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OK everyone, so welcome again. 
And we can start. 

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This evening's Dharma talk is 
going to be a continuation of 

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the theme that I was talking 
about two weeks ago. 

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And if you want to hear that was
about the idea of developing the

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perceptions of the mind, how to 
change our outlook, how to align

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the way we see the world with 
the way the world actually is or

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if you like with the way the 
Buddha taught the world is. 

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And two weeks ago I focused on a
few kind of facts of life, which

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some people think is a bit 
depressing, maybe talking about 

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old age, sickness and death kind
of perennial optimistic themes 

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of Buddhism. 
And sometimes people think that 

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these things are kind of sad, 
and if you look at them in the 

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wrong way, they can of course 
appear like that. 

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But the reality is that if you 
focus on these things in the 

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right way, they actually give 
rise to a lot of positive mind 

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states because they guide you 
towards the spiritual path and 

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they guide you in the right 
direction. 

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But anyway, to balance things a 
little bit out, I'm going to 

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talk today more about some 
positive kind of perceptions, 

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how to develop the positive 
feelings within and how to see 

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the world in a kind of the 
positive light of things. 

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I'm going to focus in particular
on the ideas of meta meta, which

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is often translated as loving 
kindness or perhaps 

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friendliness, and on the other 
hand, on compassion. 

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And I may also focus on a few 
more things towards the end of 

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the talk. 
Yeah. 

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So that's going to be the the 
theme for today. 

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Is it how to develop these 
perceptions and these intentions

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in your life to kind of to boost
that happiness, part of the of, 

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of the spiritual practice and 
this idea of developing our 

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perceptions and our outlook is 
actually incredibly important on

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the Buddhist path. 
It is important in the sense 

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that this is something you can 
do at almost any time. 

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Yeah. 
How we, the talk I gave two 

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weeks ago was entitled How 
everything Teaches you. 

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And the idea with how everything
teaches you is the idea that 

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when we go about our daily 
activities in life and we just 

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observe the reality, observe the
world, see how the world is. 

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If you know how to look at the 
world, how to observe it in the 

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right way, almost anything can 
teach you about existence, about

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life, and about how how you know
to learn more from the the life 

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around us so as to become more 
wise. 

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And this is just so if we know 
how to approach, how to look at 

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the world in the right way using
some of the tools of Buddhism, 

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we can become wiser pretty much 
all the time. 

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And this is also what the 
perceptions I'm going to talk 

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about today are about. 
The benefit of these is that you

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can do them all the time. 
So you can always kind of move 

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the mind in the right direction.
So that spiritual practice is 

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not something that you come here
on a Friday night. 

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Yeah, maybe you go, you go to a 
retreat every now and again down

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at Jana Grove, maybe come to the
monastery occasionally. 

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It's not like that. 
It's actually all the time, and 

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the only kind of spiritual 
practice that is really 

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worthwhile is the kind of 
practice that happens pretty 

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much all the time. 
That is, that is when real 

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development of the mind happens.
Yes. 

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Every Friday at the Mallorca is 
Good Friday, not just today. 

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Yeah. 
This kind of the great things 

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about being a Buddhist. 
Every Friday is Good Friday. 

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Christianity, they have once a 
year, we have every Friday. 

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So it's kind of handy, but we 
want to make every minute kind 

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of the good minute. 
Yeah. 

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The, as I said in the, the 
famous suit of the bit of the 

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bad Ek rata suit, the one 
auspicious night. 

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The idea is to make every moment
an auspicious moment. 

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And when you do that, then 
you're really making progress on

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this path. 
And the reason why this matters 

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so much is because when we come 
into this world. 

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Yeah. 
At the very beginning of our, of

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our lives, our minds are already
incredibly distorted. 

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You know, the reality is that we
come into this world, we don't 

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see things as they actually are.
It is not as if we enter this 

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world as a blank slate, you 
know, with any, with no kind of 

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imprints on our mind or whatever
this the idea is that we come 

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into this world already 
conditioned very, very heavily 

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from the past. 
Some people think we come into 

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this world with a blank slate, 
and then we are conditioned by 

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the society around us. 
But it's far worse than that 

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because the conditioning goes 
much, much, much deeper into the

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past. 
And of course, this is where the

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idea of Buddhist rebirth comes 
into the equation. 

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And so our conditioning is 
almost unfathomable there. 

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Yeah. 
It's impossible to really 

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understand how profound this 
conditioning is. 

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And because the conditioning is 
so unfathomable, because it's so

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deep, because it goes back so 
far in time, it means that the 

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mind is controlled by very 
powerful forces. 

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These are the forces that force 
the mind to make the mind go in 

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a particular direction. 
And it's actually very hard to 

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turn the mind around. 
I like the idea of the mind or 

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the habits of the mind being a 
bit like a super tanker. 

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Yeah. 
When a super tanker is set in 

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motion on the ocean, these 
tankers are enormous, like half 

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a million tons. 
Yeah, of crude oil or iron ore. 

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Iron ore is kind of one of the 
favorite commodities of WA, 

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shipped out of WA onto the 
world's ocean. 

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But once that iron ore carrier 
gets out on the high seas and it

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goes at full speed, 20 knots an 
hour or whatever it is, it takes

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kilometres to turn it around. 
Yeah, many, many kilometres. 

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Because the momentum of that 
iron ore carrier is so enormous.

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And our minds are like super 
tankers are like iron ore 

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carriers. 
Yeah, they have this enormous 

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momentum from the past that 
drives the moment forward, the 

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mind forward. 
These are the habits, these are 

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the regularities of the mind, 
things that are deeply imprinted

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within us that are very hard to 
turn around. 

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And because it is so hard to 
turn around, because the 

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momentum from the past is so 
enormous, it means that every 

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time we change our perceptions, 
every time we guide the mind in 

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a new way towards something 
else. 

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Every time matters. 
Every time is important. 

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And if we can do it regularly, 
day in, day out, that is when 

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the Super tanker of the mind 
slowly, slowly, slowly changes 

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direction, moves in a different 
way. 

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And eventually the beautiful 
thing about the mind is that it 

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because it is habitual. 
What used to be bad habits 

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gradually turning around until 
it's 180° and then the bad 

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habits become good habits. 
And suddenly you can't avoid 

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doing the good things anymore 
because the mind now has a 

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different habit. 
And these, the problem is that 

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we are born with them. 
These are sometimes called the 

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distortions of the mind. 
Yeah, perversions of the mind. 

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There are wrong views about the 
reality, wrong perceptions about

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the reality. 
We don't see the world as it 

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actually is. 
And there's a name, beautiful 

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word for this, in the suitors of
the Buddha. 

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It's a word called vipalasa. 
Vipalasa means literally a 

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distortion. 
So we're born with these 

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distortions into the world and 
these distortions in the suit, 

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as are of three kinds. 
They are distortions of 

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perception, distortions of mind.
Mind him is like thought, 

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thinking, distortions and 
distortions of view, perception,

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thoughts and view. 
And these are like 3 different 

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layers, if you like, of the 
mind. 

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Perception is the most immediate
thing. 

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Perception is how you see the 
world right away. 

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Yeah, right now when you're 
sitting here, you're perceiving 

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things, you're perceiving 
people, you're perceiving a talk

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being given, you're perceiving 
the lines, you're perceiving the

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room. 
Although these are perceptions, 

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this is how we make meaning out 
of the world, how we can make 

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sense of the world. 
But when we come into the world,

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our perceptions are seriously 
distorted. 

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And I'll show you in a second 
how and why that is the case on 

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a higher level, because our 
perceptions are distorted. 

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The way we think about the 
world, the mind that we develop 

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from those basic perceptions. 
You have the thinking mind that 

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is also distorted because the 
thoughts are built up out of the

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perceptions and then the 
thinking mind then makes creates

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the views that we have. 
We view the world in a certain 

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way here. 
We have ideas about what is good

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and bad. 
We have ideas about religions, 

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political parties, football 
teams, whatever it might be that

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we have views about. 
You know, these are the views 

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that we build out of our 
thinking mind, whether Buddhism 

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is good or bad, whether we 
should be an atheist, whether we

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should meditate or not, all of 
these kind of things. 

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And then the views, in turn, 
inform our perceptions. 

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Yeah. 
Because the way we look at the 

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world, the way we see the world,
that becomes like the guidance 

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for our perceptions. 
So we have views about things, 

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and you see the world through 
the lens of those views. 

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And now you can start to see how
trapped you are. 

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Right? 
You're not only trapped because 

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these things are very deeply 
ingrained from the deep, deep 

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past, but you're also trapped 
because it's like a circular 

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thing. 
Yeah, your perceptions inform 

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your thoughts, your thoughts 
inform your views, your views 

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inform your perceptions, and 
round and round it goes. 

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And it's very hard to see an 
escape from that cycle of how 

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the mind works. 
So if everything is distorted, 

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there's this reinforcement 
happening and it's hard to 

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break. 
And the way to break it is to 

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gradually recondition the mind, 
recondition that super tank so 

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it can move in a different 
direction and. 

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One of the most. 
Simple, most obvious ways of 

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doing that is to challenge our 
perceptions, to develop new 

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perceptions, to start to see the
world in a new way here. 

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So what are those bad 
perceptions? 

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And what, how does the Buddha 
summarise these things? 

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And they can be spoken of in 
many different ways, but there's

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four kind of main categories 
that the Buddha talks about. 

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Yeah. 
The first thing is that we tend 

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to see things as far more 
permanent, far more reliable 

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than they actually are. 
Yeah. 

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You know what it's like you see 
some kind of news on TV, or you 

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see someone die or you see 
someone get sick and you're 

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shocked. 
Yeah. 

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Wow, the world is going bad. 
This person died. 

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Oh, that's terrible. 
And of course, the reason why 

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you think it's terrible is 
because you don't haven't really

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taken on board the idea of 
impermanence and unreliability 

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in the world. 
Yeah, things are really deeply 

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impermanent, and it's hard to 
take that on board. 

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And we have this feeling, this 
root distortion of the mind. 

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We see things as far more 
reliable and permanent than they

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actually are. 
We see things as more happy than

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they really are. 
We. 

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We chase after things that don't
really provide much happiness, 

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not really understanding where 
happiness is to be found. 

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We have an illusion about things
being happy when actually they 

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provide much suffering. 
Instead, we have an idea of 

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there being a self. 
You have an idea of yourself 

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existing in a certain way. 
This is the delusion of the 

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sense of self. 
I exist in a certain way, when 

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in fact you don't exist in the 
way that you think you do. 

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And the fourth one is the idea 
of beauty in the world. 

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We see beauty when in fact there
isn't really anything beautiful 

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at all and we don't really 
appreciate those things that are

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truly beautiful there. 
What are the things that are 

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truly beautiful? 
Well, this is one of the things,

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the topics of today's talk, the 
idea of meta, the idea of loving

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kindness and friendliness. 
The Buddha says when you develop

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that fully, you are called 
subbang adimuti, Subbang 

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adimuta. 
Adimuta means focusing on what I

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focus on subba. 
Subba means the beautiful. 

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That is what is beautiful. 
In Buddhism, when you have a 

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fully developed mind or heart of
loving kindness, that is a truly

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beautiful state of mind. 
The normal things in the world 

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that we think think of as 
beautiful, actually, they're 

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often very problematic. 
They change very fast. 

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They're not far less 
satisfactory than we think. 

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And the happiness that we get 
from them is often very shallow,

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not very deep at all. 
So it's truly problematic. 

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Yeah. 
So these are the distortions. 

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This is the problem we are faced
with. 

