsided what do you think Brahman such being the case is the situation terminable or interminable surely must and that such me in the face the situation is terminable not interminable magnificent posture and the magnificent today that must another remember me as a lay fellow has gone refuge for that so to bring that home okay all of you have except those of Lydia I will go to a Marathi today it's listen to the Sunday afternoon talk once you've had a right here you didn't need that desire anymore because you denied it now that you're here how many of you are thinking I must go longer I see it's not that because you're here the thought has gone so it was useful to serve that purpose but now it's purpose has been fulfilled so the thought is gone and anyway so that's a quote legend charm he comes the same sort of area in the similar vein so this is a hydrogen giving a dumb joke why is the practice so difficult and arduous because of desires as soon as we sit down to meditate we want to become peaceful if we didn't want to find peace they wouldn't said he wouldn't practice as soon as we sit down we want these to be right there but wanting the mind to be calm makes for confusion let me feel Restless this is how it goes so the Buddha says don't speak out of desire that's it out of desire that what kind of desire whatever you do don't do it with desire desire it means wanting if you don't want to do something you won't do it if our practice reaches this point you can get quite discouraged how can we practice as soon as we sit down there is desire in the mind it's because of this the body and mind are difficult to observe if they are not the South or belonging to self then who they belong to because it's difficult to resolve these things we must rely on wisdom what it says we must practice me letting go but if we let go and we just then practice right because we've back up so is that supposed to be confusing and frustrating if you're feeling confused and frustrated by hearing that you're right at the bar so then he goes on to explain and this this took place in Northeast Thailand so you can translate it as your own so I teach are asks suppose we went to buy some coconuts in the market and while we were carrying them back someone asked what did you buy those coconuts for I bought them to eat are you going to eat the shells as well no I don't believe you if you're not going to eat the shells then why did you buy them also well what do you say how are you gonna answer that question if we practice with desire sorry and how are you gonna answer that question we practice with desire if we didn't have dishonor we wouldn't practice practicing with desires turn contemplating in this way can give rise to wisdom you know for example these coconuts are you going to eat the shells as well of course not then why do you take them because the time hasn't yet come for you to throw them away they're useful for wrapping up the coconut in if after eating the coconut you throw the shells away there's no problem our practice is like this the Buddha said don't act on desire that speak from desire the need with desire standing walking sitting or reclining whatever you do don't do with desire this means to do with detachment it's just like buying the coconuts from the market we're not going to eat the shells but it's not yet time to throw them away we keep them first this is how the practices concept summer team and transcendence the MU team are coexistent just like the coconut the flesh the husk and the shell are all together when we quiet conduct we fire up a lot if somebody wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells that's their business we know what we're doing wisdom is something each of us finds oneself to see it in a scale neither fast nor slow what should we do go to where there is neither fast nor slow going fast or slow is not the way from their mortgage our collective teaches so these are different kinds of desiring so that on the one hand chunga so there's four qualities they're called the four Edie part of the four bases of success so in that example and I'm the uses them to describe go to the park so they can be used to describe a mundane activity they can be described they used to describe spiritual development that's like after to want to realize enlightenment you have to put forth the energy in order to to reduce creative delusion and to increase virtue concentration and wisdom you have to think about what you're doing chitta have to consider okay is this working is it's not working is this my efforts heading in the right direction and then the months of that reflection or reviewing these okay did I did I get trauma run see did I get to the park you know did as the mind arrived at peacefulness so that's that kind of reviewing so that would be for spiritual realization it could also be for robbing a bank think about whether you want to rob a bank or not and then think about whether you've got the energy in the air as well as the interest to do that by yourself I'm not encouraging anybody to Rob any banks just using a random unwholesome example so that and you would have the interest to do to apply the energy to do I think it was like well you can hang another gun yeah so kind of for this 20th century yeah they not gonna let be a computer hacker of us in half a few accounts nor going that way and then the monster okay did did the get successfully rocked did I get away with it yeah what's the result so those four qualities under very logically monster that's an interest energy reflection I saw consideration and then review with there they are any moral there they're morally neutral they can be applied for things that are neutral things that are very virtuous and moral things are very immoral in that they they apply that any kind of task you want to undertake so that the more that interest in energy in reflection so forth is divested of self yield the more that that interest and energy and so forth is based on mindfulness and wisdom then the more that the inclination is going to be to be pretty four five efforts into things that are beneficial for ourselves and others that are wholesome that I know and the more that's going to be a peaceful process the in the Buddhist descriptions of the Eightfold Path one of the elements of the Eightfold Path is right effort so in the you have many segments of the Buddha ways as my path is a part of that action is a path of doing is a part of passivity so that aspect of taking action giving direction to the mind you're working of the mind is a very strong part of the the Buddhist path so when we look at right effort then it's very clear schema that the Buddha later a very helpful format you know how to bring about this kind of wholesome development so that when we want to be say basing our actions on each other on that on the wholesome kind of desiring and interest then the more that that can be based say on mindfulness and wisdom unless is based on self view the