And the topic for this evening's talk is nothing less than the
meaning of life. And it sounds like a very kind
of highfalutin title, but actually the reason I chose this
title is because Buddhism has a lot to say about this question.
This question which philosophers have argued about over thousands
of years, centuries, and nobody really seems to get a grasp on,
which we all probably think about from time to time.
And the beautiful thing about Buddhism, it actually has
something to say about this profound, maybe most important
question in many ways in all our lives.
And that's why I want to talk about this.
And we all know how when we're young, we often discuss the
meaning of life between ourselves and our friends.
And how often when you are in your late teens, maybe early
twenties, you consider these things.
It's very important. What could the meaning of life
be? What am I here for?
And then later on, as we become older, we get... trapped in all
the daily duties we have, the work we have, family life,
paying off the mortgage. All these other things become so
important in our lives that these big questions, like what
the meaning of life is, becomes lost because of all these daily
activities that we have. But actually, when you think
about it, it's actually a very important question.
Because if you can come to some kind of understanding what the
meaning of life is, then of course all the other things tend
to fall into place. It gives you the overall
picture. It gives you kind of the grand
scheme of things. And everything else in life
becomes quite obvious and clear what you should be doing.
And when you're young, when you're just setting off on
life's journey, you have to decide what sort of schooling
you want to do. You have to decide the kind of
career you're going to have. You have to decide if and with
whom you're going to get married, what sort of lifestyle
you want to lead, what religion you're going to choose, if any
religion. What you're going to do.
What you believe in, basically.
What is this all about? And of course, when you're
young, these are important questions.
Because you're just starting off.
And it tends to set the course for the rest of your life.
Those decisions you make at the very early point.
And of course, if you then can have an answer, some idea what
the meaning of life is all about, then certainly all these
other things tend to fall into place.
And it becomes quite much more easy to decide on all these
grand questions in your life. Because you have an overall
understanding of what this existence of ours is all about.
But as I said, usually we forget about this after a while.
We forget asking this question. Because we think there's no
answer to this question. We think that somehow this is
beyond our ability to understand what the meaning of life is all
about. And one of the reasons why we
fail to find the answer to this question is simply because we
look at it in the wrong way. And very often the way that
people look at this question, what is the meaning of life,
they tend to look at what is the kind of the purpose of our
society. Where is the universe going?
Are we going towards some kind of harmonious, ideal society
sometime in the future? Where we're all going to be
happy, all be sort of rejoicing together in harmony?
And you can read many books about these kind of theories of
how we're all sort of moving forward.
We're all developing in a certain direction.
And eventually we'll reach a certain point where things are
just right or just wrong, or right for some people and wrong
for others, or maybe right for everybody.
And this is a kind of, we look at the kind of grand scheme of
things. Where is this universe going?
Where are we all going with this universe?
Where is society developing? Are we going in the right way?
And from a Buddhist point of view, that is the wrong way to
look at it. If you look at it that way,
you're never going to find an answer.
You're never going to find an answer to the meaning of life.
Is it the case that we're all moving in the right direction?
That we're all going somewhere? That society is moving towards
some kind of ideal, some kind of harmony?
Where we're all happy and all rejoicing and living in harmony
with each other? Is that really the case?
And from a Buddhist point of view, the reason why we even
tend to think this way in terms of society as a whole going
somewhere, the reason we think this way in the first place,
there's two reasons I think, at least that I can think of.
And one is the sense of self that we have.
Because we have a sense of self, that I am somebody, there's
something permanent in here which is me, I am this, I have a
self. It gives us a sense of
self-importance. We are somebody.
We are something which lasts in this universe, which moves on
through all these changes in the universe.
And because of that, because we are somebody, we are something
important, that means there must be a reason for this whole
existence of ours. We must be like a small cog in
this grand universe which moves towards the omega point, the
final destination of all of us, which is so important.
Otherwise, why do we exist? Why are we something special?
