Buddha on Self-conceit
Good morning, Siddhartha Gautama Fleer talking here again back with day three of our Buddhist meditation on turtle one day at a time podcast, sorry. So yesterday was a good one, right? Good points. Now we move on to the next stage of our Buddhist training. And I must ask the Buddha why do I still have blocked nose after so long?
Speaker 1:It is not right. Buddha, what's the answer to this? Okay. Next step. Next step, no training.
Speaker 1:He says, this method of allowing the simple facts of observation to speak and make their impact on the mind will be more wholesome and efficient than a method of introspection that enters into inner arguments of self justifications and self accusations or into elaborate search for hidden motives. That shuts Freud up in it. Others who believe that they have succeeded in the self justification may become completely enwrapped in their conceit, and all of them may succumb to the self complacency and self righteousness of those who pride themselves in taking the spiritual path of self introspection. All these risks are absent or greatly reduced in the sober and unobtrusive method of bare registering, which through regular application can easily become a natural function of the mind, free from artificially artificiality and egocentric concern. Such self examination makes for honesty towards oneself, which is indispensable for inner progress and for mental health.
Speaker 1:How many times do have the advice? Well, you know, give the advice to your best mate, that's the advice you take yourself, you should take objective advice from yourself. Right? The reason we give such good advice to our best mates because we look at their problems or look at what happens to them as bare facts. Sometimes we get wrapped up and they hate, you know, the the ex or something comes when you hate them as much as they do and you wanna fight them, you rip his head off and stab him in the eye, you know, you do all that stuff.
Speaker 1:But when it comes to usually, right, you will be able to look at the situation very absurd, like, very objectively, bear attention. Basically, you are doing bear attention to their problems and you're giving them the real the real insight into what's going on. Right? And we always say, if only I could take my own advice. First of all, you can give yourself that advice by looking at things like you look at their best friend's problems.
Speaker 1:And second of all, that's the difference in seeing clearly versus being sucked into these, what are you saying is self justifications, self complacency, or, you know, looking into making self introspection all the time. Always analyze this, analyze, analyze, analyze. In analysis, that is division. Remember that because something is analyzing something. Makes sense?
Speaker 1:Okay. Next part of the training. In the method method what? I can't even say it. In the methodical oh my god.
Speaker 1:Can't even consider it. In the methodical meditative practice, the contemplation of the state of mind will help us assess one's progress or failures, example, mind concentrated or not. Furthermore, the best statements made in this contemplation will be the assistance in coping with interruptions and other disturbances during meditation. For example, if there is for instance anger about a disturbing noise, the best statement mind with anger will often be able to dissolve the feeling of irritation replacing an emotionally restless state by the unemotional state of self examination. Such a procedure will also divert the attention from the original disturbance, the noise, and change the direction of mind from those external objects to internal ones.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So instead of then focusing on our noises and all you focus on inside the reaction to that with bare attention, no judgment or whatever, and just watch it. And adios will go to Taa, but a good boy. Good boy. Good boy.
Speaker 1:In this manner, one will be able to come closer to the postulate that life should become one with the spiritual practice and practice become full blooded life. It's basically saying, you know, you do this day to day, pay attention to everything you can. We're be far more mindful, la la la la. Okay. Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay. Next step. Self help, in fact, is the only effective help. Though the help offered or given by others through instruction, advice, sympathy, practical assistance, maternal generosity, material generosity can be of decisive importance for the individual in need of it, yet it will always require a good share of self help, willing acceptance and proper utilization for becoming an effective actual help. You know, Bruce Lee said, I believe self help is the only help, you know, get all the goes advice in the world, but if you don't take it on or see what they're trying to say, well, they're leading you in another path, you're not looking your eyes or how can you help?
Speaker 1:You have to help yourself. Are you listening? Gotta help yourself. I'm not gonna come and cook your meals for you. No.