more is going to lead to peace so then the aim for panov you have the aspect of right effort which again has four aspects you won't be tested on all this Minds they have to memorize all of this so the four aspects of right effort to restrain the unwholesome from horizon so to say to have the intention and to work I'm not gonna in greed or anger of selfishness jealousy and so forth to arise to restrain the unwholesome horizon if the unwholesome has arisen if you're already feeling a sense of anger or irritation fear of jealousy greed yeah craving if that unwholesome has arisen to let it go the third part of right effort is to cultivate to cultivate the concentration loving-kindness wisdom compassion and so forth and then the fourth one is to sustain and being any any wholesome qualities that have already arisen so to maintain in being so there's a lot of doing that so right effort involves a lot of work its its steering the mind you're recognizing that the young wholesome there you go recognizing the Fenian maintaining it keeps me to me so there's what going on you know the Eightfold Path is is a path of action as a whole as a comprehensive aspect of of doing so that when we are working with the mind in awareness based on the right effort we can still be working really hard and we can be putting forth a great deal of energy and effort but because the van f of being free of Sophia because it's not based on craving then even if there's a heat a large amount of ever being expended it's not stressful there's not that bad well I really began to identify bother to do this anymore Bernardino's when I didn't have to bother yeah there's a jonathan is actually a nannies that's their the kind of comfort that said while the effort is being extended and expanded so that mean as a culture when we are we have a very strong epoxide to thank God it's Friday mentality there's that wouldn't it be nice so I didn't have to bother I wouldn't be great to be in our mother to practice that was a misunderstanding of what in life is that is based on that same kind of of subview but if you look at the life of the Buddha as an example he worked really hard after his enlightenment he didn't say Eden this a sin under the Bodhi tree and say oh well thank goodness all that's over he didn't think about that for seven weeks he set up these different reasons contemplating his enlightenment and then there was a thought that passed through his mind no one's ever going to understand this it's going to be impossible for you to explain this to anybody so there really isn't any point me trying to convey this to anyone so thought did cross his mind but then the Brahma God sombody appeared and said please for the benefit of those with a little bit of dust in their eyes please share the understanding that you have and so the Buddha listened to that then it cost his vision around the world and said what is absolutely right there are beings who are really lost and caught up in green hatred pollution but there are some who are not so cool now a little bit of dust in their eyes okay for the sake of them I'll make the effort to teach so now for the next 45 years he worked really hard and incredibly effectively 2500 years have gone by since then I'd like to point out when the Buddha was teaching this was legal it was the iron age it wasn't even the lake by nature so the early to middle high age in his kind of iron was a new thing in this country when the Buddha was teaching this 450 years before the Romans arrived a long time ago so it's incredible that we are the inheritors all these centuries later of these words of the Buddha spoke down through the centuries to us and are still very very effective so it's kind of miraculous that the teachings have sustained themselves in this form and the reason when it is got a little worked really really hard he was incredibly imaginative and inventive in his teaching he was very proactive in looking all over northeast India destruction of all kinds of people yeah farmers and villagers and government ministers and broils and two Brahmin priests and submergence and yeah anybody and everybody so the worked really hard but none of that work was stressful so that I mean maybe it's not a very good idea to compare ourselves to the Buddha but I think it is helpful in a way to have as an example that it's not the work it's not their doing that is the burden it's the attitude towards it you know that's what the the yes the different ingredient is so when we learn to to work from a heart of mindfulness and wisdom then we realized that the dilemma of shouiders work against the way things are contending against the way things are either making go my way or whether I should just sort of switch off and not feel the try to disconnect if both of those are wrong because the the way of peace is not a way of disengagement but rather a way of total achievement in achievement of this life to all the human of this mind to all minds and then lending their achievement guide action and speech and in any of you who looked at the scriptures at all or study the life of the Buddha it is staggering how imaginative he was and what a creative thinker and the kind of similes he came up with and the stories that the illustrations and the examples that he just sort of spontaneously would would come up with either the suitors where he's talking to a farmer and he talks about you know the eleven things you need to do is look after cows successfully and then he maybe in this discovery after the calf he talks about looking after cows and how he is a warrior noble prince knew so much about animals husband I do not know but he actually comes up with the eleven things you need to do to look after cows to help them flourish and do well and then compare that to the eleven things need to do look after your mind and he could just do that with anybody that he was talking to so what this means or this monster in in a way that's helpful for us is that when we are able to find that middle way then it's it's not only very restful and peaceful but it is also very productive it means that we are able to use the capacity certainly the abilities that we have to there to the fullest extent we can use our imagination our capacities and be helpful but also because it's a middle way what what we find is that if there's a need for us to engage to use our imagination our energy and our capacity we do but we don't have to do that in order to feel a sense of value now probably a few of us here get in your life felt a lot of say affirmation or a sense of self-worth so all the good stuff that you do helped me a lot of people who have any occupation I mean being a doctor or a teacher or parent you know that you see a lot of gratification because of all the work that you know that you think of badly I'd be able to help so many people and I started this school I ran that Thank You Nathan I published these particular in these books all right my children are in a good way