Thr Four Eternal Truths

For Eternal Truths So I want to share something which actually came originally from the Buddha.

And personally speaking,

I think these should be taught in schools.

They're not Buddhist.

They're just real common sense,

Brilliant life skills.

For me,

The ultimate life skill.

If you want to put it in that box.

Now I'm going to start off with a little bit about the Buddha.

He was called Siddhartha Gautama and just before his enlightenment,

He was sitting under a Bodhi tree.

Bodhi means awake.

But I'm going to change the word enlightenment for self-realization.

Okay.

It's a term I prefer and you'll realize why,

I hope.

I'll be able to explain what I mean by it.

So he gained enlightenment or he gained self-realization,

Sitting underneath the Bodhi tree.

The world of suffering ended for him,

Of psychological suffering,

Mental suffering,

Mental torture.

It ended.

All his existential questions were answered.

And he thought to himself,

Well I want to share this with people.

How will I get it?

Maybe I'll just enjoy it.

And Brahma Sahampati appeared.

Brahma Sahampati?

Where did it come from?

Brahma Sahampati is a manifestation or a personification of the Buddha's own compassion.

So he appeared to or she appeared to the Buddha and they said you must share this.

You must help other people end suffering.

And so,

Okay,

So compassion says share this.

So that's what he did.

He thought to himself but who who first,

Who should I share this with first?

He thought,

Oh my five friends who were maybe two days away in the Deer Park in Sarnath in India,

Which is now Nepal,

I think it is,

On the border.

I'll go there.

I've actually been to the Deer Park in Sarnath,

A beautiful place,

So hot though,

Too hot for an Englishman.

And um he arrives to the Deer Park and they look,

Five friends look and say,

Oh there's Siddhartha.

They didn't know he was the Buddha.

They didn't know he was self-realized.

He realized his true nature.

There's Siddhartha.

He looks all right,

Doesn't he?

He looks well.

Because they left him see previously,

A few months prior,

Because the prevailing belief in India at the time was if you if you starve the body you free the spirit to enlightenment or the eternal.

And at some point he realized,

No,

It doesn't work.

You just die of starvation.

It's very practical.

Ah,

No,

No,

No.

So he started taking food again and they thought he'd given up.

Yeah,

The body needs to be strong.

You can enjoy your food,

Nothing wrong with it.

That doesn't prevent freedom and the peace of your true nature.

You want to be here to enjoy it.

So he sits down with them and starts to share.

And this is just my picture of how it happened.

Read many books and they all happen differently.

But he says,

Look,

We all suffer.

We all suffer mentally and psychologically and emotionally.

Every human being suffers this.

He says,

And I've discovered something.

Yeah,

He hasn't created it.

He just discovered.

Ah,

Right.

He discovered the cause.

Now the first truth is that there is suffering,

Psychological suffering,

Mental suffering in life.

That's the first truth.

It doesn't come as any surprise.

The second truth is where the magic begins.

He says,

Look,

The first truth won't,

You know,

We know that every human being knows that they're suffering and they're tired of it.

But most people haven't seen the second truth.

I've seen the cause of it.

I've discovered the cause,

The reason behind this mental suffering,

Mental and emotional suffering.

And it's very simple and I can vouch for it.

It's so simple.

And that's why we don't get it.

Let's carry on.

So that's the second truth.

He said the second truth,

The cause of human suffering is it's a case of mistaken identity.

King,

What do you mean?

What do you mean?

He says what's happened is we've moved from our true nature,

Which is open,

Vast,

Peaceful,

Present.

It's a kind of stillness.

Yeah,

We've moved away from that and the identification has got caught up with and mixed up with the mental realm.

So now what happens is the piece that isn't was or was and is our true nature is disregarded,

You know,

Disregarded,

Overlooked because we are obsessed with not the stillness anymore but movement with the activity of mind.

And mind through its creative creativity has created this self-image of a few of you and me.

It's created a self-image and you know what I mean because you have an image of yourself.

Yes or yes,

Me.

Yes,

This is me.

Yes,

Something in here but you go look for it and you can't find it,

Can you?

Well,

I know it's here.

I know it's here.

I just have,

I just,

Well,

Yeah it all gets a bit like smoke and mirrors but I'm digressing.

So that identification with the self-image and the narrative in the head is what would become identified with.

That is the cause of human suffering.

That's what he shared with his five friends.

It says your thoughts come and go.

The self-image appears and disappears but your true nature,

Your presence in which,

On which it appears never disappears.

So right now I just want to show you something.

By way of an exercise then a metaphor.

I'm just checking the time guys.

I don't want to go on too long.

Now I want you to think to yourself,

Oh,

Having a thought.

