1
00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:03,000
Are you ready? 
Yeah, ready or not, it's going 

2
00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:04,480
to happen now. 
So what to do? 

3
00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:12,560
So Happy New Year once again. 
And I think these times when we 

4
00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:17,040
kind of go from one thing to 
another, moving forward from one

5
00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:19,720
year to the next, from one 
birthday to the next, whatever 

6
00:00:19,720 --> 00:00:23,480
it might be, there's always a 
good time to sort of take stock,

7
00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,920
take stock of our meditation 
practice, our spiritual practice

8
00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:32,320
and all of these kind of things 
and ask ourselves if maybe we 

9
00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:35,000
can do something better. 
How can we improve? 

10
00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:39,400
How can we kind of add an extra 
kind of extra? 

11
00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:43,040
What is it the right term? 
Is there extra kind of effort or

12
00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:47,920
extra factor for that path to 
work better or more powerfully 

13
00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:50,160
here? 
So it's always a good way of 

14
00:00:50,160 --> 00:00:52,320
thinking about things. 
It's easy to become a bit 

15
00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:54,760
complacent. 
It's kind of the human mind. 

16
00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:56,400
Yeah. 
It's easy to kind of just follow

17
00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:59,200
the same old routine. 
But actually we need to 

18
00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,840
investigate a little bit to 
figure out what is going on. 

19
00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:06,160
If you are stagnating a bit, why
might that be? 

20
00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:09,120
There's always a reason. 
The Buddha promised that if you 

21
00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:11,800
practice in the right way, there
will be results. 

22
00:01:11,960 --> 00:01:15,560
If there are no results, it's 
because maybe you are missing 

23
00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:19,160
something here. 
So a good place to start is 

24
00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:22,680
always to kind of look at the 
world today. 

25
00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:25,200
Yeah. 
Because when you go into the new

26
00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:28,280
year, you kind of think, what is
the year ahead going to be like?

27
00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:31,280
And you know, this is what a lot
of people do. 

28
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:34,240
If you read the newspapers or 
something like that, they will 

29
00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:36,960
kind of look at the past year 
and summarize it and tell you 

30
00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:40,440
what's ahead. 
And sometimes when you look 

31
00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:47,640
ahead at the world, you think, 
do I want to be part of this or 

32
00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:50,320
do I want to kind of, you know, 
step aside from the world a 

33
00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:51,760
little bit and kind of do my own
thing. 

34
00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:54,400
It doesn't look kind of very 
nice right now. 

35
00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:57,120
The world is kind of yucky is 
all kind of things going on, 

36
00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:00,800
politics and wars and climate 
stuff and all kind of things. 

37
00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:03,920
And sometimes you wonder what 
the future holds. 

38
00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:08,039
But actually, that is a great 
opportunity right there. 

39
00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:10,240
Yeah. 
Every every kind of problem has 

40
00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:14,440
an opportunity, you know that. 
Anyone here been to Business 

41
00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:16,960
School? 
Yeah, every, every problem has a

42
00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:19,000
potential opportunity to. 
It is what it tells you in 

43
00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:21,400
Business School, you know, if 
you get an MBA or whatever, 

44
00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:23,640
that's what they say. 
And then it kind of turns. 

45
00:02:23,640 --> 00:02:26,680
But there's some truth to that, 
especially from a Dumber point 

46
00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:28,600
of view. 
I think more true in the Dumber 

47
00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:31,080
than it is in business. 
Maybe, I don't know. 

48
00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:32,960
I think in Dumber it is really, 
really true. 

49
00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:38,920
And the point is that if you see
the problems of the world, it 

50
00:02:38,920 --> 00:02:43,160
makes the spiritual path even 
more important, because the 

51
00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:47,840
spiritual path is exactly a way 
of withdrawing from that world. 

52
00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:51,200
The spiritual path is a way of 
going beyond it. 

53
00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:54,400
The spiritual path is a way of 
learning how to deal with those 

54
00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:58,080
problems, not being kind of 
bowled over emotionally or 

55
00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:00,480
whatever by all these issues in 
the world. 

56
00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:04,080
Having a stability inside, a 
sense of independence from all 

57
00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:06,880
of these kind of things. 
Isn't that great to be 

58
00:03:06,880 --> 00:03:09,160
independent? 
Is that a wonderful thing? 

59
00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:11,520
Doesn't everyone want to be 
independent? 

60
00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:13,360
You cannot see. 
The world goes wrong. 

61
00:03:13,720 --> 00:03:19,280
The world goes to the dogs. 
Let the dogs have it right. 

62
00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:22,000
That's kind of what you think. 
And it's OK. 

63
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:23,840
Yeah. 
Because you have something else.

64
00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:25,280
You have something more 
powerful. 

65
00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:28,480
And so the idea here is that 
from a Buddhist point of view, 

66
00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:32,040
the dangers in the world, the 
problems in the world are 

67
00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:35,200
definitely an opportunity here. 
It changes your focus. 

68
00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:37,320
It turns your mind in a 
different direction. 

69
00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:42,760
It allows you to find something 
far more meaningful than the 

70
00:03:42,760 --> 00:03:45,440
world could ever give you in the
1st place. 

71
00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:48,280
So take these things. 
Yeah. 

72
00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:50,680
Don't kind of sorrow too much. 
Instead, see them as 

73
00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:52,800
opportunities. 
And then you're going to be on 

74
00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:53,800
the right track. 
Yeah. 

75
00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:56,240
This is the first thing to 
remember. 

76
00:03:56,240 --> 00:03:58,080
Yeah. 
And when you remember that, then

77
00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:01,280
it kind of already it lifts your
mood a little bit straight away.

78
00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:05,720
The other thing to remember 
sometimes I think one of the 

79
00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:09,160
problems on the spiritual path 
is that especially if you feel 

80
00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:11,720
you are stagnating a bit or I've
been meditating for so many 

81
00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:16,519
years, where are the lights? 
Where are these things that I 

82
00:04:16,519 --> 00:04:18,519
want to have? 
You know, everyone talks about 

83
00:04:18,519 --> 00:04:19,880
lights all the time of 
meditation. 

84
00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:22,120
Forget those blooming lights, 
just enjoy what you have. 

85
00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:25,040
That's what I say. 
But everyone, you know, we are, 

86
00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:29,960
it's very easy to get a bit 
frustrated or disappointed or 

87
00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:32,080
feeling we haven't done enough 
progress. 

88
00:04:32,840 --> 00:04:35,880
And sometimes we think that, 
well, maybe that's the way it 

89
00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:38,320
has to be in the future, but it 
doesn't. 

90
00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:40,560
This is a really important 
point. 

91
00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:44,600
Don't get stuck in those things.
As long as we can go beyond some

92
00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:47,480
of those bad habits and we can 
think about things in a new way,

93
00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:52,440
we can make remarkable progress.
Everyone of us here, every 

94
00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:55,560
person here, can become a better
version of ourselves. 

95
00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:58,960
It's not that you become a 
completely different person, but

96
00:04:58,960 --> 00:05:02,160
you become kind of the best 
version of yourself sometimes by

97
00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:05,960
practising the spiritual path. 
And I sometimes talked about 

98
00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:10,760
this amazing experiment that I 
read about a while ago, and that

99
00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:15,400
was about people's ability to 
foresee the future and how 

100
00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:19,280
incredibly bad they were at 
foreseeing the future, as what 

101
00:05:19,280 --> 00:05:22,080
this experiment has found out. 
And you may have heard this 

102
00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:25,480
before, but what they found out 
was that when people looked into

103
00:05:25,480 --> 00:05:29,480
the past and they were told, OK,
kind of look at your past 10 

104
00:05:29,480 --> 00:05:33,320
years from 10 years ago until 
now and what has happened in 

105
00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:35,560
those ten years. 
Can you see kind of your change 

106
00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:37,440
and how you have things are kind
of altered. 

107
00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:39,960
You are now a different person 
from when you were then maybe 

108
00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,480
you are a better person, but 
maybe you're changed in other 

109
00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:44,280
ways. 
And they could say, yeah, yeah, 

110
00:05:44,280 --> 00:05:45,960
I can see the change. 
It went like this and it went 

111
00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:48,040
that way a little bit. 
And it went kind of down and up 

112
00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:49,960
again. 
And, you know, they could see a 

113
00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:54,120
lot of change in their lives and
how the personality sometimes 

114
00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,200
was dramatically altered as a 
consequence of those changes. 

115
00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,000
But then they were asked exactly
the same thing for the future. 

116
00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:02,400
Yeah. 
So what about the future? 

117
00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:06,160
Can you see change for the next?
If you look 10 years from now, 

118
00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:10,280
2035 or 2036, now actually takes
a while to get used to the new 

119
00:06:10,280 --> 00:06:12,800
year, 2036. 
Yeah. 

120
00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:16,760
What would you be like then? 
And they weren't able to see the

121
00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:19,600
same kind of change. 
Yeah, They weren't able to see 

122
00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:22,120
that actually, you know, they 
could do all of these turns and 

123
00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:23,680
go in all of these different 
directions. 

124
00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:26,400
All they could see was 
basically, it's going to be me, 

125
00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:31,480
but maybe, maybe I will have, I 
don't know, maybe, you know, I 

126
00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:33,800
will be a little bit better in 
this area or whatever. 

