In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;and#8220;Going Beyond and#8216;Egoand#8217;,and#8221; Jinapriya delivers on the quicksilver nature of the Enlightenment experience. Going beyond fixed and#8216;egoand#8217;, checking oneand#8217;s ambitions as they always look to a future; and the journey to the moment.
From the quietly passionate talk: and#8220;What is Enlightenment?and#8221; given at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, 2003.
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by free Buddhist audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. [music] In a way, I think he's surrendered, not surrendered to them in his sense given in, but surrendered by not trying to hide from them. Part of the whole vision, I think, of his enlightenment was to realize who he really was, to realize that he wasn't this limited view he had of himself, Siddhartha Gautama, this historical figure, or in my case, Jina Priya, or whoever you are. You know, we all think we are our egos. It's interesting we use the term ego. But it's not like I am my ego. I mean, my ego is me. There isn't anything else sort of thing. I know we experience ourselves most of the time. And I think part of the Buddha's vision was that he realized that wasn't who he was, or who any of us are deep down. When you penetrate experience, when you can penetrate the heart of experience, you realize that your ego consciousness is not the final terms of your being. I think for the Buddha part of that, there's no such thing as wrong experiences for him, yeah? I mean, he had whatever he had, and I think he saw the past and the future. There were constructs of the mind, and so he was able to be in the present. He could be in the present because he wasn't trying to push any experience away. And he wasn't sort of lost or intoxicated with pleasant experience, and he wasn't shunning, unpleasant experience, so to speak. And that, I think, though, is in the light of realizing who he really was. And that put his experience in perspective. And so he was able to manifest equanimity regarding the circumstances of his life. I think the number of this in the scene, just the scene, et cetera, is all there is is right now. All we've got is right now. So normality, yeah, is hardly ever living in the present. I mean, even when we have noble ambitions, yeah, we're not living in the present. I mean, to have ambition seems a very natural phenomena. It's part of our human makeup. We all have ambitions. Some of us want to be rich, or powerful, or famous. Some may want to be very knowledgeable and get degrees. Some just want a little niche for themselves, where they can look out of the window and see the same scenery every day. And some want to find the perfect partner, and so on and on and on. And even if we reject any or all of these and say we want to live a full-time spiritual life, we still have ambitions. We have ambition to become excellent meditators, to be perfectly peaceful, or to see the results of this or that lifestyle. There's always something to hope for. There's even to gain enlightenment. We put it all in the future, never in the present. Instead of being attentive to what is now, we're hoping for something better to come. Maybe tomorrow. And then when tomorrow comes, it has to be the next day again, because it still wasn't perfect enough. If we were to change our thinking habits and rather become attentive to what is, attentive to the present moment, we would find something that really would satisfy us. But when we're looking at that which doesn't yet exist as more perfect, more wonderful, more satisfying, then we can't find anything at all. Because we're looking for something that isn't there. I'm reminded of a picture I saw as a child in a book. I don't know if this ever really happened, but it's basically a donkey cart and a man going along in a donkey cart, but he's holding it like a kind of fishing rod. And on the end is a sort of carrot. So he's got this and he's going along like that. And the trouble is, of course, the carrot's always in front of the poor old donkey. Wherever he goes, if he moves forward, the carrot's always, he's never going to get the poor old carrot. It's always in front and never reached. And that's often how a lot of our hopes for a satisfaction in the future are like that. I mean, obviously it's a worthwhile ambition to develop insight. But if we keep on looking at it at some future time, it's going to escape us. I remember some years ago on TV there was a program with a presenter called Angus Deaton, some of you may have heard of, may have seen. And it was one of those, it was a shame really because it was a lovely opportunity. It was flown away. It was a program, he was going all over the world, I think, trying to find happiness. And I think the last program, he went, and I think it was probably even the last few minutes of the last program, he actually went and found a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk who was living as a hermit. And, you know, all this sort of like the TV man, camera man, microphones, and I'd trekked up this hill sort of thing to get to the monk and, you know, and Angus Deaton is sort of played to the camera and everything. Ooh, we're about to find the meaning of life, you know, and all that. And I'm going to find it, and he goes and talks as a word with this monk. And it's quite interesting, and it's another one of those lovely dialogues. He says to the monk, "I want happiness, can you tell me where I can get happiness?" And it's great. I mean, the monk gives him an answer, which you can't deal with, it's the wrong answer for him. But unfortunately, it's the right answer. And I think it's an amazing answer. And what he said was, Angus Deaton again, "Can you tell me, I want happiness, can you tell me where I can find it?" And the monk said, "Hmm, want in happiness, seeking happiness, craving happiness, that's the problem. There's nothing else which I can tell you." And poor old Angus Deaton, it was the wrong answer, and he just sort of, "Oh, thanks very much. Good afternoon." I don't know. I mean, certainly didn't seem to work on TV, but maybe it changed his life. I don't know. I actually suspect not. But that is the answer. If we're always looking for something in the future, it's always going to elude us. If we only think of the goal in the future, it's not going to come about. Because we're not using all our energy and strength to recognize each moment. It's only in the recognition of each moment where we find insight. We talk so much about the path, but we mustn't take it too literally. The paradox is that the path, the journey, the way to use all these spatial metaphors is to fully enter the present. We could say that the journey's destination is to arrive in the now. And this recognition of each moment is seeing things as they really are. If this moment isn't enough, then there isn't enough. I think the Buddha realized this, too. I think if we can really realize this, really realize that future fulfillment isn't possible, then one can give it up, one can give up the hankering after it. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donnie. And thank you. [music fades out] [music fades out] [music fades out] [BLANK_AUDIO]
