Ringkasan dibuat dengan bantuan AI • Belum diverifikasi
Ceramah ini adalah sesi tanya jawab Dhamma yang membahas berbagai topik praktis dan filosofis dalam Buddhisme. Ajahn Sona menjawab pertanyaan tentang meditasi, pencapaian spiritual, kehidupan setelah mati, etika, dan cara menghadapi tantangan hidup. Ia menjelaskan bahwa visualisasi seperti kasina dapat membantu menenangkan pikiran yang overthinking, namun perlu digunakan dengan hati-hati. Ia membedakan samadhi yang bersifat sementara dengan pencapaian sotapanna yang permanen, serta menguraikan Upanisa Sutta tentang dependent origination transendental dan faktor-faktor pencerahan. Dalam konteks kehidupan sehari-hari, ia menyarankan untuk tidak terjebak dalam politik media, melainkan fokus pada moralitas (sila) sebagai dasar. Ia juga membahas cara membantu orang tua yang sulit dengan berbagi Dhamma dan memberi contoh, serta menjelaskan hukum karma bahwa menyakiti yang tidak bersalah membawa akibat berat. Mengenai fenomena UFO, ia mengaitkannya dengan dimensi lain dan makhluk deva, mengkritik keterbatasan fisika modern. Untuk menghadapi ketidakpastian dan penurunan indra, ia menekankan penerimaan dan keseimbangan batin. Terakhir, ia menguraikan lima rintangan dan ajaran tanpa-diri (anatta) sebagai pemahaman bahwa tidak ada inti permanen, melainkan proses yang terus berubah. Pesan utamanya adalah pentingnya praktik etika, meditasi, dan kebijaksanaan untuk mencapai pembebasan.
Welcome to Birken Forest Monastery's live stream. I'm Ajahn Sona. You have an opportunity to ask questions today, and I will attempt to answer those questions. Let's have the first question, Meta.
Yes, Ajahn. The first question is from Mina from Tampari, Finland. Dear Ajahn, I am very visual, and my mind tends to proliferate. This tendency of proliferation is a major obstacle to meditation.
How can I skillfully use my ability to visualize to reduce thinking and to calm the mind? In which situations is visualization beneficial?
And when is there a risk that it will lead astray?
Visualizations for reducing proliferation and excess discursive thinking. Yes. Well, there's quite a body of information about that in the Buddhist teachings.
Amazingly applicable to modern life. I would say that is one of the scourges of modern life is because of the education system.
We are...
We are taught exclusively to use our discursive faculty, our capacity to think, and we're praised.
The more we think, the more we read, the more we talk, the more praise you get, at least in the academic circles.
However, there's a price to be paid for that. The thing won't shut off.
It's like a person who won't shut up.
And they live inside your head.
So, in order to get to another stage of beauty, I mean, the capacity to think in a lucid way and in a practical way, in a helpful way, in a philosophical way is good.
It's higher than not being able to do that.
However, it's tedious and fatiguing if that's all you know.
And also that it runs in an unwanted way.
It's like being in a dream while you're walking around.
The mind is operating as a separate operating system that is continuously pumping out thoughts and so forth.
So...
It's called casino meditation.
And the visualization is not elaborate meditation.
It's on a single object such as a colored disc.
So a circle and one of the primary colors, blue, red, yellow, or white.
And you focus on that.
If you're a visual person, it should be very easy.
You first of all make yourself a disc out of one of the primary colors.
And then stare at it for a while.
And then close your eyes and see if you can bring it to mind visually.
And then just stay with it for extended periods of time.
Now, it's driving out discursive activity because your entire attention is directed to a single object.
And you can also, as your strength of concentration gets better,
you can change the dimensions of it.
You can make it large or small.
The smaller you make it in your visual imagination,
the greater the concentration demand is.
To focus on a single tiny red dot is harder than to focus on a very large field.
So this is a basic meditation that was used and is quite,
seemed to be quite favored in the commentaries for developing concentration.
Of course, breath meditation is another very commonly used one to overcome excessive thinking.
Excessive thinking is a great nuisance.
And also the inclination to fantasize.
People with good imaginations, who are fairly intelligent,
quite often develop habits of fantasy.
So you were bored in school.
And so you start, you realize you can create whole movies and life experiences in your imagination.
And you escape from the present moment by doing that.
