“Putting Down the Burden” with Benjamin this Sunday at Minneapolis Insight

Dear Community,

This Sunday we’ll explore the theme “Putting Down the Burden,” based on Ajahn Sumedho’s teaching in Don't Take Your Life Personally (pp. 167-177):

The whole point of the Buddha’s teaching, is awakenedness; it is a ‘wake up’ kind of teaching. So, when you get down to it, all the Buddha was really saying was ‘wake up!’ ― that is all. And that waking up is not affirming the conditioning we have around ‘me being somebody who is awake or asleep’, or of wondering who can wake up and who can’t, or how deluded we are, in this endless way... If we begin to recognize our true nature, however, we will have perspective on the conditioning that we tend to identify with. It is like awakening out of ignorance.

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This awareness includes everything. It is not the same as thinking, which is linear and can only generate one thought at a time. Awareness is unitive; whereas thinking is divisive. By not attaching to thought, you recognize that your true nature is not something you can define. You cannot define yourself as anything; you cannot find yourself; you are no thing. At the same time, however, awareness is pure, intelligent and wise. So this is what I recommend you put your faith into. To me refuge in the Buddha-Dhamma-Sangha means this.

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In this awareness, you will find that when you let go of your ego, it is like putting down a burden. Carrying the ego is like carrying the world on your back; it is heavy and burdensome. And when you let it go it is a relief, unless your sole identity is as this person here ― and then it can be frightening. Who am I if I am not this person? Emotionally, I don’t know who I am any more. But with this refuge in Buddha-Dhamma-Sangha, I don’t need to know who I am any more. It isn’t important who I am. Instead, there is a knowing, but not claiming the knowing in any kind of personal way.

All are welcome to join this exploration on Sunday! Zoom information available here.

With mettā,
Minneapolis Insight