1 00:00:01,640 --> 00:00:08,240 OK, so maybe we can start it. So tonight I have been asked, 2 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:11,440 this is somebody asked me to give asked about a particular 3 00:00:11,440 --> 00:00:15,160 topic and they asked what I can talk about the Buddha's advice 4 00:00:15,160 --> 00:00:19,000 to lay Buddhists, what kind of advice the Buddha would give it 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:21,560 to lay people. This question came from one of 6 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:23,880 the members of the Buddha Society who lives in India. 7 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:26,320 And this is one of the kind of things I'd like about this 8 00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:29,280 Buddha Society is that we are so kind of everywhere. 9 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:31,880 It's really nice. And you get a question from 10 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:34,800 India, which is the homeland of Buddhism, right? 11 00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:38,120 And by the Venerable Nibuto here is also from India originally, 12 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:41,240 which I think is really nice. It kind of ties the Buddhist 13 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:43,520 world together in a very beautiful way here. 14 00:00:44,160 --> 00:00:47,520 So he asked me to talk about the Buddhist advice, the Buddhist 15 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:51,240 advice to lay people. And of course I'm very happy to 16 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:53,960 talk about that. I'd like, I love to talk about 17 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,040 the word of the Buddha because I think the word of the Buddha is 18 00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:00,520 so profound. It is so well spoken. 19 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:04,160 It is in fact so simple, right? Sometimes people say, oh, I 20 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:06,960 can't understand the suitors, they're too kind of profound or 21 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:09,520 whatever. I prefer to listen to talks and, 22 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:13,560 you know, read the books of Ajaan so and so, Aya so and so, 23 00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:17,120 Master so and so, Siado so and so, and all these kind of 24 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:19,200 things. But for me, the word of the 25 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:23,160 Buddha is by far the most clear, the most consistent, the most 26 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:27,520 coherent, the most easy to understand of any contemporary 27 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:30,160 or the teacher. And that's why I find it so. 28 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:33,480 That's one of the reasons, many other reasons as well here why I 29 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:36,400 find it so inspiring to actually have a look at the word of the 30 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:38,320 Buddha. So why? 31 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,280 So what is the Buddha's advice to lay Buddhists? 32 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:45,840 And of course the first thing that we have to talk about is, 33 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:50,920 is there really any distinction between what the Buddha talks 34 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:55,200 about to lay people and what he talks to monastics or and if 35 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:58,480 there is a distinction, what is that distinction in particular? 36 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:02,520 And of course, the reality is that the Buddha's teaching, 37 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:06,440 which is an understanding of reality, the way things really 38 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:09,840 are, how to find happiness in the world, how to overcome 39 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:13,240 suffering, etcetera. The basic principles of that are 40 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:17,560 exactly the same whether you are a lay Buddhist or a monastic, 41 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:18,760 right? Doesn't really make that much 42 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:22,080 difference because the world functions in a certain way here. 43 00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:25,160 And if you are a person, you have a mind, you have your 44 00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:27,880 problems, you have your happinesses, and of course you 45 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:31,280 have to operate in the same way regardless of whether you are a 46 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:35,280 layperson or a monastic. So essentially it is the same 47 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:38,040 teaching, but of course there is a distinction. 48 00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:41,520 And the reason that there is a distinction is because there is 49 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:44,280 often a difference in commitment, right? 50 00:02:44,600 --> 00:02:48,400 You are hopefully most monastics are more committed, the average 51 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:51,520 monastic hopefully more committed than the average lay 52 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:53,840 Buddhist. But that is really the only 53 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:56,200 distinction. And because of that distinction, 54 00:02:56,480 --> 00:03:00,360 what you find in the suit, as in the word of the Buddha, is that 55 00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:06,080 the word of the Buddha tends to be to lay people a bit more on 56 00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:09,160 basic subjects, right? Not kind of the highest kind of 57 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:12,440 insights very often or the deepest kind of meditations, but 58 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:16,720 often a bit more basic subjects. But occasionally you find that 59 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:19,640 there is one that is, you know, a certain layperson who has 60 00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:22,080 reached some very high meditation state or whatever. 61 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:25,520 And then you actually find that even to laypeople occasionally 62 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:28,840 you find that the most profound topics are actually taught. 63 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:32,640 If there are someone who is very committed, someone who is about 64 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:37,040 to die, someone who is ready to see something profound on on the 65 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:40,120 Buddhist path. So it's all there in both camps. 66 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:42,080 It's just a matter of degree, Right. 67 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:45,360 So when you talk where they talk to lay people on monastics, it's 68 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:50,200 pretty much, it's very, in a large sense, to a large extent 69 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:51,320 very much the same thing. Yeah. 70 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:55,600 But of course, because sometimes lay people have, often they have 71 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:58,320 kind of more lay people concerns, right. 72 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:02,320 Sometimes the teachings even in the suitors are really kind of 73 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:04,320 down to earth to some lay people. 74 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:07,520 And one example of this of a really down to earth teaching. 75 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:11,240 Yeah, this is when King Paseinadi goes to visit the 76 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:14,360 Buddha. King Paseinadi, he was king of 77 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:17,440 one of the largest kingdoms in India at the time, called the 78 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:21,440 Causalan Kingdom, a very large Kingdom in the north of India, 79 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:25,080 perhaps roughly, it's very hard to say exactly how large it was, 80 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:28,320 but maybe roughly the size of Thailand or something like that. 81 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:30,480 So it's quite a large country, right? 82 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:33,480 Especially at the time where they didn't have any cars or any 83 00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:35,800 planes that kind of hold it together. 84 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:38,040 It is quite large for those those times. 85 00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:41,600 So he was the king of this country and he was a very 86 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:45,440 staunch disciple of the Buddha. And he would regularly go to the 87 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:48,360 Buddha to ask the Buddha various kinds of questions, right? 88 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:50,720 And some of these questions are really sweet questions. 89 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:53,320 That's why I want to talk about this because he was kind of 90 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:56,480 concerned with sometimes with very worldly, ordinary things. 91 00:04:57,280 --> 00:05:02,200 And so on one occasion he comes to the Buddha and he's kind of 92 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:05,200 huffing and puffing away here. He just had a meal and he's 93 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:08,560 putting on weight writer. And then the Buddha gives him a 94 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:12,880 teaching on how to lose weight. And this is actually in the 95 00:05:12,880 --> 00:05:14,600 suit. There's one of the teachings 96 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:16,160 that Buddha gave to one of the people. 97 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:18,320 Well, it's so down to earth, right? 98 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:21,800 It's a some kind of straight down the line for many people 99 00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:24,560 wish to have the that kind of teaching here. 100 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:28,280 And what I like about this is that one of the problems 101 00:05:28,280 --> 00:05:32,480 sometimes with Buddhism is that sometimes we tend to kind of 102 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:35,480 elevate the Buddha in the wrong way. 103 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:38,440 We regard the Buddha as some kind of somebody who is sort of 104 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:42,640 beyond humanity and is outside ordinary understanding of what 105 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:44,880 human beings are here. This kind of outside of the, 106 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:48,720 he's kind of almost like a God in a sense, or he is the Dumber 107 00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:51,480 principle, which is beyond human beings, all these kind of 108 00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:53,840 things. But the more you read the 109 00:05:53,840 --> 00:05:57,120 suitors, the more you understand that the Buddha has all these 110 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:00,680 very human qualities, right? And this is so interesting. 111 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,280 Not only does he have human qualities, but the way that it 112 00:06:03,280 --> 00:06:07,680 interacts with people is exactly the way that you would expect an 113 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:10,400 ordinary person to interact with somebody else. 114 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:12,160 This is how you lose weight, right? 115 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:14,320 Oh, thank you, Master. Wonderful thing. 116 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:16,520 You gave me this profound instruction on how to do this 117 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:17,960 weight. I'm so happy about that. 118 00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:21,120 What a wonderful thing that is. So there's all these ordinary 119 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:24,440 teachings that come into this and it humanises the Buddha. 120 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:28,680 It makes shows us that the Buddha really is one of us. 121 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:31,320 He's a human being. He's not something entirely 122 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:33,600 different. And this is important. 123 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:37,240 I mean, of course it is crucial to respect the Buddha. 124 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:40,960 It's crucial to understand that he had understood something that 125 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:43,560 the vast majority of people do not understand. 126 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:47,080 Especially he understands the distinction between true 127 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:48,960 happiness and true suffering in life. 128 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:50,960 This is what the Buddha understands. 129 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:53,880 It is the thing that everybody is looking for. 130 00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:56,880 So he has really found the answer to the meaning of life. 131 00:06:56,880 --> 00:07:00,120 And this is what I find is just so powerful about the Buddha, 132 00:07:00,840 --> 00:07:02,560 right? So this, this is on the one 133 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:05,800 hand, this is what makes him so powerful and on the other hand, 134 00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:08,480 he is a human being just like the rest of us. 135 00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:12,440 You read in the suit as he talks about his defilements that he 136 00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:16,640 had before his awakening, right? He talks about ill will, he 137 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:19,960 talks about sensual desire. He talks about having wrong 138 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:22,920 view, right, looking at the world in a wrong, wrong way. 139 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:25,320 He talks about all of these ordinary things. 