And then you also, of course, discover your memory.
So you can plunge into old memories and create new fantasy worlds,
which may be in the future or just may be in a fantasy.
Intelligent, creative people have this capacity and they use it.
But you can get trapped in it.
And eventually you can't seem to be here in the future.
You can't seem to be in the present moment.
You can't seem to live now.
So it's a bit, it's an annoying thing.
And it can be very, a powerful habit structure.
So this is the way out.
And it's not taught, the way out is not taught in academic life at any level of,
right up through university.
It's taught in the different use of mind.
And these are called samadhi practices.
Samadhi is to even the mind up
and develop something called ekagata
or absorption in single topics.
And they don't have to be discursive topics.
They don't have to be full of words and abstract ideas.
They can be very still, stilling kind of objects.
Simple objects.
Water, earth, fire, air.
Blue, red, yellow, white.
Simply staying.
It's a training of the mind.
And you don't have to do this all the time.
But if you can learn to make a portion of your day so you can devote to that,
it will change the inner experience.
You will feel less swept away by these thoughts,
more present, more grounded, more lucid.
Not harassed by endless inner chatter.
So this is the advantage of it.
Now I have a number of talks on all of these kasinas
and the breath meditation as well.
So I have talks on the YouTube channel
fully illustrated with the visuals as well.
How to meditate on the basic colors
and the basic four elements
of earth, air, water, and fire.
And also the breath meditation.
So I go into it in great detail.
And all of this information is right on this channel,
Ajahn Sona's YouTube channel.
Okay, let's go to the next question.
The next question from the chat is from Isaiah Kalfi.
I have heard you describe Sama Samadhi as temporary nibbana,
where the five hindrances have subsided.
Do you mean that a moment of Sama Samadhi
is also a glimpse of nibbana in the case of stream entry?
No, that's not what I mean.
In the case of stream entry,
there is a moment which in English translation
is called a change of lineage.
One, it's a realization that you have
about the nature of reality
and it's regarding,
three elements of reality.
One is that reality just flows by.
It's intrinsically and exclusively impermanent.
Everything in the universe is exclusively
and absolutely impermanent in flowing.
Everything is flowing.
It's not, there are no static entities in the universe.
Everything is in process, in motion.
And that is the universe we live in.
And this includes our self,
everything about ourselves,
our bodies, our minds, our feelings.
All of this are exclusively processes which flow.
And this is kind of an awakening to that reality.
And with this awakening,
we realize we can't find a stable place.
We can't find a refuge in a place
that is in continuous change.
Not only is reality and life in continuous change,
it's also very uncertain
when the change will take place.
And you may be in a big stone building
which seems very, very uncertain.
It's very solid and lasting.
Not a process.
But then an earthquake comes.
A fire comes.
Bombs come.
You know, half of Europe was wiped out
in the Second World War.
You can imagine Japan in the Second World War.
Nuclear bombs dropped on what apparently
are very solid objects like buildings
and they just vaporize, you know.
So everything is process.
And it's uncertain when the process will rapidly change.
So this is unsatisfactory.
So this is what stream entry is.
It's the sotapanna.
The eye of wisdom opens to this.
This is aided.
This awareness is aided
by the development of samadhi
because the hindrance is the normal relationship
to reality which is grasping and clinging to it.
You're either wanting something to be available to you,
to be maintained and owned by you
against the reality that everything is not ownable
or it's simply out of control.
This is the nature of desire and also aversion.
So unlikeable situations arise
and you want them to disappear.
But because things are out of control
and you can't command reality,
they don't respond to that.
So this is what subsides in jhana,
in the samadhi.
This fraught relationship to reality
subsides temporarily.
So this is temporarily nibbana,
meaning temporarily cooling off
the heated relationship to reality
which is either angry or desirous
or agitated or depressed
or in doubt about it.
These have subsided
and nibbana or nirvana
means the stilling of the wind.
The wind has been stilled.
The heat has been dissipated.
And you're in a state of peace.
And so the samadhi is
so-called temporary state of peace.
The opening of the eye,
the sotapanna experience,
the stream entry experience
is not going to regress.
It's a clear final understanding of it
that does not leave you.
And so that's the difference
between these two things.
Okay, next question.
The next question from the chat
is from Christian from Guadalajara, Mexico.
