Four Brahmaviharas by Luang Por Sumedho - Highlights
by aalif · 14 things on NewTwos
- Metta is unconditioned love, it has nothing to do with what I personally prefer or who I think is worthy of love.
- We can create the illusion of loving kindness with positive thinking but the minute something happens that we don’t like we’re back in the mode of conditioned reaction—anger, jealousy, vengefulness and sulking.
- The best way to think of love is as pure unconditioned conscious awareness. This is our only refuge. Unconditioned awareness is in this moment. it’s not coming from the past.
- The ego is conditioned to like the idea of being unconditional love, but the ego is the sum of all conditioning.
- Much of this conditioning takes place when we are children.
- There are no perfect human beings because human beings are conditioned. What is perfect is conscious awareness, because it is here-now. Personality can never be equanimous because it is a conditioned phenomenon.
- All conditioned phenomena are impermanent. Conditioned phenomena rise according to other conditions in nature. Trying to perfect any identity as a ‘perfect father’ or ‘perfect sadhak’ is noble but will fail because conditions keep changing.
- We don’t have to seek consciousness. It is the natural, uncreated background of all other conditions.
- Once we rest in our true nature, we can deal with our conditioning without blaming or justifying—simply witnessing what rises and passes away.
- **Be the witness of the conditioned realm, not the owner or judge of it.**
- The ultimate reality cannot be imagined. No words can go there, because words are conditioned phenomenon. Words are limited to forms in space and time.
- A righteous monk/teacher cannot be equanimous because he is always judging, and upset at what is wrong in people, in the world. Ultimate reality transcends righteousness. The feelings of right and wrong may still arise but the knowing that they are impermanent and empty of self also arises.
- You cannot become a fanatic unless you try to grasp at conditions, and make a certain condition permanent.
- Here and Now is your Refuge. Being the witness of these conditioned attitudes, not trying to make perfect personalities but using every situation as a reminder for abiding in what you truly are, in your true home, which is deathless reality.