1 00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:06,840 OK, so let's start this evening's talk. 2 00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:09,760 It's going to be on the idea of freedom. 3 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:14,960 And the idea of freedom is a very important one on the 4 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:17,760 Buddhist path. Yeah, it's the kind of thing 5 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:21,000 that kind of goes throughout the suit as you hear about freedom 6 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,720 from the very beginning all the way to the very end of the path. 7 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:29,160 And you have important words in the suit as the normal word for 8 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:32,800 freedom is vimutti. Vimutti means like liberation of 9 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:34,960 freedom. And one of the important words 10 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:38,520 you find in the suit is the idea of Cheeto vimutti, which is like 11 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:41,680 the liberation of freedom of the mind. 12 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:44,160 Yes. So the idea that the mind gets 13 00:00:44,160 --> 00:00:47,440 liberated from something. Yeah, it's a very enticing and 14 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:50,560 beautiful concept in The Suitors. 15 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:54,960 But beyond the idea of Cheeto imuti, the freedom of the mind, 16 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:57,160 you also have the idea of Pandya Bimuti. 17 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:00,480 Pandya in The Suitors is the idea of wisdom. 18 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,480 That is the liberation by wisdom, liberation of mind, 19 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:09,120 liberation by wisdom, very beautiful ideas on the Buddhist 20 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:12,080 path. And so this is really what we 21 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:14,800 are aiming for in Buddhism. And it starts from the very 22 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:19,360 beginning and it kind of gradually develops as we go all 23 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:22,960 the way to the end of this training that we're trying to 24 00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:26,120 undertake here. But of course, the idea of 25 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:30,760 liberation also has a lot of ordinary connotations to us. 26 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:34,600 Yeah. If you are lip free in in 27 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:37,760 ordinary society, it means that you are not in jail. 28 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:39,760 Yeah. Being in jail is considered a 29 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:42,600 bad thing, except if you're a monk, maybe. 30 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:44,560 Adam Bram says being in jail is a good thing. 31 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:47,120 Yeah, you know, because you get left in peace, right? 32 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:48,600 In jail, you just hang out in your cell. 33 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,400 You don't do anything here. Adam Bram says he would prefer 34 00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:54,480 solitary confinement in jail. That would be the ideal place 35 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:57,600 for the Buddhist. It's kind of weird, isn't it, 36 00:01:57,600 --> 00:01:59,080 how you. It's all about whether you want 37 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:01,360 to be there or not, whether something is a jail for you or 38 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:04,200 prison for you. So prison is like, bad. 39 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:06,600 Why is it bad? Because you can't do what you 40 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:09,039 want. You can't express yourself in 41 00:02:09,039 --> 00:02:10,680 the way you want to express yourself. 42 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:14,360 You are limited. You are hind in the world is no 43 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:17,280 longer your oyster. You can't do what you want in 44 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:19,080 the world anymore. Yeah. 45 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:24,760 So imprisonment, the opposite of freedom, is a big problem even 46 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:27,240 from a ordinary social point of view. 47 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:30,960 But of course, from a Buddhist point of view, the real prisoner 48 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:36,240 is not the prison of steel bars and concrete and high security 49 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:38,560 locks and prison wardens or whatever it is. 50 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:41,960 That is not the real prisoner. From the Buddhist point of view, 51 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,240 the real prison is a prison of the mind. 52 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:48,360 It's the prison that almost everyone is in at all times. 53 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:51,640 You know, you get born into this world, you are in prison 54 00:02:51,640 --> 00:02:55,520 straight away, and then that prison remains with you for your 55 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:58,120 entire life unless you do something about it, unless you 56 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:01,920 release yourself from that prison of the mind, the mental 57 00:03:01,920 --> 00:03:04,000 prisoner. That is the real problem. 58 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:07,480 The way we limit ourselves, the way we look for happiness in the 59 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:10,920 wrong place, the ways where I deluded about the nature of 60 00:03:10,920 --> 00:03:15,240 reality, the way we kind of create suffering when actually 61 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:18,000 what we really want to do is to create happiness for ourselves. 62 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:23,720 That is the problem there. So just to backtrack a little 63 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:27,120 bit, I was recently in the United States. 64 00:03:27,640 --> 00:03:31,120 I was travelling across the US starting in San Francisco, going 65 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:33,920 all the way over to New York and Boston and stopping in a few 66 00:03:33,920 --> 00:03:38,760 places in between. And one of the nice things about 67 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:41,760 travelling as a monastic is that there's a number. 68 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:44,480 I mean, obviously the main reason you go is to teach. 69 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:45,840 Yeah. And it's, it's always nice to 70 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:47,560 teach Duma wherever you go in the world. 71 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:51,080 And, you know, people always get inspired and they always invite 72 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:52,960 you back again. That's the biggest problem when 73 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:54,520 you travel. You always have to go back again 74 00:03:54,520 --> 00:03:56,600 afterwards. That's why you never see us here 75 00:03:56,600 --> 00:04:00,360 in in Australia because there's too much demand everywhere. 76 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:04,000 But so that's one of the, of course, one of the main reasons 77 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:04,840 for travelling. Yeah. 78 00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:08,880 But one of the great reasons for travelling is that it gives you 79 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:13,680 new impulses as a monastic. Yeah, the Dhamma is always the 80 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:19,000 same, but every society has its idiosyncrasies and it looks at 81 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,040 the dumb or ask questions that are slightly different wherever 82 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:24,480 you go in the world there. So whenever you go to a new 83 00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:27,760 place, and this was my first time in the United States, you 84 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:30,200 kind of get asked slightly different questions because of 85 00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:33,240 the nature of that particular society here. 86 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:38,160 So when I was in Minnesota, yeah, Minnesota, a very cold 87 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:39,520 place. I was in February, it was 88 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:41,720 freezing cold. I have no idea how cold it was 89 00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:44,640 over there -26° when I was there here. 90 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:47,880 Has anyone ever here been to -26°? 91 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:53,960 No, OK, you, well, you, I wouldn't recommend it, but so I 92 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:57,280 was there and it was, you know, it's kind of cool because I have 93 00:04:57,280 --> 00:04:59,000 a Norwegian background in Minnesota. 94 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:01,040 All the Norwegians, Scandinavians kind of went to 95 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:02,640 the US. So kind of all these people 96 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:05,040 thought it was really cool. Like the Norwegian monk was 97 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:09,640 coming to Minnesota. So it was kind of nice, but the 98 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:13,920 talk that they asked me to give in Minnesota was about 99 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:18,800 constitutional freedoms versus Buddhist freedoms. 100 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:21,480 Yeah. And I never really thought about 101 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:24,600 that before because of course, in the United States, the idea 102 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:29,400 of constitutional freedoms are very important and significant. 103 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:32,600 One of the things they proud themselves of in the US is the 104 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:36,760 the American Constitution, which lays that lays down the kind of 105 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:40,880 basic ideas for the American Society, the foundations for 106 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:43,960 that society. And so they wanted me to talk 107 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:47,320 about, well, what about this freedom is in American Society 108 00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:51,600 versus the Buddhist way of thinking about freedom there and 109 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:53,400 gives a different angle on things. 110 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:57,280 And of course, one of the interesting things in the 111 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:01,920 American Constitution, in the preamble to the American 112 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:07,760 Constitution, it starts off by talking of life, liberty and the 113 00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:10,480 pursuit of happiness. Yeah. 114 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:13,080 You know, remember that this kind of one of the kind of 115 00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:15,920 famous lines from the American Constitution, they had life, 116 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:17,520 Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 117 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:20,280 And one of the reasons I remember that is because when I 118 00:06:20,280 --> 00:06:23,760 grew up in England, back in I was partly in England back in 119 00:06:23,760 --> 00:06:28,280 the 1980s or whatever it was, there was AI think it a a 120 00:06:28,280 --> 00:06:32,160 commercial on TV that was kind of the life liberty and Wrangler 121 00:06:32,160 --> 00:06:35,160 jeans. I never forgot it after that. 122 00:06:35,160 --> 00:06:38,120 Yeah. Like the pursuit of happiness 123 00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:40,600 was Wrangler jeans. So. 124 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:43,080 And that is kind of a, it's a nice thing. 125 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:45,040 Yeah. Life, liberty and the pursuit of 126 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:47,000 happiness, it kind of makes good sense. 127 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:50,520 We can see why that is a positive sentiment. 128 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:52,560 Yeah. Life sounds good. 129 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:53,840 Yeah. We don't want to kind of people 130 00:06:53,840 --> 00:06:55,680 to kill us. Or maybe we do. 131 00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:56,840 I don't know. But usually we don't. 132 00:06:56,840 --> 00:06:59,160 And then you have liberty. Yeah. 133 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:02,080 Liberty is nice, especially if you understand what it means. 134 00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:04,040 Of course, most people have no idea what it means. 135 00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:06,320 But anyway, this kind of general idea is nice. 136 00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:08,080 And then the pursuit of happiness. 137 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:08,880 Yeah. Makes sense. 138 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:13,160 But when you think about it, yeah, life, liberty and the 139 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:16,800 pursuit of happiness, this was so fun because fun to when you 140 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:19,080 go travel around, you have to have a bit of fun, right? 141 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:21,800 So it's kind of making fun of the American Constitution with 142 00:07:21,800 --> 00:07:23,720 the Americans. It's always kind of you have to 143 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:25,400 have a bit of fun and games with people. 