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Tonight's talk is titled 
Buddhist. 

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What is it? 
Buddhist outlook, Buddhist 

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values. 
And the idea behind this is that

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our outlook, how we please come 
in here. 

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Yeah. 
How we relate to the world, how 

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we look at the world, how we 
look at people around us, how we

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relate to pretty much everything
actually has a massive impact on

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how we live our life. 
Yeah, once you have an outlook, 

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then your values tend to fall 
into place in accordance with 

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that outlook. 
And once you have certain 

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values, that is what informs you
how you live your life, what are

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your priorities, what is 
important to you, what actually 

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matters. 
It all starts with outlook, 

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outlook, values, and then your 
priorities all comes from that. 

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And just to show you very simply
what I mean by this as a very 

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simple kind of similarly for how
this works is imagine yourself 

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if you have, you know, people, 
there are people in your life, 

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some people you consider 
friends, some people you 

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consider as enemies. 
Do anyone you have enemies? 

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Are you all just friends 
everywhere here? 

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So, but my point is not so much 
whether you have friends at my 

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point is just that if you look 
at a person as a friend or if 

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you look at a person as an 
enemy, that is what I mean by 

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different outlook. 
It's a particular way of viewing

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a person. 
Yeah. 

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It's not that saying that our 
friend is right or that an enemy

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is wrong or whatever, not really
saying anything about that. 

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And they're saying this is a 
different outlook. 

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Yeah. 
And of course, once you have 

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that outlook, yeah, there is a 
value. 

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You value that person in a 
certain way. 

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If they are a friend, yeah, you 
value them highly. 

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If you consider them an enemy 
here, you don't really want to 

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have too much to do with them 
there. 

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Yeah. 
So this is kind of what I mean 

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by your outlook then relates 
directly to your values. 

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And once you have those values, 
then that actually directs your 

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life. 
You hang out with your friend, 

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you kind of avoid your enemy. 
Yeah. 

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Or if you're wise, maybe you 
change your attitude a little 

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bit. 
That's another, another way of 

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doing things. 
That's obviously the right way 

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of dealing with these things. 
But your entire life isn't 

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guided by these values. 
What you prioritise and what is 

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important to you actually comes 
from that. 

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So the idea of to understand 
what outlook, how important it 

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actually is on the Buddhist 
path, it is very useful to tie 

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it in with some of the Buddhist 
teachings. 

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Yeah, I always like to tie 
things in, of course, to the 

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Buddhist teachings. 
And of course one of the 

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fundamental of the Buddhist 
teachings is the Noble Eightfold

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Path. 
Yeah, Noble Eightfold Path. 

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What does it start out with? 
Right viewer, which is very 

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similar to right outlook. 
Yes, it starts with the right 

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outlook. 
That's the very beginning of the

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Noble Eightfold Path. 
One of the significant things to

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understand about the Noble 
Eightfold Path is that it's not 

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just eight factors kind of 
randomly put together. 

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Yeah. 
The Buddha doesn't work in 

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random ways. 
Yeah, the Buddha's kind of 

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systematic. 
Everything is kind of organised 

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according to sequences, 
according to causes and 

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conditions and effects that come
from those causes and 

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conditions. 
Everything is very systematic. 

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So when you hear like the five 
kundas, don't just think that 

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five kundas is a random sequence
of five aspects of personality. 

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These have a particular sequence
and that sequence matters. 

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Yeah, you can see the five 
hindrances. 

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You think, yeah, look at this, 5
bad things for meditation 

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practice. 
And of course there are 5 bad 

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things for meditation practice. 
But again, there is a particular

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sequence in those five 
hindrances. 

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It is not random. 
It starts off with sensual 

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desire for a particular reason. 
It ends up with doubt for a 

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particular reason. 
These things are not random. 

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So everything in the Buddhist 
teachings hangs together. 

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There's a system to it. 
And that's why when you see the 

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five hundreds, they always come 
in the same sequence. 

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Yeah. 
If you read them in the Pal, if 

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you read them in Sanskrit, you 
read them in Chinese or Tibetan 

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or whatever ancient language you
can find is always the same 

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across the border. 
So the noble air flow path 

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always starts with right view. 
Yeah, right outlook always at 

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the beginning here. 
And that matters enormously 

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because actually what it does, 
it shows you that this is the 

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foundation on which the entire 
noble air flow path is 

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practised. 
Yeah, it is based on right view 

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from right view. 
What happens from right view, 

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right outlook, you get right 
intention. 

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Yeah, that is in a sense, right 
values. 

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You have the value of loving 
kindness. 

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You have the value of 
compassion, Karuna, You have the

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value of of letting go or of 
giving up things. 

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Yeah, the they come out which 
are giving up of sensual 

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desires. 
All of that actually comes. 

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So outlook leads to values and 
that then gives direction to 

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your life. 
The direction to the life is in 

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the rest of the Noble Eightfold 
Path. 

