banthe punnaji SAMMADITTI SESION 4

 (13) Lesson #4: Sammaditthi Sutta by Bhante Punnaji (29-Jan-2018) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HDnZiHE_Ao

Transcript:

(00:00) all these things we have been talking about this special Sutra which is about the main teaching of the Buddha summarized here somebody T is the harmonious perspective we first pointed out that in this teaching of the Buddha there are three main steps sila samadhi and Ponyo

(01:11) sila refers to the discipline in behavior and samadhi refers to the tranquility of mind which is the main way to happiness and the third is Ponyo which may be called the insight or the wisdom understanding the realities of life this is very much connected with

(02:28) three important parts of the mind which modern psychologists we are off and it was Sigmund Freud - drew attention to these three parts and these three parts are interested in treating x' that we normally want one is to be good and the other is to be happy and the third is to be wise we want to

(03:41) be wise and intelligent so to be good to be happy and to be wise so Cielo is being good Samadhi is being happy Ponyo is being wise now in this particular sutra the first thing that how venerable sorry put her with the chief disciple of the buddha he drew attention to what is good and what

(04:47) is bad Kassala and aku sala the next thing of course he pointed out was normally when people talk about good and bad in other religions like maybe Christianity or Islam or any of those religions they speak about the commandments of God and why you should be good is because God wants you to be good and if you don't follow that advice you'll be punished that is now in Buddhism we don't think in terms of a

(05:57) God that punishes but instead of that he speak of a thing called karma and rebirth but if that is what it is then he should be talking about karma and rebirth here in this Sutra there is no karma and rebirth mentioned in that why's that that we pointed out that that was because the teaching of the Buddha is

(07:06) not about karma and rebirth the idea of karma and rebirth was something that was there even before the Buddha was born into this world it was in India and the Buddha did not come into this world to talk about karma and rebirth then what was he talking about his teaching is what is today called the Four Noble Truths and Four Noble Truths is about

(08:29) Duke today translated as suffering the cause of suffering the end of suffering and the way leading to the end of suffering and we pointed out that the main teaching of the Buddha is not karma and rebirth but these Four Noble Truths then what is the basis for this teaching about being good why should you be good if there is no punishment by a god and

(09:42) if there's no harm and rebirth to punish you why should you be good the basis of that being good is not punishment and reward or her own rebirth but because by being good we are able to bring about peace and happiness in the world we are not fighting with other people in the world we are not living

(10:47) alone we are living with other people and others happiness is as important as our own unhappiness and therefore in order to be happy not only for ourselves but also for others we must be peaceful we should not hurt others that is the reason so our basis for being good is what is commonly called love and compassion for others that is the important thing so Buddhism is not a self-centered

(12:07) religion the same important thing to understand and not only that instead of talking about karma and rebirth here the next thing that was discussed was what is called aha aha I said means food and food was about food for the body and food for what we call the bind food for the mind was pasta Hara mano

(13:27) sanchita najara and Binion our parser was mainly referring to perception but sir was mainly referring to perception that means our sensors it is important too

(14:37) be able to see hear smell taste and touch so seeing hearing smelling tasting that that becomes the food for this five senses and then the next thing is mono sankirtana the monos on Titan Amane mainly refers to not only the five senses we also need food for the thinking mind

(15:56) that is the other thing the thinking part which is the Bonham and then pinion aha pinion means mainly referring to perception and conception becoming conscious we want to be conscious and aware of things so this is all mental food he also spoke about what we call the

(17:14) four noble truths the Four Noble Truths is really talking about a problem we are having a problem that problem is we are having two minds one mind is the emotional mind and we also have a

(18:31) thinking mind and this emotional mind is what we called the animal mind we are not only human beings we are partly animal and that animal mind is mainly the emotional mind the animals have desires for things hatred of things anger fears worries this is a part of our animal mind and the thinking mind is the special

(19:44) human mind which we call intelligence what is special about the human being is this thing called intelligence and it is with this intelligence that we can even able to do a thing called speaking we have words to express our ideas and not only that we can even do what we call calculation we can add

(20:53) subtract multiply divide not only that we have things called geometry algebra we have even higher mathematics trigonometry calculus and all kinds of mathematical calculations can be done animals can't do those things and it is this ability to think and reason out properly that has resulted in things like electricity magnetism we have electric lights we have clocks we have air conditioning all these things we