144 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:27,680 So I said there was a problem with this. 145 00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:30,840 Yeah, it sounds really nice. The sentiment is good. 146 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:35,520 There's a foundation fundamental problem with the entire American 147 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:37,480 Constitution. You got to change it. 148 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:39,560 Yeah, it doesn't work, This Constitution. 149 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:43,280 That was kind of my point. And I said the problem with this 150 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:49,480 Constitution is that to be able to pursue happiness, what do you 151 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:53,480 need to be able to pursue happiness? 152 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:55,360 You have to know where to find happiness. 153 00:07:55,960 --> 00:07:57,720 You have to know the meaning of happiness. 154 00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:00,240 You have to understand what it is all about. 155 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:03,520 If you don't know where to find happiness, how can you possibly 156 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:06,560 pursue it? So I said to my audience, well, 157 00:08:06,560 --> 00:08:09,320 Buddhism can help you with that. So we'll give you a few 158 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:12,840 paragraphs, Buddhist paragraphs, and you can insert those in your 159 00:08:12,840 --> 00:08:15,040 American constitution, and then you have a good constitution 160 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:19,840 over here. And people, they kind of laugh. 161 00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:21,560 I'm not sure if they were all that impressed, but they kind of 162 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:23,480 laughed at it because they thought it was a bit outrageous. 163 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:24,840 That would be really nice, right? 164 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:27,880 Sometimes we need to combine some of our nice worldly 165 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:30,480 sentiments with a few spiritual ideas. 166 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:33,919 And when we combine them in that way, actually that is where they 167 00:08:33,919 --> 00:08:35,600 start to become really meaningful here. 168 00:08:36,039 --> 00:08:39,520 Because of course, the reality is that most people, they go 169 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:43,919 into the world and they start to pursue this idea of happiness. 170 00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:46,880 The liberty is there, yet that means they are allowed to pursue 171 00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:49,040 it. The reality is they tend to look 172 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:51,760 in the wrong place. And of course, in America, the 173 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:55,320 idea of the pursuit of happiness is the idea of getting away from 174 00:08:55,320 --> 00:08:57,920 the country that you were in. Maybe you were oppressed in that 175 00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:02,040 country, maybe you're not happy or whatever, and you pursue the 176 00:09:02,040 --> 00:09:04,520 ordinary happinesses of the world. 177 00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:07,720 Yeah, that is actually what you have, the liberty to pursue her. 178 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:11,200 But actually, from a Buddhist point of view, it is not very 179 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:13,240 profound. It doesn't get you very far. 180 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:16,080 It gets you where it gets everyone else. 181 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:17,760 Yeah, it gets you to the grave eventually. 182 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:20,000 And then you kind of wonder what it was all about. 183 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,560 And that's kind of the end of the story, Not all that 184 00:09:22,560 --> 00:09:23,360 exciting. Yeah. 185 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:27,400 So there is a fundamental problem there with this idea of 186 00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:31,320 liberty in the world or the idea of happiness as well. 187 00:09:31,880 --> 00:09:37,360 So to really have freedom, you have to really to really be able 188 00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:40,000 to use freedom, we have to have some understanding of the 189 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:43,360 underlying idea. So what happened is, is what 190 00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:45,960 actually the pursuit of these things really is about. 191 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:49,640 And if we get it all wrong, then it's going to be problematic. 192 00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:55,120 Now, one of the aspects also of the American Constitution is the 193 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:57,840 idea you have the freedom of speech, you have the freedom of 194 00:09:57,840 --> 00:10:00,800 assembly, the freedom of the press and all of these kind of 195 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:03,960 things. And these are all nice things. 196 00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:05,440 Yeah. And these are things that the 197 00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:08,720 the Americans will pride themselves on, that they have 198 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:12,480 this kind of liberties and freedoms in their Constitution. 199 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:15,720 Yeah, I kind of felt it put into the Constitution as one of the 200 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:19,280 fundamental things. And I think it's OK to be proud 201 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:19,840 of that. Yeah. 202 00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:22,720 These are good things. These are things that keep our 203 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:25,280 society in change. To keep a balance in society 204 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:28,120 doesn't allow people to get too much power, which is always a 205 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:29,080 dangerous thing. Yeah. 206 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:32,960 So there are good things, yeah. But the problem, one of the 207 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:35,720 interesting things, of course, that once you start to look a 208 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:39,800 little bit at the Buddhist history, you start to realise 209 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:44,920 that many of these fundamental rights that people had today, 210 00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:49,360 one of the rights also as active freedom of religion, many of 211 00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:52,760 these things existed already 2 1/2 thousand years ago. 212 00:10:53,680 --> 00:10:59,600 Yeah, we pride, pride ourselves on these ideas that that kind of 213 00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:04,720 our society is very advanced and very, you know, evolved from the 214 00:11:04,720 --> 00:11:07,600 kind of early days. But very often you've had these 215 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:11,160 ideas and not really ideas that belong to the present day here. 216 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:15,200 These are perennial ideas, ideas that have always been around, 217 00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:17,120 always been there in society here. 218 00:11:17,560 --> 00:11:20,320 And I'm sure if you would be able to look into the really 219 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:24,080 deep past, almost regardless of how far you went into the past, 220 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:28,280 if you went into your past lives eons, maybe into the past, you 221 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:31,800 will see the same ideas recurring again and again and 222 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:33,720 again. And there's nothing really all 223 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:36,920 that unique about the society we have today, I would think. 224 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:40,640 And when you even, all you have to do is go back to Indian 225 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:43,800 society and you start to look at that society, you find 226 00:11:43,800 --> 00:11:48,680 democracy, You find a very high degree of freedom of religion. 227 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:51,880 Yeah, it's kind of amazing when you start reading the suitors, 228 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:55,080 you start to see the suitors of the discourse of the Buddha. 229 00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:58,720 You start to see all the debates that we're having in those days, 230 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:02,120 all the kind of crazy religious ideas they had. 231 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:06,320 It makes our days insane by comparison to some of the ideas 232 00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:08,760 they had in those days. And you might think there are 233 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:10,720 some religious scallywags out there today. 234 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:13,840 There were equally many religious scallywags at the time 235 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:15,760 of the Buddha. Yeah, There were lots of them 236 00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:18,600 hanging around saying all kind of mad things in those things as 237 00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:22,440 well here. So there was this beautiful kind 238 00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:26,720 of rainbow of religions. Yeah. 239 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:29,520 All of them kind of arguing with each other, discussing with each 240 00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:31,200 other. And this is one of those 241 00:12:31,200 --> 00:12:33,760 beautiful things about the Indian culture here. 242 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:38,840 I don't know if you've been to India, but I I find India very 243 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:39,760 fascinating. Yeah. 244 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:42,080 You have kind of a love hate relationship with India. 245 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:46,320 It's a very fascinating society because of its religious nature. 246 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:46,880 Yeah. Yeah. 247 00:12:46,880 --> 00:12:49,240 So many religious people. And of course, as a Buddhist, 248 00:12:49,240 --> 00:12:52,280 when you go to India, it is almost as if you're stepping 249 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:55,920 back into history here, seeing some of those beautiful ancient 250 00:12:55,920 --> 00:12:58,720 sites where the Buddha was, where the great Arahans was, 251 00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:01,840 where the Bikanese Arahans of the old days were here. 252 00:13:02,280 --> 00:13:03,960 Yeah. And you go back to those places 253 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:07,240 and you actually know it is the place because it looks exactly 254 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:09,840 the same way as it was described in the suitors. 255 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:12,280 Some of the details are exactly the same. 256 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:13,480 Yeah. It's a remarkable thing. 257 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:15,640 Yeah. And you go there and you feel 258 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:18,680 the sense of weird sense of belonging when you go there. 259 00:13:18,680 --> 00:13:22,400 That's what I feel there. And I'm pretty sure when I look 260 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:25,040 at my life now and I look at kind of the web, what the things 261 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:28,840 I enjoy and the things I do in my life, I'm pretty sure I was 262 00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:32,360 an Indian in a past life. There's so many things about 263 00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:35,920 India that I kind of just adore. I think it's a so many things I 264 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:38,320 hate about India as well. Don't say that, but that's 265 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:41,360 actually true. But many wonderful things about 266 00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:43,880 India here, which are really kind of, you know, 267 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:45,840 extraordinary, especially if you are a Buddhist. 268 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:50,040 And it would be surprising if many of us here had not been 269 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:51,920 Indian in the past life. Yeah. 270 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:54,200 India is a place where lots of people. 271 00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:57,680 India is a place where the Buddhism was extremely strong 272 00:13:57,680 --> 00:14:01,400 for 1 1/2 thousand years. So of course it is likely that 273 00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:04,360 we were part of that culture anyway. 274 00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:06,280 So. But India is fascinating and it 275 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:11,040 shows you when you look sometimes at how those societies 276 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:14,760 worked already 2 1/2 thousand years ago, you start to realise 277 00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:18,640 that our society today is not all that special, it's not all 278 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:22,160 that unique. Yeah, these ideas that we have 279 00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:25,400 now of liberty and freedom in our society have actually 280 00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:27,560 existed for a very, very long time. 281 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:33,920 But coming back to the idea of freedom again there, let us 282 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:37,000 start with a simple idea of morality here. 283 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:40,520 Now I'm going to have a look at the ideas, how it is that the 284 00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:43,720 Buddhism presents the ideas of freedom here. 285 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:47,320 And one of the things that I think is often misunderstood in 286 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:51,840 our world there many people think that the ideas of morality 287 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:56,160 are hindrances to freedom. The hammers in that put 288 00:14:56,160 --> 00:15:00,040 boundaries on what we can do and we cannot really enjoy ourselves 289 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:01,840 in the world to the full potential there. 