Why do we have this unique existence of ours, unless there
is a purpose for it? So the sense of self, this kind
of self, this kind of immediate feeling that we are somebody,
gives us a sense of self-importance, which makes it
natural to think that this universe is going somewhere, we
are also going somewhere. And the other reason I think
that people often believe that the universe must have some kind
of purpose, that this whole big machinery is going somewhere, is
because there is a sense that we were created by somebody.
This universe has been created. And once you believe in the
creative force which has started this whole universe, well then
again it is natural to think that it must have some kind of
purpose. Because why would some creative
force create this universe? Why would that creative force
create each one of us? Well obviously because there is
somewhere to go, there is a reason for all of this.
There is something, there is a grand plan behind this whole
universe, a scheme, and we are all moving along together in
this grand scheme. So these are the two main points
and the two important reasons I can think of, why we tend to
think in terms of the meaning of life, in terms of this whole
universe, this society of ours, going in a certain direction,
going towards some kind of destination in the future.
But of course, the point is that from the Buddhist point of view,
firstly, there is no, as we look at it, there is no permanent
self inside of us. You look inside of you, we all
see that there are thoughts running all over the place all
the time, there are feelings running all over the place,
perceptions, all kinds of things.
And from a Buddhist point of view, there is no enduring
entity within us that we can call a self.
Neither is there a creator god according to Buddhism.
This universe has not been created by some external force
which put this whole thing into existence.
And once you remove those two things, the two ideas of a
permanent self or of a creator god or a creator outside of us,
then you take away a lot of this idea that this universe has to
have some kind of purpose. And indeed, if you look at the
way Buddhism looks at these things, there isn't really any
purpose to this universe. This universe just goes on
according to causes and conditions, moves on from aeon
to aeon, universe to universe, round and around.
It's more like, if you want to put any name on how this
universe evolves, it is more according to cycles, universe
after universe, aeon after aeon. And the same thing is also true
for our individual lives. From a Buddhist point of view,
our individual lives also, birth, old age and death,
followed one after the other, again and again and again.
It's a cyclical existence, going round and round and round, often
doing the same things again, life after life.
And when we see this again, we realize that this is the way
Buddhism looks at these things. Not that there is some kind of
ultimate purpose, somewhere we are all going, but that there is
a cyclical existence in this thing.
So once we understand this, we can discard, or not discard,
maybe we can put less faith in this idea that the universe is
actually going somewhere, that we are all moving towards some
kind of perfect society or anything like that.
And we have to look for the purpose of life, the meaning of
life, somewhere else. And the way that I would ask
what is the purpose of life, instead of the meaning of life,
let's say instead of the purpose of life, the way to look at it
instead is to look inside ourselves and ask us, what is it
that we all desire? What is it that we all want?
Because if you can actually find out what you really want, what
you really desire inside of yourself, then of course the
fulfillment of that desire, the fulfillment of that want, that
should really be the purpose of life.
If you can fulfill the most profound yearning that you have,
then you are also, in a way, finding the very purpose of this
existence. So for a few moments, just try
to think about your life. What is it that we all really
desire? And take a kind of daily life
situation, and it's not very difficult to understand, well
how do we make decisions in our daily life?
Small little things in daily life.
What do you choose to eat? What do you choose to wear when
you get up in the morning? Which people do you choose to
talk to? What articles do you read in a
newspaper? What television programs do you
want to watch? All these little decisions that
we make throughout our day, how are those decisions taken?
And then, they are taken on the basis of what, in one way or
another, will make us happy? What is more pleasurable?
What is beneficial for us? What will give us the right
energy to endure throughout the day, to do all the duties that
we have to do? All of these things, in one way
or another, are made so that it will be for our benefit and for
our happiness. This is how all our decisions
are made throughout the day. And you can ask yourself, not
only about all the daily decisions, but ask yourself also
about those long-term decisions in life.
What education we're going to have?
What sort of job we're going to have?
Where we want to live? What religion, what philosophy
of life you choose? What is the driving force
between, that is behind making these kinds of choices?
