Very Windy Conditions

When I first entered the monasteries in Thailand and Burma, I was taught everything is anicca (impermanent), dukkha (unsatisfactory), and anatta (no-self). The reason these were repeated over and over again is because if you see these, you see with the eyes of wisdom. Because everything is changing, the more you cling and hold on, the more you suffer. To free ourselves, we need to quiet the mind through some mindfulness in meditation. Then, instead of identifying with the changing conditions, we learn to release them and turn toward consciousness itself, to rest in the knowing. My teacher Ajahn Chah called this pure awareness, "the original mind," or resting in "the one who knows." As the Jiddu Krishnamurti said, “It is the truth that liberates, and not your efforts to be free.” With practice, we discover the selflessness of experience; we shift identity. We can be in the midst of an experience, being upset or angry or caught by some problem, and then step back from it and rest in pure awareness. We let go; we release holding any thought or feeling as "I" or "mine." We release the whole sense of identification, and the conditioned world is just anicca (impermanent), dukkha (unsatisfactory), and anatta (empty of self) -- it has nothing to do with our true nature. We learn to trust pure awareness itself. This is one of the ways Ajahn Chah taught about liberation. Awakening is always here and now. Practicing this way, your life is transformed.

An exploration of anatta, or "not-self".

From Harris Park. Meditation on the joyful, soothing breath. Dhamma talk on the three characteristics in historical context and their practical relationship to liberation: anicca (impermanence/not-regularity-ness), dukkha (suffering), anatta (non-self). Why are all conditions suffering but all dhammas non-self? The three characteristics as doors to dhammas of the great teachers.

Looking at the final awakening factor, what gets in the way, what helps it to arise and strengthen, and the insights into anicca - dukkha - anatta that it supports

Vortrag & geführte Meditation | Vier Vipallasa 4/6 ~ Anatta

Exploring Anatta, with an invitation to curiosity and intimacy with the not knowing, beyond the conceptual mind of the constructs of the self. As we investigate the constructions of self, we begin to untangle the sense of self that we are familiar with and open to the possibility of the fullness of Anatta.

Seeing what is without a self (anatta) as a self (atta). This recording also includes Laura Bridgman.

How to understand the Buddha's teachings on Anatta (not-self)

00:13 Working with tinnitus; 03:06 ‘sensing a way home to what I am’; 04:42 Becoming more comfortable with non-doing; 06:57 Mention not-self/anattā in the suttas; 11:26 Focusing on one point with breathing; 14:45 Feeling I should be doing something; 16:12 Building more energy in the practice as one ages; 22:32 Feeling angst about ending of the retreat; 23:15 Recollecting one’s virtues as preparation for death; 25:01 Having lost our ability to express open steady presence; 26:13 Refusing to identify with someone or some movement; 27:10 Aches in my shoulder in long sits; 29:06 Arūpa jhānas.