290 00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:04,560 Why? Because morality sets limits on 291 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:05,560 us. Yeah. 292 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:08,880 And for that reason, you will find that there are many 293 00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:12,720 societies in the world and many kind of maybe not societies, but 294 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:19,360 and groups of individuals who decide to live amoral lives, not 295 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:23,080 really taking morality into account, not making an important 296 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:24,920 part of their life. But why? 297 00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:27,440 Because they see it as a hindrance to expression here. 298 00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:30,240 But that is a misunderstanding of the idea. 299 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:34,560 Morality here, morality, if you live it in the right way, is 300 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:38,280 actually an expansion of your freedom, an expansion of your 301 00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:43,320 sense of liberty within her. Yeah. 302 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:46,640 And this is such an important thing to understand because when 303 00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:50,160 you live a moral life, something very powerful happens inside of 304 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:51,520 you. What happens? 305 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:54,800 You start to feel a sense of self respect because you're 306 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:58,440 treating other people well. You start to feel good about 307 00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:00,880 yourself because you know that you're living a good life, 308 00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:03,800 especially when you really try to perfect that virtue and 309 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:06,760 morality. You feel a sense of self value, 310 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:10,000 a self esteem. You don't have any remorse or 311 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:13,280 regrets about the past. You don't have the darkness of 312 00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:17,000 the mind or the sloth of the mind because you've done bad 313 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:19,480 things before or you've done maybe a few bad things, but 314 00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:21,440 generally speaking, you live a good life. 315 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:25,920 And that liberty that comes in the mind, that is a function of 316 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:32,440 that, that is far more important than the kind of liberty that 317 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:34,640 you get outside. It's the mental liberty that 318 00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:38,800 really matters in the world, not the external liberty of enjoying 319 00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:41,840 the senses or enjoying power or enjoying these kind of things. 320 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:45,640 And I really recommend you to notice that because that is such 321 00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:49,240 a beautiful freedom of the mind. Not having the remorse, not 322 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:52,360 having the negativity speaking to you all the time and making 323 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:55,560 your life difficult. And many people who complain 324 00:16:55,560 --> 00:17:00,280 about lack of self worth or self value in this world, well, if 325 00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:04,640 you would really want to, to emphasize or to increase your 326 00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:08,599 sense of self worth, this is one of the most important places 327 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:11,839 where you actually create that self worth for yourself. 328 00:17:12,319 --> 00:17:14,240 You really start to feel good about yourself. 329 00:17:14,599 --> 00:17:17,040 You don't care so much about what other people think about 330 00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:19,200 you. This is like a disease in our 331 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:21,560 world, always caring about what other people think. 332 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:23,760 Who cares what other people think, right? 333 00:17:24,319 --> 00:17:28,160 What do they know anyway? It's weird how often we kind of 334 00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:31,680 we buy into praise. We buy into the praise of people 335 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:34,440 who haven't got a clue about what is praiseworthy here. 336 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:36,520 Why do we care about other people's praise? 337 00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:40,600 If the Buddha praises you, OK, then you have good reason to 338 00:17:40,600 --> 00:17:42,880 care about it. But otherwise, forget about 339 00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:45,560 other people's praise. Feel good in your heart because 340 00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:48,240 you know for yourself that you are a good person. 341 00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:51,160 That is the first liberty of morality here. 342 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:54,560 And there is a nice story that goes with this. 343 00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:57,360 I don't know if you have heard that story. 344 00:17:57,360 --> 00:17:59,880 Ajam Brahm sometimes tells it. Actually there's an Ajam Brahm 345 00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:02,920 story. I only retell Ajam Brahm story. 346 00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:04,880 That's kind of my, that's how I get by. 347 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:06,800 And I give this down my talks. I just think what will Ajam 348 00:18:06,800 --> 00:18:08,200 Brahm say? OK, he will tell this story. 349 00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:09,560 OK, I'm going to tell that story. 350 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:13,680 And this is a story of from Thailand, from Ajam Brahm's 351 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:17,240 early days in Thailand here. And it's a story of two very 352 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:21,200 senior Thai monks. And they were invited to a 353 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:23,440 dhana. Dhana is like a meal offering at 354 00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:26,560 someone's house usually. So they were invited to this 355 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:30,120 dhana and they went there. And this was a very wealthy 356 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:33,440 people living in this house. This is now a long time ago. 357 00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:34,960 Yeah. This was probably in Bangkok 358 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:38,720 back in the 1970s or 80s or something like that. 359 00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:40,400 I can't, not sure exactly when it was. 360 00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:43,880 So they get to this house, they sit down and they get, you know, 361 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:45,640 treated. They get a kind of have a nice 362 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:48,400 meal or whatever. And after the meal they start to 363 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:51,640 talk to each other. And as they talk, there is a 364 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:56,480 large aquarium. Yeah, fish tank in that house. 365 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:01,040 And so one of the monks says to the other one, it's terrible 366 00:19:01,360 --> 00:19:04,320 they're keeping all this fish imprisoned in a fish tank. 367 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:06,640 Yeah, just for their own enjoyment, so they can kind of 368 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:09,880 enjoy the fish swimming around. It's just entertainment, 369 00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:13,080 Entertainment for them while torturing the fish in the 370 00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:15,320 process. How can they do that? 371 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:16,960 This is bad morality. Yeah. 372 00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:19,560 They're doing immoral stuff by torturing these fish in the 373 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:22,160 house. They should be free to swim in 374 00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:24,760 the rivers, to enjoy themselves and do whatever they want in the 375 00:19:24,760 --> 00:19:28,280 world. And then the other monk, he 376 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:32,040 says, but wait a minute. Yeah, he says, wait a minute. 377 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:36,560 Because actually, when you look at those fish in the fish tank 378 00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:41,600 right here, they have many, many advantages over the fish in the 379 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:44,600 rivers. First of all, there are no 380 00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:47,840 predators, right? The fish in the river always 381 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:49,280 have to look over their shoulder. 382 00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:53,520 Do they actually not sure fish have shoulders. 383 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:55,800 But anyway, you they had to kind of look behind them, right? 384 00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:59,720 Because a bit kind of scary, the fishy shoulder that they always 385 00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:01,840 had to be frightened, right, Because there's always kind of 386 00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:07,600 larger predators around there or the water in the river is never 387 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:09,960 really controlled. In part of the year it is too 388 00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:11,920 hot. Part of the year it is too cold. 389 00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:13,840 Yeah. Always problematic with the 390 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:15,600 change in temperature in the water. 391 00:20:16,120 --> 00:20:19,040 Sometimes there is food in the river, sometimes there is no 392 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:22,120 food in that river. Sometimes the river dries out. 393 00:20:22,120 --> 00:20:23,720 There's only little puddles left. 394 00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:26,040 Yeah, and maybe they die in that little puddle. 395 00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:30,840 But these fish in the fish tank, Yeah, They always have the right 396 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:33,560 temperature of the water, controlled by the owner to be 397 00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:37,040 perfect for that fish. Always give them nice and 398 00:20:37,120 --> 00:20:38,920 nutritious food. Yes, they kind of. 399 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:40,960 Sometimes they become a little bit too fat, maybe, But 400 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:43,120 otherwise they are healthy and nice right there. 401 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:45,880 There's no predators in that tank. 402 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:48,840 If they get sick, they call them the fish doctor. 403 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:53,040 I'm sure there must be fish doctors out there. 404 00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:55,280 There's doctors of all kinds. I'm sure there's fish doctors as 405 00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:57,120 well. They call in the fish doctor to 406 00:20:57,120 --> 00:20:58,720 look after them. Yeah. 407 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:00,680 So they have this kind of perfect set up. 408 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:04,640 So who is worse off? Is it the ones who are limited a 409 00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:07,400 little bit by the fish tank four sides? 410 00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:10,240 Are they worse off because they have all these other things? 411 00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:13,000 Or is it those who are free to do whatever they want, but 412 00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:15,360 actually they have all these problems because of that? 413 00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:18,560 And then the other monkey kind of agreed. 414 00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:22,120 Yeah, you have a point. Yeah, actually, maybe the fish 415 00:21:22,120 --> 00:21:26,080 in the fish tank are better off. And in the same way we are 416 00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:31,360 better off by walling in, putting limits on our desires, 417 00:21:31,360 --> 00:21:35,920 limits on our angry limits on our stupidity and delusion, 418 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:37,760 right. Putting some limits because we 419 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:39,800 are deluded. We don't really understand the 420 00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:42,720 world properly here, and we put limits on that. 421 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:47,800 Then we experience a freedom that is far more valuable than 422 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:50,400 the freedom to just mess around in the world there. 423 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:54,600 And this is exactly the beginning of this beautiful 424 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:57,080 saying by Ajam Brahm. This was coined by Ajam Brahm. 