And again, it is what you think is going to give you contentment
and satisfaction in the long run.
What is going to give you a sense of peace and harmony with
the society around you? What is going to give you
pleasure and happiness in your life?
Why do you come to the Buddhist society here?
Again, it's because you think that this is going to give
something to your life. If you didn't think that
Buddhism had anything to offer you in your life, nothing at
all, there would be no point in coming to the Buddhist society.
You wouldn't be here. And I also like to say, why do I
come here? Why do I bother coming here,
sitting, giving a talk? And again, the reason is the
same. I believe that in the long run,
it's going to be beneficial for me and also maybe beneficial for
some other people who come to these talks.
And that's why I do it, because I think there's going to be a
benefit out of that. So again, we can see how
happiness, the underlying, all these various things that we're
searching for can be classified as happiness in one way or
another. We're all searching for that
happiness in our lives. And we can even take it down to
very small things in your life, like when you're sitting there
now, you will be moving a little bit, twitching a little bit,
stretching a bit here and there. And of course, again, it's the
same thing. We're trying to get away from a
little bit of pain, a little bit of irritation, trying to find
comfort in this body, which is so difficult to find comfort in
over long periods of time. And again, it's trying to move
towards pleasure, towards contentment, towards happiness.
And everything which drives us in life is basically a movement
towards finding happiness in life, finding contentment in
life, finding something which satisfies us.
And in brief, I will call that thing that we're searching for,
I'll just call it happiness to make it easy, just to find one
word which maybe can summarize all that, all those things that
we're trying to have in our lives.
It's called happiness. So this then becomes the purpose
of life. The purpose of life becomes to
satisfy that happiness that we are all yearning for.
This is what life is all about. And it becomes very obvious when
you think about it. This actually is the purpose of
life. The reason that we often forget
about the fact that this is the purpose of life is because this
idea of happiness seems so elusive.
It's so hard to get to. It's so hard to really know what
this happiness is. And even if you know what it is,
it's very hard to actually get a hold of it.
And that is why often we forget about the fact that this
actually is the purpose. But by looking inside your mind,
looking at what you really want in your life, it's not that hard
to see that this is where we all want to go.
And the problem that arises at this point, once we realize that
we want to be happy, is, well, what actually is that happiness
that we really desire? It can be so hard to understand.
Because there are different types of happiness.
Sometimes there are the pleasures of life, going to the
movies, eating nice food, relationships and all these
things. And then there are other types
of happiness, the happiness of being peaceful, of being
tranquil, of a sense of contentment, of the joy in the
mind that we can sometimes have. And this is, in a sense, another
type of happiness. So where should we actually seek
for happiness? We know we want to be happy, but
what really is this happiness? And even though, because we know
that, even though everybody out there, in one way or another, is
pursuing that happiness, very few people actually ever really
get it. People are still depressed,
people are still down, they're still grieving over lost friends
and relatives. And very often they don't find
that really peaceful, contented, joyful happiness, which is on
offer in this life. And the reason is because
they're looking in the wrong place.
And I will illustrate for you two, one important distinction
that the Buddha made in these types of happinesses.
He made a distinction between what you might call worldly
happiness and, on the other hand, spiritual happiness.
These are the two main distinctions, maybe, that the
Buddha can be said to have made. And I've talked about this here
before, but I find it such an interesting topic that I want to
talk about it again. So what is the difference
between the worldly happiness and the spiritual happiness?
And the worldly happiness is all the happiness of the senses, the
five senses, that we get from seeing things, hearing things,
touching things, etc. It is a kind of happiness that
we get when we get a promotion at work, when we get a salary
increase, when we get maybe into a powerful position, when we get
famous, or when a good report spreads around, about this
person, he or she is a very nice person.
All of these things are like worldly happinesses.
And this is the happiness on the one side.
And the Buddha specifically said that these are worldly
happinesses. And then, on the other hand, you
have the spiritual happinesses. And the spiritual happinesses
are the happinesses which come from a spiritual lifestyle,
happinesses which come from being moral, from doing good,
from being kind, from being generous, from being peaceful,
having loving kindness and compassion in your life, from
doing meditation practice. All of those positive qualities
that we develop inside of our mind.