127
00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:38,360
But it was basically themselves 
with tiny kind of improvement in

128
00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:41,280
certain areas or maybe even 
decline in certain areas. 

129
00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:45,360
And so we don't understand the 
potential for change. 

130
00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:48,360
It is great. 
Is it massive potential there? 

131
00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:52,160
If you get the dumb right to get
the practice right, you can 

132
00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:57,240
become a very the same person in
a deep sense, but a far, far 

133
00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:00,840
better version of that person. 
It is possible to become one who

134
00:07:00,840 --> 00:07:06,200
is truly compassionate, someone 
who is truly loving, someone who

135
00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:10,840
is truly caring for the world, 
for everything around you, 

136
00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:13,720
someone who maybe even has a lot
of bliss and happiness and 

137
00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:15,520
meditation. 
All of these things are 

138
00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,800
available on this path. 
And all you have to do is to 

139
00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:21,040
kind of move your mind in the 
right way. 

140
00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:23,840
And as you do that, these things
will happen. 

141
00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:30,520
So how do we make this happen? 
How can we become far better 

142
00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:34,040
people than we are now already? 
And a lot of it is about the 

143
00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:36,600
choices that we make. 
Yeah. 

144
00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:41,440
We have to make good choices, 
avoid the bad ones, do the good 

145
00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:44,720
ones instead. 
And when I mean say choices, 

146
00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:47,800
what I mean, there's many levels
of choices. 

147
00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:50,760
You have the choices that are 
very kind of large choices in 

148
00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:51,320
life. 
Yeah. 

149
00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:54,200
Where am I going to live? 
Who is going to be my boyfriend 

150
00:07:54,200 --> 00:07:56,360
or girlfriend? 
What kind of job am I going to 

151
00:07:56,360 --> 00:07:58,360
have? 
What Buddhist society should I 

152
00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,160
go to? 
OK, this one is this. 

153
00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:04,680
No, I was messing around. 
Whatever. 

154
00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:07,360
Up to you. 
So all of this kind of big 

155
00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:10,560
choices, right, which are kind 
of your whole life takes a 

156
00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:12,800
certain direction when you make 
those big choices. 

157
00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:16,280
But what I'm really referring to
here, they are certainly 

158
00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:20,280
important, but maybe more 
important, yeah, even more 

159
00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:24,240
important are the choices you 
make all the time throughout the

160
00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:24,800
day. 
Yeah. 

161
00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:29,560
The little thing is when you 
meet somebody, how you speak 

162
00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:32,640
with them. 
And sometimes the way we speak 

163
00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:35,760
to people, it is as if we're not
making a choice at all. 

164
00:08:35,799 --> 00:08:38,840
It just comes out of our mouth 
and before it's out, it takes 

165
00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:39,799
you. 
What happened there? 

166
00:08:39,799 --> 00:08:43,480
It came out of my mouth so fast 
and you have no really sense 

167
00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:45,960
that you even made a choice, but
you did make a choice. 

168
00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:48,800
It just happened so fast you 
can't even see it. 

169
00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,080
And these are the kind of 
choices that are really 

170
00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:57,280
important because this is where 
your morality, your ethics, your

171
00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,680
kindness, your compassion, all 
of these things are developed. 

172
00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:02,400
Yeah. 
Every little thing. 

173
00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:04,360
Yeah. 
Every little word that comes out

174
00:09:04,360 --> 00:09:07,280
of your mouth, every little 
action that you do. 

175
00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:09,720
Yeah. 
Every little movement, every 

176
00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:12,840
thought that you have actually 
matters. 

177
00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:17,000
Imagine to have enough 
mindfulness that you're able to 

178
00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:20,120
actually check every thought. 
OOP, I'm about to think that. 

179
00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:21,800
OK, let me go different 
direction instead, huh. 

180
00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:26,240
Isn't that a nice idea? 
And very often you can do that. 

181
00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:28,920
You may think that sounds 
impossible, but you can because 

182
00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:32,720
you become aware that your mind 
is kind of heading in a certain 

183
00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:34,800
direction. 
Sometimes the mind, the momentum

184
00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:37,360
is very strong. 
It's like a freight trend moving

185
00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:39,760
forward at a very fast speed. 
Yeah. 

186
00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:42,400
So the momentum is very strong. 
Yeah, the mind is certain going.

187
00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:46,080
But then you, you know, you can 
actually check that momentum of 

188
00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:48,920
the mind and you can hold it 
back and you can wait. 

189
00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:53,240
And you can allow a different 
solution to arise instead. 

190
00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:57,440
And so this is the first idea 
for how to make better choices. 

191
00:09:58,040 --> 00:09:59,640
One of the really important 
things. 

192
00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:03,120
And as you may be aware already,
obviously you need more 

193
00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:06,200
mindfulness. 
You need to have that awareness 

194
00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:09,560
around what you're doing. 
And when you slow down a little 

195
00:10:09,560 --> 00:10:14,120
bit, when you go a little bit 
more gently and softly in life, 

196
00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:17,120
you don't react so quickly. 
Instead of reacting, you 

197
00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:19,560
respond. 
It's a very nice way of thinking

198
00:10:19,560 --> 00:10:22,000
about how we deal with all 
situations in life. 

199
00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:26,320
Yeah, don't react, Respond. 
Reaction is this habit. 

200
00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:30,080
It's automatic. 
Response is like, OK, reflect, 

201
00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:31,920
how do I respond to the 
situation? 

202
00:10:32,440 --> 00:10:35,440
2 very different ways of dealing
with any kind of situation. 

203
00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:40,120
So be a responsive person, not a
reactive person. 

204
00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:43,920
And to do that, you need a bit 
of mindfulness. 

205
00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:47,800
And one way to gain that 
mindfulness again, slow down. 

206
00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:51,080
Yeah, Don't act so fast. 
Wait. 

207
00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:55,600
Give the mind time to sort of 
consider the situation. 

208
00:10:56,240 --> 00:10:58,000
Yeah. 
So when you kind of slow down, 

209
00:10:58,000 --> 00:10:59,640
you think, OK, I want to do 
this. 

210
00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:03,960
This is kind of what my mind 
impulse or I feel compelled to 

211
00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:05,920
act in a certain way. 
But maybe that's wrong. 

212
00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:09,440
Let me hold on a second. 
Wait, is there a better solution

213
00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:12,280
here? 
And the moment you stop, what 

214
00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:15,960
tends to happen is that 
something inside of you tells 

215
00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:18,240
you what is the right way 
forward. 

216
00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:20,160
Yeah. 
You have enough knowledge of 

217
00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:22,800
Dhamma, you have enough 
knowledge of what it means to be

218
00:11:22,800 --> 00:11:26,360
ethical and moral person is all 
there deep inside of you. 

219
00:11:26,680 --> 00:11:28,600
You just need to give it time to
arise. 

220
00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:32,680
You need to give it time to 
overcome all the habits, all the

221
00:11:33,400 --> 00:11:36,960
compelling thoughts and ideas 
that kind of force you to do 

222
00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:39,280
certain things. 
Don't go with those compulsions 

223
00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:43,200
instead of way, allow the Dhamma
to arise and then follow the 

224
00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:45,640
Dhamma. 
This is kind of the ideal way of

225
00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:47,120
doing things. 
Yeah. 

226
00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:49,320
So you wait, you slow down a 
little bit. 

227
00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:53,880
So how can we do that? 
So because it sounds easy to 

228
00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:56,880
say, but in reality, not always 
easy, right? 

229
00:11:56,880 --> 00:11:58,680
So how can we do that? 
And I'll give you some 

230
00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:02,680
incredibly simple tips. 
They're so simple that you and 

231
00:12:02,680 --> 00:12:06,360
you're probably not doing them 
even though you already know you

232
00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:08,160
should be doing them, right? 
You know you should be doing 

233
00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:10,400
this, but you're not maybe not 
doing it already here. 

234
00:12:10,920 --> 00:12:14,640
And one of the kind of biggest 
problems in life is how 

235
00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:18,440
distracting the modern world, 
modern world is, especially 

236
00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:21,000
mobile phones and Internet and 
these kind of things. 

237
00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:24,600
And so be very careful how you 
use your mobile phone. 

238
00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:28,000
This is kind of very, very 
simple thing here, but if you 

239
00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:31,440
use your mobile phone more 
wisely and I'll tell you in a 

240
00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:35,120
second how to use it wisely. 
I don't actually, I don't really

241
00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:36,360
know because I haven't got a 
mobile phone. 

242
00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:39,240
But anyway, I'll, I'll, I'll 
give you I look at I see other 

243
00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:41,040
people, I think I've got to do 
something here. 

244
00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:45,480
OK, so I have some idea. 
So how can we use the mobile 

245
00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:47,920
phone more wisely? 
OK, so I'll give you a few 

246
00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:51,720
hints. 
So number one, turn off the 

247
00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:55,080
mobile phone, lock it 
completely, give it to someone 

248
00:12:55,080 --> 00:12:57,080
else. 
If you can't control yourself to

249
00:12:57,080 --> 00:13:01,960
hideaway after a certain time in
the evening here, 8:00 PM, I'm 

250
00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:04,680
not going to check my mobile 
phone at all after 8:00 PM. 