Speaker 1:We're not gonna come and track your food. I'm not gonna come and kick your ass into an arm wrap workout. Not happening, guys. Singular harmony and balance, consistency and naturalness, simplicity and depth appearing in the teachings as well as in their life. These great helpers will be recognized by the warm smile of understanding, compassion and assurance that glows on their lips and inspires confidence who will grow beyond all doubt.
Speaker 1:This is you're talking about teaching. The Buddha's showing the way to the goal was not made with cold indifference. It was not merely a casual point another finger to the road nor was it merely a piece of paper with an intricate map provided by some obtrusive scripture that was thrust into the hands of those in need of an experienced guide and helper. The pilgrims were not merely left to their own poor devices to way wend their way with emceated bodies and confusing minds. The Buddha's show another way included the pointing on the provisions needed for that long journey, provision provisions which in fact the pilgrims carry with them without being aware of it.
Speaker 1:And that empathetic empathetically did the Buddha proclaim again and again that man is in full possession of all the resources needed for self help. The most simple and most comprehensive way in which he spoke about these resources is this method of Sattripana. Its essence may be compressed into the two words, be mindful, that means be mindful of your own mind and why mind harbors us all, the world of suffering and its origin, but also its final cessation and the path to it. Okay? The visible improvements in the work of everyday life affected by careful attention, thoroughness, and circumspection will give additional encouragement encouragement to the quest for self help.
Speaker 1:What what I love about this path is like kind of what I believe, you know, like in terms of helping people. You can give them a map and tell them, you know, go to Wales, and then, you know, that's not the journey. The map isn't the journey. You know, Cali deficit isn't the journey to get into one. You know, train three times a week isn't the thing.
Speaker 1:You know, all these things on paper are great. Bringing them to life is tough. And, you know, bringing them to life does require on our end as coaches, definitely empathy and compassion and people, know, I've got empathy guys, but I'm also gonna balance of saying, you know, we gotta do with the hell. We all we have to help ourselves. But, know, that's what I've learned the most from the last few years helping all of you guys is like, how many different scenarios, how many different people go through so different things.
Speaker 1:You're all absolutely phenomenal people going through tough times, breakups, chronic illnesses, cancer, you know, moving house when you can't find housing and, just like terrible times, but you're still persevering through it, you know, and that is and in those moments, right, telling those people just basic facts isn't gonna help. And so you gotta you gotta listen, you gotta nudge them in the right direction, you and you gotta tell you, we gotta tell you that you can do it, believe in yourself. You know, that is the the truth of the matter. Believe in yourself, you can actually not make food your enemy. You can actually drop weight without sacrificing your life.
Speaker 1:You can actually stick to self long term. You can actually do what you say you're gonna do. Of course you can. You're doing it now. You're waking up and listening to podcasts, going on the radio, tracking your macros, going training, getting your steps in, you know.
Speaker 1:You might think back like, these these are small things or not. They change lives. If you look at someone who's lost, overweight, tried all of diets, not very motivated in work, just can't be bothered, right, you give them, you help them manage to build a lifestyle around more steps, listening to audiobooks, research studies, nutrition advice, mindset advice, that sort stuff. Hearing other people's stories, other human beings, all us normal people, not celebrities, not mega mega stars, us normal people going through this life together, their struggles and how they're overcoming it, and being heard being heard by other people, and having people who you've never met, and you will eventually meet them, but people you've never met on WhatsApp helping you more than your close friends and family because actually when you go into a group or where the culture is that there isn't this egocentric view in our community, isn't someone that is we're not no one I wouldn't say no one cares but like it's not a main thing to be shredded, it's not a main thing to look the best in turtle. We don't go who looks best in turtle, who's the most lean, you know, who's the strongest, we don't do that.
Speaker 1:You go to maybe CrossFit boxes and stuff, they they're great at helping support get get strong and all out. 100% you go to gyms the same. Within groups, typically friendship groups, maybe even CrossFit training groups, it's all about who's getting stronger, who's the strongest, who's doing this and that. It's always competition, competition, competition. And I find there is no competition in Turtle, and that's why we are willing to help others because there is nothing to to gain from there's nothing to gain from trying to be ahead of anyone, and it's all to gain helping people.