140 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:28,960 He talks about his body getting old and out of shape and falling 141 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:31,600 apart. He talks about having back aches 142 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:33,640 right when he gets old, all of these kind of things. 143 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:37,520 So these are the things that humanizes the Buddha, and it 144 00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:41,280 shows us that the Buddha basically is just a human being, 145 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:45,160 but a human being who took the human potential to its highest 146 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:48,120 or took the human state to its highest potential. 147 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:51,600 That's what it is. So when we respect the Buddha, 148 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:54,760 it's important to respect him in a sense in the right way. 149 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:58,320 Yes, we can put the Buddha on a bit of a pedestal like this 150 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:00,880 pedestal behind here, and that's fine. 151 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:03,560 We should, we should do that because he, he really is the 152 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:06,040 supreme teacher of what everybody wants to know. 153 00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:09,160 But we should not put him on the wrong kind of pedestal. 154 00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:13,400 So what was that teaching that the Buddha gave on how to 155 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:16,440 overcome weight or kind of lose weight? 156 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,120 Are you interested in that? Is that a good interest in 157 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:20,800 teaching? Is that what you came here for 158 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:21,800 tonight? Probably not. 159 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:24,480 So what? What is the teaching that he 160 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:26,760 gave? And what he said was that the 161 00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:29,360 way to do this is very, very simple, right? 162 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:32,280 Very basic teaching here. You are ever mindful here. 163 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:34,520 And when you're ever, when you are ever mindful, when you're 164 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:37,600 mindful here, you realise moderation in food. 165 00:08:37,919 --> 00:08:40,840 And when you have moderation in in what you eat and in your 166 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:44,520 food, then the consequence of that is that you have less 167 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:47,600 illnesses and you'd live a long time. 168 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:51,520 And of course, because he was teaching a king, he taught this 169 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:53,560 verse to the King's attendant, right? 170 00:08:53,560 --> 00:08:56,480 OK, attendant, you learn this. And every time the king has a 171 00:08:56,480 --> 00:08:58,680 meal, you should say this to him, right? 172 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:01,520 You say these words to him. It's easy to be easy to be 173 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:03,400 mindful, right? When somebody tells you exactly 174 00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:05,760 what you have to do. This is kind of the advantage of 175 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:07,760 being a king. You have a special man just to 176 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:09,760 tell you how to kind of lose weight. 177 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:14,120 So but it's, it's interesting because it's so simple. 178 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:17,400 It's just about being mindful and remembering some very basic 179 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:19,760 instructions. And one of the instructions 180 00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:22,920 there, which I find interesting also is this idea that if you 181 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:26,760 eat in moderation, you live long, right? 182 00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:29,840 You have a long life. This is one of those things that 183 00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:33,400 you will see today as well. This is one of the things that 184 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:35,720 is fairly well known. I think even in the present day, 185 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:39,120 that moderation and eating tends to live to good health and a 186 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:41,800 long life. But it goes back to time of the 187 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:44,280 Buddha goes back 2 1/2 thousand years. 188 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:47,120 So this is the the first thing, right? 189 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:50,040 So I'm just starting off with some of the really basic things. 190 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:54,400 What is interesting about the Buddha's relationship to this 191 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:58,680 King Pasena de is that they were very close together and King 192 00:09:58,680 --> 00:10:02,320 Pasena de would go to the Buddha on a very regular basis and ask 193 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:11,240 for advice right and one to to tell this understand, you know, 194 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:15,160 go ahead and King Pasena were all to treat bad actions. 195 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:19,560 They treat themselves as if they are their own enemies. 196 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,480 But those people in the world who treat other people with good 197 00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:27,720 actions by body, speech and mind, they treat themselves as 198 00:10:27,720 --> 00:10:31,480 if they are the friends, as if they are as as if they love 199 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:36,240 themselves, right. And so the point what he's 200 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:38,520 saying here, and this is kind of an interesting point because 201 00:10:38,520 --> 00:10:41,280 it's almost in reverse psychology or how we normally 202 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:44,680 think about things. It is not just the fact that 203 00:10:44,680 --> 00:10:48,200 when you treat other people well, you kind of love those 204 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:50,320 other people. When you treat other people 205 00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:52,720 well, you love yourself, you are your own friend. 206 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:55,960 In the same way, if you treat other people badly by body, 207 00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:59,320 speech and mind, it is not only as if you treat those other 208 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:02,960 people as enemies, you're treating yourself as your enemy. 209 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:08,240 So it's kind of entirely reverse psychology how we normally think 210 00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:11,120 about this. And of course it is very obvious 211 00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:13,960 from a Buddhist point of view, because if you treat somebody 212 00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:18,320 else bad, who is the person who will in the long run get most 213 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:21,920 had most negative effect from that bad action towards others? 214 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:25,120 It is you, right? You will regret doing those 215 00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:27,200 things, you will feel bad about it afterwards. 216 00:11:27,200 --> 00:11:30,320 And this may go on for a long time into the future. 217 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:34,320 So every time you do something bad towards somebody else, you 218 00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:37,720 are treating yourself as if you are your own enemy here. 219 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:41,040 And in the same way, when you do something kind to other people, 220 00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:44,520 when you treat other people well, you are the one who reap 221 00:11:44,520 --> 00:11:47,680 the most benefit from that. Because in the future, you will 222 00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:50,960 feel happy and content from your good actions and you are 223 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:52,880 treating yourself as your friend. 224 00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:56,320 So remember that, right? It's a very powerful, very 225 00:11:56,320 --> 00:12:00,120 simple teaching here that when we treat others badly here, it 226 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:01,800 is not them that we hurt the most. 227 00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:04,120 The person that we hurt the most is ourselves. 228 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:06,040 Do you really want to hurt yourself? 229 00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:07,800 Do you want to be your own friend? 230 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:09,800 That you want to love yourself? You want to have a good 231 00:12:09,800 --> 00:12:12,760 relationship to yourself? Or do you want to live to your 232 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:16,480 own detriment and drag yourself down and actually be like your 233 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:19,040 own enemy here? So when you think about that, 234 00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:21,520 you're turning this thing around a little bit and it actually 235 00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:23,960 makes a kind of different impression of the mind. 236 00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:28,480 Be kind, because being kind means being kind to yourself, 237 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:33,400 not only to the other person. So I like this kind of little 238 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:36,360 things, that kind of reverse psychology in a sense that turn 239 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:41,400 things up, turn things around. And there is another teaching by 240 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:45,120 the Buddha also to laypeople. This was not to King Pasena on 241 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:48,360 the similar, which is nice and complementary to this one here. 242 00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:53,160 And that is the idea of how as a layperson 1 should use one's 243 00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:56,560 wealth, right? Whatever money, whatever assets 244 00:12:56,560 --> 00:12:59,520 we have, how should we use that as a layperson? 245 00:12:59,960 --> 00:13:01,600 What is the right way as a monastic? 246 00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:05,760 OK, We, we also use our assets in, in in a similar kind of way, 247 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:07,080 but it's a bit more limited, right? 248 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:11,040 Haven't got that many assets. I've got this robe here and this 249 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:15,080 sitting cloth and a few things like that, but not much so. 250 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:19,560 So how do we use our assets in Aslay people? 251 00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:23,400 And the answer that the Buddha says, and again, it's very, I 252 00:13:23,400 --> 00:13:26,520 think, a very nice answer. It's very different from how we 253 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:29,720 are normally taught to think about this, perhaps especially 254 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:33,600 in the Western culture. And the what I say is the first 255 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:36,640 thing you do with your assets, you have probably worked hard. 256 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:38,880 Most people work hard in this life, right? 257 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:42,560 And you build up a certain amount of money and assets in 258 00:13:42,560 --> 00:13:45,880 your own life. And then how do we spend that? 259 00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:49,400 And the what I said, the first person that you should make 260 00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:52,480 happy and who should, who you should look after when you have 261 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:55,760 enough assets is yourself, right? 262 00:13:56,080 --> 00:13:58,960 That is the first person. So when you have A and it's a 263 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:02,600 foolish person who doesn't actually spend a certain amount 264 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:05,240 of wealth on themselves to make themselves happier. 265 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:09,040 And then once you have made yourself happy and pleased, then 266 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:11,920 of course you should make your parents happy and pleased, your 267 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:16,400 wife or husband and children, your other family members. 268 00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:20,280 And of course also those people who are in a sense, maybe 269 00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:22,640 employees in your families, right. 270 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:25,200 In those days they had kind of extended families with lots of 271 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:28,760 employees in the family, people who were, you know, servants and 272 00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:30,320 workers and all these kind of things. 273 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:33,680 So that is how you use your money, first yourself and then 274 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:36,920 going down gradually down to those people who are closest to 275 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:39,480 you. And then the last place where 276 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:43,280 you use money, according to the ancient Zutas, is for charity 277 00:14:43,280 --> 00:14:45,360 here. So once everybody has kind of, 278 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,000 you know, everybody's reasonably happy, you also use a certain 279 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:50,720 amount to charity here. In those days, that usually 280 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:54,160 meant giving to ascetics, you know, people who live the 281 00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:56,200 ascetic life as you did, what it meant in those days. 282 00:14:57,040 --> 00:14:59,880 So it's beautiful because it is. When you think about it, it's 283 00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:04,160 actually quite logical, right? We are closest to ourselves. 