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00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:12,080
It's a very serious problem, 
very deep problem. 

229
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And because it is so deep, we 
need to challenge it and we need

230
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to develop the perception of the
mind, to take the mind in 

231
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different direction. 
And one of these perceptions is 

232
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perceptions related to meta, to 
loving kindness, to 

233
00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:31,640
friendliness, to kindness 
towards all beings, including 

234
00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:36,680
ourselves. 
So how can we develop meta? 

235
00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:44,400
And one of the first things I 
think to answer before we talk 

236
00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:47,400
about that is to ask where does 
meta come from? 

237
00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:49,920
Yeah. 
What is the cause of meta? 

238
00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:52,000
What is the driving force behind
it? 

239
00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,040
And once we can start to 
understand some of the driving 

240
00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:58,760
forces behind meta, we can start
to understand the conditionality

241
00:13:58,760 --> 00:14:01,200
behind this. 
Then we can start to understand 

242
00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:04,520
what it is that we have to do. 
Now, if you know the noble 

243
00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:08,280
effort path, the noble effort 
path starts with right view. 

244
00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:10,880
Yeah, there's a number one of 
the noble effort path. 

245
00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:14,160
The second factor, noble effort 
path often called right 

246
00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:19,520
intention or right purpose. 
Right aim is where we are 

247
00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:23,920
heading here as and Brown calls 
it right motivation, which is I 

248
00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:28,160
think OK, but I prefer right 
purpose for this term and the 

249
00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:31,480
right sama sanka. 
The second factor of the noble 

250
00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:36,160
hateful path is precisely about 
meta and Karuna. 

251
00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:39,760
Yeah, loving kindness and 
compassion, the intention of 

252
00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:43,360
these things. 
So the intention of these things

253
00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:45,400
relies on perceiving these 
things. 

254
00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:48,560
Where does it come from? 
It comes from right view. 

255
00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:51,440
Right view leads to right 
intention. 

256
00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:55,560
If this is what right intention 
is about, Right view is a thing 

257
00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:59,640
that actually gives rise to 
meta, gives rise to compassion, 

258
00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:03,560
also gives rise to renunciation.
If you have right view, you want

259
00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:05,600
to renounce. 
I may come back to renunciation 

260
00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:07,840
later on. 
These are the three things I 

261
00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:12,560
want to talk about tonight. 
So what How does Right View 

262
00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:17,120
support the idea of meta? 
Well, remember the idea of right

263
00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:21,520
view, a large part of this is 
the idea that the, you know, the

264
00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:25,600
danger in the world of living in
an immoral way, the danger in 

265
00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:29,920
the world of having a mind which
is angry, which is negative, 

266
00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:32,520
which makes your head in the 
wrong direction. 

267
00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:35,520
Yeah, this is one of the big 
problems according to Right 

268
00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:37,800
View. 
When you have that kind of mind,

269
00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:41,000
when you have the wrong kind of 
intentions, you will tend to do 

270
00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:43,720
bad things and you will reap the
bad consequences. 

271
00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:48,440
And because, as I mentioned, 
many of these things like ill 

272
00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:52,200
will and anger, because they're 
often very deep seated, because 

273
00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:55,520
they come from the deep past, 
they are difficult to challenge.

274
00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:59,000
And unless we challenge them, 
unless we do something with 

275
00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:02,200
these things in this. 
Life chances are we would bring 

276
00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:05,640
them with us into the next life 
and then into the next one and 

277
00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:08,680
carry on like that. 
And given the wrong 

278
00:16:08,680 --> 00:16:12,600
circumstances, given the wrong 
influence on the people around 

279
00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:16,080
us, who knows where you might 
get reborn in your next life. 

280
00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:19,840
And given all of these things 
that ill will, that anger, those

281
00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:25,360
unwholesome roots, those 
unwholesome tendencies in the 

282
00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:28,480
mind will then maybe flourish. 
They will come out again and 

283
00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:32,800
become large, out of control, 
and they will become terrible, 

284
00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:35,840
have terrible consequences for 
you because of that. 

285
00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:39,480
So what we then need to do, we 
need to understand the sense of 

286
00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:41,240
kind of urgency with these 
things. 

287
00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:43,240
Yeah. 
We know that these things are 

288
00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:45,080
dangerous. 
We know that the leader's 

289
00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:47,560
astray. 
It is obvious that they do so in

290
00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:50,600
this life, even more so perhaps 
in the future. 

291
00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:54,240
So now is the chance to do 
something, and that is the idea 

292
00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:56,680
of right view. 
These are dangerous things. 

293
00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:00,000
We need to deal with them. 
Unless we deal with them, we're 

294
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:02,600
going to have to face the 
consequences in the future. 

295
00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:05,960
That is what gives you the 
motivation to deal with this, 

296
00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:08,480
right? 
Another motivation is, of 

297
00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:13,000
course, that if you have a heart
of kindness and matter and 

298
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:16,720
friendliness towards your fellow
human beings, you feel good 

299
00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:19,440
about yourself. 
Yeah, it is a beautiful feeling 

300
00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:21,880
to feel a sense of kindness 
towards others. 

301
00:17:22,319 --> 00:17:25,280
You know it when you feel that. 
You feel kind of a warm heart 

302
00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:28,240
and you feel all of these 
positive feelings and it's 

303
00:17:28,240 --> 00:17:31,160
wonderful. 
Whereas ill will and anger makes

304
00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:33,720
you feel isolated. 
It means you feel separated from

305
00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:36,800
others, ruins your 
relationships. 

306
00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:39,000
No one likes to be around angry 
people. 

307
00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:43,120
It's just really unpleasant. 
And so this is the destructive 

308
00:17:43,120 --> 00:17:46,240
force in the world. 
And when you start to see this, 

309
00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:49,000
you understand this, just 
understand the urgency of doing 

310
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:52,240
something with it, then the 
motivation is in place for 

311
00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:55,360
dealing with these incredibly 
unwholesome qualities. 

312
00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,320
So what do we need to do to 
develop Meta in reality? 

313
00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,560
And it's actually very simple. 
The development of meta 

314
00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:07,880
development of kindness and 
friendliness towards other 

315
00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:11,640
people and not only people but 
towards all beings really is 

316
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:14,560
really about seeing the good 
side in other beings. 

317
00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:19,120
Seeing the positive in the 
people around you, seeing the 

318
00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:22,520
good qualities that are there. 
And if you start looking for the

319
00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:25,600
good qualities in the world, in 
the people around you, there's 

320
00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:29,920
heaps of good qualities. 
Yeah, one of the, one of the 

321
00:18:29,920 --> 00:18:32,320
great things of being a big 
Buddhist monk, of course, is 

322
00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:34,760
that you, when you even when you
travel around the world, and I 

323
00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:37,720
travel way too much these days, 
but when you travel around the 

324
00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:40,800
world, wherever you go, you meet
so many wonderful people there. 

325
00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:44,280
And that is because when you are
in Buddhist circles, there are 

326
00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:48,480
good people and people flock to 
this Buddhist centres and they 

327
00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:51,040
come there, they want to do the 
right thing, they want to live 

328
00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:52,600
well there. 
These are people with good 

329
00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:53,440
hearts. 
Yeah. 

330
00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:56,000
And they are everywhere in the 
world, wherever you travel 

331
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:58,320
there. 
And when you open your eyes just

332
00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:02,600
to try to see the reality of the
world, it is often far better 

333
00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:05,880
than you think it is. 
You read the news and you think 

334
00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:08,440
the world is a terrible place. 
But then when you meet the 

335
00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:11,520
reality and you start to look at
what actually is happening, the 

336
00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:15,000
world isn't so bad at all. 
And this is one of the things I 

337
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:17,280
love about coming here to 
Damaloca Centre here. 

338
00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:20,760
When you come here, you meet 
good people, right? 

339
00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:23,680
Is there anyone here who is 
badder? 

340
00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:27,880
I told you no one is bad. 
I like this quote. 

341
00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:29,480
My favorite question on Friday 
night. 

342
00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:30,960
Is there anyone here who is not 
good? 

343
00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:34,280
No one ever raises their hand. 
It always works every single 

344
00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:36,000
time. 
That's good. 

345
00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:38,480
I'm glad we have the 
self-confidence to think of 

346
00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:41,280
yourself as a good person. 
Some people have a low self 

347
00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:42,600
esteem. 
Please don't have to. 

348
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:47,520
Please, please kind of praise 
yourself for the good things 

349
00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:48,280
that you do. 
Yeah. 

350
00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:50,480
Don't have low self esteem 
because the fact that you are 

351
00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:54,840
here means that you're already 
worthy of having good self 

352
00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:57,120
esteem because you know you're 
doing the right thing. 

353
00:19:57,120 --> 00:19:59,360
Yeah. 
So this is great. 

354
00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:02,120
What is it about people here 
that makes them, makes them 

355
00:20:02,120 --> 00:20:04,320
beautiful? 
What is it about people here 

356
00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:08,160
that they are worthy of respect?
Well, it is not because they are

357
00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:11,040
perfect. 
It is not because they always do

358
00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:11,920
the right thing. 
Yeah. 

359
00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:15,520
But the fact that they are 
inclining in that way, the fact 

360
00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:18,360
that their intention is to be 
good, the fact that they want to

361
00:20:18,360 --> 00:20:19,280
be kind. 
Yeah. 

362
00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:21,600
Everyone who comes here wants to
be kind. 

363
00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:23,080
Otherwise, what are you doing 
here? 

364
00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:25,840
Yeah, it's kind of obvious. 
Who wants to be peaceful, sit 

365
00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:28,960
down, meditate, unless you also 
want to be a good person. 

366
00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:31,360
And everyone here has that 
intention. 

367
00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:35,120
And anyone who has that 
intention, anyone who has that 

368
00:20:35,120 --> 00:20:39,200
wish, anyone who is leaning in 
that direction is worthy of 

369
00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:43,080
respect, worthy of praise, 
worthy of loving kindness, of 

370
00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:44,760
friendliness, and all of these 
things. 

371
00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:48,520
You're all worthy of that. 
And look at the people around 

372
00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:51,160
you and you will see other 
people also worthy of that. 

373
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:54,040
And this is how you develop 
matter. 

374
00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:56,600
Look at the good qualities that 
are there. 

375
00:20:56,800 --> 00:20:58,800
Look at the little things that 
people do. 

376
00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:01,280
Yeah, around you. 
The way they speak with 

377
00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:03,920
kindness, sometimes the way they
do beautiful things. 

378
00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:06,880
There's a lot of beautiful 
things happening in a place like

379
00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:09,400
this. 
At the very least, people's 

380
00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:12,960
intentions are very powerful and
beautiful there. 

381
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:17,960
This is how meta arises. 
I try to do the same thing in 

382
00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:19,960
the monastery. 
Maybe my fellow monks don't 

383
00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:21,360
won't believe that, but it's 
true. 

384
00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:26,400
I try to look at my feather 
monks and see the good qualities

385
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:29,400
and actually it's quite easy to 
see in my feather monks because 

386
00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:31,120
they are really, really good 
people. 

387
00:21:31,120 --> 00:21:34,440
You don't become a monk unless 
you have some very powerful 

388
00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:37,840
forces for one thing to do the 
good thing in the world. 

389
00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:41,040
And I think I've mentioned this 
here before, one of my favourite

390
00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:43,600
quotes from the suitors. 
I got many favorite quotes. 

391
00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:45,960
This is one of them. 
You know, one of about 10,000 

392
00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:49,560
favorite quotes. 
So, you know, but the suitors 

393
00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:51,160
are full of these kind of 
things. 