Could you share your take
on the causal chain
of the upanisa sutta,
transcendental dependent origination,
as it relates with the vipassana jnanas
and the balancing factors
of the bhojangas?
Okay, Christian.
Christian spent a good deal of time
here at the monastery, actually.
And he's a very keen dhamma investigator.
It's a very rich question.
By the way, so I want to talk about
the upanisa sutta,
transcendental dependent origination.
Doesn't that sound delicious?
Transcendental dependent origination.
I just happened to have given
two 10-day retreats
on dependent origination.
I gave them in the month of May.
And I brought in,
as one of the talks,
this upanisa sutta,
transcendental dependent origination.
So I would...
We haven't released these talks yet.
There are...
It will be in the form of eight talks
on dependent origination,
given live at Berkeley
and we can...
We still have to edit them,
take out the coughing
and the stuttering.
I would encourage you to listen to...
You know, wait for those...
The whole explanation
of dependent origination
and particularly that talk
on upanisa sutta.
But this is very positive types
of thoughts which involve
the process
towards
ending the
cycle of birth and death.
In other words,
transcending samsara,
the problematic
kind of existence that we...
most people live in.
So it's very beautiful.
It begins
usually with contact with
a certain...
Like a person
a wise person
versus foolish people.
And then hearing wise
ways of looking at life.
And then gaining
faith and confidence
in that way of looking at life.
And then the positive
emotional results that follow from that
which are uplifting joy
and serenity
and following on to that
by clarity of mind.
And understanding about this.
Which eventually leads to
knowledge.
Wisdom.
Which...
Knowledge and liberation.
So our final goal is actually
liberation from suffering.
So this is the transcendental
dependent origination.
Vipassana jnanas
are more commentarial ideas.
There's a whole school of course
very...
influential school.
Which is basically called
Vipassana schools.
Vipassana means
simply
to see
clearly.
And it is always
in conjunction
it's usually hyphenated with another word
Samatha.
Which means to
prepare the mind
to cleanse the lens of the mind.
As you would cleanse the lens of a
telescope
or a microscope
or a set of
binoculars.
If you want to
see clearly
you make sure you dust the lens of your camera
or your
your binoculars
your telescope
your microscope.
And make sure that those lenses are accurate.
The problem is we're looking through a mind that is muddled.
We're looking
trying to see the stars through a distorted lens
that has got dirt on it and so forth.
Before we can really see clearly
we have to
polish the lenses.
We have to make the mind
into a lucid condition.
So we're doing these preliminary exercises.
This is like gymnastics where
you know you have to have some
all kinds of preliminary exercises.
Again with
with music.
The pianist has to spend quite a bit of time
just practicing scales
in order to get the muscles in the fingers
to connect to the brain so that you can actually
execute the music.
If you can't
if you don't have the
the agility
and the
body
mechanics
you can't express the music.
So these are the two
things.
The
jnana
so vipassana means
that clearly seeing
but it's connected to this
the weighty development of samadhi
the ability to concentrate and sustain
on a subject in a lucid way.
So
then
out of this comes
clarity of sight
you know insight.
So the jnanas
are called
well
knowledges
and they must line up with
this upanisa
the transcendental
dependent origination.
All knowledges
are actually overlapping.
The Buddha just puts it in
in a number of different ways
but basically
all of the teachings
are
expressing almost the same thing
at the bottom of it.
Just two things.
There is suffering
and there's an end to it.
And then
the
proliferation of the suttas
of the teachings
come in forms of expressing
how to
what is suffering
how it arises
and how
what are the processes
to bring it to an end.
And so
the Buddha
in many a way
explains
and offers
structures to help
with that understanding.
So
the vipassana
and jnanas
are one way
although
primarily
commentarial
structures.
Upanisa
transcendental
dependent origination
is
from the early suttas.
It is directly from
the mouth of the Buddha.
And then there's
what was the third part of that?
It was
the bojangas.
Yes well the bojangas
are again
by the way you can
you can hear talks
on all of these
except for the vipassana
and jnanas.
I don't
I don't
I'm not of this
the vipassana school.
I
I find that it's
I don't want to
be
all that critical
or anything like that.
It's that
it's
it's kind of a
specific
technique
a narrow technique
which is
not the way the
suttas are.
They're a
very large compendium
of teachings
for different types
of personalities
with methods
and techniques
for each kind of personality
and showing numerous
possible methods.
