Dhamma with Ajahn Sujin

Robert: Ajahn, talking about the object appearing clearly and relating to what I was going to say, I saw a comment recently on the Tīka to the Visuddhimagga and it might be interesting, and it says that a dhamma, having its own nature as sabhāva is profound, is gambhīra, but a paññatti is not, and I think it means that concepts are... We sort of know concepts, like tables chairs and people, but very hard to know, the actual dhammas, the realities. And I think that, as you're saying, it's all about pañña. And obviously only when a Buddha arises can that sort of understanding of realities be known. A. Sujin: That's why when there is the understanding of the absolute truth, one can see that at moment of knowing something as plate and food and so on, it's the moment of thinking with memory or sañña. That's why there can be the moment of understanding sañña even right now, intellectually, that it has to be there at any moment with citta, no matter what citta ex...

Sundara: And also, Tan Ajahn, at the beginning you were referring to the four saṃvejanīyaṭṭhānāni (Mahāparinibbānasutta, DN16), the four holy places that often are a condition for samvega, or sometimes it's translated as we know as sense of urgency, I saw it translated recently as a sense of zealousness or can inspire a sense of urgency. A. Sujin: Can that be only an example? That's why when pañña is there, it can understand anything, and understanding what is said is just only one part. Not only that moment in samsara, every moment, because it's impossible to talk about, even right now, what are there are different from just a moment ago, different citta and different cetasikas, but when pañña is there, it can understand what is samvega, it can be thinking about anything and understand that as it's so samvega, it's gone completely. Pañña only can understand that, that it's samvega, not the object for desire at all. It's only that which is gone, on...

(Suitable for beginners) - Jotika: I would like to ask, if there is the seeing, if there is the hearing all the time, then there is never more planning or something. A. Sujin: Can anyone stop thinking to arise, after seeing? Jot. No. Su. That's why there must be thinking by conditions, accumulation to think in such way, never change from what has been accumulated. Some people think wrongly and some people think rightly, some people think in wholesome ways and some people think in unwholesome manners, by conditions. This is the way to understand the truth that no one can control anything, because actually what is there is not anyone, but what is there is conditioned to be just that, cannot be changed from this to that, because it has [been] already conditioned, it has already arisen. Who can change that? But it can be understood as no one at all, because what is there by conditions, to think rightly or wrongly, wholesome way or unwholesome way, by conditions. The most ...

Jon: And Ajahn, talking about characteristics, I wonder if you could say a few words about the characteristic of awareness, and I ask that in the context of the reminder that's often given that it's important to know the moments with awareness from the moments without awareness. A. Sujin: Without the teachings of the Buddha no one would know what is there at moments of kusala at all, how many cetasikas are there. No way to understand that at all, even what is kusala and what is akusala but the Buddha realized the truth, enlightened the truth, all of the truths. So, what the others cannot know he knew, that's why he taught about what is there in one moment of kusala and akusala. For example, hiri, ottappa, saddha, sati and alobha, adosa, amoha are there, who knows? That's why we learn to understand [each] different one as it is. For example, hiri, we can understand that, and when we talk about sati, usually each moment is taken by lobha and ignorance all the ...