394
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:56,280
And this is the quote where the 
three kind of these are the 

395
00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:59,480
three kind of examples of good 
monks in the suitors and the 

396
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:03,840
Rudda Kimbella and the Nandiya 
and the Buddha comes to them 

397
00:22:03,840 --> 00:22:06,040
because the Buddha likes to see 
the good monks. 

398
00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:08,800
Yeah, the the ones who are 
practising for to become 

399
00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:11,280
Arahans, the ones whose 
meditation is going really, 

400
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,680
really well. 
And then he asked them, He says,

401
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:19,160
are you, are you living in 
harmony? 

402
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:22,600
Yeah. 
And then they say, yes, we are 

403
00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:26,200
living in harmony here. 
How do you live in harmony here?

404
00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:29,160
And then he answered, this is 
Venable and the Ruddai, the 

405
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:31,280
great monk. 
And he answers, the way we live 

406
00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:35,360
in harmony is like this. 
When I look at my 2 feather 

407
00:22:35,360 --> 00:22:40,000
monks, Kimball and Andia, I 
think how fortunate I am, how 

408
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:44,080
very fortunate I am to have 
companions like this in the 

409
00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:49,200
spiritual life. 
Such a beautiful sentiment, 

410
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:51,840
right? 
This is what loving kindness is 

411
00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:54,480
about. 
Loving kindness is the idea that

412
00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:57,880
you really rejoice in having 
people like this around you. 

413
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:01,400
People who want to do the right 
thing, people who are leaning in

414
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:04,920
the right direction, people with
good hearts, people who want to 

415
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:07,880
do something in this world that 
is positive both for themselves 

416
00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:10,400
and for others. 
Because this always goes 

417
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:14,000
together. 
How fortunate we are, how very 

418
00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,840
fortunate we are to have 
companions like this in the 

419
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:17,720
spiritual. 
Life. 

420
00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:21,520
When you start to feel like 
that, look like that, at the 

421
00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,280
people around you here at the 
Buddha Society, at the 

422
00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:27,320
monastery, at the Buddhist 
around the world, at anyone 

423
00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:30,440
around the world who is kind, 
kindness is found in everywhere,

424
00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:33,800
regardless of religion or 
background or nationality or 

425
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:37,440
gender or handicaps or whatever 
it might be here, it's found 

426
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:42,000
everywhere, then you are truly 
developing loving kindness. 

427
00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:45,040
And this is how he talks about 
this. 

428
00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:49,400
And then he says when we live 
together, we blend like milk and

429
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:51,680
water. 
Milk and water blends perfectly.

430
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:53,920
Yeah. 
There's no separation as there 

431
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:56,840
is with water and oil. 
When it's separate, milk and 

432
00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:00,440
water blends perfectly. 
And then he says that, well, if 

433
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:04,160
these other venerables want to 
do something, yeah, I will 

434
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:06,120
change my mind and do what they 
want to do. 

435
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:10,640
Yeah, the idea of just giving up
when selfish desires and go 

436
00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:13,400
where what someone else wants to
do, it doesn't matter so much. 

437
00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:15,520
Yeah, whether we get our will or
not. 

438
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:19,600
What matters is the harmony. 
That we produce in a place in 

439
00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:22,120
the Buddhist aside, in a 
monastery, wherever it is. 

440
00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:26,480
So this is some of the ideas of 
loving kindness. 

441
00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:28,400
Yeah. 
Seeing the good in other people,

442
00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:32,680
understanding how incredibly 
fortunate you are to be part of 

443
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:35,040
a Buddhist society. 
It is not a given that there 

444
00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:37,000
should be a Buddhist society 
here in Perth. 

445
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:40,360
Perth is a small city on the 
edge of the world, right? 

446
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:43,560
We are far away from everything 
else. 

447
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:45,720
It's nothing is further away 
than Perth. 

448
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:48,320
Yeah. 
And if you look around the 

449
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:51,640
world, they look at the big 
cities of the world, New York, 

450
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:56,720
Tokyo, London, Paris. 
Yeah, Berlin, whatever it is, 

451
00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:01,280
Rio de Janeiro. 
Yeah, Toronto, the large, really

452
00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:04,640
large Sydney, even on the East 
Coast, the large cities of the 

453
00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:07,760
world there, there's nowhere 
that has anything quite like 

454
00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:10,800
this Buddhist society here. 
Sometimes we don't know how 

455
00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:13,760
fortunate we are here. 
This is a very powerful place, 

456
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:17,080
small, little Perth. 
We have this beautiful spiritual

457
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:20,880
community together here. 
That's extraordinary here, with 

458
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:24,040
a leader like Ajambram who kind 
of brings up the level of 

459
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:26,520
spirituality to an entirely new 
level. 

460
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:30,440
Yeah. 
Wow, how fortunate I am to have 

461
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:33,880
people like this in my life. 
And when you start to see that, 

462
00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:36,120
you start to develop that loving
kindness. 

463
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:39,520
This is what loving kindness, 
It's what meta really is about. 

464
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:45,080
There's a beautiful similarly in
the Suitors where the Buddha 

465
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:50,800
explains the idea of meta, of 
friendliness, kindness, love if 

466
00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:55,640
you like, and he says that it is
like a mug, a monk or maybe a 

467
00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:58,480
nun. 
A rag robe wearing monk. 

468
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,480
Yeah, we don't have any rag robe
wearing monks here, but is it? 

469
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:05,640
We have a few at the monastery. 
That's not, No, that's not, 

470
00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:08,840
that's not very nice robe. 
But we all have a few patches on

471
00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:10,920
our robes, but not quite rag 
robs yet. 

472
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:15,040
And it is beautiful to have a 
rag robe, actually, because it's

473
00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:17,040
really worthless piece of cloth.
Yeah. 

474
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,240
I had a rag robe when I was a 
really young monkey. 

475
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:22,360
It was just completely rags. 
There was nothing left of the 

476
00:26:22,360 --> 00:26:24,880
original robe. 
And I was wandering through the 

477
00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:28,520
airports of the world in these 
rags, and people were looking at

478
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:30,080
me. 
They were kind of, oh, what's 

479
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:31,480
going on here? 
That was really cool. 

480
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:33,840
I really enjoyed that. 
That was one of the highlights 

481
00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:36,760
of my young monastic life, 
wandering around like this. 

482
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:44,080
And so the Buddha says there was
a rag Rob wearing Monk. 

483
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,320
Yeah. 
Or none, Like he says monk, but 

484
00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:49,880
none's probably maybe 2. 
And when a rag Rob wearing monk 

485
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:53,960
is wandering around, he's always
looking for rags. 

486
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:56,720
Yeah. 
Because if you have a rag robe, 

487
00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:58,440
it means it's always falling 
apart. 

488
00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:00,240
It means that things are wearing
out. 

489
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,400
You need rags on top of the old 
rags. 

490
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:05,400
Whatever sort of kind of, you 
know, becomes very thick after a

491
00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:07,040
while. 
He's always looking out for rags

492
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,040
as you walk along the road and 
you see a rag on the roadside. 

493
00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:14,040
And So what does the rag rope 
wearing monk do? 

494
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:18,040
Well, what he does, he takes 
this rag and he spreads it out. 

495
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:22,360
He stands on one side with his 
left foot and he spreads it out 

496
00:27:22,360 --> 00:27:25,320
with the right foot. 
And so he gets an overview of 

497
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:27,960
that rag. 
He sees the whole width of that 

498
00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:29,960
rag. 
And then when? 

499
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:31,800
He sees the whole scope of the 
rag. 

500
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:35,600
He sees part of it is rotten, 
part of it is dirty. 

501
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:39,200
It will not do even for a rag, 
not even do, not even for his 

502
00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:42,880
rag, Rob. 
But the other part is nice, so 

503
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:46,720
it tears it in half. 
He tears off the section that is

504
00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:48,800
useless. 
He chucks it out in the 

505
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:50,720
spittoon. 
There's no spittoon here in the 

506
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,240
monastery. 
We have nice spittoons to Chuck 

507
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:56,320
bad rags into, but there's no 
spittoon here, so we'll have to 

508
00:27:56,320 --> 00:28:02,160
just Chuck it on the, I don't 
know, on, on the sorcery thing. 

509
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:05,320
Yeah, there you are. 
OK, rag, bad rag is now there. 

510
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:10,160
And then he takes the good part 
of the rag, the intact section 

511
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:12,400
of the rag. 
He folds it up. 

512
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:16,480
Yeah, and takes it with him so 
that he has the rag to be able 

513
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:21,560
to use in the future, takes it 
into his pocket to carries it 

514
00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:23,760
with him. 
And then the Buddha says it's 

515
00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:25,400
exactly the same thing with 
people. 

516
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:29,840
You put people, you kind of 
spread them out in your mind's 

517
00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:31,760
eye. 
Here, spreading, spreading out 

518
00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:34,520
the person means seeing all 
their qualities, all from the 

519
00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:36,480
good ones all the way to the bad
ones. 

520
00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:39,680
The bad qualities are over here,
the good qualities are here. 

521
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:42,120
You tear it off in the middle 
here. 

522
00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:44,760
You scrunch out those bad 
qualities. 

523
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:48,920
Maybe you write them down on 
toilet paper, whack them into 

524
00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:52,160
the toilet, flush the toilet and
out they go. 

525
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:55,920
Then you take. 
The good qualities are left, you

526
00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:59,600
fold them up nicely here, you 
take them within, put them in 

527
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:02,760
your robe, carry them with you 
into the future. 

528
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:05,320
This is what you keep in your 
mind. 

529
00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:09,080
In other words, the point is we 
focus on the good qualities. 

530
00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:13,400
We store the good qualities of 
other people in our mind and we 

531
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:15,520
bring that with us into the 
future. 

532
00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:20,000
We Chuck out the rubbish. 
The rubbish is the bad qualities

533
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,880
of other people. 
We don't focus on that because 

534
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:24,640
why? 
Because it is useless. 

535
00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:26,960
It doesn't help us in our 
spiritual practice. 

536
00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:30,360
This is the way we deal with 
that. 

537
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:33,600
If you have people that you find
sometimes a little bit 

538
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:36,440
difficult, and I'm sure that 
there are people even here in 

539
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,040
the Buddhist society who 
irritate you sometimes. 

540
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:41,400
Yeah. 
Just like is anyone in this 

541
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:43,120
world who is not a little bit 
irritating. 

542
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:45,920
Here we are all a. 
Little bit irritating, right? 

543
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:48,080
This is the problem. 
Every one of us is a bit 

544
00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:51,080
irritating, not because we 
really are irritated, but 

545
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:53,120
because people perceive us that 
way. 

546
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:54,800
It's just the way the world 
works. 

547
00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:58,480
But when you see the big 
picture, you can allow that 

548
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,440
irritation to be because the big
picture is beautiful. 

549
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:06,560
The intention where that person 
is travelling, that is beautiful

550
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:09,600
and that is what we see and we 
crunch up the rest with. 

551
00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:10,720
Check it out. 
Why? 

552
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:15,240
Because it's rubbish. 
Now sometimes people say, well 

553
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:17,880
isn't that just denial of 
reality? 

554
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:20,000
Surely people have good 
qualities. 

555
00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:23,720
If you just focus on the good 
ones and you deny the bad ones, 

556
00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:26,880
isn't that just, Aren't we 
supposed to see reality as it 

557
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:29,120
actually is? 
Isn't that the purpose of the 

558
00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:31,520
Buddhist teachings? 
Yes it is. 