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The remaining six factors. 
We show you how you're supposed 

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to live your life. 
Yeah. 

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So the foundation there is 
actually what makes the noble FL

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path possible. 
Without the foundation of right 

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view, the noble FL path doesn't 
really even start. 

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Yeah. 
So make sure you get some right 

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outlook at the beginning here. 
Another way of looking at right,

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the idea of right outlook is to 
look at dependent origination. 

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I'm going to be talking about 
dependent origination on the 

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retreat that is coming up. 
Are you coming on the retreat, 

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Leaving here? 
Yes. 

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Yeah. 
OK, good. 

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If you're not coming on the 
retreat, you're missing out on 

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dependent origination. 
Right. 

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Well, that is pretty, pretty 
sad, isn't when you think about 

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it. 
So we're going to talk about 

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dependent origination, not in a 
kind of theoretical way. 

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We're going to kind of, you 
know, look at it from the 

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abidama point of view or 
anything like that. 

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But I'm going to look at 
dependent origination from a 

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practical point of view. 
All the teachings of the Buddha 

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are ultimately practical. 
They have one purpose, to move 

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us away from suffering and to 
move us towards happiness. 

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That is all as the purpose of 
the Buddhist teachings. 

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So it is for dependent 
origination. 

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And you know, dependent 
origination starts off with 

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Avija. 
Avija sometimes translate into 

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English as ignorance, which I 
don't like. 

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Yeah, I must admit I don't 
really like ignorance. 

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Ignorance means that you haven't
you haven't gone to 

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universities, you don't know, 
know about kind of law or, or 

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medicine or something. 
That's what ignorance is really 

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means in English. 
But Avija actually has more to 

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do with delusion, the fact that 
you don't see things according 

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to reality. 
Yeah, so it is, again, it's very

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similar to the idea of outlook, 
lack of lack of right outlook, 

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lack of seeing things according 
to according to reality. 

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That is what stands at the 
beginning of dependent 

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origination. 
You don't see things in the 

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right way. 
That is when this whole thing 

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starts out. 
Independent origination. 

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For those of you who are new to 
the Buddhist teachings, is 

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anyone here new to the Buddhist 
teachings? 

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Yes. 
OK over there. 

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Wow. 
OK, So you must be scared 

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already. 
I'm sure you are so many strange

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words. 
Yeah, Poly words, all this kind 

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of stuff. 
So I apologise. 

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I after at the end of the talk, 
I promise I will there will be a

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few minutes to ask questions 
afterwards. 

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So if you have any kind of 
serious doubts, take a pen, 

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note, paper, write it all down, 
and then you can ask afterwards.

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So the dependent origination is 
12 factors or 12 items if you 

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like, one leading to the next 
one, one linked to the one after

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it, starting off with delusion 
or avidya ending up where with 

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suffering. 
Yeah. 

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So what dependent origination 
actually shows us, it shows us 

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how suffering is ultimately the 
outcome of delusion. 

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The reason why we suffer is 
because we are deluded. 

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Yeah. 
And that is kind of the root 

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cause, the root problem, our 
outlook is wrong. 

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We don't see things in 
accordance with reality. 

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That is the essential problem 
that we are dealing with. 

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And then that cascades through 
this 12 lengths and ends up in 

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suffering on the other side. 
It's actually quite intuitive. 

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We know that that's true. 
If you are deluded, you tend to 

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suffer. 
Yeah, because you make mistakes.

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It cannot make sense. 
But this is actually a formal 

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way of showing us how delusion 
transforms into suffering. 

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And there's no way how to avoid 
that. 

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So again, fundamental and third 
way of thinking about outlook is

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to think about it in terms of 
meditation practice. 

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Yeah, I'm sure many of you who 
have been around for a while, 

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you will know about the Sati 
Patana Suta. 

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That banana suta is often 
regarded as the most probably 

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the most well known suitor about
meditation practice in Buddhist 

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teachings. 
Yeah. 

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And one of the things that you 
may not know about, most people 

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tend to read the Sati Patana 
Suta, but Sati Patana is much 

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more than the Sati Patana Suta. 
There is a whole Satyipatana 

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Sangyuta in the Sangyuta Nikaya 
which collects about how many. 

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Now 5060 discourse is all about 
Satyipatana practice. 

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And one of the things that these
suitors show you is that 

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Satyipatana is always based on 
two things. 

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In other words, meditation 
practice is based on 2 

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fundamental things that have to 
be in place before you can do 

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your meditation practice. 
Yeah, this is very interesting, 

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isn't it? 
If you know these two things, 

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then you know either why your 
meditation is not going so well 

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or why it is going really, 
really well, why it's going 

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gangbusters. 
So you now you have the two. 

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This is kind of the kind of 
clue. 

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This is the foundation for 
meditation practice. 

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What are these two things? 
And these are things that you 

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see again and again in the 
suitors. 

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And these two things, on the one
hand is sealer. 

