The Root Cause Of Suffering

37:22

37:22

The Root Cause Of Suffering

by Amita Schmidt

Rated

4.9

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Experienced

Plays

496

In this talk you will learn tools to loosen the attachment to the ego perspective. I discuss how to step outside the snow globe of you, how to move away from the trance of thoughts, and ways to pendulate to a bigger perspective/view. This talk also has some science quotations from Donald Hoffman and others on infinite consciousness.

Ego Consciousness Mindfulness Buddhism Thoughts Awareness Self Inquiry Ego Dissolution Thought Observation Awareness Shift

Meet your Teacher

Hawaii County, HI, USA

Meet your Teacher

Hawaii County, HI, USA

Transcript

Tonight I'd like to talk about the root cause of suffering and what is the root cause of suffering. The root cause of all suffering is a belief in a separate egoic self, An I-thought, An independent me. The I-thought is the greatest stressor of all. We have an addiction to the concept of me. One of my teachers used to say we should have a 12-step program for thinkers anonymous. And we're addicted to this clinging to the I and me mind concept and that blocks out things as they truly are. It's like having a finger in front of your eye, This I-me separation illusion. And it's hard to see, But we move it out further and farther through practice. And it's not like you get rid of the finger. But as we create more space, This I-me and mine is still here, This separation me, But it's held in this context of this much greater you. We don't get rid of anything, But this I-me and mine becomes one aspect of all of infinity. Tonight I want to look at some ways to move out that finger, This concept of this separate self, This root cause of suffering. There was a well-known poet. He retired on Maui. His name was W. S. Mervyn. And before he died, He died in his 90s. One of my friends used to go and read to him because he went blind. And one day she showed up to read to him and he announced to her, He said, I think I'm going to retire from the department of me. So, Retiring in this department of me, If we decide to do this, This is simultaneously expanding our view to this infinite view. I don't know whether he was able to retire from the department of me or not. There's a lot of things that we do to expand our view. There's a lot of things that we do to expand our view. Psychedelics, Some people do that. Traveling, Meditation, Therapy. All these things can expand your view. But why expand our view? Because if we don't, We get more afraid. You've probably noticed that as people get their expansion, Their world gets smaller, They get more afraid. And we also expand our view to see things more clearly, To see all of who you are. I once asked a Hawaiian teacher, Why don't we practice this awareness? She was teaching a movement practice and she said, To know all of who you are, To know what it's like when the breeze goes between your toes. This expansive view is what the Buddha called right view, Or as John put it yesterday, Right understanding. Right view and right understanding are synonymous. And it's really the first of the Eightfold Path because, As John mentioned, It's super important. It conditions everything else in the Eightfold Path, Right intention, Right action. The Buddha, The word in Pali is samaditti. And it really is, It's important to have right view and to know that the separate I, Me and mine is not right view. Right view is about connection. Right view is not about clinging to beliefs or concepts. Right view is about an expansive view. And being in the mind is really like being in a snow globe. I brought this prop all the way from Hawaii and it's a snow globe with Grogu in it. I don't know if some of you might know who Grogu, It's disco. There's a new series of the Empire Strikes Back and the Mandalorian and he's the child, Little version of Yoda. But I brought this snow globe but I brought this snow globe to exemplify how we get in our own little world, Right? This is you, You're, It could be, It's Grogu, But it could be you, Right? Your body, Your mind, Your friends, Your job. So here we are in this little environment and of course it has its own boundary, Right? It's clear that there's a boundary here and yet it's held by what? You and your little snow globe are being held by what right now? Infinity. Maybe a person's holding you, I don't know. But infinity. Infinity. So I like the snow globe because it shows that there is this boundary but there's not. It's all of you. So making the inside and the outside you. This is right view. And as we're meditating, We're expanding our view to see outside the snow globe. It's like we're in our own little suffering container. Our trance of mind is a suffering container. And a good reflection to ask is really where do you start and where do you stop? Snow globe's a good example. It seems like there's that boundary but really you often, We often think, Oh at my skin, Right? This is where I start and stop. But is it really true? Could you breathe without the trees? Could you sit right now or stand without the earth? So really where do you start and where do you stop? Do you not include all of it? My teacher jokes, He says, Amita, It's a classroom set. You come with a classroom set. All of it. And this year, Science and Buddhism have been converging in really great ways. I love when the world of science and Buddhism converge. And science has been making some interesting headway in this illusion of a separate I in space-time. Some of you might have heard of a man named Donald Hoffman. He's a science author. And he's been collaborating with a number of scientists on research which shows, And this is a quotation from Hoffman, Our mind perspective is just a headset, A space-time headset that is an artifact in infinite consciousness. When we take off this headset, We see that there is a ubiquitous and infinite conscious network that is beyond space and time. And then one of his colleagues, Bernardo Kottstrup, Who is a former nuclear research scientist, He's also