425 00:21:57,080 --> 00:22:01,160 I think the idea, the difference between the freedom of desire 426 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:05,880 versus the freedom from desire, yeah, you're moving a little bit 427 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:08,320 away from desire. It's more like freedom from 428 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:10,320 desire to some extent that you're finding here. 429 00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:13,200 Whereas the freedom of desire, the pursuit of things, 430 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:17,640 regardless of the morality you might breach as a consequence, 431 00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:21,920 that is a crazy kind of desire only going to let you down all 432 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:26,760 the way here. So this is how you start to 433 00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:28,280 reflect. Yeah. 434 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:30,800 And this is kind of the advantage of coming into 435 00:22:32,120 --> 00:22:35,560 listening to Buddhist ideas, coming into contact with 436 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:38,840 Buddhism because they allows you a new way of looking at the 437 00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:41,360 world. Large part of the world doesn't 438 00:22:41,360 --> 00:22:44,960 even understand such a basic idea that morality is a positive 439 00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:46,880 thing here. And the reason they don't 440 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:49,920 understand it is because they haven't got access to spiritual 441 00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:52,160 teachings that point them in that direction here. 442 00:22:52,920 --> 00:22:56,600 Once you have that access, once you get a degree of faith and 443 00:22:56,600 --> 00:23:00,560 confidence in this Buddhist teachings, it opens your eyes to 444 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:03,760 a new world, a new reality. And this is what this really is 445 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:08,560 about. What about other problems with 446 00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:12,520 freedom? One of the problems with 447 00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:16,160 freedom, one of the kind of things that we need to look at 448 00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:19,160 is, well, what about this idea of free will? 449 00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:21,680 How much free will do we have? Is there really such a thing as 450 00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:24,120 free will? And one of the interesting 451 00:23:24,120 --> 00:23:27,280 things to look at in your life is to look at your habits. 452 00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:30,200 And you start to look very closely. 453 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:33,440 You start to see that we are very habitual beings. 454 00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:35,560 We do things according to habits. 455 00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:37,720 Yeah. And I always like to think of 456 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:40,040 myself born in Norway. You were surprised. 457 00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:41,720 The kind of things I eat in Norway. 458 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:43,600 Here, you'd probably be disgusted. 459 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:46,520 Yeah. We eat things like pickled 460 00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:47,520 herrings. Yeah. 461 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:51,240 We look like fish. That has been has been kind of 462 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:53,880 lying in lie. Yeah. 463 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:57,040 In alkaline solution. It's transparent, like Jelly. 464 00:23:57,200 --> 00:23:59,520 It tastes like nothing. It's just kind of this weird 465 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:01,480 stuff. And you would be absolutely 466 00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:02,680 disgusted if you saw these things. 467 00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:04,200 Well, as I kind of lap it up, yeah. 468 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:06,160 Wow. This is the real delicacies. 469 00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:09,560 And the difference is what, 1 of conditioning. 470 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:09,960 Yeah. Yeah. 471 00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:13,120 Nothing more than that. We're such conditioned beings, 472 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:16,600 and if you start to look at your life, the things that you like, 473 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:19,840 the things that you want to do in your life, how your mind 474 00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:22,240 works, the people you want to be around, the religion that you 475 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,160 choose, the work you're into, all the other things that make 476 00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:27,240 up your life. And you start to look back at 477 00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:29,720 the cause and conditions that make these things. 478 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,120 You start to see the habits in action in your life. 479 00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:37,760 That was very interesting when I was in the US, coming back to 480 00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:40,000 the trip to the US again, because you get some new 481 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:43,480 impulses when you go to a new place, as I said before. 482 00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:47,000 So I was in Minneapolis, in Minnesota, pretty much the 483 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:50,200 coldest place in the US, Doesn't get much colder than that in the 484 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:52,280 US. And when I was there, it was 485 00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:57,160 -26° I was there in my sandals, no socks. 486 00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:00,320 Yeah, the sandals. I was out for maximum 30 seconds 487 00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:04,760 because of that. And it reminded me of kind of my 488 00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:07,400 upbringing in Norway because it got really cold in Norway as 489 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:10,320 well. And but it's so weird, though, 490 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:12,920 what kind of really kind of shocks you when you go there. 491 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:16,640 Is that these Norwegians? Yeah, come from one of the 492 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:18,320 coldest places in the world there. 493 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:19,920 Yeah. The coldest place. 494 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,400 Coldest time in Norway. I was was -41°. 495 00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:25,480 That was the coldest. And that was really, really 496 00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:27,400 cold. We can barely breathe that -41 497 00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:34,200 really, really kind of terrible. And so -41 yeah. 498 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:36,760 So these Norwegians come from one of the coldest places in the 499 00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,560 world. They travel kind of way, way 500 00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:42,000 across the world, thousands of kilometres away. 501 00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:44,960 Where do they go? The coldest place in that new 502 00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:48,200 country here. Isn't that weird? 503 00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:50,760 Isn't that kind of straight? How many habits are putting? 504 00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:52,120 Go to Florida, for goodness sake. 505 00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:54,680 Go to California. Go to Arizona, whatever. 506 00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:59,280 Go to a hot place. Don't go to blooming Minnesota. 507 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:03,160 But of course, when you understand the human mind, you 508 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,560 understand why that is the case. Yeah. 509 00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:08,880 It is about habit. It's about identity, it's about 510 00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:11,880 feeling sense of belonging. These things are far more 511 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:14,640 important than kind of the temperature around you. 512 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:17,720 And if there's no reasons that were used to very low 513 00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:20,440 temperatures, used to snow, used all these kind of things, if 514 00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:24,160 they went to Florida, they would probably the the sense of 515 00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:25,960 identity would dissolve. Yeah. 516 00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:28,240 We can't hang out with alligators in Florida. 517 00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:29,920 That doesn't make any sense. Yeah. 518 00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:33,680 How is that possible? So they go to the place where 519 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:37,600 they feel at ease because the identity is attached to the 520 00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:40,880 cold, attached to the snow, attached to hard work. 521 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:42,960 You have to work really hard when it's so cold, otherwise you 522 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,360 freeze to death and these kind of things. 523 00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:49,120 So that is why you go there. That is one of the main reasons 524 00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:56,440 why we're creatures of habit, because it it indulges our sense 525 00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:59,040 of self. Our sense of self demands that 526 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:03,720 kind of continuity, kind of consistency in our life. 527 00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:07,680 Yeah, this is kind of scary when I start to see that This is why 528 00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:11,360 we do the same things again and again and again, never really 529 00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:13,400 changing all that much. If we change it maybe a little 530 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:16,600 bit, but not too much, because otherwise you start to feel that 531 00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:18,240 your sense of self is threatened. 532 00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:24,080 So this is the idea that we are very strongly conditioned and 533 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:26,960 there isn't really such a big problem, right? 534 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:30,120 OK, So what if it can be a problem if you're conditioned in 535 00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:32,080 the wrong way? So you kind of you, you know, 536 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:35,120 believe in the wrong teachings or you believe in bad things, 537 00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:37,600 yes, then the conditioning can be really bad. 538 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:41,400 But the fact that whether you like, you know, Australian food, 539 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:46,360 you know, Thai food and Chinese food, French food, Norwegian 540 00:27:46,360 --> 00:27:49,880 fish, whatever it is, whatever it is that you, that is not so 541 00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:51,200 important. It doesn't really matter all 542 00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:52,960 that much. But the point is not so much 543 00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:55,200 what it is that you like or don't like. 544 00:27:55,840 --> 00:28:00,720 The point is the fact that you are trapped by that conditioning 545 00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:04,000 and that there is very little sense of free will there. 546 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:07,760 That is really the point. You start to really question the 547 00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:10,040 idea of free will. How much do you choose? 548 00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:13,200 And I think if you look at the Buddhist teachings in the right 549 00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:16,400 way, you start to understand that actually free will is 550 00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:19,520 mostly perhaps completely an illusion. 551 00:28:20,360 --> 00:28:23,000 It is a very powerful illusion. It feels like you have free 552 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:24,000 will. It feels like we're always 553 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,160 choosing A&B, right? It's a very powerful illusion. 554 00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:29,400 But is it really? Then I think the answer is 555 00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,080 probably no. And if there is something, it is 556 00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:36,480 a very, very attenuated and small minor aspect of our person 557 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:41,320 that is free in that way. And once you start to see that, 558 00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:46,000 it starts to become scary because there are things in life 559 00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,920 that are not innocent. And one of the thing that is not 560 00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:52,440 innocent is a thing like anger. Whether you like fish or you 561 00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:54,600 like, you know, potatoes or whatever, it doesn't really 562 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:56,520 matter so much. But when it comes to things like 563 00:28:56,520 --> 00:29:00,320 being angry and upset with the world, it has very detrimental 564 00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:02,080 effects on you and the people around you. 565 00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:07,440 That is where it is scary. But if I ask you to not get 566 00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,520 angry at all, not to get irritated at all, not to get 567 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:15,720 upset at all for the next week at all for one week, would you 568 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:19,440 be able to do it? I can almost guarantee you that 569 00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:20,720 you wouldn't. Yeah. 570 00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:23,440 If you can stay one day without getting irritated, that would be 571 00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:27,600 a miracle already. Most people get angry or upset 572 00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:29,800 or at least irritated several times a day. 573 00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:32,680 When we go through all the things that we have to do to 574 00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:35,160 stay for a whole week, you almost have to be enlightened. 