So
this vipassana movement
is very
popular
has
and reached
in some ways
it reached the West
and it
presented itself
as the teaching
of the Buddha
it's like
the exclusive teaching
of the Buddha
but there are much
it is a much
larger collection
of teachings
and it
has great breadth
to it
and should be explored
a larger
view of things
than
than just vipassana.
So
the
bojangas
are the
factors
of awakening.
Anga
means a factor
and
the bo
is kind of
bodhi
like
enlightenment factor.
And
these are just
seven mental states
actually
mindfulness
investigation
of dhamma
energy
joy
tranquility
concentration
which is samadhi
and equanimity
seven
the contents
of the enlightened mind
consist of these
seven factors
dominantly.
They
the cultivation
of these
lead to enlightenment
and when enlightenment
is achieved
they constitute
the mind
of the enlightened person.
And so
you will see
the same factors
joy
and
tranquility
and concentration
you will see
in the
upanisa
the transcendental
dependent origination
and some
of the factors
will arise also
in the vipassanayana
as well.
So
let's
move on.
The next question
from the chat
is from
Simonius Monk
from Berkeley,
California,
United States.
Does one
consciously know
one has died
even if
only briefly
and recognize
they are now
a ghost
so to speak
in transition?
Can loved ones
and acquaintances
hear
and see us
speaking to them
shortly after
they have died?
Yes,
I'm going to refer
to
you know
Buddhist
ethos
you know
they
have
the
commentaries
and then
just the tradition
in Buddhist
cultures.
So
having spent
time in
Buddhist
cultures
and especially
in
the
saturated
Theravada
Buddhist
culture
of
Thailand
there is
much
preoccupation
and
discussion
of
the
process
of
what
happens
when
you
die
and
you
are
entering
this
ghost
realm.
The
ghost
realm
is a
very
common
destination
for
many
people.
This
is
the
peta
realm.
The realm
of the
peta
peta
it's
pronounced
peta
p-e-t-a
and there's
very detailed
explanations
and
observations
of them
in the
time of
the Buddha
by the
psychic
master
Moggallana.
Moggallana
is
the venerable
Moggallana
is
one of the
two chief
disciples
of the
Buddha
and foremost
in psychic
capacities
and he
visits
with these
petas.
He goes
and observes
the realms
and the
attitudes
that they
have
and there's
a whole
book
about it
called the
peta
vatu
the
dwellings
of the
divine
and it
suggests
divine
and it
also
is
a
divine
and it
means
heaven
and
it
means
the
holy
world
which
is
the
heaven
and
it
about 1,700 years after this book called the Peta Vatu.
And I have a very strong suspicion that Dante either directly had read the Peta Vatu
or that he had encountered parts of it through other scholars at the time.
The whole appearance of this middle part, it's not in the Bible, it's not in the New Testament particularly,
and it's not part of the Christian cosmology, that's this purgatory, this place, this in-between place.
Anyway, yeah, it's quite possible that the person does not know, the ghost does not know they're dead yet.
And they can see.
They can see and observe the realm of, the human realm, and overhear human speech and so forth.
And that they're not reconciled to the fact that they've passed on, you know, that they're out of that realm.
So I don't want to go too deeply into it. It's fascinating.
It's so fully explored, so far before Christian developments,
it's quite astonishing to become aware of it.
To become familiar with the Buddhist teachings, because it's 500 years before Christ.
The Christian cosmology did not develop until really centuries and centuries later.
And it tends to be a rough facsimile of Buddhist cosmology, but much later on in history.
Okay, let's go to the next question.
The next question is from Kathy.
Is it okay to completely ignore politics?
Or do we have a duty as a community to have a political opinion?
I'm happier when I ignore it.
Yeah, I would say that for many people, it would be advisable to completely ignore so-called politics.
But it's not really politics that you're ignoring.
It's the media.
It's people making a living out of fomenting politics.
It's people making controversial points of view.
You see what draws people's attention is some sort of squabble, fight, argument, loud noises in the street, so forth.
It catches people's attention.
We're just designed as humans to be wary of possible danger.
So if people want, what they find out is that a lot of people read about violence and criminality.
And corruption and loud arguments.
So you understand, in a sense, you're being manipulated by so-called having to pay attention to this stuff.
