Part of key topic The Human Dillema
Alternative translations: Inconstancy
Glosses: Arising and ceasing, Uncertainty, Mai nae Thai
95 excerpts, 8:24:58 total duration
5. “If everything about me is impermanent, and even ‘myself’ is illusory, just the rising and falling of kamma, then who or what am I addressing when I wish myself well-being?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aggregates] [Impermanence] [Not-self] [Kamma] [Goodwill] // [Conventions] [Craving not to become] [Right View] [Conditionality]
9. “Can you speak more about the impermance of goodness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Impermanence] [Virtue] [Gradual Teaching] // [Conditionality] [Happiness] [Compassion] [Fear] [Suffering] [Clinging]
Sutta: AN 8.39: Five great gifts which give freedom from fear. [Generosity] [Five Precepts]
Quote: “The basis of Right View is knowing that this cup is a broken glass.” — Ajahn Chah. [Ajahn Chah] [Right View] [Impermanence]
6. Comment: I find that the experience of uncertainty and loss can give rise to compassion. [Impermanence] [Grief] [Compassion]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Right View] [Emotion] [Teaching Dhamma] [Ardency]
11. “Thank you for your uplifting and encouraging talks. My husband died 6 months ago. Could you give suggestions for how to contemplate anicca and anatta in the context of his life, illness, and death? I’m aware of aversion to the pain of losing him. I do want to learn from all this.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Impermanence] [Not-self] [Sickness] [Death] [Relationships] [Aversion] [Suffering ] // [Naturalness] [Grief] [Gratitude] [Merit] [Compassion]
4. “What is the distinction Chao Khun Upāli makes between lokuttara discernment and higher discernment?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Chao Khun Upāli] [Discernment] [Impermanence] [Aggregates] [Suffering] [Cause of Suffering] // [Commentaries] [Ajahn Chah] [Study monks]
5. “What is the difference between abandoning craving and realizing the abandoning of craving?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Jotipālo. [Impermanence] [Aggregates] [Cause of Suffering] [Cessation of Suffering] // [Commentaries] [Doubt] [Relinquishment] [Concentration] [Gladdening the mind] [Desire] [Becoming] [Non-return] [Right View]
Sutta: SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. [Four Noble Truths]
Sutta: MN 121 Cūḷa Suññata Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on Emptiness [Emptiness]
Quote: “The characteristic of cessation is not just ending something and annihilating [it], but it’s being willing and able to stop. The nature of the mind is that it doesn’t like to stop. And it’s [through] that not stopping that we keep creating that sense of me.” — Ajahn Pasanno. [Cessation] [Nature of mind] [Self-identity view]
12. Comments about uncertainty, impermanence, and denial of the reality of one’s own death. [Impermanence ] [Culture/West] [Heedfulness] [Virtue] [Death] [Recollection/Death]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
15. “Although in reasonable condition, I am realizing that fear / anxiety of death / non-becoming is pervasive in the background of my daily life. Does the Buddha speak to that which continues after the body dies? Other than the five recollections and contemplating impermanence, does he offer guidance on how to best prepare to greet ones own death? Thank you so much.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Fear] [Death ] [Rebirth] [Recollection] [Impermanence] // [Naturalness] [Spiritual urgency] [Clear comprehension] [Mindfulness of body] [Dispassion] [Divine Abidings] [Recollection/Devas] [Protective Meditations] [Factors of Awakening]
Quote: “The Dhamma is neither tall nor short, black nor white; it’s just right (por dee)” — Ajahn Kinaree. [Ajahn Kinaree] [Dhamma] [Middle Path]
16. “Was the fire sermon a ‘teaching moment’ of hyperbole? I love to take photographs, for example, and it helps me engage much more deeply with the world outside my skull. And it fills me with rapture, compassion, and joy! Does the Buddha’s recipe for liberation truly entail cutting off this experience of beauty? Where’s the Theravada equivalent to the Zen ‘suchness’ —the awe of life and its ephemerality? Thank you!” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Dispassion] [Impermanence] [Suchness] [Recreation/leisure/sport] [Liberation] [Compassion] [Happiness] [Beauty]
Sutta: SN 35.28: Ādittapariyāya Sutta
9. “Is my understanding of the first noble truth correct in that it doesn’t deny enjoying things in life, but point to their temporary nature and underlying unsatisfaction once enjoyment ceases? Can I be a Buddhist and still enjoy my chocolate?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Noble Truth of Suffering ] [Sensual desire] [Impermanence] [Suffering] [Food]
Quote: “There’s enjoying things and there is having to enjoy things. These are two different things.” [Happiness] [Craving]