575 00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:37,080 Yeah. To not be angry for a whole 576 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:37,560 week. Yeah. 577 00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,760 Or at least get very good samadhi, because it actually is 578 00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:42,880 very difficult thing to do for most people. 579 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:47,480 And when you see that, you see that you cannot even control 580 00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:50,040 your temper in this way. There's nothing you really you 581 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:52,840 can do about it. You start to understand what 582 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:54,720 that you are a bit like in machine. 583 00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:58,760 You get into the wrong situation, you come with, you 584 00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,160 hang out with the wrong people and certain things come out of 585 00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:05,400 you whether you want to or not. You can't really control it. 586 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,520 Or if you can control, maybe you can do it once or twice. 587 00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:10,480 Yeah. And then you feel exhausted and 588 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:14,520 then kind of it comes out again. And that is kind of the scary 589 00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:16,720 part. This is the conditioned nature 590 00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:19,480 of our reality. And we start to understand that 591 00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:23,200 if there is no will, I can actually sort these things out. 592 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,800 If will isn't free here, then we have a very serious problem. 593 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:30,680 We have to recondition ourselves very slowly and very gradually 594 00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:35,640 and then maybe we can escape these really big problems in our 595 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:39,360 human personalities, the anger, the delusion, the excessive 596 00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:40,920 greed, all of these kind of things. 597 00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:45,000 So habit is a very, very powerful thing here. 598 00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:48,880 I always talk about habits as a super tanker here, you know, 599 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:54,040 super tanker, the ship going down very, maybe 20 knots an 600 00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:57,800 hour or whatever, extremely heavy shape, very, very hard to 601 00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,240 turn around. But gradually, gradually you do 602 00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:03,880 turn it around and then it starts to, things become 603 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:06,520 different after a while there, but it's not something you can 604 00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:08,960 do on the spot. That is part of the problem 605 00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:11,840 there. So I say that there isn't really 606 00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:14,720 any free will in the world. If there is free will, it is 607 00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:17,040 very small. And if there isn't any free 608 00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:20,240 will, well, that kind of makes this whole idea of the pursuit 609 00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:23,680 of happiness, liberty look very different all of a sudden. 610 00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:28,680 And I want to then move onto this idea. 611 00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:33,080 Well, if there isn't any free will, what does liberty then 612 00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:34,840 mean? What does freedom mean if there 613 00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:37,720 is no free will? Because the answer this still is 614 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:40,200 a kind of freedom there. Yeah. 615 00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:44,520 But before we go there, before I even look at that to kind of 616 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:48,680 understand what this freedom means, let us assume for a 617 00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:52,840 moment that there is actually such a thing as freedom of will. 618 00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:56,880 Let's assume that you can choose whatever you like in this world. 619 00:31:57,240 --> 00:32:01,200 What does that actually mean? What you will start to realise 620 00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:02,680 when you look at it in the right way. 621 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:05,840 Actually, even if there is freedom of will, it doesn't 622 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:08,480 really mean all that much. It doesn't really have many 623 00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:12,680 positive consequences. What does freedom of the will 624 00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,280 mean for most people? Freedom of choice, and usually 625 00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:18,640 what it means, it means that in the morning when you wake up, 626 00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:22,000 you can choose whether you want this cereal or that cereal. 627 00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:23,960 Yeah. If you're really adventurous, 628 00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:25,760 maybe you have a croissant for breakfast. 629 00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:27,040 Yeah. I don't know if you have that, 630 00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:29,600 have that, or if you come here for breakfast. 631 00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:32,080 If you're a monkey, I'm not going to say what do you get for 632 00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:34,640 breakfast because you'll be so jealous if you heard jealous if 633 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:37,680 you have breakfast over here. But regardless of what you have 634 00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:39,880 for breakfast, Yeah. This is kind of the choices that 635 00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:43,160 we are dealing with in the normal realm of human beings. 636 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:45,760 You can choose job A or you can choose job B. 637 00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:48,520 Yeah, you can choose partner A or partner B here. 638 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:51,040 You can choose religion A or religion B here. 639 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:54,120 Religion B, always go for religion B, right? 640 00:32:55,960 --> 00:33:00,880 B for Buddhism, so and so. But these are the kind of 641 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:03,800 choices we make, and most of those choices are in the realm 642 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:07,400 of the five sentences. How much difference does it make 643 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:10,080 in your life whether you choose to have an apple or an orange, 644 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:14,280 whether you choose to have pickled herring or barramundi? 645 00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:16,440 Barramundi, that's kind of the local fish right there. 646 00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:17,640 I see. I know a little bit about 647 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:19,680 Australia. So barramundi or pickled 648 00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:22,080 herring, how much difference does it really make? 649 00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:26,240 And the answer is, it makes a tiny bit of difference in your 650 00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:29,320 life, but it doesn't really make all that much difference at all 651 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:32,360 there. The problem is, in our life, we 652 00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:35,720 don't understand where real happiness is to be found. 653 00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:39,200 That is the real problem. And because we don't understand 654 00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:41,640 where it is to be found, we can't choose it. 655 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:46,600 So if you have freedom of choice, but you don't know where 656 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:50,240 happiness is to be found, what is the point of that freedom of 657 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:52,480 choice? You can only choose within a 658 00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:56,120 very narrow framework of things that are really quite irrelevant 659 00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:59,320 to your happiness anyway. If you don't have the bird's eye 660 00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:02,680 view to understand real happiness where it actually is, 661 00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:06,240 there is nothing really useful about that freedom of choice. 662 00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:10,159 It becomes this stupid thing that has no relevance to your 663 00:34:10,159 --> 00:34:14,000 life. The biggest problem for freedom, 664 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:18,120 the biggest problem for liberty, the biggest problem for becoming 665 00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:22,639 happy, is the delusion, the misunderstanding, the wrong view 666 00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:25,960 of the nature of reality. That is the real problem. 667 00:34:27,159 --> 00:34:31,120 Once you start to open up the alternative view of the world, 668 00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:35,719 once you start to take away the delusion in human beings seeing 669 00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:39,280 the world in the right way, that is where you open up the 670 00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:42,560 possibility of real happiness, because now you're seeing the 671 00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:46,199 world in the right way. This is the problem for freedom. 672 00:34:46,639 --> 00:34:49,159 The problem for freedom is not whether there is free will or 673 00:34:49,159 --> 00:34:50,440 not. That's kind of completely 674 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:53,480 irrelevant. So what does this mean? 675 00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:59,000 All it means, as I said at the very beginning, when you come to 676 00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:02,160 this Buddhist teachings, you start to read the word of the 677 00:35:02,160 --> 00:35:05,360 Buddha, you start to think about life in a new way. 678 00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:08,400 The first thing you do is you start to realise that actually 679 00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:13,240 morality is actually really important for having a sense of 680 00:35:13,240 --> 00:35:16,680 internal freedom. Internal freedom cannot be had 681 00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:19,920 without morality, without kindness, without care, without 682 00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:21,840 looking after each other in the right way. 683 00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:24,160 There is no freedom without that. 684 00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:26,800 Morality is a fundamental aspect of the idea of freedom. 685 00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:29,680 You start to see that, you start to practice it, you start to 686 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:31,840 feel it, the consequences come out. 687 00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:35,120 But of course it goes much deeper than that. 688 00:35:35,720 --> 00:35:39,320 The Buddha says if you want real freedom, the real freedom is the 689 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:43,000 freedom of the mind. Where is that to be found? 690 00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:47,520 It is to be found in meditation practice, right? 691 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:52,280 You start to practice meditation, you start to feel 692 00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:56,080 that the mind settles down. You start to feel there's no 693 00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:58,080 more thinking going on in the mind. 694 00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:01,480 You start to feel that the body fades away a little bit. 695 00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:05,120 Yeah, no more pains in the body. The body is kind of irrelevant. 696 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:08,280 Your senses are becoming less important because you have your 697 00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:11,120 eyes closed. There's very few sounds going on 698 00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:14,200 around you, and you start to feel peaceful inside. 699 00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:18,360 What does that feel like? And it feels like a kind of 700 00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:20,880 freedom. You are free of many of the 701 00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:24,360 irritations of ordinary life. It feels beautiful. 