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Yeah, Cela being morality, not 
just morality, but the way you 

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live your life. 
If you live your life with 

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kindness, with compassion, with 
care, and all of these kind of 

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things, that is what CELA is, is
the habits of our lives. 

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So this is one of the 
foundations that makes 

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meditation possible. 
And that's always, I recommend 

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you, if you find that if you're 
one of those people who's 

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interested in meditation 
practice, you'd like to develop 

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it further, you really go back 
to your sealer. 

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Ask yourself if there's any way 
you can lead your life in a 

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better way. 
What can you do better here? 

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How can you be more kind? 
Yeah, how can you kind of 

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increase the quality, the good 
qualities in your heart? 

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And as you do that, your 
meditation will gradually come 

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together, if you think about it 
in the right way here. 

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But the other aspect, which 
perhaps is less well known about

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meditation practice, one of the 
sources of Satya patana practice

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is something called Ujjukaditi 
in the Palli language. 

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So how many of you have heard 
about Ujukaditi before Here? 

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Let's have a look. 
No, I cannot even Frank. 

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OK. 
OK, so. 

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OK, so that's that shows you. 
Yeah, that shows you that 

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actually there is a there's a 
need to kind of look at 

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Ujukaditi. 
I would be very surprised if you

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heard about Ujukaditi. 
It's a pretty kind of obscure 

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term, but Uju in Parliament 
straight. 

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Yeah. 
And it means view. 

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So this is again very closely 
rated to the idea of outlook. 

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Having the right outlook is the 
same as having straight view. 

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You're seeing things in 
accordance with reality 

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according to how the Buddha 
taught things. 

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So this also is the foundation 
of meditation practice. 

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So if your meditation isn't 
going all that well, go back to 

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your viewer. 
Can your view be improved? 

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What can you do to see things 
more in the right way? 

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What maybe maybe your, your view
isn't strong enough or clear 

231
00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:36,320
enough, not enough accordance in
accordance with the Buddha's 

232
00:11:36,320 --> 00:11:39,400
teachings. 
So what do I mean by that? 

233
00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:41,800
To actually have the straight 
view in this way? 

234
00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:44,120
What does it actually, what does
it really refer to? 

235
00:11:44,680 --> 00:11:47,120
And what it. 
One of the main things that it 

236
00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:50,920
refers to is that you prioritise
your meditation practice. 

237
00:11:51,640 --> 00:11:53,760
Yeah. 
If you sit down and you kind of,

238
00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:55,560
you know, you start thinking 
about things. 

239
00:11:55,560 --> 00:11:58,120
Yeah, this is very common. 
Everybody does this. 

240
00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:01,000
And if you have never had any 
kind of stray thoughts in the 

241
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:04,800
meditation practice, then I 
congratulate you for probably 

242
00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:06,600
being an Arrowhead, if that's 
the case. 

243
00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:10,440
But usually most people have 
little bit of thinking. 

244
00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:12,040
Yeah, some people, a lot of 
thinking. 

245
00:12:12,040 --> 00:12:13,280
Some people just think for 
hours. 

246
00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:15,880
There's no stop in the thinking.
There's hardly a gap in there at

247
00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:19,720
all. 
So why isn't it that we think so

248
00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:21,760
much? 
And what are the things that we 

249
00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:23,360
think about? 
Yeah. 

250
00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:27,040
And the reason why we think so 
much is because those things 

251
00:12:27,040 --> 00:12:31,320
that we think about, they are 
the things we tend to value in 

252
00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:35,080
our life. 
Yeah, value, again, outlook and 

253
00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:36,400
value. 
You can see how these things are

254
00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:38,520
so closely related to each, to 
each other here. 

255
00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:41,960
So what are the things you you 
value in your life? 

256
00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:44,160
Look at what you're thinking 
about during your meditation 

257
00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:46,560
practice. 
And what you will see is that 

258
00:12:46,560 --> 00:12:48,840
you think about your family. 
Yeah. 

259
00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:52,080
You think about your work. 
You think about things, problems

260
00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:55,080
that you may have in life. 
Even beyond that, you think 

261
00:12:55,080 --> 00:12:57,040
perhaps about pleasures in life.
Yeah. 

262
00:12:57,040 --> 00:12:59,760
Or this. 
This meditation really sucks. 

263
00:12:59,760 --> 00:13:02,160
It was terrible. 
So much pain everywhere. 

264
00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:04,840
I wish I could eat this and I 
could do that and kind of watch 

265
00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:06,560
the movie or whatever. 
This is just too much. 

266
00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:11,280
And so you see in your 
meditation, you understand what 

267
00:13:11,280 --> 00:13:14,920
your you see in your mind. 
What are the real values in your

268
00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:16,520
life? 
What are the things that are 

269
00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:20,080
important to you? 
So part of right outlook is to 

270
00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:24,480
shift our values, that we 
actually value the meditation 

271
00:13:24,480 --> 00:13:27,000
much more. 
Yeah, we prioritise the 

272
00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:30,400
spiritual life. 
We understand that ultimately it

273
00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:32,320
is a spiritual life that really 
matters. 