559
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:35,960
But remember, there is no 
reality when it comes to people.

560
00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:40,160
One person will relate to 
another person in one way. 

561
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:42,520
Another person would relate to 
exactly the same person a 

562
00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:45,040
different way. 
One person's friend is another 

563
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:48,960
person's enemy. 
There isn't really a neutral 

564
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:51,920
objective person that we can say
this is how this person is. 

565
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,400
And because there isn't any 
objective person, there's a 

566
00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:58,120
wrong question to ask. 
What is this person like? 

567
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:01,640
The right question is to ask, 
rather, is how do we focus on 

568
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:05,840
that person so as to develop and
optimise our own? 

569
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:08,680
Spiritual qualities. 
That is the right question to 

570
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:13,560
ask because the reality there 
is, there is no reality for how 

571
00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:16,880
a person is, there is only how 
to focus on that person. 

572
00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:21,360
So that is the right answer, and
that is why we do this kind of 

573
00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:24,760
practice. 
Then you are on the right track.

574
00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:26,400
Yeah. 
Then you're heading in the right

575
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:32,480
direction here. 
Now there's a nice story. 

576
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:33,960
I I think I told this story here
before. 

577
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:36,280
I'm sure I told this story here 
before, but I, I can't remember 

578
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:37,960
when it was last. 
Maybe it was 2 weeks ago. 

579
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:41,560
No, I don't think so. 
But this is a nice story from 

580
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:43,840
the Viner Pittaca. 
The Viner Pittaca is the kind of

581
00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:47,680
the book of the rules and 
regulations for the monastics. 

582
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:51,000
It's an era that lay people know
very little about. 

583
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:53,920
How many people have I read the 
Vineya Pittaca? 

584
00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:57,760
0 persons. 
Yeah, except for my my 2 fellow 

585
00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:00,160
monks here, perhaps. 
But very few people read it. 

586
00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:02,920
So that's there are stories in 
there that no one has ever 

587
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:03,440
heard. 
Yeah. 

588
00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:07,240
Because they are kind of deep 
into the kind of backwaters of 

589
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:10,840
the Buddhist Canon. 
So one of the stories in there 

590
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:13,440
is this beautiful story of this 
rag robe monk. 

591
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:15,320
We're talking about rag robe 
monks, right, Right. 

592
00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:17,680
Right now. 
So one of the places that the 

593
00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:21,440
rag robe monks would get their 
rags, sometimes the rags were 

594
00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:24,640
not available on the roadside. 
Or if you go to the, you know, 

595
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:28,440
the, the shops or whatever, 
sometimes we have to go to the 

596
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:32,000
channel ground. 
The channel ground is where the 

597
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:36,560
corpses get put out and like 
kind of the first of all, you 

598
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:38,720
put them there and later on you 
might burn them. 

599
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:41,040
That's the charnel ground. 
It's a really kind of scary 

600
00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:41,680
place. 
Yeah. 

601
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,680
Lots of ghosts. 
Don't go there if you don't like

602
00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:47,880
ghosts. 
No, that's why you should go 

603
00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:49,560
there if it. 
If you don't like ghosts or if 

604
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:51,800
you like ghosts, go to the 
charming ground. 

605
00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:54,800
Yeah, ghosts are cool. 
So check out the ghosts in the 

606
00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:56,640
charming ground. 
If you see. 

607
00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:59,080
A ghost, one of the best thing 
that ever happened to you 

608
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:01,360
because it opens your eyes to a 
new reality. 

609
00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:03,760
So please welcome the ghosts in 
your life. 

610
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:08,200
And so this monkey goes to the 
charm ground because the corpses

611
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:10,120
get thrown there. 
And when the corpses get thrown 

612
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:13,160
on the charm ground, they are 
usually wrapped in cloth, right?

613
00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:16,560
But because it's a corpse, they 
don't really need that cloth 

614
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:18,840
anymore. 
So we can take the cloth from 

615
00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:22,520
that corpse, or so you would 
think. 

616
00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:27,240
Yeah. 
So this monk, he goes to charm 

617
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:30,480
ground. 
There's a fresh corpse, maybe a 

618
00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:33,520
little bit too fresh, right? 
It has to be careful, not too 

619
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:35,680
fresh. 
So he goes to the corpse and it 

620
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:38,600
starts unravelling the cloth 
because it's kind of wrapped in 

621
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:41,840
cloth. 
And as he unravels the cloth 

622
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:46,760
from this corpse, the corpse 
opens his mouth and says, don't 

623
00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:50,040
take my cloth. 
And the monk goes, what? 

624
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:51,800
Wang said. 
Shut up. 

625
00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:52,600
You're dead. 
Yeah. 

626
00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:55,040
You have no say in this. 
I'm going to take your cloth 

627
00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:57,000
whether you like it or not. 
You have no say. 

628
00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:00,000
Dead corpses don't have any 
property rights. 

629
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:01,480
Yeah. 
So you are out. 

630
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:06,760
And so this monkey continues 
kind of pulling off the cloth 

631
00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:09,920
until he's got everything, the 
poor corpse now completely 

632
00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:10,760
naked. 
Yeah. 

633
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:14,199
And he starts walking off. 
And when he starts walking off, 

634
00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:18,199
the corpse gets up. 
This is the original zombie 

635
00:34:18,199 --> 00:34:18,800
movie. 
Yeah. 

636
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:21,520
From 2500 years ago. 
This is where all the zombie 

637
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:24,679
movies originate from. 
This story in the Vinabitica, 

638
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,159
The Buddhists had it first. 
Everything is first in Buddhism.

639
00:34:28,159 --> 00:34:29,199
Yeah. 
Why? 

640
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:31,480
Because we have one of the all 
the scriptures in the world. 

641
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:35,920
The corpse gets up, the zombie 
gets up and follows are falling 

642
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:38,960
off this monk as the monk turns 
around and looks around. 

643
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:41,000
And this is a zombie. 
I don't mean you're venerable. 

644
00:34:42,639 --> 00:34:44,800
It sees a. 
It sees a zombie. 

645
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:48,440
And then he starts to run. 
He is frightened for his life as

646
00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:51,080
he runs with his cloth zombie 
coming behind. 

647
00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:53,199
You can start to see how this is
working, Right? 

648
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:55,960
And he gets to his cootie. 
The cootie is hot in the forest.

649
00:34:55,960 --> 00:35:01,000
He runs in, slams the door, and 
he kind of wipes the sweat from 

650
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:03,720
his forehead, Right. 
And the zombie comes, and then 

651
00:35:03,720 --> 00:35:06,640
it falls down just outside of 
his cootie. 

652
00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:08,600
Yeah. 
Exhausted from following this 

653
00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:09,600
monk all along. 
Yeah. 

654
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:11,920
And then the kind of the monk 
finally happy. 

655
00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:15,240
And then the Buddha, you know, 
then the story kind of gets out.

656
00:35:15,240 --> 00:35:16,640
Yes, the story gets out. 
OK. 

657
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:19,600
There's, there's this kind of 
monk who kind of was followed by

658
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:21,400
a zombie. 
There's, there's no word for 

659
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:24,040
zombie in the party language. 
But, you know, you have, you get

660
00:35:24,040 --> 00:35:26,160
the idea. 
There's a word for corpse. 

661
00:35:27,240 --> 00:35:28,960
And so the Buddha lays down the 
rule. 

662
00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:31,880
Yeah. 
But when you when you take the 

663
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:35,760
cloth from the corpse, you 
should wait till the corpse is 

664
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:38,760
cold. 
If the corpse is still warm, 

665
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:41,200
there might be still a 
consciousness attached to it. 

666
00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:43,400
It might get up and it might 
follow you behind. 

667
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:46,040
Yeah. 
So don't take cloth from a 

668
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:49,280
corpse that is still warm. 
This is one of the rules for 

669
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:53,560
monastics. 
This is why we have so many 

670
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:56,920
rules right now. 
You know why we have such 

671
00:35:57,000 --> 00:35:59,000
enormous number of rules? 
Because this is one of the rules

672
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:01,600
that we have to follow. 
Don't take love from a corpse. 

673
00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:04,200
That is too, too. 
And lots of rules like that that

674
00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:06,560
are pretty kind of obscure and 
amazing here. 

675
00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:08,680
Have you ever heard that rule 
before? 

676
00:36:09,240 --> 00:36:10,760
Yeah, It's a pretty good rule, 
right? 

677
00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:13,320
It's good, good advice. 
If you're a layperson and you 

678
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:16,080
ever happen to be in the 
vicinity of a corpse, you know 

679
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:17,680
what you should not be doing. 
Yeah. 

680
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:23,320
So you have meta also for 
corpses. 

681
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:24,440
That's what I really wanted to 
say. 

682
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:26,280
Perhaps I'm not sure what I 
wanted to say, but that's kind 

683
00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:29,240
of what I compassion and meta 
also for the corpses. 

684
00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:32,840
So this is the idea of meta in 
practice. 

685
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:35,560
Yeah, the practice. 
Seeing the good qualities in 

686
00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:39,200
other people, seeing what is 
there, and then having a sense 

687
00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:42,240
of warmth and friendliness and 
kindness to them as a 

688
00:36:42,240 --> 00:36:45,240
consequence. 
This is how you develop this. 

689
00:36:45,720 --> 00:36:48,960
This is how you make meta 
meditation possible because you 

690
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,080
are already seeing the good in 
people around you. 

691
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:55,680
Then you can wish them well. 
Then you can say may all beings 

692
00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:58,280
be happy and well. 
But unless you have developed 

693
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:02,320
these perceptions beforehand, 
perceptions that go against your

694
00:37:02,320 --> 00:37:06,120
deep conditioning from the past,
probably you will not succeed 

695
00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:09,280
with your metal meditation. 
You have to get the stages 

696
00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:12,840
right, overcoming the ill will, 
overcoming the problems. 

697
00:37:13,240 --> 00:37:16,360
Then it is possible that that 
these things may actually work 

698
00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:19,120
out. 
So that is the first one. 

699
00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:24,000
The second one I wanted to talk 
about is the idea of compassion.

700
00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:29,240
Compassion is also one of the 
fundamental kind of building 

701
00:37:29,240 --> 00:37:33,520
blocks of Buddhist morality. 
Yeah, Buddhist morality comes 

702
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:37,120
from the idea of meta, and 
compassion builds up from that. 

703
00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:39,520
And then the right speed, the 
right action, the right 

704
00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:42,880
thoughts, all of that comes 
really from these fundamental 

705
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:45,880
building blocks. 
So what about compassion? 

706
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:49,880
What is that based on? 
I was saying before that meta is

707
00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:53,720
based on right view because this
is Sama Sang Kappa coming from 

708
00:37:53,720 --> 00:37:55,400
Sama. 
Didi the right view? 

709
00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:58,840
So what is the, what is the 
foundation for compassion? 

710
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:04,960
And compassion is built on also 
on the idea of the right view, 

711
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:07,520
of course, that of suffering in 
the world. 

712
00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:09,960
Yeah, but there is problems in 
the world. 

713
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:12,000
There is suffering. 
I said before that one of the 

714
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:17,000
distortions of the mind is that 
we tend to see happiness where 

715
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,040
in fact there is suffering. 
Yeah. 

716
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:22,000
So this is a very important part
of that distortion. 

717
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:25,880
You want to rectify that view as
you start to become better at 

718
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:28,480
understanding the suffering of 
human beings. 

719
00:38:28,480 --> 00:38:32,040
It's very often it's quite 
common for people to think that 

720
00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:35,800
our suffering is somehow unique.
Yeah, I suffer. 