702 00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:28,160 You start to realise that some of the ordinary thought patterns 703 00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:31,680 that we have, the ill will, the desires that we have, the 704 00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:35,840 restlessness in the mind, the tiredness, the lethargy, all of 705 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:39,120 these kind of things, they are not there anymore and you feel 706 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:41,960 free. As a consequence, you start to 707 00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:44,560 feel happiness, you start to feel bliss. 708 00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:49,360 You start to understand that an other reality is possible. 709 00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:53,160 This is what you see through the meditation because initially you 710 00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:55,920 just have a sense of confidence and faith in the word of the 711 00:36:55,920 --> 00:37:01,160 Buddha. Yeah, this is opens up your eyes 712 00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:04,480 to new reality. Now you can choose. 713 00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:08,080 Now you can choose because you now you know that there is no 714 00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:09,880 other reality. You know that there's something 715 00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:13,440 more in this world and there's the ordinary humdrum things of 716 00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:16,720 ordinary life that actually are not very interesting, actually 717 00:37:16,720 --> 00:37:19,880 quite boring, that are not really real choices at all 718 00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:22,760 there. So it opens up your eyes to new 719 00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:25,720 possibility. Now you can start to make real 720 00:37:25,720 --> 00:37:29,080 choices because you know about the alternatives that exist. 721 00:37:30,240 --> 00:37:34,040 The deeper you take your meditation, the more freedom you 722 00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:36,280 feel. The more you understand this 723 00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:40,120 alternative reality in the world, what actually can be done 724 00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:43,240 with our lives, where real freedom truly lies. 725 00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:48,520 Then you have those choices. Eventually you may reach a state 726 00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:52,840 of deep samadhi, deep stillness of the mind, the things that 727 00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:56,280 Ajam Brahm talks about, the Jana state, the profound states of 728 00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:59,920 meditation practice. And once you see these kind of 729 00:37:59,920 --> 00:38:04,840 things, you understand that ordinary reality of human beings 730 00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:10,120 is a very poor thing indeed, very uninteresting thing indeed. 731 00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:14,320 There is something completely beyond our ordinary reality 732 00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:17,320 that's so much more interesting here than what we normally are 733 00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:20,640 interested in. Once you see that, you can never 734 00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:24,160 turn back again because you have understood something, you have 735 00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:28,400 changed your outlook, your view of the world once and for all. 736 00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:32,960 Then you have a real freedom of choice because now you 737 00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:36,840 understand where happiness is. That is the freedom that we 738 00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:39,360 want. Who cares about that ordinary 739 00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:40,880 freedom of choice and ordinary life? 740 00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:43,200 It's irrelevant. It's our blindness to the 741 00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:46,600 possibilities in our life that is a real problem. 742 00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:52,600 The path goes even further because after the ideas of 743 00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:56,560 samadhi, after the ideas of the stillness of the mind, comes the 744 00:38:56,560 --> 00:38:59,840 insights of the mind, and this is what we call the pandya 745 00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:01,920 vimutti, as I was mentioning at the very beginning. 746 00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:05,800 Yeah, the liberation through wisdom, and this is the highest 747 00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:08,640 kind of freedom. When you start to see what is 748 00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:12,840 going on, even in this area, you can start to choose wisdom in 749 00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:15,680 your life because you start to understand that there is such a 750 00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:18,760 thing as profound wisdom on the Buddhist path. 751 00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:23,120 Once you see it, once you know it is there, then you can choose 752 00:39:23,120 --> 00:39:25,200 it. Otherwise you can't even choose 753 00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:27,880 it. So coming to the Buddhist 754 00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:31,800 teaching is a profound benefit. Yeah, because it opens up your 755 00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:35,680 eyes to these new possibilities. It opens up just by reading the 756 00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:37,120 word of the Buddha. Yeah. 757 00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:40,720 If you are, if you are open to the word of the Buddha, if you 758 00:39:40,720 --> 00:39:43,520 have the ability to gain a degree of confidence in those 759 00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:47,000 teachings, it is already a guide in the right direction. 760 00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:50,440 This is why the Buddha is said to be the eye of the world. 761 00:39:50,720 --> 00:39:52,320 Because the Buddha's eyes are open. 762 00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:56,480 He sees it, tells us the reality that he has seen, and allows us 763 00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:59,560 to follow the same track and reach the same kind of 764 00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:03,280 liberations. This is what freedom means. 765 00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:06,240 This is the idea of freedom, of Buddhist freedom of the will. 766 00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:09,600 Forget it, It doesn't matter. This is this sort of freedom 767 00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:12,200 that actually is what really is important in life. 768 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:18,040 But there's one. The last idea of freedom, that 769 00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:21,200 is actually very fascinating and very interesting, yeah. 770 00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:26,960 And this is the idea that. Well, maybe the whole idea of 771 00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:27,880 choosing. Yeah. 772 00:40:28,240 --> 00:40:32,520 The whole idea of willing, the whole idea that the will 773 00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:35,480 actually matters all that much. Maybe that whole thing is a 774 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:40,080 problem in the 1st place. Maybe the will is a pain in the 775 00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:43,720 wherever. Yeah, it's a pain. 776 00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:45,760 Yeah. Maybe the wind is a problem. 777 00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:50,120 And one of the kind of amazing things that you find in a 778 00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:53,800 meditation practice is like anyone who has done a little bit 779 00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:57,800 of meditation will realise, is that one of the great benefits 780 00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:01,440 of meditation is when the mind becomes peaceful. 781 00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,920 And when the mind becomes peaceful, one of the things that 782 00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:11,040 is starting to disappear in that mind is the doing, is the will, 783 00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:14,360 is the activity of the mind. It's the choices that are 784 00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:18,800 actually being taken away. And the deeper the stillness of 785 00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:22,880 your mind, the less will, the less choices is actually 786 00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:26,800 happening in that mind. And that's just when you start 787 00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:31,320 to understand that actually the problem is actually much deeper 788 00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:33,280 than we thought it was in the first place. 789 00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:37,760 The problem is not that we have to choose the right thing, but 790 00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:41,320 the whole idea of choice is actually a problem. 791 00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:46,640 The less choosing you do, the less willing you do, the more 792 00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:52,360 liberated you feel. Choice is part of the prison of 793 00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:55,360 Sansara. Choice is part of the prison of 794 00:41:55,360 --> 00:41:57,600 personality, of living in the world. 795 00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:01,000 Take away choice, take away the will. 796 00:42:01,240 --> 00:42:04,600 That is where you find the most fundamental freedom of all on 797 00:42:04,600 --> 00:42:08,880 the Buddhist spiritual path. And This is why when you enter a 798 00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:13,920 very deep state of samadhi, a very deep state of meditation, 799 00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:17,480 yeah, where the mind becomes completely still there, there's 800 00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:19,400 complete unification of the mind. 801 00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:23,200 Where there's no desires anymore because there's no desires, 802 00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:25,760 there's nothing to do. Because there's nothing to do. 803 00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:28,080 There is no willing. There is no choice. 804 00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:30,000 There's nothing happening inside of you. 805 00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:32,480 You're not going anywhere anymore because there's nowhere 806 00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:35,560 to go if there's nothing of interest in that world. 807 00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:38,600 Yeah. So you're completely content 808 00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:42,880 with what you have. There's no choice at that point. 809 00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:46,640 You have find found the highest happiness that you have ever 810 00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:50,480 seen in your life when there's no choosing whatsoever. 811 00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:54,720 This is one of those very fundamental insights in 812 00:42:54,720 --> 00:42:59,520 Buddhism, when you understand that actually the idea of 813 00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:04,440 freedom of choice, the idea of free will, is fundamentally 814 00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:08,080 flawed because the whole idea of willing itself is actually the 815 00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:11,120 problem on the Buddhist path. Give up the will. 816 00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:15,840 That is where you find the most fundamental of all freedoms on 817 00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:19,000 the Buddhist path. And when you give up the idea of 818 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:24,320 will, when you give up through a state of very deep samadhi, 819 00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:27,840 which I would argue is one of the fundamental feelings of 820 00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:31,040 finding the very meaning of life, you're actually very close 821 00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:35,080 to awakening itself, very close to the idea of enlightenment. 822 00:43:35,720 --> 00:43:40,600 Because the will is one of those very fundamental aspects of the 823 00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:44,200 sense of self that we have. If you ask people what they 824 00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:48,560 identify with, they identify with the creator, the doer, the 825 00:43:48,560 --> 00:43:51,040 willing inside. We are doers in the world. 826 00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:53,600 We enjoy creation, we enjoy doing. 827 00:43:53,680 --> 00:43:55,280 We enjoy all of these kind of things. 828 00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:57,040 We enjoy giving talks. Oops. 829 00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:01,720 We should be careful here. OK, maybe sit quiet. 830 00:44:01,720 --> 00:44:03,760 Is that No, OK, I'll finish off the talk here. 831 00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:08,520 So, yeah. So you are very close there to 832 00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:12,080 come reaching enlightenment itself, because you have seen 833 00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:15,200 that one of the fundamental aspects of personality, of the 834 00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:18,600 sense of self actually is an illusion, is a problem. 835 00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:21,800 And once you see that, of course, you start to give it up. 836 00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:25,680 That doesn't make any sense anymore to hold onto that, that 837 00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:28,920 aspect of self actually starts to fall away. 838 00:44:29,400 --> 00:44:32,360 So you're coming towards the very, very profound aspects of 839 00:44:32,360 --> 00:44:34,160 the Buddhist path. When you see this in the right 840 00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:38,760 way, that is where you start to reach the ultimate freedom of 841 00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:42,960 the Buddhist path. You penetrate through the idea 842 00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:45,280 of non self. You penetrate. 