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2021-09-18 Ajaan Thanissaro Aging, Illness, Death, & Separation - Morning Session | Otter.ai

2021-09-18 Ajaan Thanissaro Aging, Illness, Death, & Separation - Morning Session

Rob Hammond1h 41min

Ajaan Thanissaro

00:00

That's the new karma. That's the new karma. That's the new karma.

Speaker 1

00:02

I'd like to welcome everybody to this Sati Center event. I also want to point out the San Francisco Parisā- that we meet and study Taan Ajaan's teachings. There's also a co-sponsor of this event, we've upgraded our zoom link to accommodate 500 people and Balaji actually funded that, so thank you for that. The big thing is for everybody to be muted, and if you have a question, you can go to 'reactions', there may be other ways on Zoom to ask the question, but raise your hand. Then when Taan Ajaan asks for questions for the morning, I'll be calling on you to ask your question. Then in the afternoon Balaji will be calling on you. Remember afterwards to put your hand down, also keep muted. One more quick announcement, if you feel inspired to give a donation to the Sati Center go to their website or write a check- the important thing; why I'm making this announcement is because of two things; one: 95% of all donations for this event will go to Mettā Forest Monastery but the other thing, more importantly- is that there's a space on Pay Pal to put down with the donation is for because the Sati Center has a great deal of programs going on these days through Zoom and if you don't put down where it'll go, it makes my life as treasurer confusing. So with that, I'd like to turn this over to Taan Ajaan.

Ajaan Thanissaro

01:59

Okay, let's start with some meditation. Find a comfortable position to get into. Close your eyes and I'll give you some brief instructions for the meditation to begin with and then ask that you meditate while I talk. First start with thoughts of goodwill. Goodwill is your quest for true happiness. Your true happiness; the happiness of all other beings. Because true happiness comes from within there's no conflict there. So start with the thought "May I be truly happy. May I understand the causes for true happiness and be willing and able to act on them." Then spread the same thought to others. Start with people who are close to your heart: your family, your very close friends, may they find true happiness too. Then spread those thoughts out in ever widening circles- to people you know well and like, to people you like even though you don't know them so well, to people you're more neutral about, and the people you don't like. Remember that the world would be a much better place if everyone could find true happiness within. Spread thoughts of goodwill to people you don't even know. Not just people, living beings of all kinds: east, west, north, south, above and below out to infinity. May we all find true happiness in our hearts.

Ajaan Thanissaro

05:11

Now bring your attention to the breath. Take a couple of good long, deep in and out breaths. Notice where you feel the breathing process in the body. Settle your attention there and then ask yourself if it's comfortable. If long breathing is comfortable, keep it up. If it's not comfortable you can change. Try shorter breathing or in short, out long, in long out short, heavy, light, fast, slow, deep, shallow- you can experiment for a while to see what rhythm and texture of breathing feels best for the body right now. Or you can simply post a thought in the mind each time you breathe in what kind of breathing would feel good now, and see how the body responds. If your mind wanders off, just drop whatever the thought is, and you'll be right back at the breath. If it wanders off 10 times, 100 times- you keep coming back 10 times, 100 times. Don't get discouraged, each time you come back, actually reward yourself with a really good breath. One that feels gratifying deep down inside then of course why stop with one. Now as the breath gets comfortable, the next step is to be aware of the whole body as you breathe in, the whole body as you breathe out to give yourself good solid foundation.

Ajaan Thanissaro

08:05

A good way to build up to that whole body awareness is to go through the body first section by section. A good place to start is down around the navel. Locate that part of the body in your awareness. Watch it for a while as you breathe in, breathe out to see what rhythm of breathing feels good there. If you notice any tension or tightness in that part of the body, allow it to relax so that no new tension builds up as you breathe in, and you don't hold on to any tension as you breathe out. Then move your attention to the solar plexus and follow the same steps there. One: locate that part of the body in your awareness. Two: watch it for a while as you breathe in, breathe out to see what rhythm of breathing feels good there, and then three: if there's any tension or tightness in that part of the body allow it to relax. Now I'll let you continue going through the body at your own pace. Through the chest, throat into the head, down the shoulders to the arms down on the back, through the legs. Do that at your own pace. You can go through the body several times as you like. until you're ready to settle down. Then choose any one spot in the body that's most congenial; focus your attention there, and then think of your awareness spreading from that spot to fill the whole body. If you can maintain that whole body awareness, fine. If it begins to blur out, go back to the survey of the body section by section again.

Ajaan Thanissaro

11:31

Meanwhile, I'll talk. Aging, illness, death. In Western Buddhism these are sometimes treated as peripheral issues of interest only to people who are already old, sick or dying. Modern Buddhism could be called the "cult of the present moment" or the "cult of the here and now" in that it focuses on the problem of finding happiness and ease in the present as an end in and of itself. In this context, issues of aging, illness and death are only tangential. When they are addressed you're told, "well, take the lessons you learned about being okay in the present moment and learn how to be okay about aging, okay about illness, okay about dying As for the question, 'What Happens After Death?' It's usually treated as something that's in bad taste. In fact, some people say the question 'What happens after death' is not even worth thinking about, it's best left as a mystery on the grounds that no one can really answer. That it's better to accept the mystery than to try to find answers to things you don't yet know. Now when you compare this to the Buddha's original teachings it's very ironic, because it has the priorities backwards. And it's worse than ironic. It's a mistake on two levels. The first level has to do with the role that aging, illness, and death played in the Bodhisattva's original motivation to find the Dhamma.

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