Convenient Fictions

[Aloka]

This is a short morning reflection (8 minutes) given by Ajahn Amaro at Amaravati Monastery UK (he's the abbot there), about how the mind makes judgements and gets lost in them :

The title is : "Convenient Fictions":

https://www.amaravati.org/audio/morn...ient-fictions/


Any comments about what he said are welcome.

Please don't just give an opinion based on the topic title without listening to the audio!

Thank you.


.

[Mahler]

Thank you for posting this.

[Olderon]

Hi Aloka.

The presentation reminds me of a conclusion I drew over thirty years ago with regard to my mindset as to "how much I knew" relative to what I considered to be my considerable education and experience, and to my personal discovery as to the haughtiness and arrogance of the "know it all attitude" I had developed. The author of the presentation limits his range of perspective to countries, but my mind had expanded this realization to veritably all of time and space after realizing that I didn't know even what time it was, nor where we sat on this planet within our own individual galaxy, local cluster of galaxies, or greater clusters. We knew only what we could see adjacent and far from us as our telescopes improved. But we didn't truly know where we were relative to any universal reference, because there is truly no such thing. All locations, velocities, and times are relative as Einstein pointed out to us:

https://www.magellantv.com/video/ein...SAAEgKz9fD_BwE

Now we have discovered that we don't even know what most of the universe is made of, nor where or when our universe sits relative to its position(s) in The Multiverse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVvcOQk6G0Q

https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysic...is-dark-energy

So, what can any of us truly claim to know with certainty about anything other than the fact that we truly know very little about all there is to know?

No need for haughtiness, more need for humility and willingness to learn from our daily discoveries regarding how to eliminate our suffering in this plane of existence, what Buddha called "Samsara", and why Buddha taught us only a small portion of what he knew as an enlightened being, and how he taught us this with the analogy of "The Hand full of Simsapa Leaves." : https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipi....031.than.html

[Aloka]

Sorry Ron, but I've got no idea how your post relates to what was said in Ajahn Amaro's morning reflection in the opening post #1 of this topic, which begins with him reflecting on the conventions of name and age in connection with life in a monastery....


Perhaps someone else would be kind enough to listen to it for 8 minutes and let me know?

[Olderon]

Sorry Ron, but I've got no idea how your post relates to what was said in Ajahn Amaro's morning reflection in the opening post #1 of this topic, which begins with him reflecting on the conventions of name and age in connection with life in a monastery....


Perhaps someone else would be kind enough to listen to it for 8 minutes and let me know?

Amaro is speaking of the arbitrary nature of name(s) in this case regarding locations: nations, kingdoms, and etc.. He pointed out that names are arbitrary eventually known to be archaic in modern times. I was pointing out that pretty much all knowledge is likewise arbitrary and that over time, through scientific discovery, and personal change of mindset we individually reclassify and redefine most of what we call human knowledge as well.

Sorry if my post was so unclear you didn't catch my drift. I was just relating to what I heard from the dhamma talk and recalling when my own personal mindset had begun to change as to what I considered in my haughtiness and foolishness to be my advanced knowledge from my sources of education, which turns out in today's terms to be pretty much wrong in all respects.


Out of curiosity, what did you personally relate to Amaro's talk?

[Aloka]

Out of curiosity, what did you personally relate to Amaro's talk?

I found Venerable Ajahn Amaro's talk a helpful reminder, because I tend to forget how I can get attached to different labels and judgemental opinions in my own life experiences.

[Olderon]

I found Venerable Ajahn Amaro's talk a helpful reminder, because I tend to forget how I can get attached to different labels and judgemental opinions in my own life experiences.

Yes. And that is where humility comes into the experience of being alive. Rather than being defensive in our realizations of being mistaken, we come to an understanding, and are willing to admit that we were wrong, or at least arbitrary in our labeling of people, places, and things. Most important ( I believe ) is the willingness to be open to newly discovered interpretation of reality.