843 00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:48,760 You see that as it actually is. And that is where of course, you 844 00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:51,680 find the final truest happiness of all. 845 00:44:51,720 --> 00:44:53,760 Why? Because you have right view, 846 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:57,360 delusion is gone. And when delusion is completely 847 00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:02,480 gone, that is when you know where to find happiness, only by 848 00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:06,160 removing the delusion from your eyes, taking it all the way to 849 00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:10,320 the full inside on the Buddhist path, Then you can choose fully 850 00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:14,240 in the right way at all times, because now you know finally, 851 00:45:14,560 --> 00:45:17,320 once and for all, where happiness is to be found. 852 00:45:20,440 --> 00:45:25,720 OK, so that is all I wish to say this evening. 853 00:45:25,720 --> 00:45:28,000 Yeah. So there you are here. 854 00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:38,000 So are there any questions or comments from anyone please? 855 00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:48,720 This is your chance to to ask. You're very welcome to if you 856 00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:51,480 that thing is don't understand or you want to challenge 857 00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:54,480 something, you're very welcome to do so because that's always 858 00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:55,400 nice to have. Eddie. 859 00:45:55,440 --> 00:45:57,480 Oh, wow, what a surprise. OK, please find Eddie. 860 00:45:59,520 --> 00:46:04,920 This is a very, very, very strong, I mean powerful talk, 861 00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:06,880 you know, on freedom. Yeah. 862 00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:12,600 The Buddha was telling us that we are all trapped in samsara. 863 00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:18,760 Now, coming back to freedom. Yeah, the opposite of freedom is 864 00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:21,960 attachment. And in Buddha was telling us 865 00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:26,520 attachment brings suffering. All right, Yeah. 866 00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:30,440 So if you in this way. OK, there's another angle from 867 00:46:30,440 --> 00:46:32,320 what you're saying. OK, attachment brings suffering. 868 00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:35,800 We the attachment comes from our minds in it. 869 00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:39,040 So we have to learn to let go of the love. 870 00:46:39,040 --> 00:46:43,720 All this bullshit going on, you know, you know, we've been 871 00:46:43,720 --> 00:46:47,520 conditioned to think of certain ways in it, you know, which 872 00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:50,840 which really brings up academic and go on for hours and hours 873 00:46:50,840 --> 00:46:53,280 talk about the the, the different types of condition. 874 00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:56,760 You know, we have to learn to let go of all this nonsense, you 875 00:46:56,760 --> 00:47:01,400 know, you know, in order to free ourselves, you know, it comes 876 00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:03,000 all of mind. So each time when we have 877 00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:05,120 problem we have to work this way. 878 00:47:05,120 --> 00:47:09,120 Isn't it individually? Yeah, you're right. 879 00:47:09,120 --> 00:47:11,240 Of course. The attachment is a very big 880 00:47:11,240 --> 00:47:14,480 problem because when you attach then you you see things in the 881 00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:16,800 wrong way, you have delusion. So it causes suffering. 882 00:47:16,800 --> 00:47:18,440 You're right. But you know, one of the things 883 00:47:18,440 --> 00:47:22,680 is that about the Buddhist path is that attachment is a 884 00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:24,120 hierarchy. Yeah. 885 00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:27,000 You cannot, you cannot avoid attachment if you have an 886 00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:29,040 ordinary mind. The world in mind of ordinary 887 00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:32,720 people has to attach because that's the nature of a sense of 888 00:47:32,720 --> 00:47:35,360 self is that it will attach in various ways. 889 00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:37,560 So sometimes you can work another attachment. 890 00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:40,200 You can work and work and work. And actually after many years 891 00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:42,840 you come back to square one because you didn't deal with the 892 00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:47,040 underlying problem. So more important than trying to 893 00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:53,200 deal with the attachment directly is to practice the 894 00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:57,040 Noble Air Full path, practice kindness, practice morality. 895 00:47:57,560 --> 00:47:59,520 I think you're it's coming with you get a bit of feedback 896 00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:04,680 through your microphone, Eddie. Yeah, So, and, and that is the 897 00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:06,880 problem. So instead of trying too hard to 898 00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:09,240 overcome attachments, you get a little bit of that you can do. 899 00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:11,280 Yeah, because it's good to reflect a little bit. 900 00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:13,800 But more important is actually to practice the Noble Air full 901 00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:16,040 path. And the automatic consequence of 902 00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:19,200 practice in Noble Air Full path is that the attachments will be 903 00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:24,360 reduced to, yeah, being kind, being moral, thinking, words of 904 00:48:24,360 --> 00:48:26,360 kindness, etcetera, etcetera. Yeah. 905 00:48:27,880 --> 00:48:30,680 So yes. Thank you. 906 00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:36,120 All right. Anyone else want to say 907 00:48:36,120 --> 00:48:37,840 anything? Yeah, we have over here, please. 908 00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:43,480 Just going back to the fish in the tank. 909 00:48:44,080 --> 00:48:44,960 OK. Yeah, good. 910 00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:47,200 If you were one of those fish, yeah. 911 00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:51,360 Would you choose to stay there or leave given the choice? 912 00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:53,760 Depends on how wise the fish is, right? 913 00:48:53,800 --> 00:48:55,080 Well. Who knows? 914 00:48:55,240 --> 00:48:57,840 If it is an unwise fish, it might actually want to go back 915 00:48:57,840 --> 00:48:59,920 into the river. But if it is a wise fish that 916 00:48:59,920 --> 00:49:02,440 understands the Buddha's teaching, it will stay in the 917 00:49:02,440 --> 00:49:03,080 tank. Yeah, well. 918 00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:06,120 It sounds very similar to the Buddha's early life, doesn't it? 919 00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:09,120 Say again. It sounds very similar to the 920 00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:12,280 Buddha's early life. Was he not a fish in a tank? 921 00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:14,040 What do you mean here? Well. 922 00:49:15,960 --> 00:49:20,480 Before he jumped the wall and nicked off, he found 923 00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:21,680 enlightenment. Wasn't he? 924 00:49:21,960 --> 00:49:22,920 Like a. Fish, I think. 925 00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:24,720 I think it was a fish in the river before that. 926 00:49:24,720 --> 00:49:25,920 Yeah, he was a fish in the river. 927 00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:28,600 His early life when he was a Prince. 928 00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:31,280 Yeah. He was like a fish in the tank, 929 00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:34,880 he was protected and everything. Like that, I would say he was a 930 00:49:34,880 --> 00:49:37,440 fish in the river at that time. There was only after he became a 931 00:49:37,520 --> 00:49:40,000 the Buddha that he became a real fish in the tank, because that's 932 00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:43,600 when he got that's when the morality really becomes strong, 933 00:49:43,600 --> 00:49:45,160 right? He was still kind of, kind of 934 00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:46,840 slightly wild before that. He hasn't. 935 00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:50,520 He hadn't yet tamed all the wild impulses in himself. 936 00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:52,240 Yeah, I, I agree. Yeah. 937 00:49:52,520 --> 00:49:54,680 But it's very similar to his early life. 938 00:49:55,120 --> 00:49:59,680 He was wrapped up in a blanket in in the castle and all that. 939 00:50:00,280 --> 00:50:02,680 Yeah, Yeah. I, I mean, yeah, I mean there's 940 00:50:02,680 --> 00:50:03,880 many points to that. You can. 941 00:50:03,880 --> 00:50:07,760 I mean, one of the problems with that is that even if you are, no 942 00:50:07,760 --> 00:50:10,960 matter how wrapped up you are in the kind of in the castle and 943 00:50:10,960 --> 00:50:14,840 kind of cuddled and looked after, whatever the the reality 944 00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:16,320 of life is always going to be there. 945 00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:18,880 Yeah, the problems of life are always going to be there and 946 00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:20,160 there's always going to be behind you. 947 00:50:20,160 --> 00:50:22,400 And it's really only when you become the Buddha and you kind 948 00:50:22,400 --> 00:50:25,120 of become enlightened and you practice the spiritual part that 949 00:50:25,120 --> 00:50:28,480 actually those deep seated problems of life actually become 950 00:50:28,480 --> 00:50:31,640 overcome. As long even if you are looked 951 00:50:31,680 --> 00:50:34,920 after like the Buddha was, still you can't really get away from 952 00:50:34,920 --> 00:50:41,600 the problems of life. So yeah, Anyway, I got a 953 00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:44,040 question to the last part that you said. 954 00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:46,040 Yeah, please. And you were talking about 955 00:50:46,200 --> 00:50:49,120 creating things. And as I understood it, I 956 00:50:49,120 --> 00:50:52,840 mentioned we should first go into ourselves before creating 957 00:50:53,520 --> 00:50:55,240 anything, as I understood you correctly. 958 00:50:55,520 --> 00:50:59,400 At what point would you suggest getting active as some sort of a 959 00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:02,880 creator? When is the content good enough 960 00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:06,360 to the sound is really bad. It's kind of a bit hard for me 961 00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:08,320 to hear. Can you please try again? 962 00:51:08,320 --> 00:51:09,200 Would you mind? Sorry about that. 963 00:51:09,200 --> 00:51:13,160 Yeah. And you mentioned that maybe a 964 00:51:13,160 --> 00:51:17,920 turn around and you mentioned that being a creator, we should 965 00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:21,440 not get too early into the stage of creating stuff. 966 00:51:22,160 --> 00:51:26,960 So rather look into ourselves and wait until the content is 967 00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:29,080 good enough. Or how would you could you 968 00:51:29,080 --> 00:51:33,160 explain that a bit more? What what what I was saying was 969 00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:38,600 that I was just talking about the idea of the will and choice 970 00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:44,200 and these kind of things that the, you know, so much of our 971 00:51:44,200 --> 00:51:46,040 life is kind of based on the idea. 972 00:51:46,040 --> 00:51:47,600 We want to create things in the world. 973 00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:48,800 We want to do things in the world. 974 00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:51,920 And whenever you do something, yeah, you feel good, feel good 975 00:51:51,920 --> 00:51:53,280 that we created something. Yeah. 976 00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:56,080 I'm the creator. We identify with the doer. 977 00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:58,080 We identify with the creator inside of us. 978 00:51:58,720 --> 00:52:01,560 You see some people who are compulsive doers always doing 979 00:52:01,560 --> 00:52:04,840 things continuously because that is how the sense of self is 980 00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:08,560 gratified in a certain way. But there is a profound problem 981 00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:11,360 with that, and that is that actually the whole idea of doing 982 00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:14,760 and creating and using the will is actually a state of 983 00:52:14,760 --> 00:52:16,760 suffering. Yeah, that was my point. 984 00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:19,280 When you can only see that when you go into a very deep state of 985 00:52:19,280 --> 00:52:22,560 meditation, when the will starts to subside and the will is 986 00:52:22,560 --> 00:52:25,640 completely gone, that is when you start to find the real 987 00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:28,080 meaning of life. You start to find profound sense 988 00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:30,200 of happiness. And that's when you understand 989 00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:34,960 that the whole idea of creating yourself into happiness is a 990 00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:36,000 delusion. That's what we try to do. 991 00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:39,000 We try to create ourselves into happiness by creating things. 992 00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:42,400 But actually the creating itself is a state of suffering. 