721
00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:38,200
And you feel very sorry for 
yourself. 

722
00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:41,280
But actually our suffering is 
very much the same around the 

723
00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:44,080
world. 
Everyone suffers, everyone is 

724
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:47,400
pretty much in the same boat. 
And when you start to see that 

725
00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:51,080
in the world, that is one of the
basis for compassion to arise, 

726
00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:54,640
obviously. 
But there is another aspect to 

727
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:57,640
this idea of right view that 
gives rise to compassion. 

728
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:00,240
And you may be surprised by this
aspect. 

729
00:39:00,240 --> 00:39:04,200
That is the aspect of non self, 
the aspect that there is no 

730
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:07,360
inherent aspect to a human 
being. 

731
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:12,000
Because if there is no inherent 
aspect or an inherent essence to

732
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,560
a human being, what there is 
then is just conditions. 

733
00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:20,120
Yeah, what we are, what we are 
is the sum total of all the 

734
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:23,920
conditions that work on us in 
past lives, also in the present 

735
00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:26,680
life, also right now. 
That is who we are. 

736
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:30,480
We're nothing really, apart from
all this conditioning that has 

737
00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:32,560
worked on us for a very, very 
long time. 

738
00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:36,360
So these two things give rise to
compassion. 

739
00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:39,560
The first one, understanding the
suffering in the world, that 

740
00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:42,480
gives rise to compassion. 
When you see the disasters in 

741
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:45,400
the world, you see the wars, you
see the people getting killed, 

742
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:48,720
you see the natural disasters, 
you see the traffic accidents, 

743
00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:52,640
you see the fires, right, Bush 
fires right here in WA and you 

744
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:55,920
feel for those people there. 
And compassion means that you 

745
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:59,600
want to do something about it. 
Yeah, compassion is a driver to 

746
00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:01,960
action there. 
You want to act to help those 

747
00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:04,920
people there. 
So it's not just about fellow 

748
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:08,520
feeling, fellow feeling or 
feeling feeling their pain, 

749
00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:11,960
that's more like empathy, but 
it's also the desire to help, 

750
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:15,280
the desire to create a better 
world, that is really what 

751
00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:18,640
compassion is about. 
So when you see all of these 

752
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:22,440
things in the world you actually
want, you realise that health is

753
00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:25,440
important because we are not 
really responsible for this 

754
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:28,120
suffering. 
It comes to us unbidden. 

755
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:33,800
We get sick, natural disasters, 
whatever, but we can take this 

756
00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:35,800
one stage further. 
And this is where it starts to 

757
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:37,000
get very interesting. 
Yeah. 

758
00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:40,640
Because one of the some of the 
people that often difficult to 

759
00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:45,000
far have compassion for. 
It is relatively easy to have 

760
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:48,000
compassion for all the victims 
in the world, right? 

761
00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:52,000
The people who are the victims 
of war, the victims of violence,

762
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:53,840
the victims and all of these 
kind of things. 

763
00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:58,640
But is it possible to also have 
compassion for the perpetrators 

764
00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:02,160
of all the crimes in the world? 
And of course the answer is yes.

765
00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:05,840
And this is where it gets very 
interesting because now you can 

766
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:10,320
expand the compassion out, not 
just to those people who are 

767
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:14,280
obviously deserve compassion, 
but you can expand it out to 

768
00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:17,600
humanity as a whole. 
Not just humanity, in fact, all 

769
00:41:17,600 --> 00:41:22,160
beings as a whole. 
Because when you understand the 

770
00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:25,880
idea of non self, when you 
understand that we are just the 

771
00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:31,520
product of all the condition, it
has worked on us into the 

772
00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:35,200
unfathomable past, Once you 
understand that, you understand 

773
00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:37,880
that we are actually the victims
of that conditioning. 

774
00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:42,840
So if someone is conditioned in 
a bad way, whatever bad way that

775
00:41:42,840 --> 00:41:48,360
might be in previous lives as 
well, they may be even the 

776
00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:50,120
perpetrators of crimes in this 
life. 

777
00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:54,720
But because there is no self, 
there is no inherent essence 

778
00:41:54,720 --> 00:41:57,440
that can withstand the 
conditioning from outside. 

779
00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:02,280
They have been formed into what 
they are by external, external 

780
00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:04,920
conditioning, and they don't 
really have the ability to 

781
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:06,720
withstand that. 
They can't. 

782
00:42:06,720 --> 00:42:10,000
They can't withstand it 
precisely because there is 

783
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:13,240
nothing inherent that can 
withstand the forces of the 

784
00:42:13,240 --> 00:42:16,600
world around us. 
And when you start to look at 

785
00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:20,120
people in this way, when you 
start to see that people, 

786
00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:23,560
everyone in this world is a 
product of the conditioning 

787
00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:25,600
here, is a function of the 
conditioning here. 

788
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:30,680
You start to see that we are 
trapped in our personalities. 

789
00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:34,640
We are trapped in our habits. 
We are trapped by the way we 

790
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:39,880
have been formed over all this 
time, over all this infallible 

791
00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:42,520
past, going back as far as we 
can possibly think. 

792
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:45,920
Yeah, once you look at ourselves
in that way, that you are 

793
00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:48,920
trapped in your personality, 
trapped in your character 

794
00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:51,960
traits, then you can have 
compassion for almost anyone. 

795
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:57,840
And one of the things that I 
sometimes like to do when I see 

796
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:01,680
people wherever they are, and 
sometimes you see people maybe 

797
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:04,440
doing bad things, doing silly 
things. 

798
00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:09,000
When I see that, I sometimes 
visualise this person as inside 

799
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:11,600
a bubble. 
They are inside a bubble and 

800
00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:15,040
they cannot penetrate. 
They cannot get out of that 

801
00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:18,880
bubble. 
That bubble, to me signifies the

802
00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:21,560
conditioning. 
It signifies the habits, it 

803
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:24,720
signifies the bad trait. 
It signifies the personality, 

804
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:26,880
all the aspects of the 
personality. 

805
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:30,400
They cannot break out of the 
personality, right? 

806
00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:33,840
Have you ever tried to be 
someone you are not? 

807
00:43:34,120 --> 00:43:36,080
Have you tried to be not 
yourself? 

808
00:43:36,520 --> 00:43:39,080
I'm going to break out of my 
personality, be someone else. 

809
00:43:39,720 --> 00:43:44,000
You can't do that, right? 
You are given these traits that 

810
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:45,400
have been formed of a long 
period of time. 

811
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:46,640
That is what you have to deal 
with. 

812
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:50,640
These are the cards that you've 
been dealt in this life and you 

813
00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:54,040
can't really do anything else. 
You're trapped in that bubble. 

814
00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:58,880
So when I see a person doing 
stupid things, trapped in that 

815
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:02,240
bubble of personality and 
conditioning here, I have 

816
00:44:02,240 --> 00:44:06,120
compassion for them because I 
know at that moment they are 

817
00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:09,520
incapable of doing anything else
than the silly thing they're 

818
00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:12,000
doing here. 
And there's something very 

819
00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:14,360
beautiful that happens when you 
think like that. 

820
00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:17,720
It changes your entire outlook 
on the world. 

821
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:20,920
Instead of blaming others for 
their vadnais, instead of 

822
00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:24,600
getting angry for the bad things
in the world, you start to 

823
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:26,480
extend the compassion to 
everyone. 

824
00:44:26,920 --> 00:44:29,280
Instead of limiting it to 
certain people who are the 

825
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:33,120
victims, you also include the 
perpetrators or even the 

826
00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:36,560
greatest crimes in humanity 
because you understand the 

827
00:44:36,560 --> 00:44:39,920
limits of what we can do as 
individuals. 

828
00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:45,640
And I know many people think 
this is crazy way of thinking 

829
00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:49,920
about the world, but actually it
follows naturally from the 

830
00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:54,720
Buddhist idea of a non self. 
The reason why people think it 

831
00:44:54,720 --> 00:44:58,680
is a crazy way of thinking about
the world is because they feel I

832
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:02,200
have agency. 
They feel I am responsible, 

833
00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:04,560
right? 
Everyone of you here would 

834
00:45:04,560 --> 00:45:06,280
probably feel that to some 
extent. 

835
00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:08,640
Yeah, I am responsible for my 
own life. 

836
00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:13,360
And because it feels as if we 
are responsible for things, it 

837
00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:16,960
is very hard to see how 
conditioned we actually are. 

838
00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:20,600
But the Buddha says you cannot 
choose your choices. 

839
00:45:21,080 --> 00:45:24,760
Your choices are given to you by
the conditioning from the past. 

840
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:27,880
It's one of the most famous 
words of the Buddha, found in 

841
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:31,560
the Anata Lakana Suta. 
The Anata Laka means the. 

842
00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:37,920
The Lakana is like the Aspects 
or the OR. 

843
00:45:39,280 --> 00:45:43,000
The aspects of non self yeah, 
very, very famous suit. 

844
00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:46,880
There is no choice about your 
choices. 

845
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:48,920
Your choices are pre programmed 
for you. 

846
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:54,080
Even though it feels like you 
have that agency that you can 

847
00:45:54,080 --> 00:45:57,120
choose differently. 
Actually, you're already bound. 

848
00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:01,560
This is the entire idea of the 
non self teaching of Buddhism. 

849
00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:04,480
It actually goes beyond that. 
That is a very important part of

850
00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:06,600
it. 
That is why we get it wrong. 

851
00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:09,640
That is why we don't understand 
the world in the right way here.

852
00:46:10,600 --> 00:46:13,080
So expand your heart to include 
everyone. 

853
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:15,480
Don't exclude anyone in the 
whole world. 

854
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:17,640
Everyone is trapped in the 
conditioning. 

855
00:46:17,640 --> 00:46:22,040
Yeah, one day you will be in the
shoes of that perpetrator. 

856
00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:26,160
You too may do those things that
the perpetrator does today here.

857
00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:30,360
You may read about some terrible
crime in the newspapers and you 

858
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:33,760
may think that is terrible. 
If I should do that, no way I'm 

859
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:35,560
ever going to do that. 
I am better than that. 

860
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:39,320
But that is because you have the
wrong view of a self. 

861
00:46:40,040 --> 00:46:42,840
If you understood the idea of 
non self, you would understand 

862
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:46,760
that you are fully capable of 
doing that crime given the right

863
00:46:46,760 --> 00:46:50,200
circumstances. 
That is what is so scary. 

864
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:52,720
That is a problem of 
conditioning in this world. 

865
00:46:53,080 --> 00:46:56,360
So have compassion for that 
person, because when you have 

866
00:46:56,360 --> 00:46:59,000
compassion for that person, you 
also have compassion for 

867
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:02,880
yourself because you too may one
day be doing similar kind of 

868
00:47:02,880 --> 00:47:08,560
things. 
There's a beautiful similarly, 

869
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:12,160
again by the Buddha to talk 
about compassion. 

870
00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:17,280
And the Buddha says. 
This is like seeing someone 

871
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:20,160
travelling on a desert Rd. 
travelling through the 

872
00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:22,920
wilderness. 
And this person travelling 

873
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:26,240
through the wilderness, they are
sick, they are ill, they have a 

874
00:47:26,240 --> 00:47:29,440
grave sickness. 
In other words, they are kind of

875
00:47:29,440 --> 00:47:33,120
move going towards their death. 
But as they are going through 

876
00:47:33,120 --> 00:47:37,680
this wilderness, there is no 
doctor, there is no food, there 

877
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:41,360
is no medicine, there is no 
village nearby where you can go 

878
00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:43,240
to rest and maybe be looked 
after. 