251
00:13:04,680 --> 00:13:07,520
I'm going to give it I'm going 
to give it to the dog to eat. 

252
00:13:07,560 --> 00:13:10,560
He can swallow the mobile phone 
and hopefully it's out again by 

253
00:13:10,560 --> 00:13:14,080
tomorrow morning. 
No, I'm messing around, but you 

254
00:13:14,080 --> 00:13:15,680
know what I mean. 
There's something was very was 

255
00:13:15,680 --> 00:13:18,320
very, very hard to get hold of 
that mobile phone, right. 

256
00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:21,680
And this is and then in the 
morning the same thing again. 

257
00:13:21,680 --> 00:13:24,480
I will not use it until a 
certain time in the morning. 

258
00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:28,120
I don't know, 789 whatever. 
I don't know how, how, what your

259
00:13:28,120 --> 00:13:30,800
life is like. 
And so you have that kind of gap

260
00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:33,600
and the evening time is a very 
important time. 

261
00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:36,600
It's very important because a 
time where you want to relax, 

262
00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:40,080
you want to be at ease, you want
to have a sense of meta, because

263
00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:43,600
if you have meta kindness and 
love, when you fall asleep, 

264
00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:45,240
you're going to sleep really 
well. 

265
00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:47,600
And if you sleep well, you're 
going to wake up in the morning 

266
00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:50,760
full of energy straight away. 
So you can get that mobile phone

267
00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:53,160
right away. 
No, not that kind of energy. 

268
00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:55,240
The energy which doesn't want to
see the mobile phone. 

269
00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:58,880
Yeah, the energy of peace, the 
quiet kind of energy, the non 

270
00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:01,680
restless energy. 
So, yeah. 

271
00:14:01,680 --> 00:14:05,000
So this is a very simple way and
most people don't do that. 

272
00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:07,600
I hear most people, the last 
thing they do at night check the

273
00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:08,800
mobile phone. 
The first thing they do when I 

274
00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:09,880
wake up is check the mobile 
phone. 

275
00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:13,400
It's a very bad idea and it's 
going to it's kind of a very 

276
00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:16,520
addictive thing, right? 
It's incredibly addictive when 

277
00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:20,040
you think about it like that. 
So don't fall for this stupid 

278
00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:22,600
addictions. 
This is number one. 

279
00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:27,240
Number two, Yeah, when you go 
for a walk somewhere. 

280
00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:30,280
I was just in Singapore. 
I came back from Singapore a few

281
00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:33,440
days ago, two or three days ago,
and I went for some walks in the

282
00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:36,800
city and I was horrified. 
Everyone was walking with a 

283
00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:40,800
mobile phone everywhere. 
I don't know what they're doing 

284
00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:43,520
on that mobile phone, but 
everyone was glued to their 

285
00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:45,280
mobile phone as they were 
walking around. 

286
00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:47,960
And I've seen similar things 
here in Perth, by the way, on 

287
00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:50,000
previous occasions. 
I wasn't too surprised when I 

288
00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:51,920
saw it. 
It was very rare. 

289
00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:54,160
And I kind of like to walk. 
I don't have, I don't have a 

290
00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:57,520
mobile phone with me at all. 
But so I walk around and I kind 

291
00:14:57,520 --> 00:15:02,760
of see is it can I get contact 
with anyone really hard, right? 

292
00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:05,720
No one makes eye contact. 
Everyone is kind of in their own

293
00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:08,440
little world. 
And so I said to myself, OK, I'm

294
00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:11,120
going to just kind of do 
probably what is really taboo 

295
00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:13,640
here in Singapore because no one
says anything to each other. 

296
00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:15,600
I'm going to start saying hello 
to people. 

297
00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:19,240
Yeah. 
And that was really good fun. 

298
00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:21,640
I really enjoyed that. 
I was walking around and I 

299
00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:26,600
started saying hello, people, 
what's going on with this widow 

300
00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:29,320
over here saying hello to me? 
And. 

301
00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:31,280
And sometimes they would just 
turn away. 

302
00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:34,200
They wouldn't respond. 
But other times they would 

303
00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:35,720
respond. 
And you can see they were almost

304
00:15:35,720 --> 00:15:36,560
delighted. 
Yeah. 

305
00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:39,960
It's like a human touch, someone
saying hello, but in a nice kind

306
00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:42,320
of way. 
I try not to do it in a harsh 

307
00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:44,360
way. 
Obviously say it in a nice way. 

308
00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:47,480
And they go, oh, hello. 
And some people really engage, 

309
00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:48,400
right. 
And oh, hello. 

310
00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:50,120
Good morning. 
Yeah, nice to meet you. 

311
00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:52,240
And they kind of go angerly and 
all these kind of things. 

312
00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:54,640
And so it was actually very 
interesting here. 

313
00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:57,720
And sometimes I would see people
who were really kind of in a bad

314
00:15:57,720 --> 00:16:00,320
way, sleeping under a bridge or 
something. 

315
00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:02,280
And I was there during 
Christmas. 

316
00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:05,560
And so I would go to this poor 
person sitting on the bridge, 

317
00:16:05,560 --> 00:16:08,440
say Merry Christmas to them, and
they would look up, oh, Merry 

318
00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:10,080
Christmas. 
Yeah. 

319
00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:13,280
It's like, it's nice. 
And I feel in the modern world, 

320
00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:15,280
we're losing so much on that 
human connection. 

321
00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:18,160
We need a human connection. 
It's so important. 

322
00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:20,320
We should bring it back again 
into our society. 

323
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:25,120
So when you go for a walk, leave
the mobile phone at home. 

324
00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:27,560
Don't take it with you, 
especially when you go in 

325
00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:29,720
nature. 
Just enjoy the walk. 

326
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:31,800
Observe what is happening around
you. 

327
00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:35,880
Observe how the rest of the 
world is completely engulfed, 

328
00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:39,520
engrossed in the mobile phone 
whereas you have let it go. 

329
00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:43,480
Yay me. 
Yeah, be happy about yourself. 

330
00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:45,920
Not kind of a big ego, but 
feeling good about yourself 

331
00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:49,080
because you are moving in the 
right direction in a positive 

332
00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:51,000
way. 
What a marvellous thing that is 

333
00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:53,960
when you have a meal with your 
family. 

334
00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:58,160
No mobile phones, right? 
Tell your children. 

335
00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:00,480
Or maybe if you are the children
and your parents are naughty, 

336
00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:04,160
tell your parents. 
Dad, mom, I demand no more 

337
00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:06,400
mobile phones at the dinner 
table. 

338
00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:09,319
It's bad for the family. 
That's the time when you're 

339
00:17:09,319 --> 00:17:12,720
supposed to meet, have a chat, 
get to know each other. 

340
00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:16,800
Shouldn't have any mobile phones
at that time so these are some 

341
00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:20,280
of the ideas yeah. 
Already, if you do that much, 

342
00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:22,920
you will find there is more 
space in your mind. 

343
00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:27,480
It will open up something inside
of you which gives you greater 

344
00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:31,920
opportunity to respond rather 
than react in the world. 

345
00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:33,440
Yeah. 
And you will feel that 

346
00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:36,040
throughout the day if you live 
in this way and you do a bit of 

347
00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:39,800
meditation on the top of that, 
that it will change kind of your

348
00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:43,560
outlook, the way you're able to 
deal with the situations in 

349
00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:45,280
life. 
So simple. 

350
00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:47,160
Yeah. 
But most people don't do this. 

351
00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:51,120
And that is why simple things 
can also be very, very useful. 

352
00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:55,880
So you. 
So. 

353
00:17:56,120 --> 00:17:57,560
Yeah. 
So do this. 

354
00:17:57,640 --> 00:17:59,200
This is kind of the beginning of
the thing. 

355
00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:03,800
Yeah. 
And but one of the things that I

356
00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:06,440
should really talk about, even 
before I talk about the mobile 

357
00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:09,360
phone, yeah, which is kind of 
even more fundamental in a 

358
00:18:09,360 --> 00:18:12,280
certain way, I come back a 
little bit more to the mobile 

359
00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:17,640
phone later on, is the 
importance in the spiritual path

360
00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:22,440
of the idea of being around the 
right kind of people. 

361
00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:26,840
When I was in Singapore, I was 
just doing a long retreat, 9 day

362
00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:29,280
retreat and we were looking at 
the suitor called the 

363
00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:32,280
Mahamangala suitor. 
And those of you with a Buddhist

364
00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:34,720
background and those of you who 
don't have it, who are a bit 

365
00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:36,880
knowledge about about the 
Dhamma, you will know about the 

366
00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:39,960
Mahamangala Suta. 
Mahamangala means like great 

367
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:44,280
blessings and those is a is a 
kind of a series of 11 

368
00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:46,160
blessings. 
Yeah, one after the others like 

369
00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:49,440
each one is a verse. 
And the first of these verses 

370
00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:54,400
goes as follows. 
Asevana chabala nang pandita nan

371
00:18:54,400 --> 00:18:58,640
shasevana puja chapud janya nang
ETA mangala muta manga. 