993 00:52:43,040 --> 00:52:44,600 So that's why it is delusion here. 994 00:52:46,440 --> 00:52:48,880 Is that what you're asking here? Something like that. 995 00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:50,960 OK, so that was kind of the point I was trying to make. 996 00:52:50,960 --> 00:52:55,160 And so This is why the states of meditation, one of the reasons 997 00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:58,600 why they are so extremely pleasant, it's precisely because 998 00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:03,240 you're giving up the whole idea of doing and and creating and 999 00:53:03,360 --> 00:53:07,880 agency and all these kind of things over here. 1000 00:53:07,880 --> 00:53:17,480 Bill Hap. Thank you for a really really 1001 00:53:17,480 --> 00:53:21,160 inspiring talk. It was very enjoyable and very 1002 00:53:21,160 --> 00:53:27,640 deep and profound. It actually helps to take me 1003 00:53:27,640 --> 00:53:33,760 back to my Christian upbringing as a Catholic because that's 1004 00:53:33,760 --> 00:53:37,960 what we were brought up with, that it wasn't our will, it was 1005 00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:42,640 God's will. And also in all the the 1006 00:53:43,080 --> 00:53:47,240 addiction, the seven step programs, they say give. 1007 00:53:47,520 --> 00:53:51,240 There is a higher power, you must give to the higher power. 1008 00:53:51,240 --> 00:53:56,120 It's not thy will. So yes, thank you for helping me 1009 00:53:56,120 --> 00:54:04,960 to understand more deeply the actual, the jewel of 1010 00:54:04,960 --> 00:54:07,680 Christianity that I never understood. 1011 00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:11,960 So thank you. I think, OK, so let me just 1012 00:54:12,080 --> 00:54:15,040 respond to that very briefly because I think there's a slight 1013 00:54:15,040 --> 00:54:19,040 difference there and that I, I agree with you. 1014 00:54:19,040 --> 00:54:22,360 The idea that, you know, there is no personal will, that is, is 1015 00:54:22,360 --> 00:54:24,080 the same way. But I think this, this slight 1016 00:54:24,080 --> 00:54:25,960 difference of course would be, and I'm sure, you know, this 1017 00:54:25,960 --> 00:54:28,800 already would be that from Buddhist point of view, we don't 1018 00:54:28,800 --> 00:54:32,680 see that as kind of a higher will that works through us. 1019 00:54:33,040 --> 00:54:35,400 We just see that as the will being conditioned. 1020 00:54:35,880 --> 00:54:38,080 Yeah. So the will comes about or the 1021 00:54:38,080 --> 00:54:40,840 choice comes about through conditioning, not through a 1022 00:54:40,840 --> 00:54:42,480 higher power. Yeah, that would be the 1023 00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:43,200 difference there. Yeah. 1024 00:54:44,200 --> 00:54:48,040 I'm sorry but I disagree because you're talking about the Buddha 1025 00:54:48,040 --> 00:54:50,800 being the higher power, no? Not really. 1026 00:54:50,960 --> 00:54:55,240 Because we, we, we're following his teachings for, for our 1027 00:54:55,240 --> 00:54:59,800 salvation, so to speak. OK, there is a way in in which 1028 00:54:59,800 --> 00:55:02,240 you're right about that. I would agree with you, because 1029 00:55:02,240 --> 00:55:05,520 of course the Buddha's teaching does influence our will, 1030 00:55:05,560 --> 00:55:07,720 obviously, because that's why we're practicing the Buddhist 1031 00:55:07,720 --> 00:55:10,720 path there. But as a general principle, if 1032 00:55:10,720 --> 00:55:13,280 you look apart from, you know, if you look at any person, 1033 00:55:13,280 --> 00:55:16,640 whether they are Buddhist or an atheist or an agnostic, or they 1034 00:55:16,640 --> 00:55:19,840 worship for an Odin, my other favorite gods apart from 1035 00:55:20,160 --> 00:55:23,440 Buddhism, or they worship whatever, whatever region they 1036 00:55:23,440 --> 00:55:27,640 belong to, whatever the outlook, whoever they are, there's one 1037 00:55:27,640 --> 00:55:30,360 principle that unites all of them, and that is the principle 1038 00:55:30,360 --> 00:55:31,280 of conditioning. Yeah. 1039 00:55:31,520 --> 00:55:33,520 The will is conditioned. Choice is conditioned. 1040 00:55:34,200 --> 00:55:36,640 It's universally applicable in that sense. 1041 00:55:36,640 --> 00:55:38,240 Yeah. Thank you. 1042 00:55:42,120 --> 00:55:44,520 All right, so let's anyone else know. 1043 00:55:44,520 --> 00:55:46,800 Everyone happy? OK, so let's just have a quick 1044 00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:49,600 look at some questions from outside of here. 1045 00:55:50,080 --> 00:55:53,120 So we have Wolfram Garby from Germany. 1046 00:55:53,920 --> 00:55:58,600 I'm seriously ill and that makes my loved one sad to see here. 1047 00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:03,040 What can I do to ease her worries and fears and give her 1048 00:56:03,040 --> 00:56:06,400 joy and peace and contentment and strength instead? 1049 00:56:06,920 --> 00:56:13,360 How can I help her? OK, so the way to help people 1050 00:56:13,360 --> 00:56:17,360 when you are seriously ill or even if you are dying is to 1051 00:56:17,360 --> 00:56:20,800 remind them that you know your death. 1052 00:56:21,000 --> 00:56:24,280 If you are a good person involved from I, I'm sure you 1053 00:56:24,280 --> 00:56:26,600 are a good person because you have been around for a long 1054 00:56:26,600 --> 00:56:28,800 time. You're practising in a good way 1055 00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:32,000 and good people always have a good future. 1056 00:56:32,320 --> 00:56:34,760 Regardless of whether you die, regardless of whether you're 1057 00:56:34,760 --> 00:56:37,960 sick, you have a good future if you are a good person. 1058 00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:41,200 That's such a beautiful way of thinking about life, because it 1059 00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:44,640 means that all the problems in the world become far less of a 1060 00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:48,120 burden on us when we understand that we have a good future, 1061 00:56:48,360 --> 00:56:51,120 regardless of what happens in the world, regardless of what 1062 00:56:51,120 --> 00:56:57,040 happens to our body. So tell your loved one that you 1063 00:56:57,040 --> 00:56:58,960 will be good. Yeah, you will be fine. 1064 00:56:59,320 --> 00:57:04,080 And she can, if you were to have even worse sickness or maybe you 1065 00:57:04,080 --> 00:57:07,800 were to die or whatever, that your future is safe so she can 1066 00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:10,720 be happy on your behalf, that you are going into a good place. 1067 00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:14,160 And maybe where you are going, maybe you will be able to kind 1068 00:57:14,160 --> 00:57:17,000 of, you know, wave to her and say carry on with your life. 1069 00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:18,840 Yeah, I'm fine. Just, you know, just chill. 1070 00:57:18,840 --> 00:57:21,800 There's no problems here at all. And that kind of way of thinking 1071 00:57:21,800 --> 00:57:25,800 about death makes it far less daunting and far less painful 1072 00:57:25,800 --> 00:57:29,280 experience. So something like that, I, I've 1073 00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:33,160 had family members, close family members die and I never really 1074 00:57:33,160 --> 00:57:36,120 felt very sad about it. And I because I knew that they 1075 00:57:36,120 --> 00:57:38,600 had been good people living in the right way. 1076 00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:41,160 And I thought they were probably just waving down to me and say, 1077 00:57:41,160 --> 00:57:42,840 OK, good on you for being a Buddhist monk. 1078 00:57:42,840 --> 00:57:45,680 Yeah, carry on with that. That's the right, right approach 1079 00:57:45,720 --> 00:57:48,280 because they were very happy with me as a Buddhist monk, 1080 00:57:48,640 --> 00:57:51,360 especially towards the not in the beginning, but after a 1081 00:57:51,440 --> 00:57:51,960 while. Yeah. 1082 00:57:54,760 --> 00:57:56,840 OK, let's go on to the second question here. 1083 00:57:57,400 --> 00:58:00,560 This is from Smith Tenzin from India. 1084 00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:01,400 That's really cool. Hello. 1085 00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:04,120 Hello there. In India, I'm thinking freedom 1086 00:58:04,120 --> 00:58:07,880 from fear is probably the biggest freedom of all of your 1087 00:58:07,880 --> 00:58:11,440 thoughts because all attachments arise from fear. 1088 00:58:11,960 --> 00:58:16,440 Even attachment to food is the innate fear of not getting 1089 00:58:16,440 --> 00:58:20,320 enough. What should we do to overcome 1090 00:58:20,320 --> 00:58:25,400 that? Freedom from fear is probably 1091 00:58:25,400 --> 00:58:29,480 the highest freedom. Yeah, yeah, it goes, I think. 1092 00:58:29,480 --> 00:58:30,920 I would say it goes deeper than that. 1093 00:58:30,920 --> 00:58:36,800 It's quite possible to have full freedom from also from other 1094 00:58:36,800 --> 00:58:39,800 things that are even more profound, like the sense of self 1095 00:58:39,800 --> 00:58:41,760 and these kind of things. Or or not. 1096 00:58:41,880 --> 00:58:43,520 All the attachments come from fear. 1097 00:58:43,520 --> 00:58:46,280 Some attachments just come from wanting to enjoy the world. 1098 00:58:46,720 --> 00:58:52,360 There's a number of different things there, but how do you, 1099 00:58:52,560 --> 00:58:56,520 how do you get to the freedom of fear, presumably is what you're 1100 00:58:56,520 --> 00:59:00,480 asking from here. And the main way of overcoming 1101 00:59:00,480 --> 00:59:05,400 free fear is basically that fear is always about the future. 1102 00:59:05,400 --> 00:59:07,840 Anxiety is always about the future. 1103 00:59:08,240 --> 00:59:11,400 So it is best by living well and starting to understand that you 1104 00:59:11,400 --> 00:59:14,600 are creating a happy future for yourself by living well. 1105 00:59:15,280 --> 00:59:19,120 And it's almost an intuition, you know that you're going to be 1106 00:59:19,320 --> 00:59:22,080 OK if you live well. It's almost like it feels like 1107 00:59:22,080 --> 00:59:24,320 that, yeah. If you come from kindness, if 1108 00:59:24,320 --> 00:59:27,440 you act from kindness, if you treat other people well, if you 1109 00:59:27,440 --> 00:59:31,080 have met the compassion for the world, all of these things that 1110 00:59:31,080 --> 00:59:33,840 you just naturally have a good sense about yourself. 1111 00:59:34,800 --> 00:59:38,080 So just live well, understand that your future is bright if 1112 00:59:38,080 --> 00:59:40,920 you are a good person. And then fear starts to subside. 1113 00:59:41,160 --> 00:59:44,240 And then also you need to attach to food and all of these kind of 1114 00:59:44,240 --> 00:59:46,760 things will also subside as a consequence. 1115 00:59:47,080 --> 00:59:50,640 It all comes back to the same basic principles of practising 1116 00:59:50,640 --> 00:59:55,360 the spiritual path. Then we have Q from Borneo. 1117 00:59:56,120 --> 00:59:58,840 His name or her name is Q, just AQ. 1118 00:59:59,280 --> 01:00:01,440 OK, That's like the letter Q in the alphabet. 1119 01:00:01,440 --> 01:00:04,240 That's interesting here. So hello Q. 1120 01:00:05,840 --> 01:00:09,880 How are thoughts, feeling and mind connected? 1121 01:00:10,560 --> 01:00:13,240 Are monks allowed to have emotions or feelings? 1122 01:00:14,720 --> 01:00:19,400 What kind of feeling is allowed? I don't think you have much 1123 01:00:19,400 --> 01:00:22,280 choice about having feelings and emotions, whether you are 1124 01:00:22,280 --> 01:00:23,640 allowed. If you weren't allowed to have 1125 01:00:23,640 --> 01:00:25,080 that, you have a serious problem, I think. 1126 01:00:25,080 --> 01:00:27,400 Yeah. So I can guarantee you that all 1127 01:00:27,400 --> 01:00:30,760 monks, all nuns, all human beings, even the Buddha had 1128 01:00:30,760 --> 01:00:34,640 emotions and feelings. So how are they connected? 1129 01:00:35,880 --> 01:00:41,080 Well, thoughts are just one particular aspect of the mind. 1130 01:00:41,760 --> 01:00:46,840 The word mind, chitta impale, is like a umbrella term, which 1131 01:00:46,840 --> 01:00:50,320 means all the, all the mental content you have, that's mind. 1132 01:00:50,720 --> 01:00:52,800 Within that mind, many things go on. 1133 01:00:52,800 --> 01:00:54,560 One thing that goes on is thought. 1134 01:00:54,960 --> 01:00:59,080 Thought is like the movement. Yeah, it's like verbalisation or 1135 01:00:59,080 --> 01:01:02,520 pictures, the movement of the mind, things moving on. 1136 01:01:02,520 --> 01:01:06,760 That's kind of thinking, yeah. Feeling is the depending what 1137 01:01:06,760 --> 01:01:09,800 you mean by feeling. If you mean emotions, then it is 1138 01:01:09,800 --> 01:01:12,360 kind of the emotional aspect of experience, Yeah. 1139 01:01:12,400 --> 01:01:16,160 Whether you whether you feel good or you feel bad or you're 1140 01:01:16,160 --> 01:01:18,160 angry and all of these kind of things. 1141 01:01:19,240 --> 01:01:23,280 Or it can be like the raw sense of whether you dislike or like 1142 01:01:23,280 --> 01:01:25,640 something, which is more like the Buddhist ideal feeling. 1143 01:01:25,640 --> 01:01:28,320 Yeah, but this too is within the mind. 1144 01:01:28,320 --> 01:01:30,800 It's part of the mind. It's a content of the mind. 1145 01:01:30,880 --> 01:01:32,640 It's an aspect of the mind. Yeah. 1146 01:01:32,920 --> 01:01:35,840 The mind can be divided into all of these kind of sub aspects. 1147 01:01:37,080 --> 01:01:41,200 So the idea on the Buddhist path then is to steer our emotions 1148 01:01:41,200 --> 01:01:43,760 and feelings in a positive direction. 1149 01:01:43,760 --> 01:01:46,520 You know, to overcome the negative emotions and feelings 1150 01:01:46,960 --> 01:01:50,160 and steer the mind towards a positive emotions and feelings. 1151 01:01:50,440 --> 01:01:53,680 That is the job of the path. It is not to stop having 1152 01:01:53,680 --> 01:01:57,120 emotions and feelings, but to develop the right kind of 1153 01:01:57,120 --> 01:02:00,600 emotions and feelings. That is the right approach, the 1154 01:02:00,600 --> 01:02:04,040 way to think about this because emotions and feelings are a 1155 01:02:04,040 --> 01:02:06,320 fundamental aspect of being a human being. 1156 01:02:06,320 --> 01:02:10,360 Yeah, last question from High Ton from Perth. 1157 01:02:11,400 --> 01:02:15,440 If there is no free will, are we still responsible for our coma? 1158 01:02:16,680 --> 01:02:20,120 Whether you are responsible or not, you have to deal with the 1159 01:02:20,120 --> 01:02:22,200 consequences. Yeah, you're still going to be 1160 01:02:22,200 --> 01:02:23,960 painful. If you make bad coma, going to 1161 01:02:24,000 --> 01:02:26,920 be painful in the future. So make sure you make good coma. 1162 01:02:27,480 --> 01:02:30,160 Yeah, this is the conditioning. Yeah, happens right now you get 1163 01:02:30,160 --> 01:02:31,840 condition to do good coma. Why? 1164 01:02:31,840 --> 01:02:33,680 Because you know otherwise you're going to be in pain. 1165 01:02:34,440 --> 01:02:36,520 So whether you're responsible or not is irrelevant. 1166 01:02:36,640 --> 01:02:40,000 What matters is that there is a causal link between how you act 1167 01:02:40,280 --> 01:02:42,280 and how you feel. That is what matters. 1168 01:02:44,280 --> 01:02:46,000 OK everyone, thank you very much. 1169 01:02:46,200 --> 01:02:48,560 Let's just pay respect to the Buddha, Dama and Sangha.