finding a similar thing. He says, Human minds are merely aspects of universal consciousness. Universal consciousness. These are two scientists. Human minds are merely aspects of universal consciousness. And Bernardo argues that all mind and thought is a kind of dissociative illusion of separation. Mind is a dissociation from infinite consciousness. And at death, When we leave the body, We actually will step back into this infinite consciousness. We'll take the VR headset off and we'll see it's all one thing. So in a way, Death is this right view, This expanded view outside of this illusion eye trance headset. So how does this trance even happen and why is it so convincing? It's convincing because it's fueled by the thinking's optical illusion, A little bit like what Kottstrup was talking about. The denser the thoughts get, The more we're seeing our mind and our own beliefs and it becomes like thought upon thought upon thought. Kind of like the algorithms in Facebook. Just keep seeing the same thing over and over and again. And I was telling John the other day, It's kind of like a window pane that starts getting dirty. So if this window pane was your mind and your thoughts, It started just getting more thinking, Right? Start out with a clear pane when you're a little kid and then more and more gets added and added. And pretty soon, You can't see past this window pane into the infinite forest because you're just stopping at the window pane of your own thought mind. So meditation, We're cleaning this window pane so we can start to see through to this infinite so we can start to see through to this infinite you. So it's both the window pane, You don't get rid of that, And the infinite view, A bit like the snow globe analogy. Miraculously, About 20 years ago, Speaking of headsets, I had suicidal depression most of my life. I'm really severe and it's hereditary. And the headset of depression just got removed. I mean, I'd had it for 40 years and it's gone. But what was really neat, And it hasn't come back 20 years later, But what was really amazing about that is at that moment, The depression headset went, I kind of saw this image, This vision that the self and the I, Me and mine headset would go in exactly the same way and kind of a voice, Not a real voice, But kind of an intuition said, This is how yourself and your belief in self is going to go to. So for what's that is worth, That's what I saw. So that's destined to go and I've seen people where that has gone. So more and more can go, More and more is going. And I have it really nice little cartoon up here, Which you can look at later of this person that's meditating on the moon. This person that's meditating and they just start to gradually blow away more and more until just little pieces of them and they look like just leaves in the wind at the end of their meditating. It's all going to go and then only pure awareness will remain as you. And my teacher likes to joke, He goes, Amita, A good teacher is like a giant eraser. And even the Buddha pointed out, I gained absolutely nothing from perfect enlightenment. So what happens when you step outside this snow glow, When you take off this VR headset of I, Me and mine, Then there's just life itself. Just life itself and everything is given to you. And you also see it's not about you. More and more I see that and it never was. And this doesn't become some kind of bodhisattva vow or kumbaya moment. It's just like, Oh my gosh, It was never about me. Everyone becomes this fabric of awareness and we're all kind of waking up as one inseparable whole together and you don't get to have your private awakening. As Ram Dass said, We're all walking each other home. And I would add as one being. And when you look at it, The practice of mindfulness is actually a very radical act. It's a paradigm shift. It's a paradigm shift from this identification with I and self-view that most of our culture has. Really the attention, Your attention is focused on self and beliefs and thoughts and attention is focused on self and beliefs and thoughts. Really that's our cultural view. To identification with the absolute. It's a big deal from self-view to absolute view. Attention on absolute. This is very rare. This is very radical. And when you think about what this means, If more and more people were focused on the absolute, What kind of world would that be? So this absolute view is really the right view. Samaditti. Again, Science and Buddhism converge here. So Donald Hoffman, Again, He talks about the space and time continuum being like this little triangle, An artifact. And now they're seeing that we live in this tiny little triangle, Kind of like the snow globe of space-time. And through math and science, They're able to see that there's an infinite consciousness outside of this triangle we're living in. Triangle we're living in. So we're really, We're learning to step out of this thought-beginning-thought triangle. So, You know, As these physicists are starting to, These theoretical physicists are starting to talk more about outside this space-time triangle, You know, If there isn't space-time and they're able to show this, This means that thoughts are gone too, Because thoughts depend on space and time. So the thought you proxy, The thought you is going to go. So listen to some of these things these scientists are saying. Nima Akami Hamad, Director of Center for High Energy Physics in Beijing, China. He just says point blank, Space-time is doomed. Point blank. Andrew Strominger, Director of Theoretical Physics at Harvard. The notion of space-time is clearly something we are going to have to give up. Nathan Seiberg, Director at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. I am almost certain space and time are illusions. These are primitive notions that will be replaced by something much more sophisticated. David Gross, Nobel Prize winner for strong forces. Space and time fail to have operational meaning beyond the Planck scale. Space-time therefore cannot be a fundamental reality. It is a limited data structure. And finally, Donald Hoffman