284 00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:07,920 If we really love ourselves and look after ourselves, of course 285 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:09,920 we should look after ourselves also. 286 00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:13,000 In a way, we use our own money and use our own wealth. 287 00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:16,280 Then those people who we also love when we're close to us, our 288 00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:18,920 family members or whatever, we look after them. 289 00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:22,400 In this way, you go down the line to all the people who mean 290 00:15:22,400 --> 00:15:25,120 something in your life and eventually you look after other 291 00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:28,080 people as well. It's a beautiful way of thinking 292 00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:30,000 about life. But of course it is A to be a 293 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:31,760 balance between these things, right? 294 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:33,600 You don't use everything on yourself. 295 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:36,240 You find this nice balance in how these things are done. 296 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:40,960 And in this way, you you get a you, you live well in the sense. 297 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:48,920 So that is there's some basic things on the how to how to 298 00:15:48,920 --> 00:15:52,320 create happiness for yourself, etcetera, and how to think about 299 00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:55,520 ideas such as morality and things. 300 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:57,920 Now there's another time, OK, I'm going to come back to this 301 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:01,440 King Pasena day again because there is a whole chapter of 302 00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:05,600 Surtas of Discourses where King Pasena Day is talking to the 303 00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:08,640 Buddha. It's about 25 little discourses. 304 00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:11,520 And if you want to, if you ever want to check it out, it's in a 305 00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:14,120 collection called the Connected Discourses of the Buddha. 306 00:16:14,400 --> 00:16:18,160 And you found all find all this conversations between the Buddha 307 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:21,080 and King Paseinadi. So on this other one other 308 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:25,400 occasion, he goes to the Buddha and he asked the Buddha, what is 309 00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:29,200 master? What is the one thing that leads 310 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:34,280 to happiness both in this life and in future lives, right. 311 00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:38,200 If there's one thing you want to single out as the most important 312 00:16:38,200 --> 00:16:40,520 thing that leads to both happiness in this life and in 313 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:45,200 future lives, what is that? He asked the Buddha and the 314 00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:50,880 Buddha replies that one thing is appamada, right? 315 00:16:50,920 --> 00:16:53,280 OK, I mean, I promise to translate this, otherwise you're 316 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:56,480 going to be might be in trouble. Appamada is the probably word, 317 00:16:56,800 --> 00:16:59,280 and that probably word means essentially it means something 318 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:03,840 like heedfulness, right? To be heedful means to be 319 00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:06,960 careful. It means to be circumspect. 320 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:10,160 It means to consider things, you know, think about things, 321 00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:12,800 reflect on them before you actually act. 322 00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:14,640 That's what heedfulness means, right? 323 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:18,480 So the one thing which is at the base of everything else has the 324 00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:21,079 Buddha is this idea of heatfulness. 325 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:26,200 Abramada in parli here. And if you read know the suit as 326 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:28,520 fairly broadly, you will know that this is actually in many 327 00:17:28,520 --> 00:17:32,680 places, this is said to be the foundation for the entire 328 00:17:32,800 --> 00:17:35,360 spiritual practice, entire spiritual life. 329 00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:38,920 Because unless you consider things carefully here, unless 330 00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:42,320 you stand back and thinks, think about things properly, unless 331 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:46,000 you are a little bit reflective about your own in life, right, 332 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:48,000 you're not going to go anywhere because you don't really 333 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:49,760 reflect. You don't consider what is 334 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:53,600 really important in life, what truly makes people happy, what 335 00:17:53,600 --> 00:17:55,360 is really going to be beneficial. 336 00:17:55,360 --> 00:17:58,960 You have to have that reflection in life, otherwise you're not 337 00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:01,760 going to go anywhere at all. So it's fairly obvious that that 338 00:18:01,760 --> 00:18:03,480 is the case once you realise that. 339 00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:08,560 So what are in particular the things that we are supposed to 340 00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:13,840 be a pomada or hateful about? And this then comes to the other 341 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:18,160 thing, which is I think a very important teaching to the Buddha 342 00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:20,640 to lay people, to lay Buddhist generally. 343 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:25,520 And there's two things that the Buddha emphasizes usually in the 344 00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:29,280 suit as to the lay people. And one is generosity here and 345 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:32,560 the other one is morality here, right? 346 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:35,200 And sometimes when you say, say to people, oh, this is what the 347 00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:36,960 Buddha emphasizes for the lay people. 348 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:39,440 And people say, oh, we feel a bit short changed. 349 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:41,440 We want to hear the higher teachings as well. 350 00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:44,680 We don't want to see that generosity and morality and all 351 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:47,720 these things. But I think this is really 352 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:52,240 underestimating the power of these very kind of this more 353 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:56,600 basic factors on the path, the power in terms of their scope, 354 00:18:56,600 --> 00:19:00,000 their width, in terms of their profundity, right? 355 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:03,000 Once you understand the scope and the width of things like 356 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:07,080 generosity and morality here, then you start to practice these 357 00:19:07,080 --> 00:19:09,720 in a slightly different way from what you're used to her. 358 00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:12,000 So these things are actually very important. 359 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:14,640 They're not kind of basic things that you kind of get out of the 360 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:18,160 way and then you move on to the higher things in Buddhism, these 361 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:21,640 are actually fundamental things. So take something like 362 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:24,760 generosity, right? What does it actually mean? 363 00:19:24,760 --> 00:19:28,280 The first thing I should say is that these things are not just 364 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:30,760 for lay people. It's not as if, you know, the, 365 00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:34,600 the, the lay people are kind of really generous and that the 366 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:37,280 monastic community is really selfish or anything like that. 367 00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:40,480 That's not really the idea. These things are universal 368 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,520 qualities that everybody needs to practice, whether you are a 369 00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:47,320 monastic or a layperson. But the idea with these things, 370 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:52,480 the idea with generosity here is that it is something that opens 371 00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:56,160 your heart up. It opens you out to a sense of 372 00:19:56,520 --> 00:20:00,960 kindness, a sense of matter, of loving kindness, of compassion 373 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:05,160 to all beings around you, right? If you are generous, it takes a 374 00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:08,400 certain perception of others. It takes a certain willingness 375 00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:10,240 to share what you have with other people. 376 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:13,280 And that kind of opens you up in a very beautiful way here. 377 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:16,680 And I'm sure sometimes many of you will have that feeling in 378 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:19,880 life where you feel that you feel almost like this generosity 379 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:23,360 coming out of you and you want to share with all people around 380 00:20:23,360 --> 00:20:26,520 you. And if you know that feeling, 381 00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:28,560 you know that it is a very beautiful feeling. 382 00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:31,280 It is a feeling where the mind is very pure. 383 00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:34,240 The mind is very beautiful. There's no hostility there. 384 00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:37,320 There's no selfishness. It's a very expansive kind of 385 00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:39,960 mind state, right? When you're selfish, you're kind 386 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:42,960 of narrow down inside of yourself and there's there's a 387 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:47,160 lack kind of in this beautiful expansive mind state, isn't 388 00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:49,280 there? And then when the mind expands 389 00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:53,400 and it takes all, all other people there, then you feel this 390 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:58,120 kind of, you feel a powerful inspiration, a powerful sense or 391 00:20:58,120 --> 00:21:00,040 something very beautiful happening inside of you. 392 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:04,440 And you know, if you are sensitive to that, you know that 393 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:08,160 this is precisely a spiritual state of mind. 394 00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:11,280 This is the kind of state of mind you know, that anyone who 395 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:14,960 practising the spiritual path would be recommending because 396 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:17,840 you can feel there's something both powerful and beautiful 397 00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:20,400 about that. And of course, the point here is 398 00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:24,400 that if you want to go further on the path, if you want to be 399 00:21:24,400 --> 00:21:27,000 more serious about meditation practice, you want to come and 400 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,640 do a meditation retreat at our wonderful Jana Grove Meditation 401 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:34,920 Centre or whatever it is. Then you recognise that this 402 00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:38,920 kind of quality is really the foundation for meditation 403 00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:41,680 practice. If you haven't got this open 404 00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:45,240 hearted, open handed feeling whereby you want to really be 405 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:48,560 generous with the whole world, if you have a more like a stingy 406 00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:50,600 feeling inside it, it's not going to work. 407 00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:53,440 But the more open hearted you are, the more open handed you 408 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:56,760 are, the more willing you are to share and give to all beings 409 00:21:56,760 --> 00:21:59,280 around you. That is the kind of mind state 410 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:03,280 that makes meditation possible. In fact, the Buddha says that it 411 00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:06,320 says very specifically that if you have this state of mind, 412 00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:10,080 that is when also you have access to the really deep states 413 00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:13,160 of samadhi, the really deep states of meditation practice 414 00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:15,960 that this path promises you here, right? 