(22:04) have motor vehicles we have ships we have airplanes we have rockets that can even go to the bone and even maybe other planets all these things are possible because of this thinking ability but unfortunately our thinking ability is controlled by the emotions emotions are blind cannot think

(23:14) emotions are blind not only blind emotions are going against reality reality can be perceived only by the thinking part the thinking part is aware of reality the emotional part is not aware of reality but the thinking part is controlled by the emotional part this is the unfortunate thing that Sigmund Freud began to understand and he thought these emotions cannot be

(24:23) controlled it was some later psychologists who came to realize that there was a method of controlling the emotions and that was the thinking part is able to do because the emotions are roused according to the way the thinking part interprets circumstances according to

(25:38) the way we interpret our circumstances the emotions are aroused now this was what the Buddha pointed out long before the modern psychologist came to know about this by changing the way we think it is possible to gain control over the emotions that means we have to become aware of

(26:56) reality the thinking part has to become aware of reality that awareness of reality is what is called the petit Asama bother but it just some apart but it just sum up our the means a series of antecedents and dissident means something can that comes before something that means that everything

(28:04) that happens in the world happens only due to the presence of the necessary conditions certain conditions have to be present before something happens so everything happens because something else happens now in ancient times people thought that this world was controlled by supernatural beings called gods or Devils people thought that everything was done by supernatural beings even today there are many people who think

(29:08) like that that things are done by supernatural beings but the Buddha pointed out that everything that happens in the world happens only due to the presence of certain conditions and when those conditions are present something happens everything is dependent on conditions and if we understand those conditions we can change what is going on and this was understood by modern scientists and that

(30:25) is how the modern scientists have been able to change natural phenomena that is the meaning of science science means understanding how things happen in ancient times when there was rain people thought God is pouring water from the sky and when there was thunder people thought God is angry and shouting when there was lightning people thought God

(31:38) is trying to burn people so Jesus gradually the scientists began to realize that these things were not happening because of gods and devils it was happening due to the presence of the necessary conditions these conditions were seen and the scientists thought they gave names to these conditions one name was this word electricity was a name given to one of these conditions magnetism was another name given to

(32:47) another kind of condition so most of these things that are going on in the world today the scientists explained in terms of electricity and magnetism even the human body various things happening inside the human body is today explained in terms of electricity and magnetism so it's very important to understand that everything that is happening in the world is happening due to the presence of the necessary conditions that is the meaning of partita sama father

(33:58) so what is called suffering is simply explained by the Buddha in terms of what is going on in our body you see every person who is born into this world is born with a body it is the body that is coming out of the mother's womb and it is this body

(35:13) that has five senses eyes ears nose tongue and whole body itself those are the five senses and because of the five senses we can see we can hear we can smell we can test we can feel the touch so it's very important to understand that and not only that this body

(36:26) that is born begins to grow that body is not something that is always the eyes the same way it begins to grow and while growing certain parts of the body are thrown out and new parts are forming today the scientists aware that these bodies made up of what are called cells and these cells get together to form what are called

(37:32) tissues and the tissues get together and formed but are called organs and organs get together and form what are called systems and systems get together to form organisms you see this is how things are happening inside the body and these things are also being destroyed at the same time new things are being formed and old things are being destroyed and thrown out after sometime it's a new body that you have

(38:45) and the young man who young man and woman that gets married is not the child that was born the completely different thing and even that young man a woman begins to grow old and after that the old man or woman that dies is not the young man or woman that got married everything is changing you see but this change is producing what is called old age sickness and ultimately death that is

(39:59) what is going on in this world but that is something that the thinking mind can become aware of although the thinking mind is aware that that emotional mind doesn't learn the emotional mind doesn't like to grow old that emotional mind is one to fall sick that emotional mind doesn't want to die but that is going on you see this is the problem that is what is

(41:11) called suffering we are suffering because things are changing coming and going what is dependent on conditions unstable what is unstable is unpleasant what is unpleasant is not as we want but is not as we warned is not under our power what is not under my power is not mine that means everything that is going on is not mine these are impersonal happenings there are things that happen we are not doing

(42:21) any of these things it is happening to us so if it is just happening and we are not doing what is it that we called we or I there is really no I although we talked about it because even what we call the eye is something that comes up and goes so this is why the Buddha spoke about