You don't have to pay attention to this stuff.
What you need is a clear grounding in ethics.
So you need to know people should not lie.
It's not good.
It doesn't matter whether they're politicians.
It doesn't matter why they're lying.
They should not lie.
And they should not steal.
And they should not kill.
And they should not promote sexual incontinence or inappropriate sexuality.
And they should not indulge in drugs and alcohol, etc.
I notice that when people are taken to court, who are having, are arrested and taken to court,
a couple of the judgments that are quite, you know, fully imposed on these people is
you must not associate with these certain people.
You must, and you have a probation officer who will make sure you're not associating with other criminals,
people who don't observe these basic ethics of killing and stealing and sexual misconduct and all this kind of stuff.
And also, you must abstain from drugs and alcohol.
And you will be monitored and tested.
And you must report to the probation officer.
You must have employment.
And you must do it honestly.
You must show up for work.
You must do it honestly.
And you will be monitored.
This is the imposition of an ethical lifestyle and a demand by a good society that a person must appreciate these things.
And that is how life and civil community is conducted.
Now, you don't have to follow politics.
All you have to know is,
don't vote for people who are advocating killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, drugs and alcohol,
all of these things, vices and destructive attitudes towards themselves or other beings.
And that's all, any civilization,
anything that's entitled to the,
this title, civilization,
observes this.
In regard to other groups as well,
they don't just go in and kill a bunch of other people and take their stuff.
It's, that's not civilized.
So that's all that politics are.
You have an ethical sense.
And by the way, this goes back to Aristotle.
I was just looking at his ideas about politics.
And it's that,
the difference is,
his sense of the difference between humans and animals
is that humans have this peculiar notion of morality and ethics.
Animals don't.
They're driven by instinct,
but they don't have a sense of right and wrong in a lofty, discursive way.
And that's what politics are,
is the public discussion of the good life,
the ethical life.
And that's all.
So don't confuse politics with the media,
which manipulates your emotions
in order to make money,
with the idea of being involved with politics.
You're involved as a good citizen.
If you just conduct yourself as a good citizen,
that is one of the biggest political statements we can make.
How we live is our politics.
That we don't engage in this killing and stealing
and sexual misconduct and lying and intoxicants.
We live an upright life.
That's the best political way.
The next question from the chat is from Ryan.
Dear Ajahn,
Regarding Father's Day and the Katanyu Sutta,
how could we help difficult parents
and establish them in conviction,
virtue, generosity, and discernment?
Well, the Buddha does say that
that's the best way to return the favor.
The favor your parents give you
is that you wouldn't exist without them.
So they're responsible for your existence.
And also, even if they're not very good parents,
you're still alive.
So somehow they...
And by the way, when you're a baby and everything,
you're not capable of sustaining your life.
Somebody fed you.
Somebody changed your diapers.
Somebody put a roof over your head.
Somebody got you through
until you could make your own way in life.
And that would be your parents.
There's two kinds of parents.
One is the ones that are responsible for your birth.
And sometimes your mother or father dies.
Very early in your life.
But somebody took care of you.
And that's a huge debt.
You have a debt to those people
who fed you and clothed you
and just the amount of energy
that people put into their children.
It's just staggering.
The child doesn't appreciate it.
How could they? They're children.
It's only later on,
I suppose especially if you have your own children.
I've never had my own children.
Except for like monastic,
lay people who treat me
as their kind of their spiritual father.
But you only gain an appreciation
of what it takes to be a parent
after you've grown up.
And then you think,
geez, I didn't appreciate that when I was growing up.
So the Buddhist is like,
how could you repay this
only by offering Dhamma?
And first of all, of course,
you have to,
you have to experience
and have to understand Dhamma yourself.
The primary effect of Dhamma
is to make your life better,
happier, more sane,
more functional.
It's primarily a reduction of suffering
and the increase of well-being and happiness.
If you happen to experience
the fruits of those,
of this exposure to Dhamma,
then the greatest gift
you could give your parents
would be to share that with them.
However, that's not,
you're not responsible
for changing other people's minds.
Quite often there's resistance
to hearing teachings,
various views and opinions.
Sometimes your parents don't think
that you should be teaching them.
They don't think you,
they're used to teaching you,
et cetera.
So it can be a difficult thing.
Some are very open to it.
It's not something you have to do.