372
00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:03,240
Pretty good, right? 
So what does it mean? 

373
00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:04,960
Some of you know what it means 
already. 

374
00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:09,120
But So what it means is that you
should not associate with fools.

375
00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:11,560
You should associate with the 
wise. 

376
00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:15,280
You should have respect for that
which is worthy of respect. 

377
00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:17,280
This is the greatest blessing. 
Yeah. 

378
00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:21,200
This is where it starts out. 
This is the beginning of the 

379
00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:23,040
whole thing. 
And then it goes through all 

380
00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:25,400
other things, and it ends up 
kind of with enlightenment at 

381
00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:27,240
the end. 
But this is where it starts. 

382
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:30,760
That's always incredibly 
interesting that it starts with 

383
00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:33,600
the idea of who you should hang 
out with, who you should 

384
00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:36,880
associate with, who should be 
your friends, who you should 

385
00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:39,520
deal with in this life. 
It's incredibly interesting 

386
00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:42,440
here. 
And because one of the things 

387
00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:47,160
that the Buddha says, please 
come in here, please enter her. 

388
00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:53,640
Oh, OK, this is, this is now 
there's a chance to practice 

389
00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:54,920
Dhamma here. 
This is kind of the good thing 

390
00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:58,240
about these things. 
So just do it in the right way. 

391
00:19:58,280 --> 00:19:59,120
Yeah. 
OK. 

392
00:19:59,960 --> 00:20:03,240
So probably people usually have 
some problems, you know, and 

393
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:05,800
then they kind of have some 
suffering in their life and then

394
00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:07,560
these things happen. 
So. 

395
00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:10,880
Yeah. 
OK. 

396
00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:16,240
Being escorted away. 
OK, That's good. 

397
00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:22,360
OK, let's let's carry on. 
Are you ready to carry on? 

398
00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:23,720
Yeah. 
OK. 

399
00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:24,280
OK. 
Good. 

400
00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:28,120
It's a little intermessor that's
kind of always makes things 

401
00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:28,760
interesting. 
Yeah. 

402
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:35,240
So I was just saying about the 
importance of following the good

403
00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:37,400
kind of people, not following 
the fools, but following the 

404
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:41,800
wise ones. 
And yeah, so here this person, 

405
00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:44,960
he had an opportunity to hear 
some wisdom, but he left too 

406
00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:47,080
early. 
So it was unfortunate. 

407
00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:49,560
Maybe next time he will come 
back. 

408
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:51,520
If we treat him nicely, maybe he
will come back again in the 

409
00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,160
future. 
Yeah, but it matters enormously.

410
00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:57,680
And one of the things that you 
find in the suitors, in the Word

411
00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:01,600
of the Buddha, he talks about 
the wise and the fools, and he 

412
00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:03,920
talks about the danger of 
following the fools. 

413
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:08,600
And he says specifically that if
you, all the dangers in the 

414
00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:12,680
world, all the kind of upheavals
in the world, all the calamities

415
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:17,320
in the world, they are a result 
of fools, not of wise people. 

416
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:19,720
Yeah. 
So if there are problems in your

417
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:23,440
life or problems in Perth or 
problems in politics or problems

418
00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:26,400
in war or whatever, it comes 
from the fools in the world. 

419
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:31,000
That's where the problems arise.
And your own life also tends to 

420
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,960
get very problematic. 
Yeah, if you hang out with fools

421
00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:36,120
all the time, the same kind of 
issue. 

422
00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:43,520
So for that reason, know the 
danger of fools, understand that

423
00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:46,440
it leads you in the wrong way. 
And of course, the wise people 

424
00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:49,200
is the exactly the opposite. 
Yeah, that leads to all the 

425
00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:52,240
happiness in the world. 
The wise people lead you to do 

426
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:54,920
the good thing. 
And the wise people ultimately, 

427
00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:58,320
if you hang out with them long 
enough, leads you all the way to

428
00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:01,040
awakening itself. 
And so this is kind of what 

429
00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:02,880
wisdom does. 
Wisdom leads you to the best 

430
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:05,440
things in the world, and 
foolishness leads you in the 

431
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:10,040
exact opposite direction. 
And so This is why the company 

432
00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:13,680
that we choose in life, where we
go, whether we go to the Buddha 

433
00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:17,840
society or what we do, who we 
have as our friends, who we work

434
00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:20,520
with, all of these kind of 
things actually matter. 

435
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:23,240
Yeah. 
What are the influences on our 

436
00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:30,200
life matters enormously. 
So this is one of the things I 

437
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:41,760
recommend you. 
One of the things I recommend to

438
00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:44,440
you is to be very careful with 
these things. 

439
00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:45,240
Yeah. 
What? 

440
00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:47,160
How do you, who do you hang out 
with? 

441
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:50,480
Who do you kind of take as your 
friends? 

442
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:54,080
Who do you make as a, you know, 
important part of your life? 

443
00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:58,920
This actually matters a lot. 
So think about this in a new 

444
00:22:58,920 --> 00:22:59,440
year. 
Yeah. 

445
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,280
Can you spend more time, more 
quality time with wise people? 

446
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:04,040
Yeah. 
And then actually, you will find

447
00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,840
that it actually helps you live 
to take a different direction as

448
00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:11,680
a consequence. 
So how do you know who is wise? 

449
00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:16,280
How do you know who is foolish? 
And the Buddha gave us, of 

450
00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:17,720
course, advice. 
He gives advice on everything. 

451
00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:18,720
Yeah. 
One of the things I'd like to 

452
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:20,760
say is that everything is found 
in the suitors. 

453
00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:23,840
If you want to find the answer 
to any question at all, pretty 

454
00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:28,080
much it's there in the suitors. 
How do you recognise the fools 

455
00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:30,760
by the way they speak, act and 
think? 

456
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:34,560
Yeah, kind of obvious, because 
that's the external conduct is 

457
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,800
really how we see these things. 
They speak in ways that are 

458
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:41,120
unskillful, in the ways that are
unwholesome, in ways that are 

459
00:23:41,120 --> 00:23:43,240
immoral. 
They act like that, they think 

460
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:45,240
like that. 
And so that's why they are 

461
00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:47,760
problematic. 
The wise people in the world are

462
00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:51,800
the ones who speak with 
wholesomeness in a moral way. 

463
00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:55,440
They act morally. 
They think moral good thoughts, 

464
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:57,280
Yeah. 
They tend to see the good in 

465
00:23:57,280 --> 00:23:59,040
other people, all of these kind 
of things. 

466
00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:03,240
So it's quite simple really, to 
decide who are the fools in the 

467
00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:04,760
world and who are the wise 
people there. 

468
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:07,360
Of course, you can argue that 
maybe you don't know all the 

469
00:24:07,360 --> 00:24:09,720
way, it's very hard to know 
whether someone is fully 

470
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:12,680
enlightened or not. 
But you have some idea of 

471
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:16,240
measure of where you should go, 
and in the long run, you will be

472
00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:20,400
able to kind of see fairly 
clearly who are the really wise 

473
00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:23,440
people in the world and who are 
the foolish people in the world.

474
00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:26,040
And they can make much better 
choices. 

475
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:29,440
Yeah, some move towards the wise
people there. 

476
00:24:30,360 --> 00:24:33,560
So to give you an another idea 
around this, there's some. 

477
00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:36,480
It was a little suitor. 
I was reading out to the monks 

478
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:38,800
at the monastery here on 
Wednesday. 

479
00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:40,360
We have a Dharma talk every 
Wednesday. 

480
00:24:40,360 --> 00:24:43,720
Ajahn Brahm was here at Amaloca.
You got Ajahn Brahm. 

481
00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:45,720
The monks had to deal with me 
here. 

482
00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:48,200
Isn't that's pretty? 
You see how lucky you are. 

483
00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:49,640
That's pretty, pretty good deal,
right? 

484
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:52,280
So you get you get the kind of 
very lucky. 

485
00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:55,400
So. 
So I thought I was going to say 

486
00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,040
something about this suit that I
was really because it was kind 

487
00:24:58,040 --> 00:24:59,120
of interesting. 
Yeah. 

488
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:02,600
It has some details to it that 
you may not normally hear. 

489
00:25:03,120 --> 00:25:07,320
And so this suit, I was talking 
about 7 things that lead to 

490
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:10,400
improvement in your life or not,
not actually, sorry. 

491
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:14,480
It lead to the long lasting 
longevity of the Dumber in the 

492
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:16,760
world. 
Seven things lead to the 

493
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:19,160
longevity of the Dhamma. 
And if you don't do them, then 

494
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:21,880
obviously it leads to the short 
life of the Dhamma in 

495
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:24,760
comparison. 
So what are the seven things? 

496
00:25:25,360 --> 00:25:27,600
And some of them are quite 
obvious, yeah. 

497
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,960
But all of them are around the 
idea of respect and reverence or

498
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:35,360
respect and deference. 
Yeah. 

499
00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:39,600
So respect means that you you 
kind of look up to something in 

500
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:41,520
a certain way because of the 
good qualities. 

501
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:43,800
And so you listen a bit more. 
Yeah. 

502
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:46,600
Difference means that you kind 
of take after what they say. 

