Showing results for "Foundation" in Consciousness & Thought

In simple and straightforward language, Bhante Gunaratana shares the Buddha's teachings on mindfulness and how we can use these principles to improve our daily lives, deepen our mindfulness, and move closer to our spiritual goals. Based on the classic Satipatthana Sutta, one of the most succinct yet rich explanations of meditation, Bhante's presentation is nonetheless thoroughly modern.

Why do we divide the world, the human being and the divine? Do good and evil really exist or are they simply conditioned points of view? Is there a permanent ‘me’. Is there in me a place where there is no corruption, where there is real, absolute peace, order? Are the various scriptures of India and the Middle East similar to or in contradiction to your teaching? Is there any connection between the supernatural and religion?

Living together amicably, creatively, in complete relationship with one another – if that is what is essential then we need not only a different kind of mind but also a different quality of affection, love. What is the function of a religious mind? Our struggle in life is dualistic: good and bad, right and wrong, holy and unholy, the ideal and the fact. There is only the fact, not the ideal. Is it possible to look at life as though you are looking for the first time? What is the content of the unconscious?

Can the mind undergo a radical revolution? How do you observe the world? What solves our human problem is observing the whole process of ourselves without judging, condemning, translating or rejecting—just to observe.

The word chaste means pure, clean, untouched. Have we a chaste mind, a mind that has not been hurt, has no image, is free from the pleasure of yesterday and is innocent? Is chastity a quality of the mind? Can the mind be free of the word, symbols and the condemnation and approval of the word? What is the nature of the mind when there is no attempt through will or desire for any way out through the known? If you are really serious, not just with words but burning with responsibility, then you ask whether the mind can ever be free from the known.

When you are really quiet, alone with yourself, you begin to know yourself and to see the intricacies of your mind. When we say anything that is a bit alternative to what our elders think, we are stopped. There is great tension between us. Will you say what we should do about it? What is humanity, and when can a man be called a human being?

Seven public talks, including 'Does self-knowledge come through searching? - 16th July 1949' and 'Relationship has significance only when it is a process of self-revelation. - 17th July 1949' and more.

Am I aware of the process of thinking? Can I see that thought is destructive, except where it is essential? Why is it that we don't see something immediately? Do you know when you are thinking? Is the thing that we call thinking thinking at all? Do you think from the background noise when a problem arises? When the mind becomes totally aware of the background, is there thinking when a problem arises? What happens when I am aware of this hum, this noise incessantly going on? Is the background noise different from the observer? How am I to live an everyday life with complete silence?

Inattention and attention. Observing without the word. What is the function of sleep? Is love a matter of culture, a thing of pleasure and therefore dependency? Attention Leads to Learning—21st March 1970.

Consciousness, because it is in constant movement, has never found an energy which is not contradictory, which is not produced by desire and thought.

Only when the mind and heart are really simple is one able to solve the many problems that confront us. A religious man is he who is inwardly simple. Q: I have been a member of various religious organisations, but you have destroyed them all. I am utterly bored and work because hunger forces me to it. I am afraid to commit suicide. What on earth am I to do? Q: What have you to say to a person who, in quiet moments, sees the truth of what you say, who has a longing to keep awake but who finds himself repeatedly lost in a sea of impulse and small desires?

Is there a totally different way of approaching the whole turmoil of life? As long as the centre is creating darkness, and thought is operating in that darkness, there must be disorder, there must be everything as society now is. To move away from that, you must have insight. Insight can only come about when there is a flash which abolishes not only the darkness but the creator of darkness. Human beings have been acting according to one pattern, responding to hatred by hatred and so on. There are those few, perhaps many, who did not.

Does learning require thinking, or only awareness? To be aware is to be conscious, to be in relationship with what you observe outwardly and also our inward reactions. Awareness reveals that I have a conclusion from which I act, which prevents the free flow of energy. You see that you have many opinions and conclusions. You don't know why you have them or how to be free of them. Start with not knowing.

Wisdom, intelligence and truth. If there is attention, is there choice? Why has man divided perception? What is wisdom which is not the movement of thought. What place has the man who perceives truth in this world of reality? Truth operating in one brain clears that brain. Mustn’t there be emptiness for the perception of truth? Consciousness.

Q: How do I put the feeling of responsibility into action? We approach a problem from the outer to the inner and the inner to the outer. It is an endless ebb and flow. Who has created the division, this structure as the outer and the inner? We are educated in that and are caught in it. Division takes place when there is an image in the mind. Responsibility is to free yourself of images absolutely. When you feel responsibility, the flame of it will burn the image.

Krishnamurti’s ‘process’ and his early years. The Indian tradition says that there is a manifestation of goodness which happens very rarely.

To live in this world with intelligence, in spite of all the complications. Is it possible to be free of fear, not only the superficial fear in relationship but the deep-rooted fear? Thought nourishes, sustains and gives continuity to fear and pleasure. When you are learning, your mind is awake. Truth isn’t second-hand; you can’t get it through a guru, a book, you have to learn about it. The beauty of learning is that you don’t know what truth is. What is love?

Why is thought divisive? The desire to change in a particular direction gives an energy that is divisive. Will you free the mind taking time, through analysis, or can you look totally and therefore be totally free? Does choiceless rejection of the false give a different kind of energy? Does a foundation give me direction or does it bring confusion? Is the operation of intelligence insight? Questions from the audience followed the talk.

Thought and the brain. Can the brain free itself from all self-delusion? Why has the self become important? Can there be only sensation, thought and no desire? Can desire—which brings illusion, self-deception and all the complications of changing desires—can the root of desire be dissipated? What prevents one from having a real insight? That is, seeing the truth of desire and therefore end it. Is it that we have never asked this question? When there is no desire whatsoever then there is a total revolution, and that will affect the consciousness of man.

To understand reality, or for that immensity to come into being, one must understand the process of one’s own thinking. How is it possible to go into the deeper layers of consciousness? If we do not name, then perhaps it’s possible to go into the deeper layers of consciousness. To see things as they are requires enormous alertness of mind. Q: I understand intellectually that I am the resentment and hatred I feel, but I cannot cope with it. Can you show me a way?