(43:31) how things are happening so the problem is this unpleasant thing that is going on which is that we are born we begin to grow old before sick and we die when we are born do you know why we are born you don't know why you are born no one has been telling you why you were born oh you and how you were born this is why a philosopher called

(44:38) Kurt of God was asking how did I come into existence I was never told about this why am I here who was who gave permission for me to come up like this and then he was talking about how everyone is struggling and unhappy so the important thing is here it was the Buddha who found this and explained so we first think of what is going on that means we have been born people we are

(45:53) born we grow old fall sick and die and what is the cause of but why are we born now the important thing is that we think we have come into existence and how did we come into existence because we were born but here the Buddha is pointing out we didn't come into existence because we

(47:05) were born this is the interesting thing we were born because we have come into existence normally people think that we have come into existence because we were born here the Buddha points out that we were born because we have come into existence mama Papa Jody not JT patchable this is the interesting thing

(48:17) then the problem comes up how did we come into existence this is the interesting thing how did we come into existence the Buddha points out oh pardon appacha whole kupatana means personalizing uper Adana means to take inside by personalizing we have come into existence

(49:32) what have you personalized what did I say this is mine to personalize is to say this is mine mi add me mine what did I personalized when we open our eyes what what do we see what we see is only colors when we open our eyes what we see is only color and

(50:44) we take these colors and create an image and after creating an image we begin to identify the image by giving a name to it and it is by giving a name to it we identified the image and not only that we are not only using our eyes we also use the sound that we hear with our ears we use the smell that comes from the north and the taste that comes from the

(51:53) tongue and the feeling of touch we put all these things together and create an object and it is that object that we have created that we begin to say this is mine and we have created what is called a body having created the body we call this body mind and it is this body that we begin to call myself and other people also call it myself giving a name to it so that

(53:01) self has been given a name other people give the name so in other words we have created something and we have called it myself and because we have created this now we are thinking that this thing that we have created is occupying space and it is also occupying time occupying space means it has what is called a volume which means there is a length breadth and height

(54:09) that is occupying space and it is occupying time also by saying it has a past a present and a future and the past is the birth the future is the death and the present is aging so we have created this whole thing and calling it myself and we are also thinking of it having a birth aging and death all this is creation

(55:23) huh so we have not only created myself we have also created other things are outside myself what is outside myself are called objects objects in the world then I become some objects are pleasant looking some objects are unpleasant so I want the pleasant object and I had the unpleasant object and so we build a relationship between myself and the

(56:36) object that relationship is an emotional relationship it comes in the form of verdict desire or hatred either he wanted to exist or we don't warning to exist or we wanted to disappear so this is very important to understand that this world that we are aware of is starting from

(57:46) our census because we have five senses seeing hearing smelling tasting touching and we are creating images making use of these senses and because we are creating images we also become attached to these things or we begin to hate these things and everything becomes suffering this is what the Buddha is trying to talk about this whole world that we have created

(58:52) and the self that we have created he is a suffering that we have created and why did we do that we didn't do it it was happening to us we didn't do it there is no way even to do it it was all happening and happening because I didn't even know that it was happening it was not knowing anything that started the happening that is what is called a

(59:59) which are ignorant is all based on ignorance not knowing anything and it is only by understanding this properly that we can give up this completely but giving up is also very difficult because we are attached to it we have become attached to this so it is only by giving up this attachment which is an emotional relationship we have to give up this emotional relationship it is

(1:01:06) only by giving up this emotional relationship and what is the emotion emotion really is emotion a movement there is no other thing it's a movement of the body emotion is a movement of the body and its movement has to be stopped and stopping the moment is to come to stillness that stillness means calmness

(1:02:33) tranquility it is that calmness and tranquillity that is the meaning of Nirvana near one wanna means shaking net means not shaking stillness up the mind and the stillness has to be based on understanding what has happened that stillness has to be based on an understanding because it is the

(1:03:40) understanding taking mind that can understand the emotional mind cannot understand so the thinking mind has to understand what is called the petite chasm father it is only by understanding this properly that the stillness can come the stillness without understanding doesn't achieve it so the stillness has to be based on understanding so this is why we have to get into what

(1:04:54) is called the super normal Eightfold way with begins with Samadhi tea and some oddities in this Sutra sub oddity and it is only when we have understood the Sutra properly that we begin to understand what has happened it is only when we have understood that properly that this problem is solved so this is why you should read the Sutra again go home and read and try to

(1:06:03) understand okay we have come to the end of our talk