again. Space-time and even quantum theory are merely a projection of much deeper structures. And what are these deeper structures? According to Hoffman's math equations, There is something that has infinite consciousness that pre-exists all. This is radical. This is radical. Infinite consciousness that pre-exists all. And remember, If space-time is not a fundamental reality, Then our thought world is not a fundamental reality either. Thought world is doomed. Selfing is doomed. But this means we're something much greater than thought. This infinite consciousness outside the snow globe. Here now. Not later. Here now. But of course, You know, You've known this. You're a practitioner, Buddhist meditators. Lots of spiritual teachers have talked about this for eons. Even though they didn't have the math and science. In 1300 AD, Meister Eckhart said, I am a movable cause. An ancient Zen teacher said, The entire cosmos is my true personality. In modern day Ajashati, You do not simply exist within existence, But all of existence exists within you as well. So whether through science or meditation, This paradigm shift can help you realize you've been looking at thoughts most of your whole life. You've been seeing your thought world, The window clouded up. Now, Even in the Buddhist teaching, The Dhammapada, And this was 2500 years ago, He said, All that we are is a result of what we have thought. What we have thought is founded on our thoughts, Is made up of our thoughts. All that we are is a result of our thought. Not some of what we are. So how do we take off the VR thought headset? Just a couple of some practices you can do. You can try this practice now. So looking at me or around the room from that limited perspective of you. I, Me and mine, The skin and body. Let's see what it looks like from the limited you, The department of me. And then close your eyes, Almost like you're dying, You've had a death moment. And then open your eyes again, And this time look from the infinite you, Switch it. What if you were looking from infinite consciousness, Infinite awareness when you open your eyes? What does the room look like then? You're looking from outside the snow globe. It's a little bit lighter, More expansive. And you can do this, You know, The thought you is going to come up all day long. You might have noticed it already. And you compare it with this presence, This awareness presence of you. They really are both happening simultaneously. So even though the thought you comes up, The awareness you is always here. I was in a program for eating issues, And when people would be compulsively eating, You'd say the phrase, I'm in the food, I'm in the food right now. And so I watch on this retreat, Sometimes just jokingly, I'll go, Okay, I'm in the thoughts. And then I just kind of move my hand out and just try to shift calmly, Not judgmentally. I'm in the thoughts, Shifting to the awareness, The awareness you. Infinite awareness is always here. Please help yourself. Just remember that the rest of this retreat. It's always here, Help yourself. And you know, What we practice, We get better at. So you can start practicing shifting your attention to the awareness. You can start practicing shifting your attention from that thought you to the awareness you, The infinite awareness you over and over and over again, Until eventually that awareness you will just start to take occupancy more and more. It really does happen. Another way to unblend from the thinking you is to see that the mind lies all the time. You know, The mind says, I need this, But you don't. I can't stand another minute of this, But you do. It's kind of like whack-a-mole, You know, It's just one demand after another, It's just one demand after another, And you never get to the end of what the mind tries, The tricks it tries to play. You know, Our mind is really helping us get a PhD from MSU, Making shit up university, Just constantly. So a few things just to notice about these tricks and this MSU, That the mind plays your personal info like a radio station, Just constantly. And other people's, It plays other people's personal information like a radio station. But ask yourself, Who really are these thoughts talking to? It's thoughts talking to thoughts. Just be the awareness, Seeing this mind talking to itself. I mean, It's funny, The mind is talking, But the real you is right here. The mind talks as if you're not here, As if a true awareness is not here. I was thinking the other day that it's kind of like a dominant mind-splaining over infinite awareness. Mind-splaining. So let thoughts happen while the real you believes nothing. Awareness itself needs no thoughts. Awareness needs no thoughts. I'm a big fan of the famous quote, I'm a big fan of inquiry questions. So there's some inquiry questions you can also use to move to this right view, This unlimited perspective. You can ask yourself or look. So thoughts and experiences are impermanent objects, They're always coming and going. But look at what doesn't come and go. Or a different way, The same question is, What never arrives and what never leaves? What never leaves? It's here now. And pay attention to that, Because the thought is loud, But there's this quiet thing that never leaves. You can also poke a hole in the illusion of mind by looking at the shallow data structure of thoughts. And that can open you up to this more expanded view. And one is to see that we don't generally realize this or think about it, But thoughts are just sounds, Yet they drive our life, They're just A, E, I, O, U, Ah, Oh, Sometimes when I'm talking, My teacher will just go, Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah. But it's true, There's nothing there. Another tool to use is what spiritual teacher Byron Katie does, Is this questioning your thoughts. And it's such a brilliant tool that she came up with, Or was given. She'll say, You know, When your mind's talking, Can I absolutely know this is true? Can I 100% know this is true? And then if it's not, Then let it go, If you can't know it's true. And she also has you look at, You know, When