and a feeling of pride or gladness and satisfaction of having done all that stuff but then if you find that you're grasping at all that leave that there is kind of some good achievements taking on this self view then they become a source of suffering because then you're no chances you will thanks very much but no thanks that you are the people you find in this clinic and then the other members of the board of directors say well thank you very much you're a founder now please off you go you know we'll run the place much more efficiently without you thank you and you haven't got those those kind of sources of feedback or information they make us feel useless we can feel with our life is worthless I'm not doing anything I'm not worth anything well maybe some of you I'm the group run a school of this I don't need a doctor I'm the Green a teacher yeah my life has been worthless already so that we can be safe feeding our sense of identity that feeling self you from this sense those wholesome objects and they're not realizing just like a heroin addict or an alcoholic that as long as the supply of drug is choices is available we feel good great like then if you're a extremely rich rock star you can get a really good supply of thoroughly cure morphine it may go great morphine and your your morphine habit it's not a problem because you got a good supply but when the supply cuts off then it's untold misery so similarly if your sense of being a sense of worth is fed by having successful children or by having so many summer social proof so many people liking you on facebook following you on Instagram how many people are in a nowadays you published in academic paper you can solve how many people be reading your paper you can look at the scores and then if we are if we are wise then we'll recognize those kind of addictions those kind of dependencies and that we will find that we are able to free the part from that so whether there is affirmation or not but there's something to do nothing to do we are our heart is as equally at ease is equally free so that we don't depend upon some kind of doing in order to feel a sense of worth I feel this is very very important and you know I'm a kind of an achiever type of myself that's taking from experience I do like approval I mean I like success online approval and such like for one of the things that you find is is the most valuable is to to not be dependent on that to just do what you do and that the world's make it very well to whether people are crazy or they don't really besides you you can be at ease you don't have to be doing something in order to be of value there's a in the CS Lewis's book the Screwtape Letters which some of you might be familiar with there's a Buddhist version called letters tomorrow we shall include another rope which is highly recommended but in the in the scrutinizes it's sort of the imaginary letters from a devil - is his nephew who's at work in the world and the nephews letters back to his uncle about his successes and failures and trying to confuse humanity and cause trouble in the world the CS Lewis was quite well known were loved Christian theologian as well as being a the writer of the Narnia chronicles but anyway the Screwtape Letters says this particular comments that really struck me when I was reading it where he the writer of the letters is talking about this particular person that they had met she said that she is one who is who is fully given to the in her commitment to helping others and the others have about them the look of the hunted you know lately I feel embarrassed an economy anybody's minds or they treat you and I go on Facebook suddenly a certain profile that if there are any hyperactive good works types here they got absolutely but it does your doing of good things it is that is that something that you have to do in order to feel that it is that something that your your heart's delight depends upon that as in I mean it's kind of a cruel comment it's also feel very excuse that although someone can help yes and that moment you've actually lost contact with that person you don't really see it you don't see them right yeah oh look it's a Sunday afternoon a beautiful crowd with them you're my audience if I'm thinking like that that I've lost you there's no connection between us because you are something that I need in order to me to be in their own cover teacher you know that if that's something that I need and I feel depleted or there's a dependency so the one of the things that was really impressive about ajahn Chah and I first started trying I couldn't speak I couldn't speak or understand side oh they're just watching the the dynamic of the exchange between him and teaching a group of people or receiving visitors and so forth one of the things is I lived at the International Monetary the throughout five five or six miles away from from the Nate monastery where nitrogen shocking but is it absolutely go monster watching him in action one of the most powerful things was there's a he's very he was very wise and could be very charming and engaging but is this really distinctly enough he doesn't need anybody to love him oh he doesn't need to have everybody's approval yeah I mean somebody would say something was particularly kind of flattering or also kind of lacking of love the extra sort of self-consciously it's one of the magic john jones and even this kind of like stone cold look come across across his face very and he didn't need to defeat on that he didn't need to be approved he was there to serve to embody the dominant this city Sudama yeah he didn't need to be praised or liked or proves and it was amazing to me to see that someone that was so independent you know he was he wasn't cold he didn't he wouldn't feed that sense of oh we are surprised it's a wonderful year so great you're the best teacher in the world he would pay a whole catalog of ways he would brush off those gonna cost me some kind of it northeast time ice crack that is wonderful part of the local dialect is this sort of crunch from the heart which can mean yes or no on are you kidding I mean anything about that range but it was a kind of independence that he manifested I thought was really in terms of the middle way which was seen a little way my way is that that that quality of being totally ready to engage and to achieve into a situation but not needing anything from it that he didn't need people to be anyway for him yeah someone could I could do something and there was a very sort of impressive or inspiring and you feel glad by that we wouldn't say you've ever had he would you choose a moment to to say something they are neither up he's the one to follow yeah appropriate moment he'd say how I thought someone did something that was completely a completely outrageous or totally they'll be foolish again even he wouldn't just sort of react blindly that he would so taking and the property moment he'd say uh did you what did you mean when you said that