503
00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:48,800
You follow good advice on these 
kind of things. 

504
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:50,480
Yeah. 
Respect and difference. 

505
00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:53,920
So what are the seven things 
that you have respect and 

506
00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:56,880
difference for? 
So the first ones will not be 

507
00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:59,680
very surprising. 
So the first one is the Buddha. 

508
00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:03,480
Yeah. 
So do you like to hang around 

509
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:06,520
the Buddha? 
Where is the Buddha? 

510
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:10,080
Is that the Buddha? 
Not, Not really. 

511
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:11,520
Yeah. 
It's kind of, I think this is a 

512
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:14,800
fake Buddha that is not very 
unexpressive Buddha, but it 

513
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,000
represents the Buddha. 
And that's kind of the nice 

514
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:18,880
thing about this Buddha. 
It represents the Buddha. 

515
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:20,880
It represents some of the 
qualities of the Buddha. 

516
00:26:21,120 --> 00:26:24,960
And that's why we bow down to 
these images, because they 

517
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:26,320
represent something. 
Yeah. 

518
00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:29,000
And then by bowing down to them,
we're kind of growing those 

519
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:30,720
qualities within, within 
ourselves. 

520
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:34,200
But you can still hang around 
the Buddha. 

521
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:37,600
And the way to hang or hang out 
with the Buddha is the second 

522
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:40,520
thing that you should have 
respect and deference for, which

523
00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:43,000
is the Dhamma, the teachings of 
the Buddha. 

524
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:46,920
When you read these teachings, 
when you hear them here at the 

525
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:50,200
Buddha Society, it's like the 
Buddha is talking to you. 

526
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:54,160
Yeah. 
These are the real teachings of 

527
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,480
the Buddha. 
You may think that when you come

528
00:26:56,480 --> 00:26:59,840
here you hear Ajambram talk and 
that is a teaching, or you may 

529
00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:02,320
think that you hear a teaching 
from some other monk or Nan. 

530
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:07,320
But the sutas, the word, the 
Dhamma teachings that are given 

531
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:09,920
when we read the sutas, are the 
teachings of the Buddha in 

532
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:13,000
exactly the same way. 
And sometimes you need to kind 

533
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,600
of live, kind of make them come 
alive. 

534
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,640
Yeah, to make them more real. 
So remember when the Buddha gave

535
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:24,960
these teachings 2500 years ago, 
he wasn't just teaching the 

536
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:29,160
people there and then, he was 
also teaching people in the 

537
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:31,280
future. 
The Buddha from the very 

538
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,160
beginning had this idea that he 
was teaching. 

539
00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:37,320
He was setting in motion the 
wheel of the Dhamma for future 

540
00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:41,280
generations and future cultures.
And so this wheel sort of rolls 

541
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:44,760
out into the world, rolls out 
from culture to culture, from 

542
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:46,720
era to era. 
Yeah. 

543
00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:50,320
And so the Buddha had this grand
vision, this big kind of vision 

544
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:52,800
about what the Dhamma was 
supposed to do in the world. 

545
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:57,640
So we are also the disciples of 
that Buddha. 

546
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:00,840
Yeah, in the same way. 
So think about that when you 

547
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:02,720
read the Suta, Sir. 
Think about that. 

548
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,000
When someone actually teaches 
from the Suta, Sir, Now it is 

549
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:09,800
the Buddha talking to you. 
You are in the presence of this 

550
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:12,640
enlightened mind, because these 
are the words of someone who is 

551
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,560
enlightened, someone who has 
seen the deepest truth of what 

552
00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:17,000
it means to be a human being 
here. 

553
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:19,960
Yes, someone who has developed 
compassion and kindness to the 

554
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:22,360
very highest level there. 
This is what the Buddha is. 

555
00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:24,520
It's something extraordinary in 
the world. 

556
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:29,160
And to be in the presence of the
greatest spiritual master here 

557
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:32,800
in human history here is 
something extraordinary here. 

558
00:28:33,120 --> 00:28:37,000
Yeah, you, everyone of us, 
little me can be the disciple of

559
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,640
this wah, this awe inspiring 
person. 

560
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:42,560
It's like, great. 
Isn't that kind of something 

561
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:44,760
astonishing? 
And it's something we don't 

562
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,920
often take on board properly. 
But that is what it means to 

563
00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:51,320
read the suitors, read the word 
of the Buddha, and to engage 

564
00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:53,320
with that word, those words in 
the right way. 

565
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:56,160
And what I'm talking about right
now is actually one of those 

566
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:59,040
suitors. 
And then so you respect the 

567
00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:01,440
Buddha, her difference to the 
Buddha, to the suitors, and then

568
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:03,360
the Sangha. 
The Sangha means usually the 

569
00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:07,560
Aryan Sangha, the noble Sangha, 
and usually they are represented

570
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:10,960
by monastics. 
Sometimes you find lay people 

571
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:14,920
who also are part of the Aryans,
but usually it's represented by 

572
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:18,160
the monastics because usually it
is among the monastics that the 

573
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:20,480
spiritual path is taken the 
furthest. 

574
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:23,840
Not always, it depends on where 
you are, but usually. 

575
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:27,960
And that's why that's kind of 
representation there, especially

576
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,880
those members of the Sanga who 
really are special. 

577
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:32,120
Yeah. 
You can feel that they have some

578
00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:36,720
special things to add. 
Like my favorite monk, it's not 

579
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:41,280
me, you know, my favorite monk 
is Ajam Bram. 

580
00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:42,360
Yeah. 
Ajam Bram is kind of, for me, 

581
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:45,240
always been my kind of hero. 
That's why I came to Perth. 

582
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:47,280
I came all the way, all the way 
to Australia just to come meet 

583
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:49,720
Ajam Bram got nothing to do with
Australia. 

584
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:52,200
I apologise. 
I don't mean to say anything bad

585
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,280
about Australia. 
I think Australia is great, but 

586
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:55,600
I actually came here for Ajam 
Brahm. 

587
00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:58,200
That's why I came here. 
And so anyway, there you are 

588
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:00,280
here. 
It's a pretty good choice 

589
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:01,880
anyway, right? 
You would agree with that. 

590
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:06,560
It wasn't a bad idea. 
And so, and then, so once you 

591
00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:09,400
respect these three things, then
the 4th one you're supposed to 

592
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:13,760
respect is the training here, 
because the training that comes 

593
00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:17,080
out of the Dhamma, out of the 
teachings of the Buddha, that is

594
00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:20,720
what leads you to become an 
Aryan, a noble person, the 

595
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:23,600
person who is part of the 
Sangha, if you like. 

596
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:25,080
Yeah. 
The you become one of these 

597
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:27,640
enlightened people. 
So you have great respect for 

598
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:28,480
that training. 
Yeah. 

599
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:31,800
The fifth one, and this is kind 
of where it gets really 

600
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:32,640
interesting. 
Yeah. 

601
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:38,880
Are you ready for the fifth one?
The fifth one is samadhi, 

602
00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:43,800
stillness, deep meditation. 
This is kind of really 

603
00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:45,920
important. 
If you don't respect and have 

604
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:49,240
difference or reverence for deep
meditation, you're actually 

605
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:53,320
contributing to the short life 
of Buddhism, of the dhammaha. 

606
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,400
And this is kind of really 
interesting because you will 

607
00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,400
find that in many parts of the 
Buddhist world that is kind of 

608
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:02,320
what is happening here. 
There's too much focus. 

609
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:04,840
I mean, it's good to focus on 
other things in the dama, but 

610
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:09,160
not at the exclusion of samadhi 
here, because it, samadhi is 

611
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:12,640
what actually brings the whole 
training together. 

612
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:14,880
Yeah. 
Samadhi is the final factor of 

613
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:17,840
the noble at full path. 
Samadhi is the culmination of 

614
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:22,160
practising all of these factors.
Samadhi contains within it all 

615
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:25,040
the other factors. 
And that's why it is kind of a 

616
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:29,640
point picked out in this way as 
something special, as a thing, 

617
00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:31,480
we should have reference 
difference for her. 

618
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:34,520
So Samadhi here, what is the 6th
1? 

619
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:37,800
The 6th 1 is called Appamada in 
Pali here. 

620
00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:40,720
This is going to be a little bit
of a Pali course for you. 

621
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:42,840
So I hope you are ready to learn
some Pali words. 

622
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:45,640
Pali is one of these ancient 
Indian languages. 

623
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:47,840
Yeah, but the Buddha talks 
something like that. 

624
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:51,160
Appamada means something like 
heatfulness. 

625
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:53,600
Heatfulness means you are 
careful. 

626
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,360
It means you are diligent. 
Yeah, it means that you keep on 

627
00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:01,000
practising in a smart way. 
Yeah, you can see why that is 

628
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:03,080
important. 
There is a pamada is very 

629
00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:06,800
similar to another famous party 
word called Yoniso manasikara, 

630
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:10,400
which means like wise attention 
or wise application of the mind 

631
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:12,120
is a very closely related to 
each other. 