you have a thought, And especially if you can't absolutely know it's true, Who would I be without that thought? So there's that thought, I'm such a bad person, Can I absolutely know that's true? No, Not 100%. Who would I be without that thought? And guaranteed, You'll feel more free without that thought, You can't really even know it's true. She also encourages to do, To see this shallow nature of thoughts, By turning thoughts around or flipping them, And seeing that the opposite is almost true at the same time. You know, So much for your thoughts being, You know, The whack-a-mole, This thought is definitely true. And I had a student on retreat, A number of years ago, It was actually at Parma, Where John and I were teaching. And she kind of naturally did this on her own. And it really opened her up into a very expansive view. And this is a good example of how meditation can increase right view. So I'll read this, It's just a few minutes long. During a group interview, We were asked to talk about a walk we went on. Because I have an aversive mind, I thought my walk was bad. I didn't know where to go. Not wanting to share my negative view, I listened to the comments of others. One woman said, My walk was lovely. And I heard myself think, Yeah, The walk should be good. And I remembered what was good about my walk. There was a nice moment about the walk. But this was a radical swing. But this was a radical swing. And I observed it the second it started to take place. I felt confused and somehow overwhelmed by the nature of such a radical shift. After the group, I went back to the source, To the woods for another walk. I was perplexed that my thoughts were influenced to the complete opposite by what someone else had said. So I decided to intentionally redirect my thoughts. These teachers are not right for me. These teachers are the best teachers for me. I decided to come here. Both felt true. I hate bugs. I love bugs and appreciate the work they do. One was easier, Had more energy. I'm no good at my job. I'm great at my job. Out of all the candidates, They chose me. I noticed how much easier it was to get behind the kinder students. The aversive thought, On the other hand, Requires constant maintenance. It's like forcing water to run uphill. You have to constantly practice it in order to believe that it's true. So I ran through all the old thoughts and tried them on and also their opposite. Then it occurred to me, I am not my thoughts. They are not solid or true. Then there was only one more thing to wonder. So who am I? So all thoughts are empty. Then who are you? And inspired by this, I was taking a walk one day. I thought, Well, Could you do the same thing with emotions? And I was taking this walk along this incredible wealthy beach road. Back all these fancy hotels. And I was like, Okay, This walk is joyful. And then I thought, Could I just be angry on this walk? Sure enough. Fearful on this walk. And I was able to switch to any emotion and they were all true. It was actually quite fun. Could I be curious on this walk? So again, Thoughts and emotions are empty of you. In the Madhyamakaya, Sutta number 54 on the Buddhist teachings, There's that Sutta is about a dog finding an old bone. And the bone has been lying out in the elements for months and it's bleached. And there's no flesh or marrow on it. But the dog is still hopeful and starts to gnaw on it. And the prospect of gratification, He just starts gnawing furiously. And it causes his own mouth to bleed. And then thinking the blood's from the bone, He gnaws harder and keeps going. But then finally, He wakes up. He wakes up and sees, Ah, The bone is empty. And he gets disenchanted and spits it out. This is what we're doing with Eye, Me, And Mind, This VR headset of self. We're getting disenchanted. The mind offers you a temporary higher state and then leaves you high and dry like a narcissistic partner. But really, A mind is a form of narcissism, Really. And more and more, You'll see, And you probably have already seen this through your practice, That thoughts just start to dry up. Judgments dry up. The self starts to dry up when you see it doesn't really relate back to anything. And eventually, The mind goes out of business as the main attraction. It's still there, But it goes out of business as the main attraction. And attention primarily will reside in awareness. That's where the practice is going. Your attention starts to reside more and more and more in awareness itself with not as much interest in mind or selfing. So one final example of the thought you and the awareness you. And this is a visual example, So if you can see me, Great. So here's the mind talking. The real you, The real you is right here. Mind talking, Mind not talking, The real you is still here. Mind agitated, You're still here. You're still here. Mind not agitated, You're still here. Form comes, You as form. This is still here. Form goes, Death, Loss, This is still here. What never leaves, The real you never changes, Whether the mind is talking or not. Here or not, Happy or not, The real you remains the same. The real you remains the same. Zen master Banke, Another ancient, Says unborn buddha nature is always happening. Unborn buddha nature, Whether the mind's talking or not. So every moment, The choice is yours. VR headset, Department of me. Or this awareness that's always here. This or this. And there's no right answer, Right choice. It's just which one, Like that woman who spoke about thoughts, And that woman who spoke about thoughts, Which one's easier? Which one feels better? Which one makes the most sense? So in closing, I'd like to offer this reflection from Tibetan teacher Kalu Rinpoche. It's super simple, And I'm going to read it twice because it's so simple, But it really exemplifies the essence of this talk. We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, You see that you are nothing. And being nothing, You are everything. That is all. We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, You see that you are nothing. And being nothing, You are everything. That is all.