Buddhism teaches us to solve world problems through our wisdom and compassion. Hatred doesn’t lead to peace, violence doesn’t lead to peace. This talk is about the mundane and the super mundane, the world and what lies beyond. It explores what real freedom is and what the fake freedom is. Meditation helps us to feel life more deeply, to understand it instead of describing it in words. Books, discussions, and descriptions of life only serve to make us spiritually hungry. In the practice of meditation, quietness leads to the discovery of the supramundane. When you let go of the past and future and enter the present moment, the cosmos also stands still and you can feel deep ecstasies. The Buddha talked about bliss, the citta, and the supramundane. He said that when you go into deep meditation, you go to a world beyond sight, beyond sound, beyond smell, beyond taste, and beyond physical touch. This is the stairway which leads you out of the mundane and into the super mundane. Once you’ve climbed up that pyramid, the world looks completely different and feels just nothing like the way it does in the world.

—

This dhamma talk was originally recorded using a low quality MP3 to save on file size (because internet connections were slow back then – remember dialup?) on 10th January 2003. It has now been remastered and published by the Everyday Dhamma Network, and will be of interest to his many fans.

These talks by Ajahn Brahm have been recorded and made available for free distribution by the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. You can support the Buddhist Society of Western Australia by pledging your support via their Patreon page.