It's something that if you want,
if you have Dhamma,
if you have increased
the well-being of your life
and you understand the process of this,
you can share it,
certainly by example.
They may appreciate the fact
that you seem to be well and happy
and they might be curious,
like, why are you so happy?
You know, like,
give me a few points on that.
So this is the,
the idea of the Buddha is like,
this is a very precious thing
that uplifts a person's life.
If you can share it with your parents,
that's one way you can pay them back
for having made sure
you actually still exist,
you know.
Yeah, that's the idea.
The next question from the chat
is from Sumrit.
Dear Ajahn,
Dhammapada verse 137 to 138
says,
one who harms the harmless
soon goes into one of these states,
bodily injury,
loss of wealth,
relatives, etc.
Does this harm refer to verbal or physical?
Does this mean
that one can run into tragedies
like car accidents, disasters,
like fire,
if one speaks or acts unkindly?
Yes, all of the above.
Quite often the harmless
is an expression for enlightened people,
but also includes other beings
that have just good will
and have no intention of harming others.
The penalty for harm goes up
as you go up the scale of spiritual development.
The penalties for harming people,
like also even animals,
animals who are harmless
and gentle and so forth,
if you harm them,
there's going to be a karmic penalty for that.
And let alone people,
people who are...
Now, it's different if a person is,
you know, coarse, criminal,
avaricious,
attempting to steal from you
or kill you and so forth.
There's a different resultant
from having to defend yourself
against such things.
But if one is on the opposite side
and harming those who have no ill will
or no negative energy towards you,
there will be heavy negative results.
And these can persist even through lifetimes.
So sometimes a person has outgrown
those negative tendencies through lifetimes,
but still there's resultants playing out in later life.
The person in this life
who is now upright and honest
is not the same person
of a number of lifetimes ago
that committed some negative actions
against the harmless.
However, they're still receiving negative results,
which are not as a result of this life.
They're a result of previous lives now.
There's negative actions done in previous lives.
And so, yeah, weird,
unfortunate circumstances come to people.
And they're good people.
They're beautiful people.
And bad things keep happening to them.
In the Christian West,
you know, God is punishing them.
And it's very...
You can't understand why God would do that to a person.
But from a karmic point of view,
it's much more understandable.
Okay, so negative things were done in the past,
and the results are arising in this life.
The only thing we can do with that
is try to not do negative things in this life
because the repercussions are negative.
We try to not do negative things
because there will be results from that.
But negative results from the past will arise,
and we must accept it
and make the best of our reaction
to it.
We don't excessively react.
We don't let it depress us.
We don't let it make us angry or things like this.
We just realize that it's just playing out
of negative stuff from the past.
Yeah.
The next question from the live chat
is from Brian from British Columbia, Canada.
The Atinatiya Protection Sutta describes
Deva cities like Ala Kamada and city-sized UFOs
have been described by experiencers
in recent decades
and even by U.S. intelligence agencies.
Buddhist cosmology has much to teach
those interested in UFOs, aliens, and Devas.
Could you teach more about this?
Yeah, this is...
Of course, I gave a 10-part series
on Buddhist cosmology with Genpun Adamo,
and we went into all of the things
and beautifully illustrated
by Dantika and our video crew,
so all kinds of images,
and it's a well-done series.
So this...
Yeah, this is the situation.
When scientists examine the idea
of what we call UFOs
or all this paranormal stuff,
these paranormal ideas,
ghosts and weird phenomena,
they examine it from contemporary physics,
the idea of physics.
And one of the things that physicists declare
is that there's an absolute speed
in the universe called the speed of light.
And only light can travel at the speed of light.
Larger objects, you know,
spaceships and so forth,
can't travel at that speed.
And even if they could,
the nearest star systems
and planetary systems
are thousands of light years away,
millions of light years away,
even billions of light years away.
So they insist that this visits
from other planets, et cetera,
could not occur because of
the limits of the speed of light
and large, more massive objects
can't even,
by the laws of physics,
can't travel those speeds.
So they say,
well, this couldn't be happening.
Despite the fact that
endless numbers of people
sort of experience these things
and see these things.
So I would suggest that
it's inappropriate to...
regard these appearances
as visitors from another planet.
They're not...
They don't have to
obey the laws of physics or anything.
I would say that they're visitors
from another dimension.
