Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Forest Path Podcast, a podcast sharing the teachings of awakened meditation masters of the modern era.
[00:00:08] This episode is a talk given by the meditation master Ajahn Gah Sukakambo and it's titled the Five Khandhas.
[00:00:17] It was published as part of jaidee Jai Sabhai Delivery 42.
[00:00:22] You can find links to the original text in the description below.
[00:00:27] May you all benefit from hearing this gift of Dhamma by a meditation master of the Thai Forest tradition.
[00:00:40] The Five Khandhas by Ajahn Kah May you sit comfortably.
[00:00:48] May you be at ease while breathing in and may you be at ease while breathing out.
[00:00:54] Have Sati Mindfulness Know yourself clearly.
[00:01:00] Focus internally on your body having Sati Sampajanna, mindfulness and clear comprehension.
[00:01:08] Know yourself clearly.
[00:01:11] Be comfortable.
[00:01:13] Most of the time your heart is not peaceful.
[00:01:16] It is affected by emotions such as liking and disliking that are dominating you all the time.
[00:01:24] You turn small matters into big issues.
[00:01:27] You create issues out of things that don't matter.
[00:01:30] We have a body.
[00:01:32] This body is composed of the five Kundas.
[00:01:35] What are the five Khandhas?
[00:01:38] The five Khandhas are form which is this body feeling which is happiness, suffering and neutral feeling that arises in your body.
[00:01:50] Sanya is memory and association, remembering old stories.
[00:01:57] Sankara is thinking and proliferating.
[00:02:01] Vinana is the one who knows who tells you what is good and bad, right and wrong.
[00:02:09] The five Khandhas are fulfilling their respective functions in a complete and straightforward way.
[00:02:16] If any of the Khandhas is not working, your physical and mental health is not normal. You are ill.
[00:02:24] The Lord Buddha wants you to know what is going on in your body and mind, to know your thinking and proliferation.
[00:02:31] These things are working in accordance with nature.
[00:02:35] They arise, remain and cease in your daily life.
[00:02:39] He doesn't want you to get entangled in your emotions, thoughts and feelings or or in whatever arises in your heart.
[00:02:47] If you start thinking and proliferating, it will be the cause and condition for becoming unpeaceful.
[00:02:54] Bhutto is the knower, the Awakened One, the Blessed One.
[00:03:00] Because you are not dead, there will be things happening in your daily life.
[00:03:06] When you have samadhi are stable and firmly established, everything will cease in order to develop Sati Sampajanna. The Lord Buddha taught to make the mind focus on the body.
[00:03:19] The past is gone, you can't do anything about it anymore.
[00:03:24] Things in the future haven't arrived yet, so try to make the best of the present.
[00:03:30] Make the heart peaceful, make it cool down by all means.
[00:03:35] You don't have to get stressed about anything.
[00:03:39] Don't let good or bad things such as the loka Dhamma dominate your heart.
[00:03:46] No one is a being, a person, an I, a self.
[00:03:50] You are Dhamma.
[00:03:52] You are a natural phenomenon that arises, remains and ceases.
[00:03:58] We are characterized by old age, sickness, death and separation.
[00:04:04] Try to remove grasping good and bad, right and wrong from your heart.
[00:04:09] You have a lot of Sakaya Duthi views about yourself.
[00:04:14] Attachment is a heavy burden.
[00:04:17] It's something that weighs heavily in your heart.
[00:04:20] If you think that you are a woman or a man, rich or poor, handsome or beautiful, you will have dukkha.
[00:04:29] If you think you are too thin, too dark, or that you are ugly because you have a few pimples on your face, you have dukkha.
[00:04:38] The Lord Buddha does not want you to put too much attention on the body. He wants you to put emphasis on the heart and mind.
[00:04:46] Because happiness and suffering arise in an unpeaceful heart.
[00:04:51] When you are rich, poor or handicapped, you you will have dukkha according to being rich, poor or handicapped. Because you are upholding Sakya dt upholding an I and a self.
[00:05:04] Dukkha is burning you when you ordain and start practicing. The Lord Buddha taught to practice letting go and to train the heart to be peaceful and cool.
[00:05:16] Your mind is used to thinking and proliferating a lot.
[00:05:20] You have to stop yourself and not think and proliferate so much.
[00:05:24] Because thinking and proliferating a lot won't get you anything except stomach problems, neurosis, mental disorders and various diseases.
[00:05:33] They are caused by your heart not being peaceful.
[00:05:37] That's why the Lord Buddha doesn't want you to think and proliferate a lot.
[00:05:42] Don't be afraid.
[00:05:44] Don't fear that when you don't think and ponder, wisdom won't arise and you won't reach the Dhamma.
[00:05:51] May you hold it like this.
[00:05:53] Now I am practicing Dhamma.
[00:05:56] I am training to make the heart peaceful.
[00:05:59] Because so far you are rarely able to be with yourself. You like to be with your friends, your mobile phone and Facebook, and like to watch tv.
[00:06:09] You are only occupied with external things.
[00:06:13] When you are peaceful, you can't stay there.
[00:06:16] Your mind is far from being a knower, an awakened one, a blessed one.
[00:06:23] You have to practice letting go of the external world for just five to 10 minutes or for many hours. Like the noble ones gain fame and praise both have their advantages and disadvantages.
[00:06:37] If you get deluded and delight in them, they become detrimental for you.