274
00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:34,600
This is what is going to make us
happy at the end of the day. 

275
00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:37,520
And all this other stuff. 
Actually, it doesn't have the 

276
00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:40,800
same power to make us happy. 
We have to do this other things 

277
00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:43,680
as well, but we'd start doing 
them in a different way. 

278
00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:47,680
And once you shift your 
priorities, once you place your 

279
00:13:47,680 --> 00:13:51,680
spiritual life higher than the 
rest of your ordinary life, then

280
00:13:51,680 --> 00:13:54,440
there's a shift happening in 
your meditation practice. 

281
00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,520
You don't think about those 
other things anymore because 

282
00:13:57,520 --> 00:13:59,120
they are secondary. 
Yeah. 

283
00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:01,320
What's the point when you 
finally have come to the thing 

284
00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:03,560
that really matters? 
You finally doing your 

285
00:14:03,560 --> 00:14:06,640
meditation by the practice? 
This is what is important in 

286
00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:07,200
life. 
Yeah. 

287
00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:09,360
You're not going to think about 
the other stuff. 

288
00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:12,400
If that's your view, you already
have found the thing that really

289
00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:14,560
matters. 
So you stick with that and you 

290
00:14:14,560 --> 00:14:17,840
don't go so much to all of these
other things. 

291
00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:20,600
And this is the problem. 
You know, you look around the 

292
00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:23,720
world and you see people, you 
ask people, why do you meditate?

293
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:27,120
And people say, oh, I meditate 
so I can become a better mother,

294
00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:30,040
a better father, a better son, a
better daughter, a better 

295
00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:31,000
worker. 
Yeah. 

296
00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:33,920
Or a better kind of bomber. 
If you're in the military, you 

297
00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:36,120
want to have more precision 
guided bombing. 

298
00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:37,560
Yes. 
You have more mindfulness. 

299
00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:40,200
You meditate for that. 
That's kind of getting your 

300
00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:42,760
priorities wrong. 
Yeah, it's just just slightly 

301
00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:44,960
wrong on the case of the last 
one. 

302
00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:49,280
The priority should be the exact
opposite. 

303
00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:51,360
You don't actually do your 
meditation. 

304
00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:53,800
So you can do all of these 
things other things better. 

305
00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:57,920
You do all of these other things
in such a way as to enhance your

306
00:14:57,920 --> 00:15:00,120
meditation practice. 
Yeah. 

307
00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:04,120
So you live your life, you go to
work and you go to work with a 

308
00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:07,560
Buddhist attitude, with a sense 
of kindness, with a sense of 

309
00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:10,840
caring for your Co workers, for 
your clients, for whoever it is.

310
00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:16,400
And when you go to work and you 
lead your life in a way that is 

311
00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:20,120
spiritual, that is done like 
from a Buddhist kind of from a 

312
00:15:20,560 --> 00:15:23,440
Buddhist perspective, then that 
is going to enhance your 

313
00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:26,160
meditation practice. 
You got your priorities right. 

314
00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:28,840
You no longer, you don't have 
the idea that I'm meditating to 

315
00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:32,800
be a family member. 
You are being a good family 

316
00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:35,560
member so that we can meditate 
better afterwards. 

317
00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:39,720
Meditation is where you touch 
the real meaning of life. 

318
00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:43,240
Yeah, in a way you can never 
find outside a meditation 

319
00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:46,240
practice. 
So this is the idea of getting 

320
00:15:46,240 --> 00:15:50,760
your priorities right. 
Outlook and values work directly

321
00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:53,920
into your meditation practice in
this way here. 

322
00:15:55,680 --> 00:16:00,240
So that is how these things 
work. 

323
00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:03,560
So what kind of things, what 
kind of things do we mean when 

324
00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:06,400
we talk about outlook? 
There's many different ways that

325
00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:09,840
the Buddha talks about outlook 
in the suitors, and one of the 

326
00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:12,360
ways it talks about it talks 
about the vijas. 

327
00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:16,840
Yeah, with avija and vija. 
Avija meaning delusion, vija 

328
00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:20,000
being the exact opposite, 
meaning things like insight. 

329
00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:22,880
Essentially. 
I like to translate vija as 

330
00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:25,800
insight. 
The usual way, the usual word 

331
00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:28,640
that is translated as insight in
Buddhism is vipassana. 

332
00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:32,280
And I don't really think that is
quite correct, to be honest with

333
00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:34,040
you. 
I think we pass on, I mean, 

334
00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:38,400
something like clear seeing. 
Yeah, inside real insight is 

335
00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:41,680
like wisdom. 
And inside, I think the vijas 

336
00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:44,360
are actually a great place to 
start with insider. 

337
00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:48,400
And of course, these are things 
like, you know, the three things

338
00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:51,480
like remembering your past 
lives, understanding the laws of

339
00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:52,640
karma. 
Yeah. 