There are somehow hidden dimensions
that appearances can be made from.
And it's just not part of contemporary science
to know about these things.
Some physicists have suggested these things,
that there's other...
There's multiple dimensions
beyond the four dimensions
of physics and time,
space and time.
This is like Einstein's
four-dimensional universe
where time is included with space,
interaction with space.
You know,
science has shown again and again
to be completely wrong.
And that's...
They always say,
you know,
by the way,
that's part of scientific method
is that we,
when we're wrong,
we rejoice
in finding out we were wrong.
We move on.
But it's been,
again and again,
if you ask scientists
in the 17th century or 18th century,
how old is the Earth?
How far is...
How far are the stars away?
All these things.
The answers of the best scientists
of the time
would be completely wrong.
Completely wrong.
Ludicrously wrong.
But it would have been based on
processes of reasoning,
not just intuition.
And then as you move along,
I mean,
just the...
You know,
during the lifetime of Einstein,
which is the early 20th century,
he was in a world
where the universe itself
was static.
And it's only in the 1930s
that they start to realize
the Earth,
the universe is not static,
it's expanding.
You know,
this is gigantic changes of reality.
It just...
Everything they thought was wrong.
And the age of the Earth,
it went from being
in the late 19th century,
the leading physicists of the time
Lord Kelvin,
thought,
you know,
his highest estimate
was 100 million years old,
but probably somewhere
between 20 million
and 100 million years old,
the Earth.
Well, then just
not too long later,
as people began to
look into atomic decay,
they realized,
oh,
it's billions of years old.
And by the way,
it was...
They thought it was 2 billion.
And now,
as recently as 2007
or something like that,
they come to this conclusion
it's four point...
Four and a half billion years old.
So, you know,
these are just monumental changes
in the sense of what is real
and what can happen
and what can't happen
and so forth.
So this is the...
If you want to explore this,
these UFOs
and devas,
devas may be
meaning the shining ones.
Deva means
beings appearing
that seem to emit light
and are hard to comprehend.
Angels, more or less.
All of history,
human history
all around the world
has cultures that see
this stuff all the time.
But modern physicists say,
oh, that can't happen.
It just...
That can't happen.
Well, it can't happen
if you approach it
with the...
the physics of the time.
But that doesn't mean
that it's not happening.
It's...
The reports are endless.
So we want to open to it.
We don't want to insist
that it must be happening.
It has to be happening.
We know everything about it
or say...
No, we just want to be open to
that there might be some other way
that it happens
other than the...
You know, the movement
from another planet
at the speed of light.
Yeah.
The next question from the chat
is from Kay.
Please advise on how I can deal
with an eye condition
which makes me very uncertain
about the future.
I live alone
and do not have much support.
I'm still working.
Any advice?
Yeah.
You want to act
in your own best interest.
If you have declining eyesight,
which means you're going
to be impaired
and not be able
to get around
with the capacity
for proper sight,
then there are many people
in this society
that have that condition
and there are all kinds
of institutes and structures
which aid the situation.
So that's what you want
to start researching right now.
How do I get assistance?
What community can I join
which teaches me
skillful ways of navigating this?
How shall I prepare
is a very specific question.
To prepare mentally for this
is, you know,
you can ask a Buddhist monk
how to prepare mentally
for the decline of the senses.
And it is to treat it
with equanimity.
It was never...
Sights and sounds
and smells and tastes
and touches,
even the mind structures
are impermanent.
And...
Very delicate and vulnerable.
And that is the nature
of the misfortune
of being born at all
is that suffering occurs around this.
So our attitude is
let's suffer as little as possible
towards the loss or decline
of sight and sound,
of smell and taste and touch,
of the body,
the body's capacity
for navigating
in the material world.
You know, the limbs get weak
and all this kind of stuff.
We regard it with philosophical detachment
with noble equanimity.
But we also get good information
about how to find supports for this.
And, of course,
even laser surgeries
and hearing aids
and all this kind of stuff.
We do our due diligence
and look for medical treatments
and so forth.
But our philosophical attitude is
this is the nature of life
and we shall soon be gone.
And that's what...
That's the lesson we learn
is how to navigate this life
with the least suffering as well.
The next question from the chat
is from Steven from Maryland,
United States.
I am interested in the subject
of the primary hindrances.