Well, that happiness which comes from that, that is the spiritual
happiness. And this is one of the most
important distinctions that the Buddha made about happiness.
And why is it that one of these happinesses is to be sought for,
whereas the other one is not so important according to the
Buddha's teachings? And the reason is as follows,
and I will quote something again which I have quoted here before.
And this was an experiment that was done in the United States a
long time ago, which showed what happens when people enjoy
sensual pleasures. How does it affect the mind when
we enjoy sensual pleasures? And this experiment, if I
remember correctly, was done at Harvard University back in the
1970s, so it's the kind of highest pedigree of experiments.
This is not just some kind of random thing at all.
And what they found, which was very interesting, was that we
all, in a sense, start off with a certain level of happiness in
life. We are like, in a sense, here,
or something like that. This is where we start off.
Some people start off higher, some people start off lower, but
we sort of start off at a certain level.
And then, when we have an experience of some kind of
sensual pleasure, say a meal, or we go to see a nice movie or
something, then there is like a little peak experience up from
that plateau where we're normally at.
Peak experience comes. And soon after we had that meal,
soon after we've seen that movie, it comes down again.
And this is what happens with sensual pleasures.
And then when it comes down again, it comes down exactly to
where it was before. This is the extraordinary thing.
We're searching for these pleasures, but always, when it's
over, it comes back down again to exactly where it was before.
Or take a larger thing in life. Take, you get a new house, you
get a new car, something which may be much more important in
your life, and the happiness you get lasts a little bit longer.
You start off again where you were before, the happiness goes
up, it lasts for a while, but slowly but surely, the
excitement of that new house, that new car, comes down again.
Down, down, down. After a few weeks, after a few
months, you come down again, all the way down to where you were
when you were where you were before.
And this is the way it goes on and on.
Happiness after happiness, sensual happiness after
happiness. You get a promotion in your job.
You feel really excited, because when you get a promotion, you
feel valued by your boss or by your peers in your job.
So it feels wonderful to get that promotion.
And then you get a new car, and you get a new car, and you feel
wonderful to get that promotion. But the same problem again,
slowly but truly, it comes down, down, down, down.
And it comes down to the same level it was before.
And down there. And you can see what's going on
here. You always find this happiness,
but it's ephemeral. It disappears.
It doesn't actually remain. And of course, when something
doesn't remain, what happens? Well, you look back at the
happiness, and you think, oh, I wish I had that happiness again.
Then craving and desire arises within you to do the same thing
again, again and again and again.
And each time you do it, the same thing happens.
It goes up, and then it goes down again.
It goes up, and it goes down. Always leading to
disappointment. And because it's disappointing,
you try it again and again and again.
And this is how most people live their lives, from one end to the
other. Up and down, up and down, up and
down. And not really getting anywhere
at all. And of course, one of the
biggest happinesses in life, I have to talk about this as well,
because this is what we maybe seek more than anything else.
And this is the happiness of a good relationship, the happiness
of falling in love initially, and then having a good
relationship afterwards. But even this idea of falling in
love, it is something which is maybe some of the highest
happiness that some people experience.
And yet even that comes down again after a while.
It lasts maybe for a year, I think a year or two, a year and
a half, sometimes it's quoted, how long these feelings can
last. But sure enough, it comes down
again, that as well. You cannot be in love forever
and ever. It's going to disappear.
So again, there is no permanent satisfaction in falling in love
either. And then there is a reverse
thing, and the reverse thing is also important.
And that sometimes we have sensual disappointment instead
of sensual happiness. We get a demotion in our job,
and we go down, bam, and we get depressed, we grieve, and we
feel really unhappy. We feel unappreciated by our
boss or by our fellow workers because they have demoted us, or
we get a salary reduction because the company isn't doing
so well, and again we feel down. But even on these occasions,
when something happens which is unpleasant, even if it's just
food maybe which doesn't quite agree with you, again it comes
up again, slowly but surely. And after a while, you have
forgotten about that experience, and again you go up to almost
exactly the level you were before.