because it's to me it's not equally crazy was behind that so that he was not going to made rash judgments he in a sense left space grounds the people that he met he didn't need people to be a particular way didn't need them to be understanding he said he didn't need them to be approving what he said but he relied completely on a sense of openness and she to the time the place the situation and that I feel that when we are considering these these areas of how to work in the world in to work from there basis of right efforts and freedom from self view that the the essential quality is so letting go of sorts into thinking and that openness and achievement of who's here what's going on is there something to say is there nothing to say then they feel so just because you've got to do something so it sounds a style but it's not that you're doing or not doing if the heart is really embodying the middle way then is trying to do you'll do it's time to take action take arms against a sea of troubles you know this time to be quiet and to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune you know it's time to be quiet you're totally homeland needs to be quiet and it's time to say something yeah you'll say something you don't need people to prove for what you say you don't need to feel that you're lacking anything if you keep it quiet but it's essentially a responsibility to define the place the situation and so that when our actions our attitudes are guided in this way then we can really be a most benefit to ourselves others and that the the work that we do some people will not keep and will approve other people will dislike it disapprove and Allah will not even notice and then our happiness is not dependent about the glance being consistent over again trusting in their quality of attainment and and then the the last aspects the the remonster the reviewing is having acted in their way you know functioning in that way what's result if this is the way that we operate we let go of Sophia we are attune ourselves the time of passive situation what's the result of it am i find the story I'll tell her that for quite a few times before but it's a peaceful story it actually occurred the exchange occurred right here in the solid Nazi so again has an impact of Milan Astoria the bit so I was kind of obsessed with being proved and pleasing everybody all this right so I was a compulsive always tip everything when it was time to do the washing-up rather would be the first ones at the top the last one finish cleaning the sinks I clean the rubbish bins so I was kind of senses do-gooder and I really liked all the praise that I got to do that but then I began noticing I was I was really stuck on being a prude of being liked and being that the health of God so I decided to consciously work on this so I deliberately stopped being helpful I wasn't I didn't start fights deliberately let things unclean you know washing out the meaningfulness was done that were powerful there was rubbish on the ground I wouldn't pick it up I walk into the bathroom and the sinks were feeling leave the dirty work out again so that took a reaching for that from the weight issue that shouldn't be that I trained myself to walk across didn't and also not me seeking approval and so I was doing this for a couple years and then this where my father monks here he just trying to be pointed or accusing anyway it was quite a sincere a friendly remark he said you know you were a lot easier to differences since you stopped trying to be perfect so but she wanted to be insulted was a very very useful comment that me trying to please everyone be perfect like the do-gooder you know hunting the people help yeah that there was a kind of tension there was being carrying around as stressing and that when you just serve stop acting in a policy well you're not depending on that kind of doing this this said let's leave things 11 when it's time to these things about let somebody else do it then and this operate from from more intuitive sense of the moment then as peacefulness and it was really striking that that was more more pleasant to live with them leaving that would be perfect mother so he sports for effectiveness of mentality and disease for our demo session that [Music] like this well it's it's like if you're listening to a Orchestra and you are aware that the the orchestra all the different elements of the orchestra playing in tune and rhythm of each other that's so it's not complicated it's not it's not anything was particularly refined his the hearts own recognition home orderliness or harmony it doesn't mean and then also it appreciates the song some music is literally chaotic but it's a that sense of presence and openness a second aside of prejudice listen and you know part of a thing on my organization comes in is to the degree is possible suspending these in a country other evening in a commentary dominate the picture just to be able to open the heart open the mind to the president experience and not amazed that to do the theme that I was talking about today not being pulled okaying a hobby pool got a sense I've gotta do something this is the perfect sunset keep it up tomorrow take picture that that kind of compulsiveness can be likable and a half industry as you yourself were saying even if you need seltzer oh here's that compulsive feeling like you could do something is this so that even your urine waves of packages become part of what's what's be seen yeah so it's a it's one of the things is kind of being open to the way things are is not a pessimism and this is one of the things that so lubos mega love is a phrase like this is the way it is you know this is the way things are oh it's it's this way one of these great races was it's never been more like this than it is but so then often people here that say and then you think the book a typical this is the way it is and then that's interpreted as a kind of passivity then instead of the mine meet early therefore don't do anything there for fun or leave it alone and so over the years he had to others addressing the same kind of teachings or expressions do you have to point out that your intentionality your ability to act is also part of the way things are so that being at peace with how it is it also being a piece with no capacity to act so sometimes that sense of its this way can be one of the way the way it is is someone's doing something really harmful that was the time to step be able to say no so it's not sympathy but rather it could be letting go of your hesitation think of your resistance to do something or to engage and so that it's the opposite of passivity innocence letting go of your own anxiety or is the internal check of the situation population die but that is human or that period it is the way it is and your ability to jump in and say no that's not so then this am i kind of anyway is this letting go of an idealistic idealized picture I should be could we create a like that guy's picture in