Regular events

Sangha night

"Awareness is Revolutionary" series - Awareness of conditioning

As we continue our exploration of awareness, we move to awareness of self - or at least an aspect of it. We are taught that our personal characteristics and ways of behaving are the result of a mix of nature and nurture - i.e. there is a component that is determined by genetics, and a component that is determined by our environment. There may be an element of truth in this, but it is very simplistic.

What Buddhism teaches us is that we are part of a flow of conditions, (our genetic codes and our upbringing are just two types), but that we also have the opportunity to choose how to respond to things - how we can, in effect, change the conditions. Part of this choosing involves being aware that there is a choice - we might call this consciousness or awareness more generally. Another part is being specifically aware of how our environment has trained us into a certain way of thinking or acting. In other words, we need to be able to become aware of our conditioning.

For the most part, we can lead our lives being completely unaware of this. We can see the world through our conditioned eyes, and believe this to be reality. And in many ways, it makes sense for this to be the case, in order for us to function, as individuals and participants in society. But if we look carefully at some of our attitudes, our responses, we can see that our views and beliefs - what we have always taken as being real - are in fact misguided approximations that just make life easy for us.

We are especially prone to this if we live in a privileged world, and tonight Sthiraratna looks at examples, and how it can be helpful if we dig into our conditioning to identify unskillful behaviours that may not be helpful, or even ethical. So join Sthiraratna and the Sangha night team, as we continue our exploration of awareness in the Buddhist context.

Wednesday nights are a place for people to come together and celebrate community, deepen their knowledge of Buddhism, and their understanding of how to practice it. They are designed for those who have been coming to the centre for a little while. If you have had minimal contact with us, you are best to attend our Intro courses on Tuesday evenings first.

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