[00:06:42] If you understand them clearly your heart will develop wisdom.
[00:06:47] The Lord Buddha wants you to see the things in our daily life like this.
[00:06:52] This is the world, this is samsara.
[00:06:55] These things will arise or cease. They simply exist like this.
[00:07:01] Floods, disasters and crime also exist like this. If you don't understand this clearly, your mind will get confused.
[00:07:09] It is not confident and won't be peaceful.
[00:07:13] The Lord Buddha wants you to turn inward and look to see if your heart is peaceful. If it is not peaceful, then turn inward to find yourself.
[00:07:23] Have sati.
[00:07:24] Know yourself clearly.
[00:07:27] Breathe in, calming yourself down.
[00:07:30] Breathe out and be at ease.
[00:07:34] When you sit in samadhi like this, you think, proliferate and don't know that you have wandered off to other subjects.
[00:07:42] Or you do know but are deluded and keep proliferating for a long time.
[00:07:47] When you have sati and keep track, you breathe in and out, knowing and being at ease. It doesn't matter if you are peaceful or not.
[00:07:57] Train and develop the indriya. Practice with the breath so that it becomes refined.
[00:08:04] Know precisely when the in breath is light and easy.
[00:08:08] Know when the out breath is light and easy.
[00:08:11] Practice with the breath to refine it until the knower remains.
[00:08:17] Your heart moves while following the in and out breath until only the knower remains.
[00:08:24] Then your heart will be still and unified, light and at ease.
[00:08:29] Keep training your heart.
[00:08:32] The Lord Buddha taught to know when you are breathing in long, to know when you are breathing out long. Until your heart becomes peaceful and can enter samadhi.
[00:08:42] You don't have to think anything. You don't have to proliferate anything.
[00:08:48] When you train and practice, these things won't happen according to your wishes.
[00:08:53] You want the heart to be peaceful, but it is not peaceful.
[00:08:57] Wherever there are wants and needs, there will be issues burning our heart.
[00:09:02] samadhi means not having greed, hatred and delusion. The absence of any pondering and proliferation.
[00:09:10] There is only renunciation, there is only letting go.
[00:09:15] Make use of the training and the practice. Very often there is nothing as difficult as training yourself.
[00:09:22] Worshipping by practicing can be regarded as great merit, great benefit. If you are renunciants who take responsibility and are skilled in keeping the precepts and following the code of practice, that's very good.
[00:09:37] Carry on developing yourself to become skilled in training the heart and practicing samadhi The the goal of samadhi is to make the heart peaceful and unified.
[00:09:48] Don't be interested in colors, lights and miraculous phenomenon.
[00:09:53] You don't have to know anything.
[00:09:55] The Lord Buddha wants you to know your heart to know when it is peaceful. And when it is not.
[00:10:02] Know the refined in and out breath.
[00:10:06] Know when the mind is still and doesn't proliferate.
[00:10:10] Keep training and practicing so that the heart knows what being peaceful is like and becomes an expert in it.
[00:10:18] The Kruba Ajahn teaches and instructs you so that you get to know yourself.
[00:10:24] You don't have to read books. You don't have to talk to your friends.
[00:10:28] Try to be with being peaceful.
[00:10:31] Try to be by yourself a lot.
[00:10:34] The heart will get more peaceful and cooler.
[00:10:37] The mind will develop the four satipatthana bases of mindfulness.
[00:10:43] You will know your body, feelings, mind and mental objects.
[00:10:48] You will have complete sati sampajanna.
[00:10:52] Maybe you used to talk and think a lot and were distracted.
[00:10:57] Now you are training to make the heart peaceful.
[00:11:01] When your mind has become peaceful and cool, your path of practice will change.
[00:11:07] Those who talked a lot will talk less.
[00:11:10] Those who were lost in the woods will be less. So train in letting go and getting to know yourself.
[00:11:18] People ask, when we practice Dhamma, what do we get?
[00:11:23] You don't get anything by practicing Dhamma. There is nothing to gain or to lose. It arises, stays and ceases.
[00:11:31] Train to make the heart peaceful.
[00:11:33] Don't follow sense objects or emotions and you'll gain great merit and benefit.
[00:11:39] You have to train and practice yourself.
[00:11:42] Goodness is a good thing, but people don't want to do good. Greed, hatred and delusion and the petas, yuccas and azuras that are dwelling in your heart don't want to die. They don't want to leave your heart.
[00:11:57] Often they become an inborn trait of your kundha's over many existences and lifetimes.
[00:12:02] You can't make liking and disliking, wanting and not wanting your foundation.
[00:12:08] The Lord Buddha doesn't want you to be like the petas, yakas and Asuras.
[00:12:13] He wants you to turn towards virtue, Dhamma and wisdom.
[00:12:18] He leads you to behave and practice and to look for happiness and the ending of suffering which is peace.
[00:12:26] Make the Lord Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha your foundation, your place of practice.
[00:12:32] Then your mind and heart will be able to reach Magga, the path, Pala the fruit and Nibbana.
[00:12:48] That concludes the Dhamma teaching the five Khandhas by the venerable Ajahn Gahn.
[00:12:53] If you would like to hear more talks by Ajahn Gahna and other meditation masters of the Forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism, subscribe to the Forest Path podcast using your favourite podcast app.
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[00:13:33] There are links in the description below.
[00:13:36] Thank you for listening. May you all experience insight and peace.
[00:13:45] Sam.