415 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:20,040 So generosity is about developing this kind of mental 416 00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:24,520 attitude, this way of looking at the world and it doesn't have to 417 00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:29,800 do so much with kind of, you know, if you like the size or 418 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:32,080 the, or the amount or that kind of thing, or how much you're 419 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:34,600 given these kind of things. What it has to do with, it's a 420 00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:38,120 general state of mind that you carry with you in ordinary life, 421 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:42,440 the state of mind where you are, you always have this feeling of 422 00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:45,640 kind of being willing to share and, and give something to 423 00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:47,280 others or the, or the world around you. 424 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,760 It's a general state of mind. So it's more about how often we 425 00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:54,360 are generous, right than about how much necessarily we do. 426 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:57,680 This is, I think, an important, very important aspect of this 427 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:01,600 thing we call generosity here. So that is the generosity side. 428 00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:04,280 And this is a very important teaching that the Buddha always 429 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:07,760 teaches to lay people, and it also teaches it to monastics as 430 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:09,800 well here. So to the extent that we have 431 00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:13,480 the opportunity to be generous, we try to live exactly like that 432 00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:17,040 because you realise after a while that this is absolutely 433 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:21,080 required for the path to really mature and to get anywhere here. 434 00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:25,520 So that is the generosity side. Then we have the morality side, 435 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:29,720 right, and very often we talk about morality or sealer. 436 00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:32,080 In Buddhism. We often talk about the five 437 00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:35,720 precepts, right? And of course, the five precepts 438 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:39,080 are a very important foundation for the Buddhist practice. 439 00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:42,760 If you've got those, you already have a nice foundation there. 440 00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:46,040 And one of the great things I think about this Buddha society 441 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:49,800 is that there are so many people here who actually practice these 442 00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:52,440 five precepts. I think we have over 1000 443 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,120 members, right, who practice the five precepts in this Buddha 444 00:23:55,120 --> 00:23:58,520 society here. That is just so inspiring, 445 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:00,080 right? It is such a wonderful thing 446 00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:02,000 here. I told there's a story which 447 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,840 Adam Brahm always, always tell. Well, not always, but it tells 448 00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:06,880 us sometimes. I can't remember when I told it 449 00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:10,880 last, but there's a story from from Thailand and this is, you 450 00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:13,640 know, when he was in his monastery, Ajam Shah was Ajam 451 00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:15,480 Brahms teacher. As I'm sure all of you will 452 00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:18,760 realize by now, Ajam Shah was one of the most famous monks in 453 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:22,480 Thailand in the 20th century. I think at his funeral they had 454 00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:25,760 something like half a million people show up right at his 455 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:27,440 funeral. Absolutely massive. 456 00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:31,320 I hate to I hate to kind of I think it might Adam Bram's fear 457 00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:33,720 not probably going to be something something similar. 458 00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:35,720 Half a million people coming right there. 459 00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:38,280 We see. Can we organise that Drew out 460 00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:40,800 here? Is that first? 461 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:43,600 OK? Don't tell the council. 462 00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:44,920 OK, We've been in serious trouble. 463 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:47,600 Anyway, that's for the future. Hopefully that's still a long 464 00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:51,720 way away because it would be a rather significant loss to say 465 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:56,960 that to, you know, to really to, to if that happened. 466 00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:00,320 But anyway, this was Ajan Shah's monastery, right? 467 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:04,640 He was very, very famous monkey. And on the imposted her days, 468 00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:07,440 the days of the full moon and the new moon, people will always 469 00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:10,400 come to the monastery here. And of course, on the Vesak day 470 00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:13,960 of the day when we celebrate the Buddha's birth and passing away 471 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:17,440 and enlightenment, the Vesak day here, the crowds were often very 472 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:19,440 large. They all come to see Ajan Shah 473 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:21,520 from all the neighboring districts and that sort of thing 474 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:23,320 here. So in one of these days when the 475 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,920 monastery was absolutely packed, I don't know how many people 476 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:28,280 were there, maybe 1000 people or something here. 477 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,960 I used the opportunity and he said, how many of you keep the 478 00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:37,200 five precepts, right? And then he looked around 1000 479 00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:39,160 people, right? I mean, it's this crowd here is 480 00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,400 small today compared to 1000 people, 1000 people out there. 481 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:46,520 And he looks out and he sees two people put up the hand keeping 482 00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:49,040 the five precepts. And the rest are kind of looking 483 00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:52,440 a bit sheepishly looking down on the ground, right, and feeling a 484 00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:55,280 bit bad about this two people, right? 485 00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:57,840 This is in the heart of Thailand, one of the best 486 00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:00,360 monasteries in Thailand. And yet that was the kind of 487 00:26:00,360 --> 00:26:03,400 standard that often lay people would have at that time. 488 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:07,680 And now here we have the Buddhist society where over 1000 489 00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:09,520 of people keep the five preserves. 490 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,600 It's it's wonderful thing. And sometimes people don't 491 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:16,000 appreciate enough how wonderful and how marvelous it is. 492 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:19,720 And we have so many people are so committed to the Dhamma, so 493 00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:23,040 committed to practicing in the right way, and not only here in 494 00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:26,000 Perth, but overseas as well, people who are part of this. 495 00:26:26,360 --> 00:26:30,280 We have a, if you don't, may not be aware of this, but we have an 496 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:34,360 online facility for the BSWA website where you can take the 497 00:26:34,360 --> 00:26:37,360 precepts online, right? Because you live somewhere far 498 00:26:37,360 --> 00:26:41,360 away, like in Africa or in, you know, South America or in North 499 00:26:41,360 --> 00:26:43,560 America for that matter, or in Europe or whatever it is. 500 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:45,680 And you have no temple around you. 501 00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:48,640 So you come to the BSWA, we come to the rescue. 502 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:51,040 Here is where you can take the five precepts. 503 00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:54,920 Beautiful, right? So you come here online, do it 504 00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:57,360 kind of in cyberspace, take the five precept. 505 00:26:57,360 --> 00:27:00,840 It's all the same thing anyway. What a wonderful thing that is. 506 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:05,440 But, and this is kind of the point here, it is not really 507 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,280 enough, right? It's wonderful, but it's not 508 00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:11,400 wonderful enough. You can be even more wonderful 509 00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:14,320 than just keeping the five precepts, and I would recommend 510 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,160 you to be even more wonderful. First of all, I would say to 511 00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,160 those of you who are not keeping the five precepts, I'm not going 512 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:23,720 to ask you to put up your hands or anything like that or that 513 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:25,400 would be pretty embarrassing, wouldn't it? 514 00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:29,760 But no, but I would really recommend you to take this as 515 00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:33,000 the foundation stone for your Buddhist life because it is 516 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,760 really incredibly important if you want to be happy, if you 517 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,840 want to have some success in a meditation practice, if you want 518 00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:43,800 to be a kind of beacon, right, for other people around you, how 519 00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:47,040 to live life well, wow, this is really what you should be doing 520 00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:49,400 here. But ideally, if you're really 521 00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:53,160 serious about the Buddhist practice, it's not really 522 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:55,760 enough, right? Isn't that, that's a terrible 523 00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:59,360 thing to say, isn't it? You probably feel really, that's 524 00:27:59,360 --> 00:28:02,320 really. But the point is that even the 525 00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:06,960 five precepts, after a while, they become like second nature. 526 00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:09,880 You keep the five precept, you do it every day. 527 00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:11,320 You know exactly what you're doing. 528 00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:13,000 It kind of comes from your heart anyway. 529 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:14,640 You know that this is the right thing to do. 530 00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:18,240 And because it is second nature, you don't invest a lot of 531 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:22,560 intention into that anymore. You don't invest in tension and 532 00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:28,600 and your will if you like your volition into the idea of being 533 00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:32,680 kind and being caring and being compassionate and being good to 534 00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:35,800 the people around you. And because there isn't that 535 00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:39,200 intention there, it means that the amount of good Kummer you're 536 00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:42,880 making it is still great, but it's not as good as it could be 537 00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:45,040 here. And you really start to realise 538 00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:46,880 the limitations of these five precepts. 539 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:50,280 They are great as a foundation, but if you're really serious and 540 00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:52,760 if you really want to go further, you have to actually go 541 00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:55,720 beyond that. And of course, we know that the 542 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:58,360 Buddha talks about things like right speech, right? 543 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:01,360 And right speech is one of those areas that are very difficult to 544 00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:05,480 speak in a way which unifies people, brings harmony in the 545 00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:09,080 community, speak in a way which is gentle rather than harsh, 546 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:11,840 speak in a way which is meaningful, rather than speaking 547 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:14,160 things which are just idle chapter and all these kind of 548 00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:15,880 things. These are the things that Buddha 549 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:19,520 talks about, and these are the areas where we all can kind of 550 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:23,760 do something to improve, to lift our game a little bit further, 551 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:28,520 to speak of the mind, right? Mental virtue is also an aspect 552 00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:30,760 of the Buddhist path and all of these things. 553 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:33,560 When you start to look at all of these things, the breadth and 554 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:36,960 the scope of the Buddhist practice is so wide and it's so, 555 00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:40,920 so much more than what most people normally think of as 556 00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:46,080 morality or ethics. And why is this so important for 557 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:49,000 those of you who are interested in meditation practice, 558 00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:53,040 interested in being mindful, interest in experiencing some of 559 00:29:53,040 --> 00:29:56,600 the joy that is available on the Buddhist path, the Buddha 560 00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:01,760 consistently says there is one thing which is the source, the 561 00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:05,880 foundation, the basis upon which all meditation works. 