Speaker 1:When you help other people, you get it back. And also, not just that, like, it makes life a lot nicer. Like, what's the point going through life and everyone's gonna help another human being just accumulating some cash and looking great for photos? Like, you know what mean? What an empty existence.
Speaker 1:Anyway, back to Buddha. Receiving such direct instruction from life itself, one will gradually learn to dispose with unnecessary mental ballast and unnecessary definitely gonna say ballast, blast, and unnecessary complications of thought. See, you life wins clarity and ease under the selecting and controlling influence of right mindfulness, one will gradually learn to deal with the unnecessary complications in one's practical life too caused by the thoughtless perpetual perpetuation of habits and wants. You know what, like, I don't know if that makes sense to you, but it really has made sense to me recently. Like, I've been, as you know, for the hundredth time I traveled around Europe.
Speaker 1:I don't if you guys know, but I did go around Europe, like and I didn't take any books to me, and I thought, you know, I'll take my Kindle and read. And I've been digging deeper into my own mind, the ego, the self, desire, cravings, wants, all this type of stuff. And I found myself with less and less desire to read. Because the answers aren't in the books. As clear as they to me, the answers aren't in the books, they're not in books.
Speaker 1:Even though, you know, I'm reading the book to you now, but it's a book of stuff. You know, you eventually realize the answers aren't in the books. The answers are new. The answers in your day to day life, examining it, looking at it, and being objective, bear attention, choice awareness, whatever it is, understanding the ego is the problem to all. Ego wants more.
Speaker 1:Ego wants reputation. Ego wants money. Ego wants to be seen. All this type of stuff. The ego is the problem.
Speaker 1:The self is the problem. If there's no self, there's no problems. Okay? That's the fact of these things. So when you strip yourself back from this importance or wanting to achieve a hierarchy, there's no book that's gonna make you feel bad about it because you notice that, like, a lot of the stuff you do and, again, this memetic desire stuff, you desire what other people desire.
Speaker 1:You see someone shredded, I wanna be shredded now. I see someone making lots of money from the business. I wanna double down and get bigger business. I see people hiring people. I wanna hire people.
Speaker 1:You know, I see people buying a house. I wanna buy a house. All this stuff complete keeps this it doesn't actually stop. That voice in your head never stops if you think about it. It doesn't stop at all.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, you just realize that no book is gonna help you out of that problem. If anything, books are gonna put more of those problems in your head because there's gonna be more ideas, perpetual desires and all this stuff. We learn obviously for knowledge to understand things clearly like learning about nutrition, mindset, training, all our stuff and having books you wanna read novels is great. And these books have given us so much in total you know you've tiny habits and I'm not discarding books at all like I'll never stop reading but what I found is that is the urge for me to read to find an answer went, that's what it was. The urge for me to find it, to go and read to get an answer or to find some insight reduced because I know I could gather myself by being still, by looking at my own life, looking how I'm reacting to my own thoughts, looking how I like I deal with, you know, adversity or I deal with something annoying me or whatever.
Speaker 1:What I've definitely improved with, which is quite big, is like I've said before, I used to always get I've got this apparently, I've got something called rosacea on my face. No clue what it is, but I do know what is, it's like an inflammation in the cheeks, it makes you like blood cells, I don't know, makes your cheeks red basically. And I always used to find when I in a hot place, I've got bad eyes as well, like my eyes would start blinking, I'd get hot in my cheeks and it's like my cheeks would just start burning and go red right, it's rosacea, rosacea, it goes on fire. And then I panic in my head, I'd be like oh my god I'm so red, people think I'm embarrassed. And you always go back to school when someone goes oh my god Scott, look how red you've gone.
Speaker 1:It's like do you not think I feel it? I feel like I'm on fire. You don't have to tell me, you know, those people that do that the worst. Anyway, day to day as I live in, I'd feel a flare up for no reason. It's nothing to do with embarrassment, I find a flare up for no reason coming right?