632
00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:15,960
So to be able to reach samadhi, 
to be able to practice the path 

633
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:19,160
properly, one of the most 
important factors is this idea 

634
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:22,600
of being diligent and being 
hateful, being careful in your 

635
00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:26,240
practice. 
Now we come to the 7th factor 

636
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:30,360
here, and This is why. 
This is really why I'm talking 

637
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:32,360
about this. 
Yeah, there's a 7 factor here. 

638
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:35,000
This is kind of the most 
interesting one of all, in my 

639
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:37,720
opinion here. 
So we have Buddha Damasanga. 

640
00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:41,280
Yeah, you had training, you had 
samadhi, the stillness of the 

641
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:44,680
mind, you had Appamada, the 
heatfulness. 

642
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:47,080
All of those kind of make good 
sense. 

643
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:51,000
You can see why they would be 
there, but factor #7 always 

644
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,120
baffled me. 
I remember reading the sort of 

645
00:32:53,120 --> 00:32:54,800
the WAH. 
Surely here someone made a 

646
00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:56,360
mistake. 
This kind of doesn't make any 

647
00:32:56,360 --> 00:33:00,680
sense because the 7th factor is 
hospitality. 

648
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:05,880
Yeah. 
It's like, you know, straight 

649
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:07,080
away you think about 
hospitality. 

650
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:10,000
You think like going to a hotel 
or going to a bar, getting a 

651
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:13,040
drink or something like that, 
but that's obviously not what 

652
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:15,160
it's meant, right? 
That cannot be what is meant 

653
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:17,720
here because, you know, fly 
precepts and all that. 

654
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:21,200
So it's not about drinking. 
Yeah, or whatever. 

655
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:23,080
I know. 
So. 

656
00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:25,120
So what is it? 
What does it mean? 

657
00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:28,400
And what it means? 
I think and the way it fits in 

658
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:32,840
with the rest of the suitors is 
that we are hospitable towards 

659
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:36,240
those people in the world who 
have a special spiritual 

660
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:38,960
qualities. 
Yeah, we're hospitable to be 

661
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:41,480
those so that they can stay with
us for a long time. 

662
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,600
We look after them so we don't 
lose them again in the future. 

663
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:48,960
There's a beautiful part in the 
famous Mahapanibhana Suta, which

664
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:52,640
is the great Suta on the 
Buddha's passing away, where the

665
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:55,720
Buddha says that the Dhamma will
last a long time. 

666
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:58,520
The monks and everyone will grow
in good qualities. 

667
00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:02,360
As long as you welcome the 
Arahans to your country here. 

668
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:04,760
Yeah, you're welcome, the 
enlightened ones, to your 

669
00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:07,040
country. 
And when they come, you look 

670
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:08,719
after them. 
Yeah. 

671
00:34:09,159 --> 00:34:13,800
And so you're hospitable towards
those people who lift every one 

672
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:16,560
of us up spiritually because 
they have this incredibly 

673
00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:20,960
ability to express the Dhamma 
through words, but also through 

674
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:23,639
the very action, through how 
they live their lives. 

675
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:27,120
So hospitality, yeah, it's a 
beautiful idea. 

676
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:31,560
So, yeah, look after we all. 
And also I think it is about the

677
00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:34,280
Sangha as well. 
The Sangha is a monastic 

678
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:35,960
community that should live in 
harmony. 

679
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:39,360
We should be hospitable. 
When there are monks and nuns 

680
00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:42,280
who come from outside maybe, and
they want to stay with us for a 

681
00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:45,040
while, it's also about that 
because that creates a sense of 

682
00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:48,360
harmony or whatever. 
But the primary reason, I think,

683
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:51,800
is to enable those people who 
are really special there to stay

684
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:54,600
for a long time. 
Yeah, to ensure that they will 

685
00:34:54,600 --> 00:34:58,160
last for a long time. 
And I sometimes think about 

686
00:34:58,160 --> 00:34:59,040
this. 
Yeah. 

687
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:01,760
Slightly selfish, perhaps. 
I often think, how can I make 

688
00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:03,880
Ajambraam last as long as 
possible? 

689
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:09,040
So. 
And it's true. 

690
00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:10,600
Yeah. 
I, I don't know about you, but 

691
00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:16,400
I've known Ajambraam now for, 
what is it, 31 years plus. 

692
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:18,000
Yeah. 
This is how long it began. 

693
00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:20,560
I knew about it even before 
that, but I didn't really meet 

694
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:24,280
him until 31 years ago. 
And, you know, he's one of these

695
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:27,280
kind of, to my mind, one of 
these treasures in the world. 

696
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:30,960
Yeah, this kind of person with 
very special qualities, very 

697
00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:33,800
difficult to find. 
And so more and more I try to 

698
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:36,120
look out for how I can be of 
assistance. 

699
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:39,880
And so, you know, if you have a 
chance to be of assistance to 

700
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:42,000
Ajah Brahm, take the opportunity
anyway. 

701
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:43,160
It's really good merit. 
Yeah. 

702
00:35:43,240 --> 00:35:44,440
You help Ajah Brahm a little 
bit. 

703
00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:47,360
It's a very positive thing, very
nice thing to do. 

704
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:51,280
So regardless, so this is the 
idea of hospitality. 

705
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:54,200
And when you have that 
hospitality, you get to be 

706
00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:57,200
around wise people because you 
invite them. 

707
00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:59,120
Yeah, please come. 
Yeah. 

708
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:02,160
Sometimes you can invite someone
to your house. 

709
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:05,400
You know, actually, sometimes 
you can't because it's just too,

710
00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:07,800
too, too difficult to arrange. 
But you can come to the 

711
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:09,680
monastery. 
You can look after a little bit,

712
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,480
you can support a little bit. 
You can bring maybe some nice 

713
00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:14,320
food that, as you know, as in 
Brahm likes. 

714
00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:19,760
Maybe I have to be careful what 
I say because sometimes these 

715
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:22,120
things kind of become become 
kind of sort of backfire in a 

716
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:27,840
very strange way. 
But yeah, you know what I mean. 

717
00:36:28,240 --> 00:36:30,800
And then you get this beautiful 
relationship with someone like 

718
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:34,760
Azam Brahm, who is very, very 
interesting and extraordinary 

719
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:36,760
person. 
And there are other monks and 

720
00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:40,760
nuns as well who are developing 
really well and have really good

721
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:41,480
qualities. 
Yeah. 

722
00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:43,200
It's not just Ajah Bram. 
Ajah Bram is kind of 

723
00:36:43,240 --> 00:36:45,800
exceptional, but there are 
others as well. 

724
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:47,680
Yeah. 
And so this is one of those 

725
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:52,160
wonderful things that here in 
Perth, we have this take, this 

726
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:53,440
opportunity. 
Yeah. 

727
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:55,440
You have a chance to be around 
the wise. 

728
00:36:55,800 --> 00:37:01,160
You have a chance to get that 
basic support in your life that 

729
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:04,520
enables the whole path to work 
for you without the wise. 

730
00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:07,440
When you are just surrounded 
with fools, it makes it very 

731
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:09,760
difficult. 
But the wiser the people are, 

732
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:14,000
the more this path kind of takes
off by itself and it just works.

733
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:16,120
So this is number one. 
Yeah. 

734
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:21,640
So make sure you hang around 
fewer fools and more wise people

735
00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:23,200
in your life. 
Yeah, See if you can make a 

736
00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:25,400
little bit of a shift. 
Don't do anything drastic. 

737
00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:27,160
Don't throw people out of your 
life. 

738
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:30,520
Be compassionate to everyone. 
But just, you know, make gentle 

739
00:37:30,520 --> 00:37:32,600
shifts in your life and see what
happens. 

740
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:36,200
Maybe you're already very wise 
in the way you are with other 

741
00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:37,160
people. 
That's great. 

742
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:39,200
But most of us can probably do 
better. 

743
00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:44,880
So that is point #1 The second 
point I wanted to make is how to

744
00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:49,680
again develop this idea of 
actually being more kind. 

745
00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:52,280
Yeah, it's hard to be kind all 
the time. 

746
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:55,320
It's hard to develop this. 
Once you have the input of the 

747
00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:57,800
wise people, you're already on 
the right track. 

748
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,400
But how can we add something 
more about kindness? 

749
00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:03,880
And this is where all the things
I was talking about before about

750
00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:07,600
mobile phones and it's going 
more slowly, all of that comes 

751
00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:08,080
in. 
Yeah. 

752
00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:11,680
It allows the mindfulness to 
expand, which allows you to 

753
00:38:12,120 --> 00:38:16,840
respond rather than react. 
This makes you already a more 

754
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:20,960
kinder person because that 
ability to respond actually 

755
00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:23,360
allows you to do what is right 
rather than what is wrong. 

756
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:25,320
Yeah. 
So already you are very much on 

757
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:28,680
the right track when you do 
that, but you want to take it a 

758
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:31,840
bit further and one of the 
things that I would recommend 

759
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:35,840
all of you to do a little bit, 
do a little bit of meta 

760
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:41,000
meditation in your life. 
Meta is like love or kindness. 

761
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:43,880
Yeah, love and kindness mean 
largely the same thing. 

762
00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:46,240
Love is maybe a bit more 
stronger, but they are kind of 

763
00:38:46,240 --> 00:38:50,320
similar kind of words. 
So meta is a kindness meditation

764
00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:54,400
or loving kindness meditation. 
Do a bit of that because it can 

765
00:38:54,400 --> 00:38:56,520
have a very transforming effect 
on you. 