879
00:47:43,240 --> 00:47:45,720
There is no nurse. 
There is nothing to look after 

880
00:47:45,720 --> 00:47:48,800
this person. 
And if you're from afar, you 

881
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:53,120
look at this person, you see 
them walking on this road, what 

882
00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:55,640
do you feel? 
You feel sympathy, you feel 

883
00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:59,600
compassion, you feel concerned. 
You feel may this person find a 

884
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:04,480
doctor, a nurse, some food, some
medicine, a village where they 

885
00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:06,600
can be looked after her. 
Why? 

886
00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:10,880
Because unless they find that 
support, they will meet with 

887
00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:14,440
disaster, they will die because 
they are basically heading for 

888
00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:16,680
that when the illness is so bad 
and. 

889
00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:21,560
The Buddha says it is exactly 
the same thing if you see a bad 

890
00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:24,800
person in this world, and by a 
bad person it says someone who 

891
00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:28,760
has bad conduct by body, bad 
conduct by speech and bad 

892
00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:31,960
conduct by mind. 
In other words, all the aspects 

893
00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:35,640
of that person are bad. 
When you see a person like that,

894
00:48:36,040 --> 00:48:39,880
they are like a sick person. 
Why are they like a sick person?

895
00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:44,200
Well, because in exactly the 
same way as that sick person is 

896
00:48:44,280 --> 00:48:49,040
walking towards their own death 
and demise, in the same way that

897
00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:53,200
person with all that bad conduct
is walking towards their own 

898
00:48:53,240 --> 00:48:55,520
enormous suffering in the 
future. 

899
00:48:55,840 --> 00:48:59,120
Because bad people generally 
have to reap the bad 

900
00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:04,720
consequences of their actions. 
So once you start to see people 

901
00:49:04,720 --> 00:49:11,120
who are bad not as terrible 
people who willingly do bad 

902
00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:15,440
things because they have agency.
No, instead they are conditioned

903
00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:18,400
to do what they are doing. 
They very often they have no 

904
00:49:18,400 --> 00:49:20,760
choice. 
They are like a sick person. 

905
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:22,840
They are walking in darkness. 
They are deluded. 

906
00:49:22,840 --> 00:49:24,440
They have no idea what's going 
on. 

907
00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:27,360
They don't even understand that 
they're doing bad things. 

908
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:30,400
Most bad people think they're 
doing good things. 

909
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:33,640
They think they're doing things 
to create happiness in the world

910
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:36,280
and for themselves, when in fact
they're doing the exact 

911
00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:39,160
opposite. 
Is almost tragic in a sense, 

912
00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:40,400
when you think about it that 
way. 

913
00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:44,560
Delusion is so powerful, leading
us astray, leading us on the 

914
00:49:44,560 --> 00:49:48,120
wrong track. 
Yeah, the bad people in the 

915
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:51,080
world are sick people. 
They don't know what they're 

916
00:49:51,080 --> 00:49:53,440
doing. 
Yeah, once you start to see 

917
00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:55,680
people in that way, you can have
compassion. 

918
00:49:55,720 --> 00:49:59,680
I guarantee you, for everyone in
the world, all you have to do 

919
00:49:59,960 --> 00:50:03,640
change your perception, see 
things in accordance with the 

920
00:50:03,640 --> 00:50:05,600
perception of compassion and 
kindness. 

921
00:50:05,600 --> 00:50:10,320
And when you do that, then the 
meta and the compassion will 

922
00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:17,640
start to arise as a consequence.
So this is how you change your 

923
00:50:17,640 --> 00:50:19,920
outlook. 
This is how you change your 

924
00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:23,160
perception. 
As you change your perception in

925
00:50:23,160 --> 00:50:25,520
this way, you look at people 
with new eyes. 

926
00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:28,280
You think about the world in a 
new way. 

927
00:50:28,520 --> 00:50:30,120
You start to think with more 
care. 

928
00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:33,720
And as you think with more care,
your view is gradually changing 

929
00:50:33,720 --> 00:50:36,160
as well. 
You view people in a new way. 

930
00:50:36,160 --> 00:50:38,920
The whole world becomes a more 
beautiful and bright place, a 

931
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:41,080
more hopeful place. 
Why? 

932
00:50:41,280 --> 00:50:44,560
Because you understand that 
there are actually solutions and

933
00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:47,800
the first and foremost place to 
find that solution is in your 

934
00:50:47,800 --> 00:50:50,560
own life. 
And this is how gradually it 

935
00:50:50,560 --> 00:50:52,640
comes out. 
You're building yourself up. 

936
00:50:53,240 --> 00:50:55,920
And as you build yourself up in 
this way and you start 

937
00:50:55,920 --> 00:51:00,760
practising accordingly, one day 
you will sit here on the Good 

938
00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:04,000
Friday at the Mallorca Centre. 
Yeah, every Friday again is a 

939
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:05,680
Good Friday. 
Whenever you come here is a Good

940
00:51:05,680 --> 00:51:09,280
Friday, You will sit here and 
you will start to feel these 

941
00:51:09,280 --> 00:51:12,720
emotions in your own life 
building up within you. 

942
00:51:12,880 --> 00:51:16,600
Compassion meta more and more 
and more, and you start to 

943
00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:19,960
understand what the Buddha means
when he starts to talk about 

944
00:51:20,080 --> 00:51:23,880
developing meta and compassion 
in your meditation. 

945
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:29,040
Eventually this will go all the 
way to attain a very profound 

946
00:51:29,040 --> 00:51:32,360
state of samadhi based on these 
beautiful qualities. 

947
00:51:33,480 --> 00:51:36,160
These are the foundation of the 
spiritual path. 

948
00:51:36,600 --> 00:51:39,760
This is how you build them up 
gradually and eventually 

949
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:43,080
reaching the very high stages of
the path itself. 

950
00:51:45,680 --> 00:51:48,840
I was going to talk about 
renunciation where I thought I 

951
00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:50,760
was going to talk about that, 
but that will have to be another

952
00:51:50,760 --> 00:51:54,720
time because time is already up.
That's the talk for this 

953
00:51:54,720 --> 00:52:02,800
evening, yeah. 
OK. 

954
00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:06,240
So very good everyone. 
So are there any questions or 

955
00:52:06,240 --> 00:52:16,310
comments about today's talk? 
Please. 

956
00:52:17,590 --> 00:52:25,720
My on, yes, sorry, just just 
question I suppose about 

957
00:52:25,720 --> 00:52:32,560
perception thought and view that
for myself, I my clinical 

958
00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:36,560
psychologist and so I talk a lot
about people with their 

959
00:52:36,560 --> 00:52:38,720
thoughts, impact on their 
thoughts. 

960
00:52:39,640 --> 00:52:44,920
So I suppose I view thoughts 
coming first to impact on the 

961
00:52:45,000 --> 00:52:49,680
perception. 
Yeah, and a perception and view,

962
00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:52,440
very similar. 
Perception and view. 

963
00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:56,000
Yeah. 
Perception. 

964
00:52:56,080 --> 00:52:58,280
OK, so perception are much more 
immediate. 

965
00:52:58,280 --> 00:52:59,720
Yeah. 
Perception is what you see 

966
00:52:59,720 --> 00:53:01,480
straight away. 
You look at someone, you see 

967
00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:02,520
friend. 
Yeah. 

968
00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:05,560
Or you see maybe not friend or 
depending on who the person is. 

969
00:53:05,560 --> 00:53:06,960
It's kind of an immediate thing.
Yeah. 

970
00:53:07,600 --> 00:53:09,720
View is more a considered thing.
Yeah. 

971
00:53:09,720 --> 00:53:13,360
So it's like, OK, how do you, 
you know, how do you, what is 

972
00:53:13,360 --> 00:53:16,120
your religion or what is your 
view about religions? 

973
00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:19,440
Or is it more a considered kind 
of thing, a view? 

974
00:53:19,840 --> 00:53:21,240
It's more like a broader 
outlook. 

975
00:53:21,240 --> 00:53:23,480
Perception is more immediate. 
The thought is somewhere in 

976
00:53:23,480 --> 00:53:27,960
between, but you're right, you 
can't really start to work on 

977
00:53:27,960 --> 00:53:30,960
this circle anywhere. 
You can start to work. 

978
00:53:31,520 --> 00:53:33,920
Perception is one place, but you
can also the thinking. 

979
00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:36,760
Of course, you can also change. 
In fact, thinking and perception

980
00:53:36,760 --> 00:53:40,160
are very closely linked to each 
other because by changing your 

981
00:53:40,160 --> 00:53:41,960
thinking, you're changing your 
perceptions. 

982
00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:45,040
Yeah, these things are all kind 
of go together in a sense. 

983
00:53:45,720 --> 00:53:50,080
So you think and you and then 
you kind of by looking at this 

984
00:53:50,080 --> 00:53:52,560
person in a new way, by 
reminding yourself that they 

985
00:53:52,560 --> 00:53:56,160
have these good qualities, then 
your perception changes. 

986
00:53:56,160 --> 00:53:57,880
Yeah. 
So thought would normally be 

987
00:53:57,880 --> 00:54:00,960
very much part of that process. 
Absolutely. 

988
00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:01,520
Yeah, yeah. 
OK. 

989
00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:09,920
Thank you. 
Yeah, OK. 

990
00:54:09,920 --> 00:54:12,200
That's yeah. 
Everyone OK. 

991
00:54:12,480 --> 00:54:14,320
OK, good. 
So. 

992
00:54:20,520 --> 00:54:22,520
OK, well you still have a nice 
shaved head. 

993
00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:23,360
That's that's great. 
Yeah. 

994
00:54:25,040 --> 00:54:28,280
So he had his head shaved 
recently in for to raise funds 

995
00:54:28,280 --> 00:54:29,840
for the one of the monasteries 
in Perth. 

996
00:54:29,840 --> 00:54:30,840
That's really nice. 
Isn't it so? 

997
00:54:31,320 --> 00:54:35,000
So still has shaved heads. 
Obviously enjoyed that, which is

998
00:54:35,000 --> 00:54:39,080
great. 
OK so a few questions from 

999
00:54:39,080 --> 00:54:42,800
outside of the Buddhist society 
we have from Tom in the Czech 

1000
00:54:42,800 --> 00:54:46,400
Republic. 
Dear Adam, I had a fever last 

1001
00:54:46,400 --> 00:54:48,520
night and my mind went totally 
crazy. 

1002
00:54:49,040 --> 00:54:51,320
I had a lot of weird thoughts in
my head and I couldn't stop 

1003
00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:54,160
them. 
This experience made me realise 

1004
00:54:54,160 --> 00:54:56,400
how our mind is out of our 
control. 

1005
00:54:56,840 --> 00:54:59,760
This realisation however felt 
quite scary. 

1006
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:02,800
How to accept this in a positive
way here? 

1007
00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:08,200
So the the the way to accept 
this is like. 

1008
00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:11,520
This is, you know, one of those 
things about when the Buddha 

1009
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:15,560
talks about our misunderstanding
of reality. 

1010
00:55:15,560 --> 00:55:18,040
Well, this is a very big part of
it. 

1011
00:55:18,360 --> 00:55:21,160
This is the idea that everything
is impermanent. 

1012
00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:24,320
Everything is always subject to 
change. 

1013
00:55:24,360 --> 00:55:27,480
And we don't really understand 
how impermanent things are. 