562 00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:10,800 And that source foundation basis for meditation is sealer, the 563 00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:14,920 polyword sealer means precisely morality, but morality in this 564 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:18,320 very broad sense, right? You could call it character 565 00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:21,800 development if you like, whereby you change your character to 566 00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,040 lift it up and to make it something more beautiful and 567 00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:26,680 something more, something more wholesome. 568 00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:29,560 In a sense, your entire attitude to the world changes. 569 00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:33,520 You have more compassion, more understanding, more love for the 570 00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:35,440 people around you. It's in your, it's not just 571 00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:38,920 external, it's in your heart. Your very heart is changing. 572 00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:43,400 This is what this is about. And people often I think make a 573 00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:48,520 mistake in the sense they think that you know the reason why 574 00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:50,880 perhaps my meditation isn't going so well. 575 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:53,280 Why isn't that? Why am I not making quicker 576 00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:55,240 progress than I am? These are the kind of standard 577 00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:57,400 questions people have. I want to make progress more 578 00:30:57,400 --> 00:30:59,200 quickly. Why am I stagnating? 579 00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:01,480 What's going on there? And they often think, oh, I'm 580 00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:05,240 not sitting enough hours, You know, I want to sit for 8 hours 581 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,720 a day or, or maybe I'm using the wrong meditation object, right? 582 00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:10,280 Maybe I should. Should I use meta? 583 00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:13,240 Should I use, you know, was loving kindness meditation? 584 00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:16,040 Should it be breath meditation? Should it maybe be a super 585 00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:17,520 meditation? I don't know I'm even using the 586 00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:21,720 wrong meditation object, or they think I don't really know how to 587 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:24,280 use the meditation, or I'm focusing on the breath in the 588 00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:29,200 wrong way, or whatever it is. But no, the Buddha never really 589 00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:33,480 talks about any of those things. These things are not the reason 590 00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:35,520 why the meditation isn't working. 591 00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:39,760 They may have a little bit to do with it, but the only thing that 592 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:43,720 the Buddha consistently says in the suit is the cause for good 593 00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:47,760 meditation practice is your sealer, your purity, your 594 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:49,920 character, who you are as a person. 595 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:51,960 That is the thing that really matters. 596 00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:55,440 And now you can see when the Buddha tells the lay people to 597 00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:59,320 be moral, to live well, to be kind hearted, all these kind of 598 00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:01,760 things, it's actually very profound. 599 00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:05,080 It is a sort of things that enables you later on in life to 600 00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:09,360 come here, sit down, go to Jannah Grove and meditate and 601 00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:13,000 actually get the real results. But you have to take this idea 602 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:15,840 of sealer morality to a very profound level. 603 00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:18,920 And then these things really start to make make a big 604 00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:21,720 difference. You start to learn how to become 605 00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:24,960 a less angry as a person. You start to learn how to look 606 00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,960 at people in such a way that anger doesn't arise anymore. 607 00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:30,360 Here you start to understand other people. 608 00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:32,880 They are trapped in their own personalities. 609 00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:35,080 They are trapped because of their own past. 610 00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:37,840 They can't really be much different from the way they are. 611 00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:40,680 And then you can have compassion to them when they do stupid 612 00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:43,920 things rather than being angry and upset in return. 613 00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:48,000 It is very simple, basic aspects of Buddhist teachings that 614 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:51,000 enables you to become a far better person as a consequence, 615 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:54,000 right? If you look at people in the 616 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,600 right way, how can you ever get angry here, right? 617 00:32:57,600 --> 00:32:59,720 They are trapped in the way they're doing things. 618 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,600 They are when they do something bad towards somebody else, 619 00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:05,280 whether it's towards you or something else, it's not because 620 00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:08,520 they want to do something bad. It's because they are compelled 621 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:11,360 by their own history to live out those actions. 622 00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:14,000 It got nothing to do with you, had everything to do with the 623 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,240 other person here. And when you change your 624 00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:18,440 attitude towards these kind of things in this way here, 625 00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:21,440 something very profound changes inside of you here. 626 00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:24,520 What changes is that you become a different person. 627 00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:28,240 Your character changes and a goodness arises inside of you 628 00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:30,960 which you have never seen perhaps before, maybe you have, 629 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:34,040 but maybe a long, long, long time in the past, right? 630 00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:36,200 The past that you can't even recall that. 631 00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:41,320 So this is the idea of Buddhist morality and This is why I think 632 00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:45,240 the Buddha emphasized this not only for lay people but of 633 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:48,920 course for monastics as well because this is such an 634 00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:51,720 important foundation for everything in Buddhism. 635 00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:55,160 Without that, there is really no going forward. 636 00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:58,520 So remember that right? And when you remember that, wow, 637 00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:01,040 it gives such a wonderful and powerful booster. 638 00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:07,600 So Papamada, right? Being heedful is the foundation. 639 00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:10,760 The one thing that we all should do on this Buddhist path have to 640 00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:13,560 have to be hateful at the very base of the Buddhist path. 641 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:18,080 From that hatefulness comes a morality and generosity because 642 00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:20,159 we understand the power of these things. 643 00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:24,120 But how can we beheed Fuller? This is the other interesting 644 00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:27,159 question, right? It's easy to say beheed Fuller, 645 00:34:27,159 --> 00:34:30,199 but sometimes we just forget. Sometimes we haven't got the 646 00:34:30,199 --> 00:34:32,440 mindfulness. Sometimes we just don't know 647 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,120 what's happening around us. We're kind of going walking 648 00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:38,000 around in the fog of life, thinking about things and 649 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:41,199 suddenly something comes in from left field, right? 650 00:34:41,199 --> 00:34:43,840 And bang, it hits you and then you react to it because you 651 00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:45,840 don't actually have the mindfulness to do that. 652 00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:49,600 So how can we establish that heatfulness in our lives? 653 00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:52,719 How can we be careful and make these things work for us in the 654 00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:55,280 right way? That's pretty important, isn't 655 00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:56,960 it? It's really fundamental. 656 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:03,600 And what the Buddha says is that again, this again is advice to 657 00:35:03,600 --> 00:35:05,920 lay people, right? Is advice to monastics as well. 658 00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:09,560 But it's also to lay people that the way to do that, the way to 659 00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:13,760 remain hateful, is to make sure that we all have enough 660 00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:18,640 spiritual input in our lives that will listen to spiritual 661 00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:21,080 teachings, that will listens to the monastic. 662 00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:23,840 You listen to the Buddha, you understand the word of the 663 00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:25,160 Buddha and all these kind of things. 664 00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:29,160 And if you have enough spiritual input, that will always remind 665 00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:33,120 you of what you have to do. It's so easy to forget, right? 666 00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:36,560 It's is it easy enough to forget in the monastery where you are 667 00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:39,240 surrounded by other people who are like minded all the time, 668 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:42,440 let alone how easy it is to forget in lay life because of 669 00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:44,560 all the business and all the stuff that goes on. 670 00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:48,360 I've been there was a long time ago now, but I have been there 671 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:49,920 and I know what it's, I know what it's like. 672 00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:51,640 I know what it's like even now sometimes. 673 00:35:52,720 --> 00:35:57,000 So because of that, we need that continuous spiritual input, that 674 00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:00,320 input which reminds us of what actually is important in life, 675 00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:03,600 remind us of our priorities or how we should be living our 676 00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:08,160 life, etcetera. So and the Buddha compares this 677 00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:11,440 a very beautiful similar in the suitors that I think I spoke 678 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:15,240 here a few weeks ago as well. And it compares this to rain 679 00:36:15,240 --> 00:36:17,920 falling on the mountaintop, right? 680 00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:20,400 What happens when the rain falls on the mountain top? 681 00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:23,800 If it keeps on falling, If it keeps on falling and falling and 682 00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:27,280 falling and falling, then the rain falls into forms into 683 00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:30,280 little streams, right? Those little streams then merge 684 00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:33,360 and go into larger streams. Those larger streams then go 685 00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:36,640 into the little lakes. The little lakes overflow, go 686 00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:39,600 into the larger lakes. The larger lakes eventually 687 00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:41,920 overflow, go into the big rivers. 688 00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:45,760 The big rivers eventually become, you know, big and large 689 00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:49,480 and they go into the ocean and they gradually they fill up the 690 00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:52,560 great ocean. So if it keeps on raining on 691 00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:55,800 that mountain top, right keeps on raining, raining and raining 692 00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:59,800 and raining, it eventually ends up filling up the great ocean 693 00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:02,520 itself. But if the rain has to continue, 694 00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:06,000 it has to keep on raining here. And when that rain keeps on 695 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:08,160 going, then eventually it happens in the same way. 696 00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:12,280 You have to continue to get that input in your life all the time, 697 00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:16,080 that reminder of what is important in life on how to 698 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:17,960 live. And when you keep on getting 699 00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:21,680 that reminder, it is as if it is raining on that mountaintop and 700 00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:25,040 eventually the great ocean itself fills up. 701 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:28,400 What does it mean that the great ocean fills up? 702 00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:32,520 Well, eventually what it means eventually, of course, the idea 703 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:36,440 is to reach the Buddhist idea of awakening itself. 