766
00:38:56,960 --> 00:38:59,560
It's very simple. 
Yeah, very easy to do. 

767
00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:03,120
You can just be like a mantra, 
like a sentence that you repeat 

768
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:07,200
in your mind, like may all 
beings be well and you can say 

769
00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:10,320
that for 10 minutes, but you 
have to mean it. 

770
00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:16,320
It has to come from your heart. 
And then as you do that, it can 

771
00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:20,360
sometimes, over time, give rise 
to a transformation in your 

772
00:39:20,360 --> 00:39:22,880
mind. 
And at certain times, you will 

773
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:27,120
feel a powerful sense of joy and
happiness, even if that kindness

774
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:29,640
and that matter really comes up 
in your mind. 

775
00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:32,200
Yeah. 
Very, very powerful thing. 

776
00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:34,480
Yeah. 
And the great thing about that 

777
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:37,720
is that sometimes it can be 
hard. 

778
00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:41,280
Even if you are mindful, it can 
be difficult to do the right 

779
00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:41,800
thing. 
Yeah. 

780
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:44,160
Yeah. 
You can sometimes mindfully do 

781
00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:45,760
the wrong thing. 
Yeah, yeah. 

782
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:47,880
Sometimes you think that 
something is right, you're 

783
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:51,120
mindful, but there's some deep, 
deeper delusion in your mind. 

784
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:52,240
So yeah. 
Oh, I'm mindful. 

785
00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:55,720
I actually, I need to tell this 
person of. 

786
00:39:55,720 --> 00:39:57,040
Yeah. 
And this has to be done. 

787
00:39:57,040 --> 00:39:59,160
I will do it very mindfully and 
carefully. 

788
00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:01,800
And actually, you're getting it 
really kind of messed up because

789
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:04,400
you don't really know what is 
still, there is an underlying 

790
00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:05,520
problem there. 
Yeah. 

791
00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:08,400
And so because of that, 
sometimes mindfulness isn't 

792
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:10,400
enough. 
And what we have to do then is 

793
00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:12,680
to purify the mind at a deeper 
level. 

794
00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:17,160
And that deeper kind of 
purification happens when you do

795
00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:22,120
things like meta meditation. 
You can do it few times a week. 

796
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:25,920
It doesn't have to be very long,
10 or 15 minutes, sometimes 

797
00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:27,800
enough. 
Yeah, if you can do 20, even 

798
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:30,040
better. 
But just a little bit to get you

799
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:33,480
going, maybe at the beginning of
the day here or at night before 

800
00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:35,400
you go to bed. 
So you have a good night's rest 

801
00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:39,080
and all of these kind of things.
And you build up a certain 

802
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:43,560
reserve inside of you of 
goodwill towards the world 

803
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:46,080
around you. 
And then when you have built up 

804
00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:48,440
this kind of reserve of goodwill
inside of you. 

805
00:40:48,440 --> 00:40:51,680
Yeah, especially in the morning.
Yeah, you don't You, you. 

806
00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:54,680
When you go out into the 
streets, you want to say hello 

807
00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:55,640
to everyone? 
Yeah. 

808
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:57,680
You want to kind of be. 
You want to say good morning, 

809
00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:00,560
have Merry Christmas, Happy New 
Year, whatever. 

810
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:02,000
Yeah. 
And it all those bad things 

811
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:03,400
don't even come to your mind 
anymore. 

812
00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:07,720
And gradually that whole 
development of the mind within 

813
00:41:07,720 --> 00:41:11,840
in this way starts to express 
itself in what you are like as a

814
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:14,480
human being. 
The way you speak is different. 

815
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:17,720
You speak more gently, you speak
more carefully. 

816
00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:20,880
You become more sensitive to 
other people around you. 

817
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:22,960
You start to act in a different 
way. 

818
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:26,040
You actually want to help. 
You want to be of service to the

819
00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:28,360
world. 
This is one of those wonderful 

820
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:32,320
things is to be of service. 
It's far better to be of service

821
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:35,280
than it is to be served. 
Yeah, usually it depends on a 

822
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:38,320
little bit, depends a little bit
on the circumstances, I suppose.

823
00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:42,960
But usually it is better. 
And I think if we in the 

824
00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:46,360
Buddhist community, we should 
all think of ourselves as being 

825
00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:49,880
of service to each other. 
And when we are of service to 

826
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:52,400
each other, we build a very 
harmonious and beautiful 

827
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:55,000
community. 
Everyone coming from kindness, 

828
00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:57,880
everyone acting from Meta. 
Yeah. 

829
00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:01,280
What can I do today to help the 
Buddhist society, the people 

830
00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:02,720
around me? 
What do you think? 

831
00:42:02,720 --> 00:42:04,200
Can I help? 
OK. 

832
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:06,960
I my job today is to talk. 
Even though someone tried to 

833
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:11,920
stop me, I So I that is my 
service, right? 

834
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:14,520
I do this. 
I don't get any salary for this.

835
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:16,880
And then I go back to the 
monastery. 

836
00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:19,720
And then people come to the 
monastery every day. 

837
00:42:19,720 --> 00:42:23,000
Lots of people. 
Meals on Wheels, as Abraham 

838
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:23,680
calls it. 
Yeah. 

839
00:42:23,680 --> 00:42:27,280
Come into the monastery every 
day and I just. 

840
00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:28,560
I'm amazed. 
Yeah. 

841
00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:31,400
This is kind of the mutual 
support we have between the 

842
00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:34,960
monastic community and the lake.
It's a very, very beautiful 

843
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:37,520
thing that we have built up. 
And this was all laid down by 

844
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:41,520
the Buddha and laid down by the 
ancient Indians 2 1/2 thousand 

845
00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:45,080
years ago. 
A Samana culture, culture of 

846
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:48,480
ascetics and this relationship 
between householders and 

847
00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:51,840
ascetics. 
So be of service in your life. 

848
00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:53,880
Being of service is such a 
beautiful thing. 

849
00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:56,120
Yeah, yeah. 
This is where you start to feel 

850
00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:59,080
real meaning. 
Now you are contributing and the

851
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:03,760
greatest beneficiary of all that
service that you're doing is 

852
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:08,080
you. 
You will eventually gain joy and

853
00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:09,600
happiness because of that 
service. 

854
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:13,560
You will eventually, if you go 
round saying good morning to the

855
00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:16,640
poor person under the bridge and
kind of give them a little thing

856
00:43:16,640 --> 00:43:18,440
because they obviously seem 
desperate. 

857
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:23,200
If you do random acts of 
kindness and generosity here in 

858
00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:27,080
your life in this way here, what
will happen is that gradually, 

859
00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:29,760
gradually, gradually, something 
inside of you grows. 

860
00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:34,920
You become a more happy, 
contented, joyful person as a 

861
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:38,640
consequence. 
And then eventually, when you 

862
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:42,600
come to Jhana Grove, when you do
a meditation retreat, wherever 

863
00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:46,800
it is, that benefit will really 
ripen you. 

864
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:49,760
Close your eyes. 
You feel good about yourself. 

865
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:53,280
Not in a kind of egocentric kind
of way, but it's the natural 

866
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:54,640
way. 
You know that you are a good 

867
00:43:54,640 --> 00:43:56,880
person, so why shouldn't you 
feel good about yourself? 

868
00:43:56,880 --> 00:44:00,120
There's nothing wrong with that.
You feel good about yourself. 

869
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:04,480
The joy starts to bubble up. 
You start watching the breath, 

870
00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:06,840
and it's so easy to watch the 
breath. 

871
00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:09,760
How come I've been fighting with
the breath for so long? 

872
00:44:09,760 --> 00:44:11,400
It's actually so easy. 
Why? 

873
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:15,320
Because your mind isn't ready. 
The mind is clear of the clutter

874
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:17,360
and you have the joy and 
happiness instead. 

875
00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:21,760
And then from that, you gain 
kind of the deep samadhi and all

876
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:24,960
of these kind of things, and 
then you can start practicing 

877
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:30,800
the meta in an even deeper way. 
Then when you do meta 

878
00:44:30,800 --> 00:44:33,240
meditation, you will find that 
your mind kind of starts to 

879
00:44:33,240 --> 00:44:35,920
expand. 
Your mind starts to encompass 

880
00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:40,080
larger and larger areas until 
eventually there is no one in 

881
00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:43,960
the whole universe that you do 
not have meta for her. 

882
00:44:44,240 --> 00:44:46,800
Yeah, it is this beautiful 
expansion of the mind. 

883
00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:50,960
And then when you go back into 
society after that, you are not 

884
00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:53,200
unable to do anything wrong. 
Yeah. 

885
00:44:53,520 --> 00:44:56,720
Then your kindness will be 
grounded in a deep experience of

886
00:44:56,720 --> 00:44:59,640
something that is very different
from what you ever had before. 

887
00:44:59,920 --> 00:45:04,040
Now you know what kindness is, 
and you become a real blessing 

888
00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:06,520
for the world and a real 
blessing for yourself as a 

889
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:12,640
consequence. 
So these are my little words for

890
00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:16,880
you on the second day of the New
Year, just to wish you all Happy

891
00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:18,880
New Year in the Buddhist kind of
way. 