our minds like it should be as well though in this is how I should be and then we try to become that idealized picture that's expanding and it's a bit like driving the car for the back seat you're not really engaged with the controls it doesn't really work and so the ideals have a value like the religious ideal but that booty ridges has been around a couple hundred years and he's never had a booth that were image does not experience knee pain prismatic peacefully whereas if you're living being we're not my idea that's it there's a breather need none huh so the if we put how I should be or the perfectly would be like this if we put that at the center than that all the way around sort of thing but pursuing that off of the edges and you've got things the wrong way around trying to drive the backseat so you use an ideal you have the ideal in the maxi okay that this is a person who was free of pretension delusions probably wouldn't have this experience or this attitude but right now there is this this feeling of being excited because it be praised or hurt there was a big Christmas in Genesis I'm afraid of someone and so that the that readiness to be aware and to be attuned to what was here and then also be ready to to to listen to well they get their feeling afraid because it's really dangerous get out of the road this is appropriate fear this is being you notic get out of the road to get to a safe place so that our ability to act is part of the way things are and so that then this quality of achievement as I like to call it is freeing up that that capacity that acts when it's time to speak any speaking started to be quiet and required we because we couldn't there is a story from the Indian folk legends sort of Panchatantra ever have a snake Cobra that became a disciple of a guru living in the forest as the sea only living in the forest and this snake has code we used to go on the hunting grounds through the through the forest and she knows when she came through this glade but they're there if she was living it's breaking up to like the think Oliver so you slow down spend a bit longer and sit around by the Rishi and their issues important that his disciples sushi stay down longer and longer I started to listen to what the receivers was saying and eventually that was this human really says some good stuff and it's a really nice feeling so maybe I should become a disciple as well so then she's she goes to the regime equals Indian folk tales it's nice to talk to people reason so they so the Congress as well Russia will you accept me as a disciple because I feel great horrible things to say I really like being around you and he said well you know I teach non-violence and you know various could be vegetarian out so you're a culprit there could be some problems yeah I appreciate your faith and your interest but you know have to be realistic I really I really trust you and I are going to the park so the couple goes on to vegetarian diet the tries to act in a peaceful way and then one day she sort of curled up in sunshine and Moroccan so last little village coming on them and see that the tails against the tweet Congress passing by the way and as they run away they see that she hasn't reacted you sort of cold up there and laugh at her and run off so in a few days like that when they find her again pull a tail of it all and then run off that she's had and and then the third day this happens then they sing oh this is a really stupid poker yes this is really a real real failure Cobra you can tease this one as much as you like and you don't get a reaction and so then they figure out by this he'll look around and sprout up into the trees so then the Cobra makes her way to the so there she uses guruji I think you've got a problem because I got broken the Fang scales not the sideway we got a problem because you know I'm really I'm doing this non-violence things very seriously but you know there's lights from the village there really they really tried my patience and you know I'm I'm taking this to teaching seriously and I'm determined yeah Norfolk dr. kill but you know these these boys are really testing my patience and they try this one more time oh my god be sure I'm gonna be able to control my and then the rashid says well did you know you're doing a fantastic job you're really a bobble in your faith and your commitment and you know for a cobra to take on standards of non-violence is amazing you're really good example but you know it's also when you take on a standard of non-violence it's very importantly that the that you take that seriously and that you refrain from killing these these young lass but I never said you couldn't hiss so appropriate kissing can be applied at [Music] the provision of the part is not as serious a multi-product number as see Samadhi because our body team is at the beginning of it for the people I think it's important that exceeds not event and August we see we see this a lot but this commercial beam is it's passing me or Kathy and I don't want activity ID you know recent Chinese day well it's a particularly controversial in the Eightfold Path begins with right given my intention so it starts with the funniest actors the painful past summer DT Samar some couples are there's the first to visit upon yet so it's not really controversial is what the bullet first said in his thumb in that his first teaching it's not controversial it's anything as an example as the Buddha giving related teachings in slightly different formats you know so that is some teachings he talks about say for example as a teaching is known as the who police's to the liberation is a natural process and he says for one who is keeps the moral precepts that keeps see that there's no need for them to think may my heart be free from remorse because it's natural for one who keeps Suseela for their heart to be free from the most fun as far as free from the most there's no need for them to think many my body and mind be relaxed because it's not what one who's before and was to be ill relax your body in mind while his relaxing body and mind is known even to wish may I feel contented because one who's relaxing body and mind will feel contentment one who's contented there's no need for them to think may may i'll concentrate my mind easily because while there is relaxed and contented it's easy for them to concentrate their minds was constant his mind is concentrated there's no need for them to wish may knowledge revision of the way things are arrived because his mind is concentrated the urgent vision of the way things the arises what is in whom there is no animation of the way things are there's no need for them just to think may I become dispassionate and detached because what he sees things the way they are their heart becomes dispassionate attention of what is his dispassionately attach that no need for them to sustain made my heart be liberated because one of the experience is factual and detachment then it's natural to