Speaker 1:And then I get embarrassed, found out the trigger. I get embarrassed because I think I get red in the cheeks and I think people think I'm embarrassed or uncomfortable and then I get embarrassed for that. Does that make sense? It's so stupid. But anyway, I might trip away and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:I this is gone. This doesn't doesn't it doesn't happen. This this, like, buildup of heat to my cheeks or whatever and this embarrassment triggered it doesn't happen anymore. You know, anyone can can, you know, talk to me anyway, and it's fine. I used to get, like, flustered sometimes and this could trigger that feeling hot, my rosacea going fire, then I'd get embarrassed with the rosacea being on fire as opposed to the embarrassment because I thought people thought, you know, whatever.
Speaker 1:Anyway, that was that was that was done on my on my journeys looking at myself, looking at what's actually happening, what's the chain reaction happening every time this happens, it's very frequent and I figured it out and it's gone now because I see it and it's silly, it's go over Goodbye. Goodbye. It's done like I've seen the truth of it. It's done. So does that help you?
Speaker 1:Maybe not. Who knows? Do I have anything else here for you before I finish? Many inner complications are caused by extreme attitudes of the mind and by an unwise handling of the various pairs of opposites operating in life. Surrendering to extreme art to lose of any description will limit one's freedom of action and thought and the capacity of true understanding.
Speaker 1:It reduces independence and the chance of effective practical and spiritual self help. By ignorance of the laws governing the pairs of opposites or by taking sides of either of the extremes in their internal conflict, one will become a helpless pawn in the recurring movements. An expression of the Buddha's middle path is a way leading above beyond extremes and opposites. It corrects one-sided development by filling out deficiencies and reducing excess. It instills a sense of proportion and aspires to harmony and balance without which they can't be lasting self reliance and effective self help.
Speaker 1:As an example, two opposite types of character may be mentioned as they were formulated and further elaborated by Carl Jung, the introvert and the extrovert, which partly cover such other opposites as the comp contemplative and the active, the solitary and the sociable type. The character as a middle path is so deeply ingrained in satin panna that this method is in fact capable of attracting as well as compensating both types. So this is kind of it really, you know, you feel like you've gone extreme like someone says I'll I'll then I'll be this, you know, someone does not and I'm comfortable here, but I'm really uncomfortable there, those extreme things. With bare attention and going into those things, you know, I use this on the when I was on a suspension bridge, if you don't know if you saw the video of me walking over this suspension bridge over a lake, right, I'm scared of heights. You could see underneath me is a big drop, can't swim, know, scared of heights, can't swim on a bridge, you can see the water underneath me, you know, well I can't tread water so I would die before I swam the shawl basically, because I can swim 10 meters.
Speaker 1:So I was just watching my mind. Honestly, it's fascinating, fascinating to do it in those moments of fear, seeing what happens. Drops off quite fast and your body's fine, but that was a good testing ground for me, really good testing ground. So some of you are scared of the scales, step on the scales and watch. Watch the mind, see what happens.
Speaker 1:Some of you are scared of tracking food, do it. Some of you are scared of going to the gym, you know, go with your friend and walk in slow and watch the mind. What's happening there? Unless you see the chain reaction, you can't break it down and it disappear because you think it's so fast. Right?
Speaker 1:So in those fears, that's maybe a task you today. Like, what what does give you that fear or whatever? And, like, just watch during it. And that's the experiment to run. And let me know what happens.
Speaker 1:And then that guys speak to you tomorrow. We'll do we finish this week off with Buddhism stuff, right? And then we'll go on to well, I'll have a theme next week. Like I like I prefer the themes, but have a good day. This is your prompt to do your one big thing or whatever task you want to get done to start your day tracking macros, drink water, go for a walk, whatever it is, get it done right now as soon as I stop this podcast.
Speaker 1:Three, two, one.
