In a continuation of the previous talk, ‘The Burden of Life,’ Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu goes into more detail on how life is this burden, how life is our problem. He points out that if we look carefully we’ll see that there are two kinds of life – pure life and burdened life – with pure life having just nāma (mind) and rūpa (body) while the burdened life has the addition of attā (soul). He explains how this extra thing – the soul – is an illusion buried deeply in the mind. He notes that it’s very difficult to pull this illusion out – very hard to uproot it – and tells us why. Next he details how we can free our life of this illusion, first asking us to start over again and take a fresh look at the soul and self to see what is really there.

This Dhamma teaching was offered by Tan Ajahn on 3rd December 1986.
Live English translation by Santikaro Bhikkhu; 87 minutes

The Five Khandhas series:

8612 – [1 of 6] The Burden of Life

8612 – [2 of 6] The Problem of Every One of Us

8612 – [3 of 6] TheThings Called ‘The Five Khandhas’

8612 – [4 of 6] TheThings Called ‘The Five Khandhas’ (continued)

8612 – [5 of 6] Originating Causes That Turn Life into Dukkha

8612 – [6 of 6] Fruits of Removing Self from the Five Khandhas