340
00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:56,160
And then the final insight, 
which is the arahanship, the 

341
00:16:56,160 --> 00:17:01,320
awakening experience itself. 
So these are kind of the three 

342
00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:04,520
supreme insights in Buddhism. 
Yeah. 

343
00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:07,400
And this is a good way of 
thinking about right view in a 

344
00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:09,400
sense, or right outlook. 
Yeah. 

345
00:17:10,079 --> 00:17:11,359
Yeah. 
You think, yeah. 

346
00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:13,560
Is there rebirth or is there not
rebirth? 

347
00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:15,480
That is kind of a right, right 
outlook. 

348
00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:17,560
Yeah. 
But be careful about this 

349
00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:20,319
because for many people you ask 
them, you know, have you got 

350
00:17:20,319 --> 00:17:23,760
right view or not? 
And it's like yes or no answer. 

351
00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:25,760
Yes, I believe in rebirth. 
No, I don't believe. 

352
00:17:25,760 --> 00:17:27,599
OK, I believe. 
OK, I've got right view. 

353
00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:30,400
You know, first factor of the 
noble level path has been put 

354
00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:32,800
into place. 
Now I can move on to the second 

355
00:17:32,800 --> 00:17:35,240
one. 
Yes. 

356
00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:38,480
No, Maybe, maybe not. 
Yeah, maybe. 

357
00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:40,840
It's not that. 
It's not that simple, because 

358
00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:44,400
right view is not a static thing
that either you got it or you 

359
00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:46,160
haven't. 
Yes, I believe in rebirth, 

360
00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:49,120
therefore I have right view. 
I don't believe in the rebirth 

361
00:17:49,120 --> 00:17:50,400
that therefore I have wrong 
view. 

362
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:55,000
It's not as simple as that. 
The idea of view in Buddhism or 

363
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:58,600
outlook in Buddhism or values in
Buddhism is something that you 

364
00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:02,120
gradually develop. 
It is something that comes over 

365
00:18:02,120 --> 00:18:04,680
time. 
Yeah, it's like an outlook that 

366
00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:07,480
matures over time, time. 
And you need to reflect on it 

367
00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:10,880
again and again and again. 
And as you do that, these things

368
00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:13,880
become powerful. 
What does it mean that there is 

369
00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:15,720
a rebirth? 
Not only that you believe it, 

370
00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:19,400
but what does it actually mean? 
Does the idea of rebirth, does 

371
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:23,320
it touch you emotionally? 
Do you, does it make you feel 

372
00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:25,920
anything in particular? 
If it doesn't touch you 

373
00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:28,880
emotionally, it's not going to 
have much power on the Buddhist 

374
00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:31,440
path. 
If it touches you emotional and 

375
00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:34,760
you feel a sense of urgency, you
feel like, wow, this is actually

376
00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:37,320
really important. 
It may be even make you feel 

377
00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:39,720
joyful in the practice of the 
Buddhist teachings. 

378
00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:42,400
Yeah. 
If it does that, then it becomes

379
00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:45,800
very powerful. 
So it's not a yes and no thing 

380
00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:48,000
in Christianity. 
You know, you have the idea of 

381
00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:50,440
the Christian creed. 
You believe in the Father, the 

382
00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:51,880
Son and the Holy Ghost or 
whatever. 

383
00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:53,280
And so there it's kind of black 
and white. 

384
00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:55,920
How do you believe or not, or 
maybe even there maybe I don't 

385
00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:57,160
actually know much about 
Christianity. 

386
00:18:57,200 --> 00:18:59,760
I should be very careful what I 
say, but it's not. 

387
00:19:00,360 --> 00:19:02,520
It's not like that. 
Yeah, you either believe. 

388
00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:08,000
I don't believe in Buddhism. 
Belief, view, outlook, values is

389
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,800
something that you develop over 
time and it changes over time. 

390
00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:15,320
And this is what happens also 
with idea of rebirth and coma 

391
00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:20,560
until it becomes a powerful 
force in your spiritual life and

392
00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:22,840
in your meditation practice in 
particular. 

393
00:19:23,120 --> 00:19:24,960
That is one that becomes very 
useful. 

394
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:29,360
But I for most people it is a 
little bit theoretical. 

395
00:19:29,360 --> 00:19:31,960
Yeah. 
Rebirth, OK, we can relate to it

396
00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:33,600
in the UK. 
Maybe you believe it or not, but

397
00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:38,880
it's not, it's kind of hard 
sometimes to really kind of get 

398
00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:41,280
tangible with rebirth. 
You can't really feel it 

399
00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:43,000
properly. 
Often it's quite harder. 

400
00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:48,360
But the reality is that rebirth,
once you understand it, is that 

401
00:19:48,360 --> 00:19:52,280
it is incredibly powerful. 
And just to give you some idea 

402
00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:56,160
of how powerful it is, this is 
how the Buddha talks about 

403
00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:59,680
rebirth or the insight into past
life in the sutas. 