be liberated so the man succession from he goes from sila all the way through Samarkand and then Vanya and liberation so that in that expression language the bully uses quite often nothing see that's a mighty fine yet frankly but in the Eightfold Path some oddity right view some are some couple right resolution wide attention those are the two pending matters those are the two whisper factors then you get some are watch out right speech some are common to all right action somehow achieve all right by likelihood which either the sila factors and then you get right effort right mindfulness right concentration so our way out on whether somehow something might mindfulness right concentration then here get that the Samadhi factors that's so you're in the Eightfold part as a goodly describes it numerous numerous times is panna see that Suhani so I would say it's not controversial at all anyways more controversial to say is series of my opinion but there's all sorts of different ways that is explained and that one of the explanations although the ways of understanding it is what we call has gone to two turnings of the wheel and so that the intellectual appreciation of the wisdom practice in right view as as kind of concepts so that right you guys in understanding cause and effect right view as and as a seeing things in terms of the Four Noble Truths as a concept yeah because the setup of things on a by a mundane level so it's sort of the the idea the right ideas anyway and then somehow soccer ball soccer birth is like resolution or attention and that's the intention towards harmlessness the intention towards buying kindness intended rewards virtue so let in that sort of first turning of the wheel it's so setting up the conceptual framework and then taking the precepts as as kind of the kind of standards as over greed behaviors and then the training of concentration of the mind so that the first turning of the of the wheel is willing in terms of I got a mundane appreciation of the 8th or top and then second turning is then the so then you have the Samadhi leading into the funny accent you know the smiley of the first of all feeding into the Pandya of the second round and that's okay when the mind is is is established in concentration then that helps genuine wisdom to arise so not just the ideas of what my view is but in actually changing one's vision see within sight seeing that's true run yeah see see the difference between that in the first round is just the concept for the and stone structures the precepts has finally back that we are at least again our God there are many tats on and the second turning is the actual quality of wisdom and they're not feeding into an actual quality of virtue so not just precepts as the rules that you do and you don't do with the actual guna Tama the quality of virtue which is the felt experience of virtue the attitudes of non-violence not just I'm keeping a rule that says don't kill anything but that made the activity of the heart that is incapable of violence is developed and then that leads to the concentration to the Samadhi factors where that the development of concentration like I was saying earlier today is concentration but it's a beautiful business interviews with right view so it's not me practicing to get jhana or me trying to become enlightened but it's the development of the the the Samana factors but without being corrupted by self deal and kind of the you know one that was having of the mundane aspect so its various teachings of the Buddha that talk about the path in that that was for monday and half from the super monday path so that is as as another but I would hear someone saying that's the controversial teachings to talk about pioneer first I would say that's not really the case there's also a very famous talk by Raja maha bua called there with wisdom conditions and samadhi which he came back into 1960s I think was the first thing it is a little put into English and with some conditions of Samadhi and it talks about the in a way the application of her wisdom supports the development of Samadhi and that was a very very influential teaching actually that the Christian market Thomas Merton refer to that as a spiritual masterpiece that wisdom conditions of Samadhi that so that I would say that it's you know these are all some interrelated qualities and that people can put things across in a particularly prophetic way because that's how they've been taught or they said what he says another city Mungo this is correcting you you know interpretations that were wrong or this is what it says but it's like this there's a dream of us in the same way when you get into these contentious the situation's is there's a sitting in the mighty Minotaur called the Bob will be linear suitor the many kinds of feeling babu means many they so Babu made Anya so that many kinds of feeling and it starts off with two of the disciples of the Buddha argument 292 later cycles and once it is the Buddha says there's two kinds of feeling present pain person feeling and painful feeling there's three kinds of feeling present feeling than moving my lady what's up this tip has me present feeling not what I thought as well he's presently in final cleaning room and I kind of go get it yeah arguing with each other and each one determined yet they're right so eventually they decide this girl must be master since they were the food was alive when they were in there nearby so they were wise enough to go ask the Buddha and the Buddha leg is it's wonderful discourse thing yes sometimes I talked about two kinds of treating other times I come directly kinds of people's sex kontiki about 80 country I was about 36 times to I was going to 108 times of seating you know there you go basically Creed's them you know that what I talk about things in different ways at different times so that the most important thing is that you guys are arguing with each other that's what you should be noticing and that you're both right but you should see how your minds are dwelling on that the kind of the conflicts and wanting to be right and that's that's what significantly so in terms of spiritual practice and what's useful it's really useful to recognize that you can be right in fact but wrong in DUMBO yeah even if you've got you can probe the path if you've got the authority is recordings you got everything about you up but you're using that them beat something over the end with you're right nurse that means you're wrong because he might be the facts correctly but the whole way that you're relating is completely out of tune with number they're using the dumb as a 12 which is not the appropriate this is a good that it's gentleman in blue shirt okay thank you yes I found they talk very pertinent to what's actually going on to me acquaintance I'm starting a new venture with social that you know many many opportunities for me to do things my way completely wrong and it's a Steve hundreds of pitfalls opening up in front of