Subtitles

I was talking a great deal yesterday 00:00:00

I was talking a great deal yesterday afternoon about the Buddhist attitude to 00:00:01

change to death to the transience of the 00:00:09

world and were showing that preachers of 00:00:15

all kinds stir people up in the 00:00:19

beginning by alarming them about change 00:00:24

that's like somebody you know actually 00:00:26

raising an alarm just in the same way as 00:00:29

if I want to pay you a visit I ring the 00:00:31

doorbell and then we can come in and I 00:00:35

don't need to raise an alarm anymore so 00:00:38

in the same way it sounds terrible you 00:00:42

see that everything is going to die and 00:00:44

pass away and here you are thinking that 00:00:48

happiness sanity and security consists 00:00:54

in clinging on to things which can't be 00:00:56

clung to and in in any case there isn't 00:00:58

anybody to Klinker them the whole thing 00:01:00

is a weaving of smoke so that's the 00:01:07

initial standpoint but as soon as you 00:01:11

really discover this and you stop 00:01:14

clinging to change then everything is 00:01:19

quite different it becomes amazing and 00:01:25

not only do all your senses become more 00:01:31

wide awake not only do you feel almost 00:01:38

that you're walking on air but you see 00:01:43

finally that there is no duality no 00:01:47

difference between the ordinary world 00:01:53

and the Nirvana world they are the same 00:01:58

world but what makes the difference is 00:02:02

the point of view 00:02:02

and of course if you keep identifying yourself with some sort of stable entity 00:02:09

that sits and watches the world go by 00:02:17

you don't acknowledge your Union your 00:02:20

inseparability from everything else that 00:02:23

there is you go by with all the rest of 00:02:27

the things but if you insist on trying 00:02:29

to take a permanent stand on trying to 00:02:31

be a permanent witness of the flux then 00:02:36

it grates against you and you feel very 00:02:39

uncomfortable but it is a fundamental 00:02:47

feeling in most of us that we are such 00:02:51

witnesses we feel that behind the stream 00:02:56

of our thoughts of our feelings and our 00:02:59

experiences there is something which is 00:03:02

the thinker the feeler and the 00:03:05

experiencer not recognizing that that is 00:03:10

itself a thought feeling or experience 00:03:13

and it belongs within and not outside 00:03:16

the changing panorama of experience it's 00:03:22

what you call a cue signal in other 00:03:26

words when you telephone and your 00:03:32

telephone conversation is being tape 00:03:35

recorded it's the law that there shall 00:03:37

be a beep every so many seconds and that 00:03:41

beep cues you in to the fact that this 00:03:44

conversation is recorded so in a very 00:03:47

similar way in our everyday experience 00:03:50

there's a beep which tells us this is a 00:03:53

continuous experience which is mine 00:03:58

beep in the same way for example it is a 00:04:06

cue signal when of the composer arranges 00:04:09

some music and he keeps in it a 00:04:12

recurrent theme but he makes many 00:04:17

variations on it 00:04:18

or more subtle still he keeps within it 00:04:23

a consistent style so you know that it's 00:04:27

Mozart all the way along because it 00:04:29

sounds like Mozart but there isn't as it 00:04:33

were a constant noise going all the way 00:04:38

through to tell you it's continuous 00:04:40

although in Hindu music they do have 00:04:44

something called the drone there is 00:04:48

behind all the drums and every is kind 00:04:51

of singing something it goes and it 00:05:00

always sounds the note which is the 00:05:01

tonic of the scale being used but in 00:05:06

Hindu music that drone represents the 00:05:10

eternal self the Brahman behind all the 00:05:13

changing forms of nature but that's only 00:05:18

a symbol and to find out what is eternal 00:05:24

now you can't make an image of it you 00:05:27

can't hold on to it and so it's 00:05:31

psychologically more conducive to 00:05:35

liberation to remember that the thinker 00:05:43

or the Fela or the experiencer and the 00:05:48

experiences are all together they're all 00:05:53

one but if out of anxiety you try to 00:05:53

stabilize keep permanent the separate observer you are in for conflict 00:06:08