What exactly does it mean
that one hindrance is primary?
Can they all be primary?
For instance, doubt?
The usual list is five hindrances.
There are all kinds of
other kind of mixtures
and so forth of these things.
The dominant ones,
the most problematic ones
are greed and hatred.
So, quite often,
as a summary
of all the hindrances,
they just combine them all
into greed and hatred.
Either aversion and attraction.
Doubt is, again,
a lack of knowledge
which is also one of the most basic
sources of suffering.
Ignorance.
And the Buddha defines
the cause of suffering
sometimes as craving
and sometimes as ignorance.
Take your pick.
Ignorance precedes craving.
Craving precedes ignorance.
And there is no...
There is no clear beginning
to either of these things.
They feed on each other.
So, that's why he
lays out the five hindrances.
Greed, hatred,
agitation, sloth,
and doubt as the fifth.
They are, by the way,
the food of ignorance.
And this is...
In the early part of this Q&A,
I talked about the Upanisa Sutta,
which is called
Transcendental Dependent Origination.
And what it is,
it shows you the steps to
deprive ignorance
of its nutriment,
its supportive conditions.
And so,
solving doubts,
solving the five hindrances,
all of them,
is the way we deprive
our ignorance
from which all of our troubles arise
of its supporting causes.
Doubt is a very important one.
So, I'm just going to give a quick way
to deal with doubt.
The first strategy for doubt
is kind of a serenity meditation,
where we see if the doubt
is just mere excessive thinking,
worry and flurry.
When we're in a serene state of mind,
often doubts subside.
If doubts don't subside
through serenity,
that the answer appears to us
through serenity,
then the next one is to go
and find wise people,
people who are specialists
in the area of your doubt,
and to ask questions about it
to resolve your doubts.
So, that's how we deal with doubts,
and doubts is indeed
a prime hindrances,
but all five of them
are prime hindrances, yeah.
Okay, this is the last question of today.
The final question for today
is from the question bar
from White Stork.
I am confused about the non-self teaching.
Is it the absence of any kind of self,
something that causes me a lot of anxiety,
or the idea that self is not unchanging?
Well,
self is kind of a noun,
like a thing.
The very word suggests it's a thing,
like your name is a noun.
You're called a thing,
Bob or Jane.
And it implies that there is something
that corresponds to that
that is not a verb.
So, a noun is a thing.
It's not a change,
it's not a process.
So, that's where the confusion arises,
so that your self is presumed to be a thing
that is not changing all the time.
But actually,
when we look for something within us
that corresponds to that,
that says, you know,
that is always the same thing,
we don't find a trace of anything within us
that is not changing.
And so,
the whole notion of an unchanging self
is just wrong.
What happens if you realize that?
Well, basically nothing,
because it's always been that way.
There never was a solid you
that traveled through time unchanged.
You have personality tendencies
for periods of time,
and you change.
You're not a child anymore.
What happened to the five-year-old?
Where is the five-year-old you?
Where are you?
Gone, right?
So, that's how it works.
The Buddha is just pointing this out,
that humans tend to make a mistake,
a naive mistake,
presuming that there is a central me
that is always the same me
and doesn't change.
But when you look for that,
you don't find it.
It's the same idea
that many cultures made the mistake of saying,
well, the Earth must sit on something.
It must be supported by water,
but what's the water supported by?
Well, it must be more land
or a giant turtle or something.
So, this is just an error in thinking.
When we discovered that the Earth
doesn't sit on anything,
that it is floating in space,
maybe suspended by gravity or something,
something like this,
but it is just a different,
more accurate way of seeing things.
The things that we presumed must be there
turns out it's just a wrong way of thinking.
And because of this endlessly changing,
we could say there's an endlessly changing self,
a fluid self,
which is never,
you can't step in the same river
twice,
you can't be the same person twice,
you can't step in the same self twice.
It's a fluid process of ewing
and that's how it really works.
And to have that model is very helpful.
It changes how you perceive reality
and it takes out some of the shocks
and confusion about reality.
Okay, well, we're going to wrap up for today.
And we will,
our aim is to continue with the Q&As for a while.
So, tune in next week for more Q&As
with Ajahn Sona on Ajahn Sona's channel.
And realize that there are more than 400 videos altogether
and in many, many other Q&As.
So, please feel free
to access any of those for free anytime.