704 00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:39,720 So one day, if you keep on reigning, right, and all you 705 00:37:39,720 --> 00:37:44,200 have to do is to listen to good teachings, listen to the real 706 00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:46,760 Dumber, understand what the Buddha was on about. 707 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:51,200 And as you do that, you inexorably moving towards 708 00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:53,240 awakening whether you want to or not, right? 709 00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:57,000 There's no stopping you anymore. And if you don't want awakening, 710 00:37:57,000 --> 00:37:59,360 well, remember, awakening is the highest happiness rise. 711 00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:01,680 It's really worthwhile. It's a really good place to go 712 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:06,880 so inexorably, no choice moving towards awakening here just by 713 00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:10,760 allowing that rain to fall on the mountaintop continuously 714 00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:14,640 again and again and again. But that is the foundation, and 715 00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:18,840 that is how this whole thing kind of moves in that direction 716 00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:22,160 here, right? We can kind of see how these 717 00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:24,160 things kind of fit together very beautifully here. 718 00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:27,240 And when you understand that. And so there are really only 719 00:38:27,240 --> 00:38:31,800 some very few basic things that we need to remember in our life 720 00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:33,400 if you want to live well as Buddhists. 721 00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:38,280 And one is to remember to get spiritual input, you know, on a 722 00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:41,120 regular basis. And the other thing, which is 723 00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:44,200 very useful to keep in mind, just going back to the idea of 724 00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:47,320 morality I was talking about before, is just remember 725 00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:51,080 kindness, right? Remember input, remember 726 00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:54,200 spiritual input and kindness. If we can remember those two 727 00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:57,840 things in your life, wow, you're going to go a wrong long, long 728 00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:02,880 way on the Buddhist path there. So this is, these are some of 729 00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:06,160 the basic things that the Buddha talked about. 730 00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,800 There are two lay people. There is one other thing which 731 00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:13,560 is very, I think interesting in the suitors, and that is the 732 00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:16,480 Buddha talks about certain recollections, certain ways to 733 00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:20,160 think about the world, right? And specifically said that lay 734 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:23,440 people should also think about these things in the right way 735 00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:25,680 here. So what are these recollections? 736 00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:28,360 And there's 5 standard recollections the Buddha talks 737 00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:32,200 about and that we should remember that illness is part of 738 00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:36,480 life, old age is part of life. He talks about everything that 739 00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:40,880 is dear and pleasing to me must depart from me one day. 740 00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:42,760 You cannot hold on to things in this world. 741 00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:46,440 Things eventually have to go. He talks about we are the heir 742 00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:50,240 of heir of our Kamaha. And lastly, he talks about the 743 00:39:50,240 --> 00:39:55,320 fact that we must die, right? Death is an aspect of life, and 744 00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:57,800 I think this is the idea of death in all of these other 745 00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:01,800 aspects are kind of, in a sense, subsumed under this idea that we 746 00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:04,480 must die. But the recollection that life 747 00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:07,680 eventually must end in death, I think is one of those very 748 00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:12,040 important spiritual reflections that most people should do from 749 00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:15,160 time to time. Because why is it so important? 750 00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:17,600 Why is the Buddha? Why does the Buddha say that lay 751 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:19,480 people? Everybody should reflect on 752 00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:21,880 this. And of course, the reason is 753 00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:24,400 because when you reflect, when you know that you're going to 754 00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:27,560 die and you don't know exactly when it's going to be right, 755 00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:30,360 sometimes it happens before we would like it to happen. 756 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:35,840 When we remember that, what it means is that we start to 757 00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:39,840 prioritise different in life. When we remember that we're 758 00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,800 going to die, remember that there is a bigger picture at 759 00:40:42,800 --> 00:40:45,200 stake, there is a larger thing going on. 760 00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:48,480 It is not just this narrow little existence that we have 761 00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:50,240 here. There's a much bigger picture 762 00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:53,600 that we have to look at. And this is explained in a very 763 00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:55,960 beautiful way elsewhere in the suit. 764 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:01,680 Actually, before I before I even go there, I will just, there's 765 00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:05,160 another nice little simile about the kind of the nature of death 766 00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:08,920 that I remember when I started reading the word of the Buddha. 767 00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:11,080 It really struck me as very powerful. 768 00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:15,200 And this also is about a conversation between King 769 00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:19,800 Pasenade and the Buddha. And King Pasenade again comes to 770 00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:23,360 the Buddha and his King Pasenade complaints all, all these 771 00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:25,520 ministers and all these kind of foolish people. 772 00:41:25,520 --> 00:41:27,200 You know, we've had enough of all that stuff. 773 00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:32,000 And then the Buddha says to him, well, great king, he was called 774 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:34,960 Maharaja. Great king is, is that what that 775 00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:39,360 what that word means? Well, great King, if a man came 776 00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:44,160 to you from the South and said, a mountain is coming this way, a 777 00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:48,520 mountain is walking this way, crushing all living beings in 778 00:41:48,520 --> 00:41:52,560 its path, what would you do? If another man is coming from 779 00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:56,440 the east, walking towards you, crushing all living beings in 780 00:41:56,440 --> 00:42:00,400 his path, what would you do? If a third mountain is coming 781 00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:03,200 from the north, a fourth mountain is coming from the 782 00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:07,160 West, each one of them crushing all living beings in the path, 783 00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,240 and you are in the middle just waiting for the mountain to 784 00:42:10,240 --> 00:42:15,040 crush you, what would you do? And of course the king answers. 785 00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:17,440 Well, if that was the case, I would just kind of get on with 786 00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:20,080 my practice and do what is good and do what is wholesome. 787 00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:22,800 What else can you do when death is so inevitable? 788 00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:26,440 And of course then the Buddha says, I inform you, I announce 789 00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:29,880 to you, death is coming right now, moving in on you, and 790 00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:33,040 before you know it, it will be your life will be over here. 791 00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:35,800 What will you do? Of course, what can you do 792 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:39,880 except for living wisely and to do what is good and avoid what 793 00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:43,240 is badder, right? And this is kind of, and I 794 00:42:43,240 --> 00:42:44,920 remember reading that when I first read that. 795 00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:49,160 Hope this is really powerful. Similarly for death in our life, 796 00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:52,400 how important it is and how central, when you think about it 797 00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:56,160 in the right way, how it changes your attitude about things. 798 00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:59,240 And one of the other symbols that the Buddha is using to kind 799 00:42:59,240 --> 00:43:01,640 of drive home this point is a symbol. 800 00:43:01,640 --> 00:43:05,360 He says that life is a bit like all the sensual, all the 801 00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:09,400 objects, all the things that we accumulate in life, although 802 00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:11,840 those things are like borrowed goods. 803 00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:15,560 Everything in life is like borrowed goods, right? 804 00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:19,000 If you borrow something, if you borrow something from somebody 805 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:22,560 else, you don't attach too much. Because if you attach too much 806 00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:25,720 to that thing, then when you give it up again, it's going to 807 00:43:25,720 --> 00:43:29,200 be very painful for you, right? So when you borrow somebody, OK, 808 00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:31,560 you're borrowing something for maybe a few days or a week or a 809 00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:33,480 month or whatever. Maybe you're renting an 810 00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:35,840 apartment. You don't invest so much into 811 00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:38,360 that apartment because you know you're going to have to give it 812 00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:41,280 up very sooner. But the border says everything 813 00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:43,760 in life is like that. Everything in life is like 814 00:43:43,760 --> 00:43:45,600 borrowed goods. Why? 815 00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:47,440 Because eventually you're going to have to die. 816 00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:50,120 And when you die, you're going to have to give it all up again. 817 00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:54,320 All your possessions, everything you own in this world, all your 818 00:43:54,720 --> 00:43:57,880 friendships, all your relationships with your family 819 00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:01,560 members, whatever it is, right? A lot of your psychological 820 00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:04,600 belongings, things like your status and society, your 821 00:44:04,600 --> 00:44:08,560 education, your, you know, your social position, whatever it is, 822 00:44:08,840 --> 00:44:11,960 that too has to go. And of course, finally, your own 823 00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:16,320 physical body has to go as well. All of that stuff is really just 824 00:44:16,400 --> 00:44:19,320 borrowed goods. It belongs to this world, does 825 00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:22,480 not belong to the next World. When you come to the boundary 826 00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:24,840 between this life and the next life, you're going to have to 827 00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:28,200 give it all up. And what are you left with at 828 00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:30,040 that point? You're left with only one thing 829 00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:33,000 and that is your mind. And if that mind has been 830 00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:36,680 developed in a good way to be made beautiful and shiny and 831 00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:40,520 powerful and happy, you bring that happiness into the future, 832 00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:43,320 right? And that is what then what it 833 00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:46,640 means then to basically get a good rebirth in the future life. 834 00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:49,320 It means that you're bringing with you a beautiful mind that 835 00:44:49,320 --> 00:44:52,240 you have created in this life, a beautiful character and that 836 00:44:52,240 --> 00:44:55,280 then takes you, takes you on, take, moves you forward in a 837 00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:58,960 positive way in the future life, right? 