892
00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:22,280
So once again, Happy New Year 
and if you wish, now we can take

893
00:45:22,280 --> 00:45:27,920
some questions and things. 
Well done. 

894
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:36,440
OK, great. 
So my question when it comes to 

895
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:41,160
the Dharma, in particular when 
practising the Dharma in life, 

896
00:45:41,800 --> 00:45:47,720
once you've gone through those 
steps, is the outlook and 

897
00:45:47,720 --> 00:45:52,160
attitude to have when it bubbles
up that wisdom that you talk 

898
00:45:52,160 --> 00:45:55,640
about and how to act on the 
Dharma and how to bring that 

899
00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:59,000
more into practice. 
So for example, with you in that

900
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:02,280
instance of just someone coming 
and walking in and you showing 

901
00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:06,240
kindness to that person even 
though that person was quite 

902
00:46:06,240 --> 00:46:12,360
rude, and where do you find that
faith and that confidence to 

903
00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:19,160
practice that? 
OK, Yeah, I, I think for me now,

904
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:22,080
it's just so ingrained. 
I cannot know that, you know, 

905
00:46:22,080 --> 00:46:26,200
responding to someone like that 
with ill will, with negativity 

906
00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:28,160
is just going to backfire. 
I know that straight away. 

907
00:46:28,160 --> 00:46:30,240
Yeah. 
And that's the reason, number 

908
00:46:30,240 --> 00:46:33,720
one reason #2 I do it because I 
feel bad if I get upset, right? 

909
00:46:33,720 --> 00:46:35,320
It does for me. 
It feels bad if I can have 

910
00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:38,280
compassion for that person. 
I feel good all the time, even 

911
00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:42,280
while he is saying these things.
And thirdly, I think it's true. 

912
00:46:42,720 --> 00:46:45,320
It is true that that person 
deserves compassion there. 

913
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:47,480
Yeah. 
It is a troubled person, Yeah. 

914
00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:50,120
You don't do that in an assembly
like this unless you have some 

915
00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:52,160
trouble in your life. 
There's some deep suffering 

916
00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:55,120
there. 
And so that is kind of the 

917
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:57,080
ultimate reason why you do it, 
because it's true. 

918
00:46:57,360 --> 00:47:00,120
Yeah. 
So when it comes to starting 

919
00:47:00,120 --> 00:47:03,720
that practice on the level, and 
let's say when you were 

920
00:47:03,720 --> 00:47:08,720
beginning to become a monk and 
developing that capacity and 

921
00:47:08,720 --> 00:47:12,520
faith, how did you start that 
journey? 

922
00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:17,720
And in the micro where you would
be asked to do a talk, for 

923
00:47:17,720 --> 00:47:22,000
example, for your first talk and
where you had that confidence to

924
00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:24,240
speak in front of people, I'd 
ask. 

925
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:27,800
Right. 
OK, so the so it's just a, it's 

926
00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:31,240
a gradual kind of thing, but it 
basically a lot of it comes 

927
00:47:31,240 --> 00:47:33,360
from, it comes from the 
teachings of a Jean Bram, 

928
00:47:33,360 --> 00:47:35,480
obviously, but it comes from the
word of the Buddha. 

929
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:38,320
And so I've read the word of the
Buddha a lot. 

930
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:40,280
I've translated from parley into
English. 

931
00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:44,800
I've done kind of a lot of work 
with ITA, and there is so much 

932
00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:47,560
good information there in how to
deal with these kind of things. 

933
00:47:48,200 --> 00:47:51,160
And one of the suitors in there,
it talks precisely about, you 

934
00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:54,720
know, when someone has bad 
conduct by body, speech and 

935
00:47:54,720 --> 00:47:56,600
mind. 
Well, we saw speech conduct 

936
00:47:56,600 --> 00:47:57,680
wasn't great. 
Yeah. 

937
00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:00,720
And then you should have that 
kind of person. 

938
00:48:00,720 --> 00:48:02,360
You should regard them as a sick
person. 

939
00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:04,240
Yeah. 
That's what it says in that 

940
00:48:04,240 --> 00:48:05,680
suitor. 
Why are they sick? 

941
00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:07,680
Because they haven't meant 
there's something mentally wrong

942
00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:08,880
with them. 
There's a problem in there in 

943
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:09,760
the mind. 
Yeah. 

944
00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:12,720
And when you regard them as 
sick, but then you have sympathy

945
00:48:12,720 --> 00:48:14,240
for them, then you have 
compassion for them. 

946
00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:16,080
Because that's what we have for 
sick people. 

947
00:48:16,160 --> 00:48:19,200
We don't blame sick people for 
their illness, right? 

948
00:48:19,440 --> 00:48:21,040
But we have compassion for them 
instead. 

949
00:48:22,080 --> 00:48:26,640
And if I might ask a second and 
final question, when it comes to

950
00:48:26,640 --> 00:48:32,000
our own conduct, in particular 
of past actions that we've done 

951
00:48:32,440 --> 00:48:35,800
that we're not according to 
these seven factors and 

952
00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:39,960
forgiving ourselves of these 
particular sicknesses, as you 

953
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:46,840
say with Meta, for example, what
is the outlook and attitude that

954
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:51,840
we can have whether it be from 
our past wrong speech or wrong 

955
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:55,320
action or wrong perspectives of 
the past to people? 

956
00:48:55,320 --> 00:49:03,880
And how do you forgive that self
of the past, but also view how 

957
00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:05,520
you've treated other people? 
Yeah. 

958
00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:09,360
So what you do is that you 
understand that every human 

959
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:11,160
being is trapped by the 
conditioning. 

960
00:49:11,160 --> 00:49:12,920
Yeah. 
Trapped by the habits, trapped 

961
00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:14,120
by the pastor. 
Yeah. 

962
00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:17,840
It feels like we have free will.
It feels like we can never get 

963
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:19,720
our life. 
But the Buddha says basically 

964
00:49:19,720 --> 00:49:22,520
that's largely an illusion. 
We are basically conditioned by 

965
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:25,560
the pastor. 
And so you, the person you are 

966
00:49:25,840 --> 00:49:29,560
and the actions you do is 
because of that past, that past 

967
00:49:29,560 --> 00:49:31,920
maybe in this life, it may be in
previous lives, it may go a 

968
00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:34,720
long, long way back. 
And so very hard to understand 

969
00:49:34,720 --> 00:49:36,560
all those calls and conditions 
that work on you. 

970
00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:40,080
And once you understand that, 
then you can forgive yourself 

971
00:49:40,080 --> 00:49:43,040
completely because you realise 
actually I couldn't have done 

972
00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:45,240
anything else. 
These are the calls and 

973
00:49:45,240 --> 00:49:48,360
conditions made me do that. 
But lo and behold, I found 

974
00:49:48,360 --> 00:49:50,960
something else. 
Yeah, now I can do that. 

975
00:49:51,360 --> 00:49:53,160
And then you make a 
determination. 

976
00:49:53,160 --> 00:49:56,760
Or you try your very best and 
aspiration or whatever to do 

977
00:49:56,760 --> 00:49:58,080
better in the future. 
Yeah. 

978
00:49:58,080 --> 00:50:01,280
And you kind of move forward and
after a while, those bad 

979
00:50:01,280 --> 00:50:03,080
actions, they don't trouble you 
anymore. 

980
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:05,440
They become diluted. 
But all the good actions that 

981
00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:07,320
you do. 
And after a while you kind of 

982
00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:14,240
forget about them completely. 
And a final, final question, how

983
00:50:14,240 --> 00:50:18,040
do you give a blessing to that 
person that you have felt that 

984
00:50:18,040 --> 00:50:22,000
you have done wrong by, or give 
them something of gratitude and 

985
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:24,120
love? 
Go and go and ask for 

986
00:50:24,120 --> 00:50:26,280
forgiveness first. 
OK. 

987
00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:29,360
And once you have asked for 
forgiveness, and asking for 

988
00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:32,160
forgiveness is a very beautiful 
thing to do, sometimes you can 

989
00:50:32,160 --> 00:50:35,240
do it even if you are not 
necessarily all that guilty. 

990
00:50:35,240 --> 00:50:38,360
Yeah, because it actually tends 
to, it dissolves something. 

991
00:50:38,360 --> 00:50:40,600
It breaks the eyes. 
Yeah, because it shows that you 

992
00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:43,320
are very sincere about moving 
forward. 

993
00:50:43,560 --> 00:50:46,560
Go and ask for forgiveness and 
bring a little gift as you, as 

994
00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:48,160
you suggest as well. 
At the same time. 

995
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:49,640
It's a nice thing to do. 
Yeah. 

996
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:51,080
Thank you very much, Sir. 
Yeah. 

997
00:50:58,080 --> 00:51:00,480
Thank you. 
By some coincidence, you were 

998
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:04,760
just talking about hospitality 
just before he came in and you 

999
00:51:04,760 --> 00:51:08,240
offered him a seat so that he's 
hospitality, isn't it? 

1000
00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:10,160
Yes, yes, absolutely.