..續本文上一頁hat attachment is as a reality, as a habit that we”ve developed. And you”ll see personality, when it arises and when it ceases, when there”s attachment to it and when there”s non-attachment.

　　Personality is not the problem; the problem is the attachment to it. So you”re always going to have a personality, even as an arahant; but an arahant has no identity with it and no attachment. So we have ways of speaking and talking and doing things that might seem very personal or unique or eccentric or whatever.

　　But that”s not a problem. It”s the ignorance and attachment that the Buddha was always referring to again and again as the cause of suffering.

　　This awareness, sati-sampajanna, intuitive awareness, is not something that I can claim personally. If my personality started claiming it, it would just be more self-view, sakkaya-ditthi again. If I started saying ”I”m a very wise person,” then it would be self-view claiming to be wise. So when you understand that, how could you claim to be anything at all

　　 Of course, on a conventional level I”m willing to play the game. So, when they say ”Ajahn Sumedho” I say ”Yes”. There”s nothing wrong with conventional reality either. The problem is in the attachment to it out of ignorance.

　　Avijja is the Pali word for spiritual ignorance. It means not knowing the Four Noble Truths. In the investigation of the Four Noble Truths, avijja ceases. Awareness, the awakened state, takes you out of ignorance immediately, if you”ll trust it. As soon as you are aware, ignorance is gone. So then, when ignorance arises, you can be aware of it as something coming and going, rather than taking it personally or assuming that you”re always ignorant until you become enlightened. If you”re always operating from the assumption that ”I”m ignorant and I”ve got to practise in order to get rid of ignorance,” then grasp that assumption, you”re stuck with that until you see through the grasping of that view.

　　So I encourage you to develop this simple immanent ability. It doesn”t seem like anything. It”s not an attainment. Maybe you conceive of it as an attainment, and so think you can”t do it. But even if you can”t do it, be aware of the view that you can”t do it. Trust in whatever is going on. Because when I talk like this, people accuse me, ”Oh, Ajahn Sumedho”s been practising a long time; he always had good samadhi, and so he can talk like that.” They go on like that, thinking that I”m a highly attained person, and that that therefore justifies their position. They compare themselves to their projection of me, without seeing what they”re doing. They don”t know what they”re doing. They”re lost in views about themselves and about others.

　　So I recommend that you trust in the immediacy, to give enough attention, which is not an aggressive wilfulness, but a relaxed openness, a listening and a resting. More and more through practice you recognise it, rather than pass it by or overlook it all the time. Then you can focus on whatever you like, on the breath or being aware of what”s going on in your body for instance.

　　If this awareness is well established then you can decide what to focus on in any situation; but of course, you have to be aware of time and place. If I want to be aware of just bodily experience in the present and if I do that in the wrong place it doesn”t work. Right now giving this talk, if I say, ”I”m going to do my sitting practice. Everybody shut up!”, you know it”s not the right time and place. But when I get down from here and go back to my meditation mat, it might be a good thing to do, to be aware of the physical sensations or the tensions or the breath, without judging or criticising, but just noticing, ”It”s like this”, accepting, allowing things to be what they are, rather than always trying to cha…

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