Just think it.

You are aware of that,

Aren't you?

You were and you are.

If you say it again,

Think it again,

You are aware of it.

Yeah,

Now I thought that appeared and disappeared,

Did it not?

But you as awareness remained.

That's it.

That's it.

It's so obvious but,

What that?

Because it doesn't appear to be much,

Initially we keep overlooking it.

So please,

Please don't overlook this.

It's what you're looking for right now.

So a metaphor.

So there's stillness and silence and just well-being,

Peace of your true nature,

Stillness.

We move out of that into the world of movement,

Thought,

Yeah?

And we identify with that and we miss the stillness.

So at this,

Sorry,

Just backtrack a little.

And all this movement of mind creates the self-image.

And an image is insubstantial.

The image of me on the screen now,

If I move out of the screen,

Out of the way of the camera,

The image is gone.

Your self-image has no substance.

Yeah,

Do something with it,

Grab it.

Well,

It feels real.

Yes,

It feels real but you can't do anything with it.

Thoughts feel real but they don't amount to anything.

They're all symbols.

Now,

Imagine you're watching a movie on a screen.

Images of people appear on the screen and you're engrossed in the movie.

Seeing these people,

See all the little images which are made of pixels apparently.

I'm not,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Little dots.

The more dots,

The more realistic the picture.

Yeah,

They're up here.

Then someone turns it off.

Oh,

I was watching a movie.

But what did the movie appear on?

The screen.

You were watching the screen all the time.

You just got lost in the movie.

Are you with me?

Are you with me?

So we get lost in the movie of me in the same way.

The movie of me and my life.

And we miss the screen.

We don't realise that we're watching the screen all along.

Without the screen there's no movie.

But you turn the movie off,

The screen remains.

So there's the never changing-ness of your true nature,

Of awareness,

Of presence.

Yeah,

The word presence.

I like presence.

Of being.

Because you are here,

Aren't you?

You're here.

Bang!

I know I exist.

I'm here.

But then we get lost in this mental world with all its emotional rides and tragedies and wishes and regrets and criticisms and judgements.

That becomes our life.

Self-realisation is just turning around and realising that,

Ah,

That which is aware is alive.

So I don't have to think about everything.

Thinking about something isn't the something.

Get that.

If you don't get this,

Guys,

If the pennies are not dropping,

Come back.

Come back.

And the pennies will drop.

How did I miss this?

How did I not realise the images,

The movie was appearing on the screen?

How did I miss that?

There's no screen.

There's just the movie.

Yeah.

And the screen,

The screen here of your true being is alive and aware.

Yeah.

It's aware of the thoughts.

It's aware of the emotions.

But at the moment,

What we do is we're sort of our identities mixed up with them.

And if this interests you,

Just turn up for these live ones.

Just.

.

.

I say the same thing every week.

Reinforcement until the penny drops.

I just say it in different ways.

That's all that's been done here.

And the pennies will drop.

It's like,

Why didn't somebody tell me this when I was six or whatever?

Twelve.

It's so simple.

Boom.

What?

Turn around.

Boom.

Ah.

Here I am.

I'm not this narrative.

I'm not this image.

I'm not this little,

Small,

Little individual with all its troubles.

Yeah.

The narrative of my past isn't me,

Isn't my life.

Your life is here.

Right now.

And so just briefly,

The third truth is and so just briefly,

The third truth is suffering can come to an end.

Mental and psychological suffering can come to an end.

And the fourth truth is how we do it.

We realize who we really are.

And it's not difficult.

It's simple.

It's just we're so obsessed.

The misidentification,

The case of misidentification is strong to begin with.

Ah.

But no longer.

The game's up.

The game's up.

There's a chink in the armor now.

And that's what we that's what we investigate.

So I want to do a short meditation around this.

As I said at the beginning,

I'll come to the questions towards the end.

OK.

I just want to stay on.

On the online.

OK.

So let's just have a little bit of quiet time.

Just take a deep breath,

A couple of deep breaths.

It just helps to calm the nervous system.

Thanks for the hearts.

Move the attention back and down into the body.

Back.

Down into the body,

Which is presence.

Into presence.

The aware presence,

The aliveness,

Which is prior to thought.

Thought arises out of this presence.

To sit quiet for a few minutes,

Even just follow the breath if you wish.

And then I want to drop in a few ponters.

Just rest in the silence.

And you may notice how you move away from presence,

So to speak.

And you get,

You,

You get a little bit more of a sense of being.

Stick to the mental,

Mental realm,

The mental activity.

At that point,

Just release.

Relax back into presence.

Relax into the body if that helps.

OK.

I just want to drop in a few pointers.

And I don't want you to answer these.