So this is what life is like. You start off at a certain
level, and it goes up and down, up a bit more, down a bit more.
You have some deep downs and some high ups.
But then on your deathbed, you are roughly where you were when
you started off. It's terrible, isn't it?
It's sort of that, it looks so pointless when you see it that
way. You wonder what was, and that's
why so many people come to the end of their life and think,
what was this all about? What was the purpose of all
this? Yes, I had a few happinesses, I
had a few sorrows, but at the end of the day, I'm exactly
where I started. And I leave the world exactly in
the same way as I came into this world.
I didn't have anything when I came in.
I leave everything behind again when I go.
What was this all about? And it's a good question.
It's a good question to ask, what was it all about?
Because this is where it leads us, of course, over to the
spiritual happiness. And this is the other way of
looking at it. The other type of happiness
which the Buddha praised. This is the real happiness, the
happiness which really matters. And the difference between this
happiness and the worldly happiness can again be found in
certain experiments. And many of you may have read
about them, which have been done recently also in the United
States. They seem to be called the human
brain. They seem to be at the forefront
of this sort of research. And what they did there, they
actually found out that in the human brain, there is like
certain areas which have a tendency to become active when
we experience certain types of happiness or happiness in
general. And because they have figured
this out, they were actually able to find out how happy
various people can be. And they measured various types
of people. And some of the people they
measured were people who actively led a spiritual life.
People who were good people, who meditated, who did good things
in their lives. And they found that the more
spiritual practice you were doing, and particularly this was
about meditation practice, the more you did of it, and the more
success you had in your meditation practice, the more
happiness you scored on this particular scale that they had
devised. And that was an amazing result.
It was an amazing result that this, the real happiness, and
the point about this happiness is not a happiness which fades
away. This was, remember, they were
actually put under certain brain scanning machines, all kinds of
electronic equipment. This was happiness that was
almost like imprinted in them. Because the longer you had
practiced the spiritual life, the more happy you were.
In other words, it was a result of a long term of practice.
It wasn't a result of some kind of gratification, or something
like that. It was a result of the
realization that we were having just on that particular day.
And this was an amazing result. And this fits perfectly with how
the Buddha taught. Because the real, important, and
interesting happiness to be had in life is precisely the
spiritual happiness. And the way to look at this, to
go back to this idea of levels of happiness, you start off on a
certain level in life. But then when you lead a
spiritual life, I'm going to give maybe one easy example to
understand. Suddenly you want to do
something good in your life. You get this sense, this urge of
doing something spontaneously nice to somebody, say something
nice, because you really feel like it in your heart.
This is not a superficial kind of kindness, this is a real
kindness. You feel like doing something
nice, you help somebody, you give somebody something when
they need something. And how do you feel after doing
something spontaneously nice towards somebody?
You feel good inside of you. There's a happiness which arises
from doing something kind. Doing something generous.
And we all know what that feels like when we think about it.
And that is a kind of, it's a little bit like the sensual
happiness. There's a peak experience there.
It's a different type of happiness.
But there's a happiness nonetheless, a kind of peak
experience which comes with that kind action.
And then afterwards it comes down again.
But when it comes down again, it doesn't come down precisely to
the same level it was before. It leads, it leaves a little
residue inside of the mind. And that is the important
difference between the spiritual happiness and the worldly
happiness. The spiritual happiness leaves a
residue in the mind, so the mind is lifted up a small stage.
Each time you do something good, the mind is lifted up a tiny
fraction. And this is exactly the same
thing which happens if we are virtuous, if we are kind and
good people who do the right thing in the world, every time
we do something good, every time we decide that we are going to
be nice and kind, we are slowly but surely lifting up our mind,
step by step, stage by stage. Each time we do a meditation on
compassion, on loving kindness, we become more peaceful, and we
have a general good feeling for the world, we are lifting our
minds up, stage by stage by stage.