1014
00:55:27,840 --> 00:55:30,080
Things change so fast. 
Yeah, this is kind of the 

1015
00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:32,280
problem. 
And often the conditions that 

1016
00:55:32,280 --> 00:55:36,480
build up under the surface and 
then they reach a certain kind 

1017
00:55:36,480 --> 00:55:39,360
of momentum, all these 
conditions together, suddenly 

1018
00:55:39,360 --> 00:55:41,480
things start to fall apart and 
you wonder what's happening, 

1019
00:55:41,480 --> 00:55:42,760
what's going on. 
Yeah. 

1020
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:45,760
Things are just, it's like 
climate change, all the causes 

1021
00:55:45,760 --> 00:55:48,960
kind of coming together. 
And one day it may turn out to 

1022
00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:50,160
be really bad. 
Yeah. 

1023
00:55:50,520 --> 00:55:52,880
We don't know exactly how bad, 
but it looks like it's not going

1024
00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:56,080
to be all that good. 
Or in the political scene, 

1025
00:55:56,080 --> 00:55:59,480
suddenly you see turmoil. 
You see the invasion of Ukraine.

1026
00:55:59,480 --> 00:56:01,680
No one had really predicted 
that. 

1027
00:56:01,680 --> 00:56:03,360
It's just the forces building 
up. 

1028
00:56:03,720 --> 00:56:06,560
The same thing with the mind. 
There's all these things 

1029
00:56:06,560 --> 00:56:08,800
building up under the surface. 
Yeah. 

1030
00:56:08,800 --> 00:56:12,640
And then when it all comes 
together, then it starts to kind

1031
00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:15,960
of crash and it goes funny and 
you start to feel crazy as a 

1032
00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:19,680
consequence. 
So the answer is to understand 

1033
00:56:19,680 --> 00:56:23,800
the danger, to understand how 
impermanent actually is, how, 

1034
00:56:23,840 --> 00:56:28,200
and then use that as a force to 
drive you forward on the 

1035
00:56:28,200 --> 00:56:30,800
spiritual path. 
Because when you understand the 

1036
00:56:30,800 --> 00:56:33,520
danger, when you have that right
view, that is when the 

1037
00:56:33,520 --> 00:56:37,680
motivation arises for practising
in the right way, for getting 

1038
00:56:37,680 --> 00:56:39,560
that. 
Oomph in your practice. 

1039
00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:42,320
Yeah, so this is the right way 
of doing it. 

1040
00:56:42,720 --> 00:56:46,120
But of course, the good point 
about that understanding the 

1041
00:56:46,120 --> 00:56:50,040
conditioning of the mind is that
it can also be reconditioned. 

1042
00:56:50,640 --> 00:56:53,280
If it is a fully conditioned 
phenomenon, which the Buddha 

1043
00:56:53,280 --> 00:56:55,840
says it is, it means that 
reconditioning is possible. 

1044
00:56:56,120 --> 00:56:57,840
That is exactly what we do in 
Buddhism. 

1045
00:56:57,880 --> 00:57:00,520
This is what this talk tonight 
was all about, the 

1046
00:57:00,520 --> 00:57:03,920
reconditioning of the mind 
looking at the world in a way 

1047
00:57:03,920 --> 00:57:06,360
that aligns with the way the 
world actually is. 

1048
00:57:07,480 --> 00:57:11,960
So just hang in there, do the 
right thing and you will be OK 

1049
00:57:11,960 --> 00:57:17,680
here. 
OK, so we have a question from 

1050
00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:25,480
Pierre Pierre, Angela Dear Aja, 
how to best deal with the root 

1051
00:57:25,560 --> 00:57:30,760
cause of anxious thoughts which 
lead to unfavourable bodily 

1052
00:57:30,760 --> 00:57:34,920
reactions? 
So how to deal with anxious 

1053
00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:39,000
thoughts? 
Well, again, the thing here is 

1054
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:42,000
that the mind is conditioned. 
Yeah, because the mind is 

1055
00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:45,800
conditioned, it can condition 
yourself out of those anxious 

1056
00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:47,880
thoughts. 
Anxious thoughts are not 

1057
00:57:47,880 --> 00:57:51,400
permanent. 
And I, I, you know, there's all 

1058
00:57:51,640 --> 00:57:54,240
kind of therapy that is used 
these as cognitive. 

1059
00:57:55,040 --> 00:57:59,240
What is it called? 
All kinds of cognitive therapy 

1060
00:57:59,240 --> 00:58:01,520
that is used that's basically 
reconditioning the thinking 

1061
00:58:01,520 --> 00:58:02,960
mind. 
And Buddhism also is a kind of 

1062
00:58:02,960 --> 00:58:07,560
cognitive therapy. 
And so you learn to look at 

1063
00:58:07,560 --> 00:58:10,240
things in a new way. 
Now, one of the things about 

1064
00:58:10,240 --> 00:58:13,200
anxiety, anxiety is very much 
like fear. 

1065
00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:15,520
Fear and anxiety are two sides 
of the same coin. 

1066
00:58:15,840 --> 00:58:17,920
It is seeing the danger in the 
future. 

1067
00:58:17,920 --> 00:58:19,120
Yeah. 
Anxiety is always about the 

1068
00:58:19,120 --> 00:58:22,000
future, seeing the problems in 
the future. 

1069
00:58:22,560 --> 00:58:27,320
So you try to learn that the 
future, this is just a habit 

1070
00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:30,560
that you have, you know, the 
anxiety coming from the past. 

1071
00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:34,560
By changing that habit, by 
learning to see the positive 

1072
00:58:34,560 --> 00:58:38,360
outcomes instead of the negative
outcomes, you can learn to let 

1073
00:58:38,360 --> 00:58:41,720
go of that anxiety here. 
And one of the beautiful nice 

1074
00:58:41,720 --> 00:58:45,200
things about being on the 
spiritual practice is that 

1075
00:58:45,200 --> 00:58:48,280
generally speaking, your future 
is going to be a bright one. 

1076
00:58:48,280 --> 00:58:51,240
Yeah, that's the whole point of 
the spiritual practice. 

1077
00:58:51,600 --> 00:58:54,720
We are practising this to create
a better future, brighter 

1078
00:58:54,720 --> 00:58:56,880
future. 
So if you're already living 

1079
00:58:56,880 --> 00:59:00,800
well, doing the right thing, 
your future is basically going 

1080
00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:04,080
to be bright positive. 
So you already have, you're 

1081
00:59:04,080 --> 00:59:09,160
already creating the foundation 
there for less anxiety because 

1082
00:59:09,160 --> 00:59:12,200
you, you know, and after a while
you start to know these things 

1083
00:59:12,640 --> 00:59:14,480
that you're heading towards 
something positive. 

1084
00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:18,440
This is one of the great 
benefits of meta we talked about

1085
00:59:18,440 --> 00:59:20,960
before and Karuna, the 
compassion and the loving 

1086
00:59:20,960 --> 00:59:24,160
kindness is that if you have 
these in a very deep and 

1087
00:59:24,160 --> 00:59:26,920
profound way, fear is completely
gone. 

1088
00:59:26,920 --> 00:59:28,920
Yeah. 
You cannot, you cannot have fear

1089
00:59:28,920 --> 00:59:31,440
and compassion and meta at the 
same time. 

1090
00:59:31,640 --> 00:59:36,200
These are anti fear qualities. 
The more you have of these 

1091
00:59:36,200 --> 00:59:39,320
qualities, you don't fear death,
you don't fear anything anymore 

1092
00:59:39,320 --> 00:59:40,480
after a while. 
Why? 

1093
00:59:40,840 --> 00:59:44,240
Because there's like an 
intuition inside that you are 

1094
00:59:44,520 --> 00:59:47,920
your future is a bright 1. 
Whatever happens, good things 

1095
00:59:47,920 --> 00:59:50,880
are going to happen to you now. 
So keep on on the spiritual 

1096
00:59:50,880 --> 00:59:54,560
path, gradually seeing. 
That your future is bright and 

1097
00:59:54,560 --> 00:59:57,000
you will be hopefully be able to
let go of those things. 

1098
00:59:57,480 --> 01:00:01,240
And it can also be useful to go 
to see a psychologist, perhaps 

1099
01:00:01,560 --> 01:00:04,720
to give you some other ideas 
what you might be able to do 

1100
01:00:04,720 --> 01:00:08,360
now. 
Then we have a question from 

1101
01:00:08,400 --> 01:00:10,600
Squamar 2. 
Squamar 2. 

1102
01:00:10,600 --> 01:00:13,240
That's an interesting name, 
Squamar 2. 

1103
01:00:13,240 --> 01:00:16,160
All right, so hello, Squamar 2 
from Germany. 

1104
01:00:17,720 --> 01:00:21,240
I had some pretty peaceful and 
relieving experiences in 

1105
01:00:21,240 --> 01:00:24,720
meditation. 
How to let go of the expectation

1106
01:00:24,720 --> 01:00:28,720
of it feeling so good again, 
which is stopping exactly that 

1107
01:00:30,120 --> 01:00:32,600
so. 
What you have to do is to 

1108
01:00:32,600 --> 01:00:37,360
remember that No2 meditation 
experiences are exactly the 

1109
01:00:37,360 --> 01:00:41,280
same, so if you are expecting 
it, we are expecting something 

1110
01:00:41,280 --> 01:00:44,200
that will never happen anyway 
because it cannot happen in that

1111
01:00:44,200 --> 01:00:46,520
way. 
So you're expecting a mirage 

1112
01:00:46,520 --> 01:00:49,480
respecting an impossibility in 
the 1st place. 

1113
01:00:50,200 --> 01:00:53,880
So because of that, just be open
to any experience because the 

1114
01:00:53,880 --> 01:00:56,040
next experience very likely will
be different. 

1115
01:00:56,040 --> 01:00:59,680
From the one you had anyway. 
So expectation is completely 

1116
01:00:59,680 --> 01:01:04,120
irrational in this case. 
So enjoy whatever you have. 

1117
01:01:04,280 --> 01:01:07,800
Yeah, don't expect that thing 
which never will happen anyway. 

1118
01:01:08,080 --> 01:01:11,240
And enjoy whatever outcome comes
from your meditation. 

1119
01:01:11,480 --> 01:01:13,920
There will always be some 
positive outcome in your 

1120
01:01:13,920 --> 01:01:16,040
meditation. 
Little bit of happiness, little 

1121
01:01:16,040 --> 01:01:17,600
bit of something, little bit of 
peace. 

1122
01:01:18,040 --> 01:01:21,200
And occasionally you might have 
something deeper which is really

1123
01:01:21,640 --> 01:01:23,320
beautiful and really worthwhile 
there. 

1124
01:01:31,280 --> 01:01:32,400
There we are. 
OK, good. 

1125
01:01:33,440 --> 01:01:35,960
OK, Mr. Poke Pirate. 
I don't. 

1126
01:01:35,960 --> 01:01:37,200
That's doesn't sound like your 
real name. 

1127
01:01:37,200 --> 01:01:39,040
But anyway, I'll answer it 
anyway. 

1128
01:01:41,760 --> 01:01:46,200
How should we view having 
expectations on others? 

1129
01:01:46,920 --> 01:01:48,560
Is it always a bad thing? 
Yeah. 

1130
01:01:48,560 --> 01:01:51,000
For example with a partner or 
children. 

1131
01:01:51,880 --> 01:01:54,280
So should you have expectations 
of others? 

1132
01:01:57,520 --> 01:02:00,200
I think what you should do is 
that you should. 

1133
01:02:00,920 --> 01:02:05,800
If you have children, you should
obviously help them to have some

1134
01:02:05,800 --> 01:02:07,520
good values in life, right? 
You should. 