838 00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:03,040 So it is all about investment. How are we going to invest our 839 00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:04,880 time? What is our investment strategy 840 00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:07,600 going to be like, right? How much are we going to invest 841 00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:11,120 in this narrow little slice of time, which is called this life? 842 00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:14,880 And how much are you going to invest instead in a much broader 843 00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:19,360 picture of things, the great expanse, right, of life, moving 844 00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:22,400 on from this life, moving on into the future, into a renewed 845 00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:25,920 existence and possibly going on like that for a very long time? 846 00:45:26,240 --> 00:45:28,720 What are you going to invest in? Right? 847 00:45:28,760 --> 00:45:32,240 And this is what the idea of death tells you. 848 00:45:32,520 --> 00:45:35,640 If you remind yourself you're going to die, it reminds you 849 00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:38,400 where you should invest. It reminds you what is really 850 00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:41,440 important in life. It doesn't mean that you stop 851 00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:44,880 doing the ordinary things in life, but it means that how the 852 00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:47,880 how you do deal with the ordinary things in life changes. 853 00:45:48,240 --> 00:45:50,840 Yes, you still work, you still do the things that you have to 854 00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:54,920 do with your family and friends, but you change the quality on 855 00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:57,360 how you do those things. You do it in a different way. 856 00:45:57,360 --> 00:46:00,360 You do it in more kindness or more care, more compassion to 857 00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:03,520 ensure that you build up all these positive qualities inside 858 00:46:03,520 --> 00:46:06,000 of you. And then you are, in a sense, 859 00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:08,880 investing in the right way, right. 860 00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:11,520 So this is the idea of death contemplation. 861 00:46:11,520 --> 00:46:15,680 It is not bad at all if you use death contemplation in the right 862 00:46:15,680 --> 00:46:18,520 way, if you remind yourself you're going to die, what it 863 00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:22,280 leads to, it leads to an enhancement of the quality of 864 00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:26,280 your life, more mindfulness, more ability to prioritise in 865 00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:28,760 the right way, Right. And this is what death 866 00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:32,200 contemplation really is about at its most basic level. 867 00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:33,680 So it's a beautiful thing. Yeah. 868 00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:37,160 So when you do all of these things that I've been talking 869 00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:40,360 about now, right, or some of them or whatever it is, you do 870 00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:44,440 some of these things anyway, then the Buddha also says, and 871 00:46:44,440 --> 00:46:47,720 this is one of the teachings he gave us to another Pindica, one 872 00:46:47,720 --> 00:46:50,440 of the most important lay disciples of the Buddha, who 873 00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:53,160 donated large monasteries and these kind of things to the 874 00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:55,000 Buddha and the Sangha at the time. 875 00:46:55,640 --> 00:47:00,960 He says to him that you, even you lay disciples sometimes you 876 00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:05,480 should go away, go away from the crowd, find a secluded place and 877 00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:10,640 enjoy the bliss of seclusion in your own life, right. 878 00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:13,360 What he's saying there is that you should not be satisfied with 879 00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:17,240 just doing, being moral, not be satisfied with just living a 880 00:47:17,240 --> 00:47:21,360 life of generosity and kindness. Sometimes you should take time 881 00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:24,360 out and you should go to places like Jana Grove. 882 00:47:24,600 --> 00:47:27,560 He doesn't actually mention Jana Grove in the Suit Desert, but he 883 00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:29,480 probably would have if you had known about it. 884 00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:35,760 So go to John I go, take time out and enjoy the meditation. 885 00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:40,360 Enjoy the happiness that comes from living life well and living 886 00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:43,240 life in a good way. Because this is the fruit, 887 00:47:43,240 --> 00:47:45,040 right? One of the benefits of living 888 00:47:45,040 --> 00:47:47,080 life well. So please do that. 889 00:47:47,080 --> 00:47:50,360 And one of the beautiful things that you find out when you go on 890 00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:53,960 a meditation retreat, right? You find out a number of things. 891 00:47:53,960 --> 00:47:56,640 First of all, you find out that meditation sometimes works. 892 00:47:56,640 --> 00:47:58,480 Sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes you're frustrated, 893 00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:00,720 sometimes you're not. All these kind of things, of 894 00:48:00,720 --> 00:48:03,840 course, but one of the things that you find out if you go on 895 00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:07,680 regular retreats, say once a year or once every six months or 896 00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:11,760 whatever it is, you find out whether you are living your life 897 00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:15,040 as a Buddhist or as a spiritual person or whatever you want to 898 00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:18,040 call yourself, whether you are living it well or not. 899 00:48:18,280 --> 00:48:22,160 You actually find that out. Because if after a certain 900 00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:25,600 period of time you go on retreat again and you find that your 901 00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:29,960 mindfulness has increased, your somebody has increased, your 902 00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:32,480 defilements have gone down, you're, you're angry, right? 903 00:48:32,480 --> 00:48:34,120 You're more patient, all these kind of things. 904 00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:37,320 You have a more kind heart, you have more compassion for the 905 00:48:37,320 --> 00:48:40,160 people around you, if that is what you find when you go on 906 00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:42,200 retreat. And especially that your 907 00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:45,720 meditation is more profound. And that is one of the ways to 908 00:48:45,720 --> 00:48:49,600 gauge whether you really are living your life as a Buddhist 909 00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:51,760 in the right way. Otherwise, how do we know? 910 00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:53,920 Sometimes, yes, we do all the right things. 911 00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:56,000 We do what seems to work or whatever. 912 00:48:56,240 --> 00:49:00,080 But you need some way of kind of establishing this and going on a 913 00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:02,680 meditation retreat is a wonderful way of doing that. 914 00:49:03,080 --> 00:49:06,280 And hopefully when you do that, sometimes you will get some of 915 00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:10,400 those great results right, which are part and parcel, can be part 916 00:49:10,400 --> 00:49:12,600 and parcel anyway of meditation practice. 917 00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:16,720 When you really feel a sense of bliss, when you feel a sense of 918 00:49:16,720 --> 00:49:20,360 inner purity and happiness, and when you do that, you start to 919 00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:23,640 understand the value of living the spiritual life. 920 00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:27,520 You get access to certain things that ordinary people just don't 921 00:49:27,520 --> 00:49:31,080 have access to it, and you start to get closer to understanding 922 00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:33,680 what the real meaning of life actually is. 923 00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:37,840 And the Buddha said also lay people should also have access 924 00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:40,600 to that, right? It is not just for monastics. 925 00:49:40,960 --> 00:49:43,680 So if you live life well, you too can go there. 926 00:49:43,920 --> 00:49:46,320 And what a wonderful thing that is if that happens. 927 00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:50,760 So as you can see, that is just a a summary of some of the 928 00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:53,160 teachings of the Buddha gave to lay people. 929 00:49:53,240 --> 00:49:55,840 It is pretty much the same as it is for monastics. 930 00:49:56,280 --> 00:49:59,320 All of the things that you have I've talked about tonight is 931 00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:01,720 basically the things that you can expect the Buddha to say 932 00:50:01,720 --> 00:50:06,760 almost to anyone, but still the slant, the, the emphasis is 933 00:50:06,760 --> 00:50:09,600 slightly different, but that is really all there is to it. 934 00:50:09,600 --> 00:50:13,160 Otherwise, it is all there and everything is there for you to 935 00:50:13,160 --> 00:50:16,360 enjoy, right? So practice in the right way and 936 00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:20,120 you too can take part in this amazing and wonderful things 937 00:50:20,360 --> 00:50:21,880 that can happen on the Buddhist path. 938 00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:26,800 OK. So that is the talk for tonight. 939 00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:35,280 So, OK. So are there any questions from 940 00:50:35,280 --> 00:50:42,280 the from the assembly tonight? Yes. 941 00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:45,960 You want to ask a question? No, yeah, just over here. 942 00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:50,280 OK. Yeah, so I was just thinking 943 00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:53,160 about how being compassionate to other people and being a lay 944 00:50:53,160 --> 00:50:55,160 Buddhist. And then there's a lot of 945 00:50:55,160 --> 00:50:57,080 friends. I have a lot of friends who are 946 00:50:57,080 --> 00:51:01,000 not Buddhist or have exposure to Buddhist teachings, but I think 947 00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:02,640 that they can get a lot of benefit from it. 948 00:51:03,040 --> 00:51:07,200 But it's very hard to come to people like the same as how 949 00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:10,120 people feel uncomfortable when they got talk about talk about 950 00:51:10,120 --> 00:51:11,680 Christianity, God and so on and so forth. 951 00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:14,840 And how? People are uncomfortable to you 952 00:51:14,840 --> 00:51:17,560 know, you tell like you know this would be good for you. 953 00:51:17,560 --> 00:51:18,280 So how? What's something? 954 00:51:18,280 --> 00:51:20,640 We can do don't tell them it's good for tell them, tell them 955 00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:23,520 it's fun, right? When you come to Damaloka Centre 956 00:51:23,520 --> 00:51:26,080 on Friday night, it is just it's, it's a kind of a ajam. 957 00:51:26,080 --> 00:51:28,000 Brahm is really good at this because it makes it very 958 00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:29,880 entertaining. You want to hear some good 959 00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:32,880 jokes, come to Damaloka Centre on Friday night, right? 960 00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:35,000 There's a bit of spirituality perhaps, but the main point 961 00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:36,880 you're going to come is just to have some good jokes and have a 962 00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:39,040 good time. And I think this is one of the 963 00:51:39,040 --> 00:51:42,240 things, one of the, I think most important things of a spiritual 964 00:51:42,240 --> 00:51:44,600 leader is to make the dumb accessible, right? 965 00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:47,600 Especially to people who haven't got that inclination, maybe 966 00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:49,240 don't really understand what it's all about. 967 00:51:49,560 --> 00:51:52,280 So you make it accessible to them and any kind of people. 968 00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:54,880 So it's, it's about the packaging is very important. 969 00:51:55,200 --> 00:51:58,200 And then as you give the right packaging, the kind of the 970 00:51:58,200 --> 00:52:01,520 spiritual input is also there here, according to Adam Ram, 971 00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:04,200 there was a famous Tibetan monk many years ago who said 972 00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:07,800 something to the fact that the way to teach the Dumber is that 973 00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:11,840 you make people laugh, right? And when the mouth is a Gabe, 974 00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:16,360 you throw in the pillow wisdom. That was that was his idea of 975 00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:18,960 teaching people, right? And it's quite nice. 976 00:52:18,960 --> 00:52:20,120 I think there's something to that. 977 00:52:20,120 --> 00:52:22,440 You know, you make sure people have a good time. 978 00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:25,000 Spiritual practice should not be a torture. 979 00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:27,400 It should actually be something to make you happy and feel good. 980 00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:29,800 That's the whole point of this. Sometimes people think a 981 00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:33,440 spiritual practice or religion is somehow kind of, you know, 982 00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:36,720 it's, it's some kind of, you know, restraint on you or 983 00:52:36,720 --> 00:52:38,440 something negative. You have to really kind of be, 984 00:52:38,680 --> 00:52:40,720 you have to really be nice and you have to be restrained, have 985 00:52:40,720 --> 00:52:42,720 to keep all these precepts and all these things. 