404
00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:02,800
You know, please remind me. 
If I don't say sutas often 

405
00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:05,520
enough, it's because I'm not 
teaching correctly. 

406
00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:08,440
So please remind me if I haven't
said sutas in the next 5 

407
00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:11,840
minutes, raise a hand and say, 
OK, sutas split Suta means 

408
00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:14,320
discourse of the Buddha. 
Yeah, I'd like to always refer 

409
00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:17,200
back to the Buddha. 
And the Buddha had some very 

410
00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:23,040
powerful similes for the idea of
the inside into past lives and 

411
00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:26,720
the inside into Khamma and also 
into awakening experience 

412
00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:28,880
itself. 
And the first thing that would I

413
00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:30,960
say is it's like someone turning
on the light. 

414
00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:33,160
You are in darkness. 
Yeah. 

415
00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:35,480
And you know what it's like to 
be in the darkness. 

416
00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:37,960
You're walking around trying to 
feel your way. 

417
00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:39,720
You hit your head here. 
Yeah. 

418
00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:42,480
And you can't really find the 
path you could supposed to go to

419
00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:44,280
the toilet. 
And usually, if you want to go 

420
00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:45,400
to the toilet, it's pretty 
desperate. 

421
00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:46,480
Yeah. 
But you can't find your way 

422
00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:48,640
here. 
You know, you don't have what 

423
00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:50,920
that can be like if you can't 
find your way to the toilet. 

424
00:20:51,360 --> 00:20:57,200
Very, very bad situation. 
So this is darkness. 

425
00:20:57,200 --> 00:20:59,760
Darkness is bad. 
Darkness makes you blind. 

426
00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:02,520
Darkness, you cannot see what 
you're supposed to do. 

427
00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:05,880
So what I say is that seeing 
things like rebirth is like 

428
00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:09,080
turning on the light. 
Suddenly you don't bump your 

429
00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:11,680
head anymore. 
You don't stub your toes into 

430
00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:13,760
kind of little, you know, things
on the ground. 

431
00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:16,360
You can find the toilet or you 
can find even open the noble at 

432
00:21:16,360 --> 00:21:19,080
full path because the light has 
been turned on. 

433
00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:22,880
And most of us, we are walking 
around in darkness until one day

434
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:25,800
we have these insights. 
We see them for the first time. 

435
00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:27,200
Bang. 
Wow. 

436
00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:31,320
This is what it's like. 
And that is only one of the 

437
00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:33,480
similes. 
There is another one which is 

438
00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:35,160
even more powerful. 
Yeah. 

439
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:38,680
This is the simile of the little
chick, the chick in its egg. 

440
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,200
Yeah. 
I, I love this simile. 

441
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:42,960
I think it's so it's so 
powerful. 

442
00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:46,920
And it really gives an idea of 
what insight really is about and

443
00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:50,840
how powerful it actually is. 
So imagine yourself for this for

444
00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:51,600
a minute. 
Yeah. 

445
00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:53,520
Or not even maybe just 20 
seconds. 

446
00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:56,680
Imagine yourself being a chick 
inside an egg shell. 

447
00:21:57,240 --> 00:21:59,040
What is it like? 
It's pretty. 

448
00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:00,240
You don't see very much. 
Yeah. 

449
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:02,200
The. 
The world is very limited in 

450
00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:03,360
scope. 
Inside an egg. 

451
00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:05,400
Yeah. 
You can see the egg shell there.

452
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:07,920
Egg shell here, egg shell there.
And that's about it. 

453
00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:09,680
You can't see where. 
Maybe you can see some light 

454
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:12,640
coming through the egg shell if 
there's bright sun outside. 

455
00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:17,280
World is very, very limited. 
And one day you kind of your 

456
00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:20,800
claws have grown out, your beak 
has become stronger, and you 

457
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:23,920
decide this is not good enough. 
I want to get out of this egg 

458
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:26,760
shell. 
So you start clawing the the 

459
00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:27,680
egg. 
Yeah. 

460
00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:30,480
You start kind of using your 
little beak to break out. 

461
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:34,200
And then eventually you break 
out of the egg shell and you see

462
00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:39,720
the world for the first time. 
Imagine coming out of the egg 

463
00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:41,840
shell and seeing the world for 
the first time. 

464
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,200
Wow. 
This is what it's like, yeah. 

465
00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:47,360
Jeepers. 
So many interesting things in 

466
00:22:47,360 --> 00:22:48,280
this world. 
Yeah. 

467
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,920
Wow. 
That's that's and this is what 

468
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,680
Insight is like. 
It's like moving, like being, 

469
00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:58,640
going from being inside the 
eggshell to coming out and 

470
00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:02,640
seeing the world in all its 
colours, in all its shapes, in 

471
00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:05,280
all the perceptions and all the 
various things you can see in 

472
00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:07,560
the world. 
The difference is massive. 