1135
01:02:07,520 --> 01:02:09,400
Guide them in the right 
direction. 

1136
01:02:09,960 --> 01:02:13,080
And you should do that out of 
loving kindness, out of 

1137
01:02:13,080 --> 01:02:16,200
compassion for the child, 
because you know that if you 

1138
01:02:16,400 --> 01:02:19,320
want to have a good life, if the
child wants to have a good life,

1139
01:02:19,320 --> 01:02:22,000
they have to have good values. 
You cannot have a good life 

1140
01:02:22,000 --> 01:02:25,160
without good values. 
So you want to kind of instill 

1141
01:02:25,160 --> 01:02:29,520
some good values in that child. 
Then you are doing what is good 

1142
01:02:29,520 --> 01:02:32,960
for that child. 
But you shouldn't really have 

1143
01:02:32,960 --> 01:02:36,640
expectations what you should do.
You should just do the right 

1144
01:02:36,640 --> 01:02:38,960
thing because you know it is the
right thing. 

1145
01:02:38,960 --> 01:02:43,400
And then that child will kind 
of, you know, follow or not 

1146
01:02:43,400 --> 01:02:45,320
follow according to its 
abilities. 

1147
01:02:45,880 --> 01:02:47,600
Yeah. 
And if it doesn't follow, then 

1148
01:02:47,600 --> 01:02:49,600
will you try to think how can I 
help more? 

1149
01:02:50,360 --> 01:02:53,240
But don't have expectations. 
The more expectations you have, 

1150
01:02:53,240 --> 01:02:55,640
the more suffering you will have
with those with your family 

1151
01:02:55,640 --> 01:02:58,600
members because no one will ever
live up to those expectations, 

1152
01:02:58,600 --> 01:03:00,840
whatever they are. 
Just live with love and 

1153
01:03:00,840 --> 01:03:02,880
kindness. 
Do the right thing because it's 

1154
01:03:02,880 --> 01:03:05,880
right without having too many 
expectations. 

1155
01:03:06,160 --> 01:03:09,040
I I know it is impossible to be 
a parent and not have any 

1156
01:03:09,040 --> 01:03:11,600
expectations. 
It doesn't work that way. 

1157
01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:14,720
But try to lower them a little 
bit because then you will create

1158
01:03:14,720 --> 01:03:19,440
more happiness for everyone. 
Then we have a question from 

1159
01:03:19,440 --> 01:03:24,640
Gayatri Ganeshan. 
My question is, are we born with

1160
01:03:24,640 --> 01:03:27,880
a pure mind and a condition 
negatively by the world? 

1161
01:03:28,360 --> 01:03:32,440
I see that kindness in my child 
and it makes me wonder. 

1162
01:03:35,600 --> 01:03:39,400
Not really. 
That depends on the kind of 

1163
01:03:39,400 --> 01:03:42,840
conditioning you. 
You, you get, Yeah. 

1164
01:03:42,840 --> 01:03:46,280
Who are your parents? 
What country are you born into? 

1165
01:03:46,280 --> 01:03:50,120
Who are your teachers? 
What religion do you subscribe 

1166
01:03:50,120 --> 01:03:53,000
to? 
Where do you go to get your 

1167
01:03:53,000 --> 01:03:55,640
spiritual teachings, all of 
these kind of things? 

1168
01:03:55,640 --> 01:03:58,800
Who do you hang out with? 
You know, if you're born into a 

1169
01:03:58,800 --> 01:04:01,520
mafia family, sure, then you 
might have a problem. 

1170
01:04:01,880 --> 01:04:05,560
But you might be born into a 
very nice Buddhist family, Yeah.

1171
01:04:05,560 --> 01:04:07,880
Or whatever. 
So it really depends. 

1172
01:04:07,880 --> 01:04:12,040
On the circumstances. 
Generally speaking, we tend to 

1173
01:04:12,040 --> 01:04:16,200
be born into families that are 
roughly had some congruence with

1174
01:04:16,200 --> 01:04:17,800
how we are. 
You know, it's not kind of 

1175
01:04:17,800 --> 01:04:19,920
completely random where we get 
reborn. 

1176
01:04:20,520 --> 01:04:24,320
So usually if you are a fairly 
pure person, you will sometimes 

1177
01:04:24,320 --> 01:04:27,080
usually get reborn in a fairly 
good family here. 

1178
01:04:27,600 --> 01:04:29,760
So that's you. 
That tends to be some kind of a 

1179
01:04:29,760 --> 01:04:31,560
congruence there between the 
two. 

1180
01:04:31,960 --> 01:04:34,080
But sometimes not. 
Sometimes we can have a very 

1181
01:04:34,080 --> 01:04:37,560
pure child maybe get reborn into
a family which is not so pure. 

1182
01:04:37,560 --> 01:04:39,360
Yeah, these things can also 
happen there. 

1183
01:04:40,200 --> 01:04:43,920
So the reality is that these 
things, there isn't really 

1184
01:04:43,920 --> 01:04:47,560
anything given there. 
The most important thing through

1185
01:04:47,560 --> 01:04:51,920
our life is that we seek those 
people, those places that can 

1186
01:04:51,920 --> 01:04:55,440
condition us in such a way that 
we can become more purer. 

1187
01:04:55,880 --> 01:04:59,120
And that is our responsibility 
to ensure that we do that. 

1188
01:04:59,440 --> 01:05:02,040
Because you understand the 
importance of conditioning, the 

1189
01:05:02,040 --> 01:05:05,520
importance of kalyanamita, and 
the importance of a pure mind to

1190
01:05:05,520 --> 01:05:09,160
have a good life. 
Then last question for today 

1191
01:05:09,160 --> 01:05:12,440
from Wolf Wolfram Gaby from 
Germany. 

1192
01:05:13,120 --> 01:05:16,240
It is difficult to embrace your 
depression with meta. 

1193
01:05:16,240 --> 01:05:18,720
When you are depressed, how do 
you do that? 

1194
01:05:19,040 --> 01:05:23,280
Same for peace and stillness. 
How do you get how to get it 

1195
01:05:23,280 --> 01:05:25,520
when fear and depression are 
strong? 

1196
01:05:27,840 --> 01:05:32,280
Yes, it is hard because 
depression is often the opposite

1197
01:05:32,480 --> 01:05:36,520
of meta. 
But very often, depression comes

1198
01:05:36,520 --> 01:05:39,640
from not accepting things as 
they are. 

1199
01:05:39,640 --> 01:05:42,760
Yeah, depression comes because 
maybe you are too hard on 

1200
01:05:42,760 --> 01:05:44,840
yourself. 
Don't accept yourself for who 

1201
01:05:44,840 --> 01:05:47,360
you are. 
Maybe you don't accept the 

1202
01:05:47,360 --> 01:05:48,960
world. 
For what it is like. 

1203
01:05:49,360 --> 01:05:52,960
So learning to think of yourself
as good enough as you are 

1204
01:05:52,960 --> 01:05:55,680
because you are good enough. 
Yeah, you're already doing the 

1205
01:05:55,680 --> 01:05:57,560
right thing, living in the right
way. 

1206
01:05:57,920 --> 01:06:01,880
You're already worthy of respect
because you are obviously living

1207
01:06:01,880 --> 01:06:05,720
in a good way. 
So leave those things aside 

1208
01:06:05,720 --> 01:06:08,600
whereby you put yourself down or
you put the world down or 

1209
01:06:08,600 --> 01:06:11,600
whatever. 
Leave those things aside because

1210
01:06:11,600 --> 01:06:14,960
you are obviously focusing on 
the wrong things in the world. 

1211
01:06:14,960 --> 01:06:18,320
There are a lot of things that 
you can focus on in your life 

1212
01:06:18,320 --> 01:06:21,640
and the world that are positive,
and then that depression will 

1213
01:06:21,640 --> 01:06:25,320
lift. 
It's very easy to get depressed,

1214
01:06:25,320 --> 01:06:28,120
for example, if you have two 
high expectations of yourself. 

1215
01:06:28,520 --> 01:06:31,600
You think that you should be 
perfect in one way or another, 

1216
01:06:32,080 --> 01:06:34,520
but you know you are good enough
as you are. 

1217
01:06:34,520 --> 01:06:38,000
If you can be a kind person in 
this world, you're already far 

1218
01:06:38,000 --> 01:06:39,880
better than the vast majority of
people. 

1219
01:06:39,960 --> 01:06:43,320
That's all that really matters. 
Often we measure ourselves by 

1220
01:06:43,320 --> 01:06:46,360
the wrong yardsticks. 
We measure ourselves by how 

1221
01:06:46,360 --> 01:06:49,080
successful we are at school, 
what kind of grades we get, what

1222
01:06:49,080 --> 01:06:52,680
kind of exams we go through, 
what kind of degrees we have, 

1223
01:06:52,680 --> 01:06:55,720
how we do in the corporate 
world, whether we are successful

1224
01:06:55,720 --> 01:06:58,520
or not. 
But these things are irrelevant 

1225
01:06:58,840 --> 01:07:03,040
if you are a completely ordinary
person with a beautiful heart. 

1226
01:07:03,520 --> 01:07:05,280
That is what is important in 
life. 

1227
01:07:05,600 --> 01:07:08,400
That is what really will get you
somewhere in the future. 

1228
01:07:08,680 --> 01:07:12,240
These are the things that really
matter, not all that superficial

1229
01:07:12,240 --> 01:07:15,880
stuff that we often focus on. 
Yeah, you can be a completely 

1230
01:07:15,880 --> 01:07:18,520
ordinary person. 
You can go through life at this 

1231
01:07:18,520 --> 01:07:20,480
person. 
No one ever sees, no one ever 

1232
01:07:20,480 --> 01:07:23,560
pays, pays any notice to at all.
Great. 

1233
01:07:23,560 --> 01:07:25,200
No one looks at you Wonderful. 
Yeah. 

1234
01:07:25,200 --> 01:07:26,840
You can be left in peace. 
You can do your own thing. 

1235
01:07:26,840 --> 01:07:29,920
You can meditate, be quiet. 
No one ever looks at you. 

1236
01:07:30,480 --> 01:07:32,360
Actually, I can be a blessing in
disguise. 

1237
01:07:33,080 --> 01:07:35,960
Too many people these days, all 
they want to do is be seen by 

1238
01:07:35,960 --> 01:07:38,040
the world. 
They want to be on Instagram and

1239
01:07:38,040 --> 01:07:40,880
kind of pretend that they're far
better than actually they are. 

1240
01:07:41,080 --> 01:07:43,120
That life is miserable. 
But looks on Instagram that the 

1241
01:07:43,120 --> 01:07:45,760
life is really wonderful. 
What kind of thing is that? 

1242
01:07:45,760 --> 01:07:49,480
This crazy stuff. 
Appreciate the little things in 

1243
01:07:49,480 --> 01:07:52,000
your life and I can guarantee 
you that you will become a more 

1244
01:07:52,000 --> 01:07:54,320
happy person. 
That's probably maybe what you 

1245
01:07:54,320 --> 01:07:56,760
have to do. 
Everyone gets depressed now and 

1246
01:07:56,760 --> 01:08:00,320
again, but this is often the way
out of it. 

1247
01:08:00,760 --> 01:08:05,720
So best of luck. 
OK everyone, that is all for 

1248
01:08:05,720 --> 01:08:07,200
tonight. 
Let's just pay homage to the 

1249
01:08:07,200 --> 01:08:08,320
Buddha Dama Sanga.