986 00:52:43,200 --> 00:52:45,760 But the reality, of course, is that if you lead the spiritual 987 00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:48,400 life in the right way, it is the exact opposite of that. 988 00:52:48,400 --> 00:52:51,080 It's about happiness and joy and that all the good things. 989 00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:54,360 Who doesn't want that? Everybody wants that, right? 990 00:52:54,600 --> 00:52:56,960 Sometimes people just don't know where to get it, and that's the 991 00:52:56,960 --> 00:53:01,080 problem. OK Anyone else wants to say 992 00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:01,720 anything? Yeah. 993 00:53:02,960 --> 00:53:05,280 OK. Very, very contented assembly 994 00:53:05,280 --> 00:53:06,120 tonight. OK, Go in there. 995 00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:07,920 So we'll. We'll stay with that 996 00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:08,960 contentment. That's great. 997 00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:10,800 OK. Thank you all. 998 00:53:16,240 --> 00:53:18,800 OK, I'll just get my glasses out because otherwise I can't see 999 00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:21,200 anything at all. And I can see some blurry black 1000 00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:24,440 and white stuff, but that doesn't quite cut it. 1001 00:53:25,120 --> 00:53:29,760 So OK, this is the first question is from Joris. 1002 00:53:30,160 --> 00:53:34,960 Could you elaborate on solitude as a lady devotee in the Ovada 1003 00:53:34,960 --> 00:53:37,280 Pattimoca? It says to dwell in seclusion. 1004 00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:42,640 OK, I really enjoy solitude. We find it hard to integrate in 1005 00:53:42,720 --> 00:53:46,360 in modern Western society here. That's great if you like 1006 00:53:46,360 --> 00:53:48,240 enjoying solitude, that's wonderful. 1007 00:53:48,240 --> 00:53:50,480 The vast majority of people don't enjoy that at all. 1008 00:53:50,480 --> 00:53:53,240 So that's already you are already way ahead of everyone 1009 00:53:53,240 --> 00:53:55,680 else pretty much. So what a great thing that is 1010 00:53:55,680 --> 00:53:59,000 that you like solitude. So the the way to do that, of 1011 00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:03,480 course is to understand that you have to do your things in 1012 00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:05,840 ordinary life. Life is complicated. 1013 00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:08,240 Life has a lot of things, demands and your 1014 00:54:08,240 --> 00:54:10,120 responsibilities that you have to do. 1015 00:54:10,400 --> 00:54:13,680 So you do those and then you take the opportunity to go into 1016 00:54:13,680 --> 00:54:15,720 solitude whenever you get your opportunity. 1017 00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:17,600 That is really the way to do that. 1018 00:54:18,000 --> 00:54:21,240 And what you will find is that the better you are at dealing 1019 00:54:21,240 --> 00:54:24,360 with your ordinary life, the better you are at being kind and 1020 00:54:24,360 --> 00:54:27,280 compassionate to the people around you, the more you will 1021 00:54:27,280 --> 00:54:30,440 enjoy the solitude. It's a weird thing, right? 1022 00:54:30,440 --> 00:54:34,000 But the people who have a hard time dealing with people around 1023 00:54:34,000 --> 00:54:36,720 them who are not, don't really have that kindness and 1024 00:54:36,880 --> 00:54:39,120 compassion. Perhaps to ordinary people, when 1025 00:54:39,120 --> 00:54:42,080 they go into solitude, it doesn't really work because 1026 00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:45,800 their mind is the wrong place. But when your mind already has 1027 00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:48,680 been developed in the right way in ordinary life, that's when 1028 00:54:48,680 --> 00:54:51,720 solitude becomes incredibly powerful because you take that 1029 00:54:51,720 --> 00:54:54,480 sense of goodness that you have inside of you, you take it into 1030 00:54:54,480 --> 00:54:57,920 the solitude and that's when it gives good results. 1031 00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:05,880 So take the opportunity and, and come, you know, come and stay in 1032 00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:08,520 a monastery, go to retreat centre, go to these kind of 1033 00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:11,600 places whereby where you have the opportunity to do these kind 1034 00:55:11,600 --> 00:55:14,400 of things. And then, you know, maybe you 1035 00:55:14,400 --> 00:55:18,200 can take a year off, right? Take a year off somewhere and 1036 00:55:18,200 --> 00:55:20,400 then maybe go and stay in a monastery somewhere. 1037 00:55:20,400 --> 00:55:23,360 It's a nice monastery, which is like a forest monastery here and 1038 00:55:23,360 --> 00:55:25,520 just enjoy as much solitude as possible. 1039 00:55:25,920 --> 00:55:27,880 These things are possible. Or maybe you should ordain. 1040 00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:30,680 I don't know if you can ordain. That's a nice way to get heaps 1041 00:55:30,680 --> 00:55:35,040 of solitude as as a Buddhist monk, I can pretty much get as 1042 00:55:35,040 --> 00:55:37,160 much solitude as I want pretty much. 1043 00:55:37,240 --> 00:55:39,680 Well, except, you know, when you have to travel and teach that 1044 00:55:39,680 --> 00:55:41,440 kind of stuff. But if you have a lot of 1045 00:55:41,440 --> 00:55:44,840 solitude in the monastery, here in our monastery, we have like a 1046 00:55:44,840 --> 00:55:46,480 roster. If you want to go on retreat, 1047 00:55:46,480 --> 00:55:49,080 you just put your name on the roster, go on retreat any time 1048 00:55:49,080 --> 00:55:51,480 you want. That is how our monastery works. 1049 00:55:51,960 --> 00:55:54,400 So that's pretty, pretty cool, right, If you like solitude 1050 00:55:54,400 --> 00:55:58,320 here. So ordaining is not a bad idea 1051 00:55:58,320 --> 00:56:02,080 at all, though I can recommend that, especially if you like 1052 00:56:02,080 --> 00:56:04,400 solitude. OK, So good luck. 1053 00:56:04,400 --> 00:56:07,800 Jarisly. Next one is Ang Wei Chung from 1054 00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:11,800 Penang in Malaysia. How should a layperson find 1055 00:56:11,800 --> 00:56:16,880 security during old age, especially when one is single? 1056 00:56:17,280 --> 00:56:20,280 There is no offspring to look after you here. 1057 00:56:21,680 --> 00:56:26,200 OK, so how do you find security in in old age when when you are 1058 00:56:26,200 --> 00:56:28,680 single? And of course the best way to 1059 00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:33,080 find a security is always in just practising in the right 1060 00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:36,400 way, living life. Well, the real security is a 1061 00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:39,520 psychological security that you have inside of yourself. 1062 00:56:39,840 --> 00:56:41,760 That is what it's really is about, right? 1063 00:56:42,400 --> 00:56:45,720 So just keep on doing those Buddhist things that actually 1064 00:56:45,720 --> 00:56:48,000 lead that inner psychological security. 1065 00:56:48,360 --> 00:56:52,360 And even if the external security isn't there 100%, it's 1066 00:56:52,360 --> 00:56:56,760 a bit dicey, a bit uncertain, at least you have the inner wealth 1067 00:56:56,760 --> 00:56:59,840 of the heart and the inner wealth of the heart that is as 1068 00:56:59,840 --> 00:57:02,760 far more important than the outer wealth. 1069 00:57:03,560 --> 00:57:07,520 So, so, you know, live according to your means, live in the right 1070 00:57:07,520 --> 00:57:09,000 way. I mean, I can't tell you exactly 1071 00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:12,240 how to deal with the kind of financial security and these 1072 00:57:12,240 --> 00:57:17,480 kind of things, but if you live the right way spiritually, I 1073 00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:20,320 think you have done the vast, the most important thing in your 1074 00:57:20,320 --> 00:57:22,400 life. But this is really the way to 1075 00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:24,680 go. Of course, if you are inclined 1076 00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:28,520 that way, it is possible to go forth as well as a monastic. 1077 00:57:28,520 --> 00:57:31,480 If you are a strong Buddhist and you've been practising for a 1078 00:57:31,480 --> 00:57:35,040 long time and you feel that monastic life is for you, then 1079 00:57:35,040 --> 00:57:36,840 of course you can do that as well. 1080 00:57:36,840 --> 00:57:40,880 It is always a possibility here. Otherwise, it is good to be 1081 00:57:40,880 --> 00:57:43,680 reborn in a country where the Social Security is really 1082 00:57:43,680 --> 00:57:46,760 strong, right? So next, if you do all the right 1083 00:57:46,760 --> 00:57:48,800 things in this life, you hopefully get reborn in such a 1084 00:57:48,800 --> 00:57:52,280 country in your next life. So that is one way of doing it. 1085 00:57:53,080 --> 00:57:58,720 OK, so third question is from Sophia Antonis. 1086 00:57:58,720 --> 00:58:01,360 I probably don't pronounce that correctly, but from Portugal. 1087 00:58:01,360 --> 00:58:06,360 Then when I do something to try to be kind and generous, because 1088 00:58:06,360 --> 00:58:10,120 I am a shy person, I feel awkward and I feel that people 1089 00:58:10,120 --> 00:58:13,840 think I am being fake. Can you please advise her? 1090 00:58:14,800 --> 00:58:19,480 OK, so one of the, I think, important things in life is not 1091 00:58:19,480 --> 00:58:22,200 to worry too much about what other people think. 1092 00:58:22,600 --> 00:58:25,480 If you do that, you're never going to get anywhere in your 1093 00:58:25,480 --> 00:58:28,320 spiritual life. Yes, sometimes people may think 1094 00:58:28,320 --> 00:58:31,720 you are, you know, are a fool even for coming to the Buddhist 1095 00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:33,080 society. Like, why are you going there 1096 00:58:33,080 --> 00:58:35,000 for us kind of really nuts to go there. 1097 00:58:35,240 --> 00:58:37,320 What's the point of that? You can have a good time, you 1098 00:58:37,320 --> 00:58:38,960 know, somewhere else. Let's go to a restaurant or 1099 00:58:38,960 --> 00:58:42,240 something like that. But the point is that other 1100 00:58:42,240 --> 00:58:44,720 people often don't know. They don't understand. 1101 00:58:44,720 --> 00:58:47,400 They don't cannot see what is going inside of your mind. 1102 00:58:47,400 --> 00:58:49,720 They don't really understand what true happiness is to be 1103 00:58:49,720 --> 00:58:52,560 found. Don't worry about too much about 1104 00:58:52,560 --> 00:58:55,520 other people. Do what is right if you feel shy 1105 00:58:55,520 --> 00:58:58,920 about it and try to find the right way of doing things where 1106 00:58:58,960 --> 00:59:01,280 it doesn't make you feel even more shy. 1107 00:59:01,280 --> 00:59:03,920 Right, because you can get even more shy makes it even more 1108 00:59:03,920 --> 00:59:06,400 difficult. But try to find kind of nice 1109 00:59:06,400 --> 00:59:10,120 ways of being kind without kind of it disturbing you, your state 1110 00:59:10,120 --> 00:59:12,920 of mind. And if other people feel that 1111 00:59:13,520 --> 00:59:17,440 again, you are being fake. Again, if it happens only 1112 00:59:17,440 --> 00:59:19,760 occasionally, don't worry too much about it. 1113 00:59:20,280 --> 00:59:24,400 If it happens a lot, all the time, then there's always 1114 00:59:24,400 --> 00:59:28,040 different ways of doing this and different ways of being kind and 1115 00:59:28,040 --> 00:59:31,400 just try to find new ways. All you have to do here is 1116 00:59:31,400 --> 00:59:34,480 really just to investigate what you're doing, investigate your 1117 00:59:34,480 --> 00:59:37,360 situation, and as you investigate what you're doing, 1118 00:59:37,360 --> 00:59:39,960 there's always Ways and Means around these things, these 1119 00:59:39,960 --> 00:59:44,240 awkward things. But so try do that and 1120 00:59:44,240 --> 00:59:47,760 eventually you'll find a way. Kindness, generally speaking, in 1121 00:59:47,760 --> 00:59:50,640 my experience, always is rewarded in the end. 1122 00:59:51,000 --> 00:59:52,920 It is always has a powerful effect. 1123 00:59:53,280 --> 00:59:56,840 Sometimes people say, oh, I just get used by other people if I'm 1124 00:59:56,840 --> 00:59:59,920 too kind. But in my life, I always find 1125 00:59:59,920 --> 01:00:03,760 that if I'm kind, people respond so beautifully to that kindness. 1126 01:00:04,520 --> 01:00:06,000 Right. It's just has such a powerful 1127 01:00:06,000 --> 01:00:08,440 impact on people. Maybe occasionally people will 1128 01:00:08,440 --> 01:00:11,000 take it the wrong way, but I just shrugged my shoulders. 1129 01:00:11,000 --> 01:00:13,760 I don't really care about that. It is their problem if they take 1130 01:00:13,760 --> 01:00:16,600 it the wrong way. But the general result, I feel 1131 01:00:16,600 --> 01:00:20,080 is always very, very powerful. So don't give up, keep on 1132 01:00:20,080 --> 01:00:23,040 investigating it, see how you can do it in a good way, and 1133 01:00:23,040 --> 01:00:25,320 don't be too concerned about what other people do. 1134 01:00:25,600 --> 01:00:29,320 And then you will have a long, happy life as a Buddhist. 1135 01:00:31,000 --> 01:00:33,600 OK. That is all. 1136 01:00:33,600 --> 01:00:34,600 Eddie. Oh, Eddie. 1137 01:00:34,600 --> 01:00:35,280 OK. Yes. 1138 01:00:35,840 --> 01:00:37,680 Eddie is always reliable for a question. 1139 01:00:37,680 --> 01:00:39,280 So we get Eddie at the back there. 1140 01:00:41,880 --> 01:00:47,000 John Bramley, the Buddha, also mentioned that his teaching is 1141 01:00:47,120 --> 01:00:49,160 timeless. Timeless. 1142 01:00:49,160 --> 01:00:50,880 Yeah. I was just referring to the 1143 01:00:51,160 --> 01:00:53,560 modern movement. You know, I don't like this. 1144 01:00:53,560 --> 01:00:55,680 I take this out. I don't like that I take that 1145 01:00:55,680 --> 01:00:58,000 out. It's not necessary, isn't it? 1146 01:00:59,080 --> 01:01:01,480 Yeah, that's a good. I think it's a good point, the 1147 01:01:01,480 --> 01:01:05,000 idea that the Buddha's teaching is timeless and you don't, it's 1148 01:01:05,000 --> 01:01:08,240 not necessary so much to kind of look at the teaching and pick 1149 01:01:08,320 --> 01:01:10,920 certain aspects and throw away other aspects. 1150 01:01:11,360 --> 01:01:13,960 But actually to assume that those things that the Buddha 1151 01:01:13,960 --> 01:01:18,160 taught there is a complete package and all the aspects in 1152 01:01:18,160 --> 01:01:21,280 there are important and the way I usually recommend people to 1153 01:01:21,280 --> 01:01:22,680 do. Sometimes you might read 1154 01:01:22,680 --> 01:01:26,480 something which looks a bit strange, put it aside for now, 1155 01:01:26,640 --> 01:01:29,160 come back to it later on, then it'll make make much more sense 1156 01:01:29,160 --> 01:01:32,800 again in the future. But don't be don't kind of think 1157 01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:35,520 it's, you know, it's too easy to kind of Chuck out a few things. 1158 01:01:35,520 --> 01:01:37,760 The Buddhist, I don't like the idea of non self, so I just 1159 01:01:37,960 --> 01:01:40,440 throw that out. If you do that, you may end up 1160 01:01:40,800 --> 01:01:43,240 going really far astray as far as the Buddhism is concerned. 1161 01:01:44,120 --> 01:01:45,760 Thanks. Thank you, Eddie here. 1162 01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:48,800 OK, so let us pay respect to Buddha Masanga.