473
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:11,960
This is how the Buddha explains 
the insight into things like 

474
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:16,000
past lives, into the laws of 
Khamma, into the awakening 

475
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:19,440
experience itself. 
And so these things are 

476
00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:21,480
powerful. 
They are very important. 

477
00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:25,040
And that gives you some idea of 
the potential change that 

478
00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:28,880
actually can occur as your 
outlook moves from being in the 

479
00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:32,080
darkness to actually seeing 
things correctly for the first 

480
00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:35,960
time. 
So that is, but still I the 

481
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:40,680
problem I think with past lives,
with come and all these things, 

482
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:43,000
it often tends to be a little 
bit theoretical. 

483
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:45,680
So there are other ways of 
thinking about outlook. 

484
00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:48,520
Another way, of course is the 4 
Noble truths. 

485
00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:52,160
This is what you see in the suit
as again and again right view 

486
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:54,760
being equated to seeing the four
noble truths. 

487
00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:57,960
Yeah. 
And that of course is very 

488
00:23:57,960 --> 00:23:59,240
interesting. 
I'm not going to talk about the 

489
00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:04,080
four noble truths tonight, but 
the first noble truth is all 

490
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:08,320
about suffering here. 
And when we talk about suffering

491
00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:12,440
here, then of course that is one
of the three characteristics of 

492
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:16,080
existence, dukkha. 
Now the characteristics of 

493
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:19,280
existence, they always come 
together as 3 here 3 

494
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:23,120
characteristics of existence, 
impermanence, suffering and non 

495
00:24:23,120 --> 00:24:25,320
self. 
And these are very closely 

496
00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:28,640
related to each other because 
where there is impermanence, 

497
00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:32,440
where there is anicha, where 
there is this unreliability in 

498
00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:35,640
the world, suffering comes just 
behind. 

499
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:37,840
There's a very close connection 
between the two. 

500
00:24:38,360 --> 00:24:42,840
And where there is impermanence,
unreliability and suffering, non

501
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:45,640
self also is very closely 
related to that. 

502
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:50,160
So these three characteristics 
of existence, these are 

503
00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:53,680
characteristics of the world. 
This is how the world actually 

504
00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:56,200
is. 
This is one way of thinking 

505
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:59,840
about outlook. 
Are you able to see the world in

506
00:24:59,840 --> 00:25:04,680
this way, to see in terms of 
anicha dukkha anata in 

507
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:08,080
permanence, suffering and non 
self? 

508
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:12,480
And the more you're able to see 
the world in that way, the more 

509
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:17,160
ability, the more correct is 
your outlook from the 

510
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:19,960
perspective of the Buddha, from 
the perspective of the early 

511
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:23,640
suitors, you're seeing reality 
as it actually is. 

512
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:26,160
Yeah. 
So This is why this is so 

513
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:32,200
important. 
And one of the, you know, one of

514
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:35,320
the things that is always kind 
of, you know, interesting about 

515
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:36,640
this. 
I've, you know, these things 

516
00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:39,680
like the three characteristics, 
there are a way of looking at 

517
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:41,320
the world. 
And once you start looking at 

518
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:44,200
the world in this way, they 
become a kind of a refuge for 

519
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:45,160
you, huh? 
Yeah. 

520
00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:47,960
The more you see the world in 
this way, the more you accept 

521
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,920
that, the more you are able to 
kind of live your life in 

522
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:53,440
accordance with that, it becomes
a refuge for you. 

523
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:54,920
Huh. 
Why is that? 

524
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:56,320
I don't know. 
You know, sometimes I read 

525
00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:57,840
newspapers. 
Sometimes I wish I hadn't read 

526
00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:00,120
the newspaper. 
You know, I, you go online and 

527
00:26:00,120 --> 00:26:04,000
see, you see all these stories 
and things, but you really look 

528
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:07,000
at the world today and sometimes
people despair a little bit. 

529
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:08,440
Yeah. 
The world always kind of, you 

530
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:11,280
know, the politics are going 
funny, the kind of the powers of

531
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:14,520
the world doing strange things. 
The climate is kind of going to 

532
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:16,840
the dogs. 
Actually, poor dogs shouldn't 

533
00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:19,440
involve the dogs in this. 
But anyway, it's kind of going 

534
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:21,440
the wrong way. 
You have all these refugees 

535
00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:23,040
everywhere. 
You have all these things going 

536
00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:25,240
on in the world. 
It doesn't kind of look very 

537
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:26,280
nice. 
Yeah. 

538
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:31,360
And for this reason, when you 
see these things happening in 

539
00:26:31,360 --> 00:26:35,760
the world, actually we shouldn't
really be very surprised because

540
00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:40,280
this is Anisha One O 1. 
Yeah, but we all need, and it's 

541
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:43,480
a 101 occasionally here because 
we need to go back to the basics

542
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:46,120
again here. 
And it's impermanence 101, the 

543
00:26:46,120 --> 00:26:49,120
basic fact about the world, it 
is always changing. 