And of course, you can see what happens here, if you keep doing
this over time, instead of getting this flat curve, which
starts off here and ends up over here at the end of your life,
you get an inclination going upwards, lifting yourself up,
going higher and higher and higher.
Of course, sometimes we are going to fail, we are not always
going to be able to be kind and generous and do the right thing,
sometimes it is going to go wrong, and of course then,
instead of pointing up, we are pointing a little bit down.
So it also goes a little bit down, but then we catch
ourselves, and we start to go up again.
So the difference then, between the sensual happiness and the
spiritual happiness, is that if we practice the spiritual
happiness in a successful way, we are going to actually lift
ourselves up, lift our mind up, stage by stage, going upwards,
and upwards, and upwards. And of course, when you come to
your final days, when your time comes to lay down, lay down your
body, and say goodbye to this world, you are on a different
level from where you started off when you came into this world.
And that is the beautiful thing about the spiritual happiness,
it takes you somewhere. When you look back, you say,
wow, this life was really worthwhile, because I have
gotten somewhere, I have changed myself for a better person, I am
happier, more content, more satisfied with my life now than
I was when I came into this world.
I have gone somewhere. And on the way, because I have
been kind and good and a generous person, on the way, I
have also helped other people, done good in this world, and
brought other people with me on this beautiful spiritual
journey, which actually takes us somewhere.
So now you can start to see here what this life is all about.
This life is all about to find this true kind of happiness,
this real happiness, this real satisfaction, which can be
gained by practicing a spiritual life, practicing good, doing
what is right, so we can actually go somewhere in our
life, we can actually take ourselves somewhere and end up
in a different place from where we started off.
That becomes the purpose, that becomes what life is really all
about, ultimately. This is the Buddhist answer to
this question, what is the meaning of life?
What is the purpose? What is the purpose of life?
So why is it then, one of the things I want to ask also is,
why is it then that so many people, they may hear the
Buddhist teachings, they may hear the sort of things that I
am saying tonight, and I am certainly personally convinced
that this is a very valid way of looking at the world, and you
may agree with me that this is a valid way of looking at the
world, and yet, why is it that many people, they hear the
Buddhist teachings, they hear other good spiritual teachings,
and yet, they turn their back to these things, they don't
actually understand it. And why is it that even if we
are Buddhist, why is it that sometimes we don't maybe put in
that effort that we really would like to put into our practice?
Why is it that sometimes we fail, we don't make as much
progress as we would like? Why is it that even in monastic
life, sometimes I sit in my kuti, and I wonder, why am I not
putting in more effort into my practice?
Because sometimes it happens with all of us that we could put
in more effort into our practice.
And I think one of the answers to this is, again, like I
started off talking about, is this idea of a self inside of
us. And the problem with the idea of
a self inside of us is that we have a sense of permanence
inside of us, we have a sense of who we are.
And because we have this sense of permanence inside of us, it
is often very difficult, very difficult to understand that it
is possible to change around, to become very different from what
we already are. Because we are not able to see
fully that potential for change, potential for transformation
inside of us, that is often the reason why we maybe neglect and
don't put in sufficient effort in our life to actually
transform ourselves. And the way to understand this
is that, if you look inside of yourself, you see, well, this is
who I am. This is me.
And the way you feel about yourself, the way you think
about yourself, this is you, right?
This is how we think we are. And one easy way of seeing this,
for example, if a person gets very depressed, what happens if
people get very depressed? Or they grieve a lot because
they have lost somebody close to them?
Sometimes people commit suicide because of that.
We see this all the time. Why do people commit suicide?
Because they think that this is like a permanent condition.
They are not able to see here that this is temporary, that one
day they will get out of this problem, out of this suffering
in their lives. And this is a problem that we
often have in our lives. We tend to see our present state
as permanent, as something which is there.
And of course, if you are depressed and you think it's
permanent, you get into a very kind of a state of depression.