We're not looking for answers.

OK.

So.

You just ask yourself and then go silent.

You're not looking at mine to give us an answer.

You're not looking at mine to give us an answer.

Just ask yourself.

What's closer than thinking?

Rest there.

What's closer than thinking?

And just repeat to yourself.

Again,

We're not looking for an answer.

Who am I without thinking?

Who am I without thinking?

Just rest and be quiet for a few moments.

And finally,

Just ask yourself something.

And finally,

Just ask yourself something like.

So what's aware of this thinking?

No answer.

I don't want an answer.

OK.

So you can carry on with your sitting quietly.

So.

These are just pointers to take you.

Not even beyond thought,

But prior to thought.

It's like this morning I was walking the dog.

Yeah,

Walking Banky.

And I come to a gate and we have to walk along the road for a while.

And we stepped onto the road along the along the edging.

Grass verge.

And this car came whizzing by the corner.

And it didn't hit us,

Of course,

But it was scary.

Yeah,

That was what was happening.

That was just what was happening.

Right.

That's true life just happening there.

I'll repeat them before the end.

But what happened is mind.

I saw mind get all of it.

What that?

And I remained as awareness,

As presence and just watched it.

Wow.

And that's what's happening all the time.

It might be somebody looks at you a certain way.

That's what's really happening.

Then mind picks it up and makes it all personal.

How dare you?

And that went away.

Realization of who we are.

So the first truth is there is mental and psychological suffering.

The second truth is the cause is a case of mistaken identity.

The third is there's an end to this suffering,

To this mistaken identity.

And the fourth is realising our true nature,

Realising our true self,

Not the fabricated one.

This is fabricated.

It's a brilliant tool,

Don't get me wrong,

For doing practical,

Creative,

Functional,

Action-oriented thinking.

We need it.

But it's an artist and he creates something out of nothing.

Yes,

Blossom Violet,

They're so busy.

And where do they get their energy from?

Because they need energy.

See,

The mental realm is like a separate energy system.

And it needs to survive.

It's out here somewhere.

It's sort of,

In a sense,

This is only a metaphor.

It's separate from you,

But it needs your energy.

So it downloads thoughts into you.

And so that you believe it and your belief in them,

You're getting lost in them,

Is its energy.

That's how it keeps surviving.

It keeps surviving in that way.

So it knows which content of thought,

Which themes to send you because you keep opening them.

It's like someone knocks on your door,

Keeps knocking on your door and saying,

Um,

Would you like some plastic coffee cups?

Oh yeah,

I'll have some,

Yeah.

Buy them.

Yeah,

The next day,

Well,

I'll try them again.

They knock on the door,

There's lots of plastic coffee cups.

Oh yeah,

I'll have them.

Yeah.

And they do that every day.

Do that every day.

And you've got a thousand coffee cups.

And you've got a thousand coffee cups.

So then a mind makes a problem thing.

What do I do with all these coffee cups?

So I,

What am I doing with all these?

What do I do now?

These are like problems.

Keep sending problem.

Anxiety will get him.

Or loneliness will get her.

I know good will get him.

Entire truck.

Yes,

Cherish.

That's what we,

That's what we want when you're getting a glimpse.

See,

Self-realisation isn't the creation of something.

It's a discovery of what's already the case.

So you've been out in your automobile or your car.

You come home,

You put the keys in the drawer.

Then you get on with your day.

You sleep over,

You know,

You have a good sleep.

You get up next morning and car keys,

I don't know,

You get up next morning and car keys,

Where did I put them?

Coat pocket,

Trouser pocket,

Pants pocket,

Trousers,

Pants.

You look in the cupboards,

You look in your wooden bowl.

You,

I don't know,

And then you,

Ah,

The drawer.

Now you realised what was already the case.

They didn't just appear there.

They're already there all the time.

That's self-realisation.

You are fully awake,

Fully aware,

Fully here,

Now.

We just need to realise it.

It's a case of mistaken identity.

That's all that's happening.

And that's what almost every human being on the planet is doing because they don't look,

They don't investigate.

I'm not knocking anybody.

I didn't investigate.

I didn't.

I thought I was,

But I wasn't.

I was on this journey to become a better person.

This is not about becoming a better person.

As a consequence of realising your true nature,

You tend to be beneficial to the world,

Yeah?

But you're free to be who you really are,

Yeah?

You tend to be kinder and softer and more,

Yeah?

But you don't tend to just agree for the sake of agreeing.

You're willing to disagree when you disagree.

You're just more yourself.

You're free just to,

Because fear is not running the show,

Make the U-turn,

Yes?

Yeah?

Okay.

Okay.

I think that will do us for today,

Guys.