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8 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

Kathina Festival, 2022 Pavarana Day, 29 Oct 2023

Amaravati Winter Retreat, 2023 Alms round during Vesak, 2024

is hearing the sound of my voice, embody that quality of knowing, personality, location: ‘There is
hearing the sound of a plane flying awakened awareness, then that is neither a coming nor a going, nor
overhead, hearing the sound of a the realization of the Deathless, the a standing still. Neither progress,
bird… hearing. We say the sensation Unborn and Undying itself. That nor degeneration. Neither this
is ‘in my body, in me’; the sound of which knows the born and dying is world, nor the other world.’[Ud 8.1]
the plane is ‘outside me’. But they not the born and dying. That which It boggles the mind: our familiar
are both experienced in the same knows inspiration is not inspired. perceptions are formed in terms
place. The bird is in the tree. The That which knows regret and pain of here and there, inside and
plane is high in the sky. But they are is not pained. That which knows outside, mine and yours, progress,
both known here in the mind. suffering is not suffering. This is degeneration. But this quality
why liberation is possible. of Dhamma itself – of which this
The world is in the mind, the awareness, this knowing faculty
world we experience is woven by When the Buddha said that ‘… the is the primary attribute – it is
our mind; it is woven into being – mindful do not die’, he did not mean indefinable, unlocatable. As Luang
arising, passing away – moment by that the body of a mindful person is Por Chah would ask: ‘If you can’t
moment. But that which knows the never going to stop breathing and go forward and you can’t go back
world, that which is the lokavidū – rot away. No. The Buddha’s body and you can’t stand still, where can
the knower of the world – what is died, just like anyone else’s. When you go?’ All that can be done is to
that? Where is that? It is the most he said that the mindful never die, let go of those habits of identifying
real thing there is, this quality of it meant that when the mind is with being a person who is here
knowing, yet it has no shape, no awake it is not identified with the in this place and passing through
form. It is not a person, it does not born and the dying. It is akāliko, time. When the mind lets go of time,
begin or end, it is not here or there. timeless, ajāta, unborn, amara, individuality, location, then that
It is totally real but completely undying. It is outside of the realm puzzle is solved.
intangible. How mysterious. But of time, individuality and space;
when the heart is allowed to not definable in terms of time,