Sutta: AN 5.208: Benefits of using toothwoods [Health]
4. “Is “arising and vanishing” the same as “arising and ceasing?”” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Impermanence] // [Pāli] [Conditionality]
2. “How does nirodha differ from arising and ceasing?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Cessation] [Impermanence] [Pāli] [Translation] // [P. A. Payutto] [Dependent origination]
4. Comment about working with not-self in direct experience in relation to discomfort and awareness of embodied release. [Direct experience] [Feeling] [Suffering] [Impermanence] [Not-self] [Mindfulness of body] [Relinquishment] [Fear]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Proliferation]
6. “Things change. But can’t that be part of its nature that things change?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Impermanence] [Not-self]
3. “Sometimes I just notice that the state that is there [a hindrance] is going to go away. Isn’t that a skillful way of looking at it?” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Impermanence] [Skillful qualities] [Hindrances] // [Clear comprehension] [Habits]
Sutta: MN 20: The Removal of Distracting Thoughts [Right Effort] [Similes]
18. “If mind and consciousness are impermanent, what/who is aware? Also, who/what is it that experiences the results of karma, especially after the body dies and perhaps is reborn?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Heart/mind] [Consciousness] [Impermanence] [Nature of mind ] [Kamma] [Rebirth] // [Conditionality] [Clinging] [Doctrine-of-self clinging]
22. “Is there a distinction between observing the mind and observing what arises?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness of mind] [Impermanence] // [Knowing itself ] [Liberation ] [Thai Forest Tradition] [Buddha] [Relinquishment] [Cessation of Suffering]
3. “Though unskillful mind states may come up, as long as we don’t pick them up and feed them, they are just ideas/thoughts that will end.’ Can you comment on the effectiveness of this practice? Are there situations where you would definitely recommend it? Definitely not recommend it? Do you see this relating to metta?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Unskillful qualities] [Impermanence] [Meditation/Techniques] [Goodwill]
23. “Do you understand impermanence as the phenomena of a river flowing or as a light being turned on and off as Bhikkhu Analayo describes?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Impermanence ] [Ven. Analayo] [Similes] // [Pāli] [Translation] [Ajahn Ṭhānissaro] [Ajahn Chah]
7. “Mind is impermanent correct? So when the Buddha says that the mind is radiant and it gets obscured by defilements, does this mean that the mind that arises without defilements in that moment is radiant?....so radiance is composed of many minds arising and passing away without defilements?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Heart/mind] [Impermanence] [Nature of mind]
6. “Can you talk more about “Skillfully contributing to an upredictable situation”?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Impermanence] [Skillful qualities] [Ajahn Pasanno] // [Teaching Dhamma] [Clear comprehension]
7. “Have you been in situations where you didn’t know what to do?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Impermanence]
14. “When you find happiness, there’s the hope that you won’t lose it and the fear that you will. How do you peel away the hope and the fear and bathe in happiness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Happiness] [Desire] [Fear] [Impermanence] // [Suffering] [Learning] [Relinquishment]
1. “I know that everything changes, and the only thing we can do is accept or be fine with that. But then you have a lot of resistance to acceptance. What can we do with that resistance?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Impermanence] [Clinging] // [Naturalness] [Suffering] [Truth] [Patience ] [Continuity of mindfulness]
Quote: So often Ajahn Chah would respond with the advice, “Just be patient.” [Ajahn Chah]
2. “When that flower is new, if we’re aware of its impermanence and we accept that and we know that it’s coming, is there any reason not to love the flower, appreciate its beauty, and accept it as a blessing?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Impermanence ] [Beauty]
Quote: A group of experienced Western Buddists ask Ajahn Chah about Right View. He replies, “Right View is knowing that this cup is broken.” [Ajahn Chah] [Right View] [Impermanence ]
8. “Can building a continuous narrative regarding impermanence hinder the perception of beauty?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Impermanence] [Proliferation] [Perception] [Beauty]
Quote: “It’s not about finding a perfect position that you can be in. What you’re doing is finding a place of balance that you’re not shaken by anything.” [Middle Path] [Equanimity]