me I'd rather not answer I'm starting a social venture and it really needs a bit of change wiser and some people guess what it needs a change or mind these changes approach for people general because the things are just not that's accepted but patent help about this changing moods allowing people working with me pockets and I can see that people don't talk today I'm going to feel very upset I think I think if your my documents or are they just moving goods like but do get people with me I can see lots of duality some things are in my way I can just see the way I'm looking at the moments like a peaceful path through it because what I think you actually heard what they're talking about and they're talking you seem to talk about so much of this missing the randomizer it's all being recorded in film and TV cameras well like I was saying in a talk it's myself I was very ambitious and success oriented person and so I reflect on this a lot this area and and you know I'm principal professional content ative so the main thing I'm supposed to be studying is my mind sorry guys I saw that within me it also saw the kind of stressing attention that that that creates within one always wanting success and afraid of failure what the approval of their fear disapproval and again it was here in this very Hall of emirati the routine used to be every morning we can't go breakfast on the whole community together and he would give like that 45 minutes well done the reflection every morning and then after he finished nobody would sort out the business of the day organizing different things are happening in the Mon stream so high was a for a long time I was like the monster secretary in one of the organizing people here and so I noticed that if while he was talking earlier so the engagement of the sand or what announcement was being made if I said something I made some kind of wisecrack and everyone would get this a cat that got the creeper ceiling right you know I yeah I made a funny and this is yeah it's a hundred percent satisfaction it's a totally good thing and then it's not it happened I met some wisecrack and everyone just looks at the carpet then we just broken into a million pieces field and that's alright that pattern happening over and sorry I decided to really limit it directly to contemplate them and the the upshot was that I actually learned to see successful failure very different ways because if you if you reflect you know you can think of something that you succeeded I'd say five years ago ten years ago something and you got a promotion when you've got a book published or you've got a prize or something went absolutely went your way and you think this is great I got me I got my degree [Music] probably partner finally we close that deal hooray and then five years lazy I can't believe are celebrating yeah that is the worst thing that ever happened to me but at the time you were you were rejoicing but then five years later ten years later if you realize how did I not see that coming and so that success so easily turns into something as painful similarly at the other end of the scale we can look back again five to ten years and something at the time is a total disaster you know your project is falling apart your partner's walked out you've got some horrible disease it's all you know you've been totally slammed publicly chains and weather and it's a disaster so they're trying to say to you guys well I never would have chosen that but damn it that's probably the best thing that ever happened to me and meaning it seemed that it is true so then what does that say about successful take it and that we I mean we want a particular thing and call it a success is an extremely narrow and conditioned view also your success might be painful for somebody else when you win everybody else has lost so how does that feel the other people didn't get the prize and in what does that do to their relationship with you and you were them at all so that I found that a whole way of relating to succeeding and failing I mean it was a lot of work in terms of meditation looking at attitudes and emotions was was needed but the sense of rather than being addicted to success and terrified of failure to take a much more pragmatic sense like so well this looks like a good way forward yeah if it works out this way then it seemed like it will benefit the company it'll benefit me and the people around me so this looks like a good way forward let's see what happens so again it's essentially the same as I've seen most of them it's really not tying your ego to the effort but making the effort in this looks like a good way forward I think we've got all the different factors were taken into account you know the people I'm working with you know my name is Carla the place where we are okay for this let's try this and see what happens so there's no ego involvement it's just based on achievement to the time to place a situation the people who resources and then okay let's see what happens and then it is a succeeds and so it is beneficial well okay okay I wouldn't ask you you know happily ever after okay well this this seems to be going well this this tells me to keep going in this direction but that's not a skill that's always going to be good let's learn the lessons that we can and keep heading this way and then if we need to change will change similarly if you take a direction and you realize right this is the complete disaster okay so that was a wrong turn so let's turn back beautiful route and learned from that that mistake and again because without being an ego involvement it's much easier to fail it's like okay that was a wrong terminus okay from this tournament goodnight there's a Native American proverb very fond of and we're not living in the States I came across which is now my god how far you going down the wrong track when you find out turn around because there's this kind of ego investment well I've done so far I can't stop now so some of that might as well be hand Rashida's for a land so well yes and no we don't have to think that way and that understood what will people think of me if I back out now it's like well you don't have to be dominated by them but rather okay well that that really didn't work so what we learned from why that didn't work and and because there isn't a lot of ego involvement this wall just being guided by mindfulness and wisdom then you can actually quite enjoy me being wrong you know I was a car but in the California with a house replacement of about 13 14 years and he's extremely practical person very very handy pretty and he grew up in northern Manitoba so they have chainsaw maintenance is one of the standard tricycle subjects in a town that he drew up even for women the girls didn't set that everyone had a had a chainsaw use an ice hockey stick you know so it was a very very practical grounded approach to life eradicated because of cerebral theoretical and it was developing a pioneering once we do this raw