You get into a very kind of hopeless situation.
So one of the most important things, therefore, always to
tell somebody who is sad, who is depressed, who is unhappy, is
always to say, well, remember, this is impermanent.
This too will pass, as Ajahn Brahm would always say.
And that is one of the most important things to remember.
And this is also important to remember on the spiritual path
itself, that this, the way I am now, is not permanent.
I don't have to be this way I am now.
I can change. If you take the idea of self
completely out of the equation and you realize that we are
conditioned beings, external condition work on us, then
suddenly you take away the limits of potential for change.
Suddenly there is no limit anymore for how much happiness,
how much contentment, how much peace, how much satisfaction you
can find in your life. That limit is taken off.
And suddenly you start to understand the potential of the
spiritual life is enormous. It is very likely to be beyond
every one of us here's wildest dreams what is possible to
actually attain in this spiritual life.
That is what is at stake. It's something truly marvelous.
The end of all suffering, the highest possible happiness,
Nibbana. That is what really is at stake
with this spiritual life. So be careful in believing too
much in the way that who you are now, this person you are now,
this is going to last. There is enormous potential
there. And when you read what the
Buddha taught, when you see maybe other people who have
practiced for a long time, you can sometimes infer that there
is something there which is available, something much
higher, something which we all can attain if we put in the
right effort. And that is...
So don't allow this illusion that we call in Buddhism this
illusion of a permanent self inside.
Don't allow that to stop you from attaining your potential,
from moving on. Remember that the potential for
change is almost unlimited. So that is essentially my talk
this evening. It's about the purpose of life.
And the purpose of life is to find that satisfaction, that
happiness, that wealth, that we're all yearning for, that
we're all seeking for, that which so many people find so
difficult and so hard to really understand.
That is what we have to look. And if we look towards the
Buddhist teachings, that is, in my opinion, the best place to
look if you want to find that sort of complete and final
satisfaction in your life. That is the talk.
Okay, so are there any... questions or comments or
complaints or anything else? This is the chance you have.
Yes, at the back there. Yes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . Right. .
Yes. . Yeah, I think that's probably
true because what you can say is that that expanding of energy to
actually do the practice, that is a kind of suffering in life.
It's a kind of a suffering. And because we don't want to
suffer, we tend to steer away away from those sort of things
which is too much ardor and takes too much energy.
That is true. And of course there it is
important just to have that faith.
The faith and understand that if I put in this energy I will
actually overcome much more suffering in the future.
That is where the faith comes in and the understanding of the
Dhamma, understanding of the Buddha's teachings.
And then you will accept, okay, a little bit of suffering now is
worth it in the long run. It is like keeping the five
precepts. If you are a committed Buddhist
and you decide that you want to keep the five precepts which is
like the basic moral code of Buddhism, well there is a little
bit initially, a little bit of suffering involved in keeping
the five precepts. There are certain things you
can't do. If previously you enjoyed lying
to people or drinking alcohol or whatever it is or maybe even, I
don't know what, but if you enjoyed previously something
which was against the five precepts, then you have to keep
it. You have to stop that.
And that very stopping involves a little bit of suffering.
But of course in the long run you get much more happiness in
return by actually keeping those five precepts.
And it is the same thing with the entire path of Buddhism.
People often go on meditation retreats and some of those
retreats sometimes can be suffering for people.
Maybe not all the time but certainly part of the time
because you are doing things which you are not used to do.
But then if you persevere, if you do it correctly, then
eventually you also get those wonderful results that come from
that meditation practice. So yes it's true, there is the
suffering of leading the spiritual life.
It is true. But so you have to, in a sense,
if you want to evaluate your spiritual life, never look in
the short term. The short term can be very
deceptive. Always look in the long term.
So look at yourself today compared to what you were six
months ago or a year ago. That's the kind of time span you
need to look at to really see whether there is a change in the
positive. And then you will make the right
decision whether the spiritual life works or not.