wild forests in northern fabien building a forest - tree cookies and water lines and water tanks and springs or not and over and over again I say I think I'll be good to put a path through this way we put the water tank guys over there and you could put the container in most popular that he's got a good view and he would say yeah as in my spot but this then we you can't get a park in there you know it's as as a is a vertical cliff you know you can't get around on that set it might not be a good spot you can't you couldn't get to and from the koozie if you go to that or that or the regularly I would seem to find a perfect place for it either was in about where the water tank was water flows downhill he would frequently point out to me Couty below the water tank is because there wasn't my mains water it's a kind of wild hillside yeah so it's just Springs and yes and when a mission solo from an ego level it's like oh you know how we're only too stupid yes suggestion again putting on an ongoing list like oh great yeah how wonderful that has this person he knows what they're talking about you know saves us a lot of money we ain't about building the cookies in their huts and the wrong place nobody can serve the purpose so in terms of developing I thought then what kind of them service you're ready to provide but on that vein that basic level if you it's a kind of attitudinal change but the way you relate to succeeding and failing and basically putting aside what other people think because if we try to act according to what we think will make other people happy it's always going to be how much you it's right trying to play with an orchestra from you know the score with the video fences if you can't hear the other instruments you can't possibly play into their own beat it's impossible no matter how accurately and right you're playing it's never going to fit everyone else we can't so that sort of being guided by what other people think or what you think they think is always going to give and I can decide how many if I think it's always going to be a few steps removed so mysteriously it's when you you know trust your own intuition and then have your idea of what others think but rather you just let yourself attune as well as you can into the present situation get a sense of what's for the best consult with people as trailers rather than being guided by for fear and supposition and then my experience is that that you find yourself far more relaxed about what you're doing yeah and far more really into and ready to adjust then if you're trying to do this girl you know she thinks I listened he thinks I yeah and she always wants it this way and he's always it'd be like that yeah yeah making kind of assumptions and suppositions and it's not you're not kind of ignoring everyone but if it's if your actions are based more on trying to please others they are not listening to your own intuition it's never gonna work so that in a sense I said I would use this this little mantra just do what you do and let the world make of it what it will which sounds kind of like a circuit [Music] but it's a kind of enlighten sodium certainly fabric as you did you know because you're not you're not shutting everybody out but in a way you are tuning more completely to the situation because you're not covering it up with your pretensions and your fears and your up your ideology but you know letting that fall away and then in a sense - you too - what's really here and B and then if you try to shift the attitude in that were there things that are strong in your mentality like if you realize actually wanting to be loved by doing something good is a really strong motivation so doesn't that mean that you stop doing what I'm doing because it's what people do I think and then even consider like well yeah I didn't really like being loved and improved but does that mean I should stop doing this good thing because this because they might be a benefit whether it struts my ego or not could be is beside the point disorderly so that just because something might seem to be feeding a nasty little habit when I still like being approved if you also help us to know maybe the feelings probably regional power but so but it's the kind is the quality of the dependency the kind of way is held is the important thing and that you know you can recognize a sense of ambition or think things that are particularly sweet to you and you can know that they're there but you don't have to let them you have power of your mind with the other Stranglers I only practiced the statement by Roy Jenkins who was a famous politician British politician one of the powers of the Social Democrats factor that they showing believers and others and so in a very proper party she is the Home Secretary worldwide I believe he was being either just published it was also write a scholar the transfer of Oxford University and he just published a book so is being interviewed by The Guardian independent one of those people and so they asked him you know mr. Jenkins do you have any regrets about your life anything that you would like to achieves he didn't and he said well as a politician in this country is naturally in any one of ever enters into politics has the idea that they'd like to become Prime Minister one day and so of course I gave him an idea you know my ambition will be to be Prime Minister and so I and then he kind of paused me said sorry so I'm here that's how he needs to think but then I realized I didn't actually want to be Prime Minister I wanted to have been [Music] I didn't want it to be private not to Prime Minister that's really insightful so you can see that yeah there's an ambition as kind of their delegate but if you put that front center there is just creates more difficulty and disappointment sorry but if you recognize oh it's just a sort of a little voice over the edges it doesn't really have to be giving too much credence or bad then it can be then feel like disappointment my life my real failure but I thought that was a tremendous wisdom what his problem to recognize that he wanted to have success point and so I feel that that if we are more aware of those kind of conditions or aspects of Southview but how we want to be able to be seen and what we want to achieve what we want to do and just kind of deflate them a bit just not taking too seriously you know in a passive way I would really like to be this way but yeah so then you're not in its mysterious how it was because even though it might seem like they're being less ambitious try less hard on the practical idealism [Music] driving [Music] [Music]

Channel: Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Views: 8,123

Rating: 4.8991594 out of 5

Keywords: ajahn amaro, ajahn, amaro, amaravati buddhist monastery, buddhism, dharma, talk, english, meditation

Id: 2Ue_vposGaQ

Length: 103min 23sec (6203 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 23 2017

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