If you just look from one week to the next, well because the
mind is so changeable, it is impossible to really see an
improvement and to have any kind of proper perspective just from
one week to the next one. Are you happy with that answer?
Yes? Yes.
Okay. Well, I mean, first of all, you
know, being happy is not so bad in itself, you know.
It's pretty good. You know, when you think about
sometimes we get depressed, people get into very difficult
situations. You know, and you can't wait to
get out of it. And of course, happiness is
something wonderful and something that becomes very
beautiful. And the happier you get, you
look back at your previous life, you think, oh, that was terrible
what I had before. I didn't actually realize at the
time how bad it was. But now I understand that there
was a lot more suffering in that life than I could really see.
And the reason is because the suffering is so close to you,
that life is so close to you, you don't really fully
understand it. So the higher up you get, the
more higher you still want to go.
Okay. And eventually, you go from life
to life, maybe you feel happy in your future life.
Sometimes happiness is the wrong word because sometimes what
we're seeking is really contentment and peace because
these are actually more profound and deeper senses of happiness
than just pure kind of excitement or whatever.
But each life, you can build on what you did in the previous
life. You can even end it in this life
if you really work really hard. But if you have to, you go on in
the future life, from life to life, going higher and higher.
Okay. And this is nibbana or nirvana.
And this is the highest happiness according to Buddhism.
And I think anybody, almost everybody I think would agree,
why shouldn't we have the highest happiness?
If the highest happiness is there for the, to be attained,
surely that makes sense to actually go for that goal of the
highest possible happiness. That is what it's all about
basically. Please ask beginners questions.
There's no shame in that. There are many people here, I'm
sure, who come for the first time.
So don't be afraid. Yes?
Okay. The fear of change.
Yeah, okay. Well, it depends, you know, what
you mean, I suppose, by fear of change.
But usually you start in the small things, you know.
You start with the things which are easy to change.
You ask yourself, well, how can I improve?
Well, you know, how can I improve my life a little bit?
How can I do a little better? How can I be a kinder and more
gentle and more generous and more compassionate person in my
life? And most people don't fear that
kind of change. Usually it comes quite
naturally. And then you build on that.
You become more compassionate. And you ask yourself the next
step, well, how can I become even more compassionate and
kinder? How can I do this step by step
going upwards, moving ahead? And then you will see that what
you may have seemed fearful on an earlier occasion actually
becomes something very natural inside of you.
You may change in ways that you never expected.
And it becomes beautiful. So don't actually look, don't
think about your change. Just do what is right and see
what happens. And what you will see is that
your mind changed in a very positive and very nice way.
And I can almost assure you, you're going to be very happy
with that. It's not something you're going
to regret. But don't worry about the mind.
Just do what is right and see what happens.
If you have big problems, you can always go and ask Ajahn
Brahm. Don't ask me.
See how it goes. Anybody else want to ask
anything? Yes, at the back.
So if the meaning of what would be the Shri Mahagama's talk, and
then after a while I achieve that, then go to Nibbana, then
it will be Nibbana. Yeah, well, I mean, the point is
that Nibbana is the meaning, right?
That is the end point. So you can't really...
You can't really go beyond that. But yeah, it is the highest
possible happiness. I think that's good enough.
If you reach the highest possible happiness, there's no
point in asking for meaning anymore because you have
achieved the highest possible. You reached the end.
It's like saying, what is the purpose of achieving the highest
happiness? Well, that's it.
You got it. You reached it.
It's a bit like you're an Olympic athlete because the
Olympics are coming up soon. And your goal is to win the
particular... The event.
Well, then you win. That's really the goal in its
own right, isn't it? There's nothing more beyond
that. You have won, you've made it.
That's it. And the same thing, once you
achieve the highest happiness, well, you have achieved the best
thing that anybody can achieve in this universe.
Why, on earth, would you go on seeking for anything more?
There's no point. You have reached the highest.
Okay. So let's pay our respects to the
Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha. If you wish, you can take part.
If you don't want to, that's okay.
Thank you. Thank you.