544
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:51,960
It is always impermanent. 
It is always unreliable. 

545
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:55,800
So just by contemplating 
impermanence in your life, 

546
00:26:56,200 --> 00:27:00,000
contemplating it regularly, 
reminding you what it actually 

547
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,960
is, when you see all these 
things happening in the world, 

548
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:05,320
you should say, OK, what do I 
expect? 

549
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:07,720
Of course these things are 
happening in the world. 

550
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,240
OK, let's see what we can do 
about it for sure. 

551
00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:12,560
I don't mean that we shouldn't 
do anything about it. 

552
00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:15,320
I just mean we shouldn't be too 
concerned about it. 

553
00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:18,200
We shouldn't be kind of allow 
ourselves to get depressed about

554
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:21,560
these things because this 
actually is the nature of 

555
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:23,760
reality. 
When you take these things on 

556
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:27,600
board and you accept these 
things, actually it becomes less

557
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:29,680
of a shock when the world goes 
wrong. 

558
00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:33,280
Yeah, we have this idea that the
world should go in a certain way

559
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:34,680
and it doesn't go in a certain 
way. 

560
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:37,640
Then we get upset, but the world
shouldn't go in a certain way. 

561
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:39,640
That's kind of the that's the 
delusion. 

562
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:41,880
Yeah. 
It's like an illusion of a self,

563
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:44,120
as if something should be 
permanent, should always be the 

564
00:27:44,120 --> 00:27:46,200
way it is. 
No, it isn't like that. 

565
00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:50,520
The more you take that on board,
the more you are able to deal 

566
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:53,480
with the problems, the 
vicissitudes, all the things in 

567
00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:56,400
the world that go wrong because 
you know this is what to be 

568
00:27:56,400 --> 00:28:00,040
expected. 
And you start to seek for refuge

569
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:03,680
somewhere else. 
You start to seek for happiness,

570
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:07,080
for sense of meaning, a purpose 
somewhere else, rather than 

571
00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:11,040
seeking it in all this external 
phenomena that are by 

572
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:14,880
definition, by from your own 
personal experience, are 

573
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:19,320
impermanent and reliable, not 
really to be trusted at all. 

574
00:28:20,360 --> 00:28:23,560
So this is one of the first 
things about the idea of anicha.

575
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:26,640
And you will have noticed when I
talked about anicha, right now 

576
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:30,440
I'm talking about impermanence 
in the outside world. 

577
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:34,400
Yeah, the world around us. 
And this I think is an important

578
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:38,120
point because very often for 
those of you who have been 

579
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:40,840
Buddhist for a long time, maybe 
you've been sitting coming to 

580
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:42,880
many retreats and all these kind
of things. 

581
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,960
Very often we talk about 
impermanence and it's 

582
00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:51,880
unreliability as something we 
see in our meditation practice. 

583
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:55,280
Yeah, you sit down, you see 
things kind of rising and 

584
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:58,040
falling. 
Actually not arising and passing

585
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,280
away is much better translation 
of those words. 

586
00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:04,800
These are words are would they 
are via, would they via which 

587
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:07,840
one means to arise, not just 
kind of rising and falling, but 

588
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:11,160
arising from nothing, passing 
away into nothing here. 

589
00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:15,120
That's what these words actually
mean, ending, arising and ending

590
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:20,640
here. 
So the idea is often with 

591
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:23,640
Buddhist meditation is to focus 
on this, you have to see things 

592
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:26,880
arising and falling and that 
then getting an insight into 

593
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:31,520
meditation as a consequence. 
But when you read the sutas, ha,

594
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:34,280
I said suta again. 
When you read the suta is the 

595
00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:37,960
word of the Buddha. 
Yeah, he, you forgot to remind 

596
00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:39,760
me by the web because I think 
it's more than 5 minutes. 

597
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:45,120
As I said it, when you read the 
word of the Buddha, he doesn't 

598
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:49,120
talk so much about impermanence 
in that way, in the idea of 

599
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:52,080
looking into your mind, seeing 
things coming and going and all 

600
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:54,840
these kind of things. 
The way he very often talks 

601
00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:58,280
about impermanence is big 
picture impermanence, macro 

602
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,040
impermanence. 
He talks about impermanence in 

603
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:02,800
the sense that we're all going 
to die here. 

604
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:06,320
He talks about impermanence in 
the sense that all the things 

605
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:09,520
that are beloved and pleasing to
us must become otherwise. 

606
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:12,800
He talks about impermanence in 
the sense that the world 

607
00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:15,560
eventually will burn up. 
Yeah, he talks about 

608
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,400
impermanence in the sense of the
cosmos kind of expanding and 

609
00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:20,000
contracting and these kind of 
things. 

610
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:23,920
It is very much big picture 
impermanence and not the kind of

611
00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:27,560
micro impermanence that you see 
perhaps in your meditation 

612
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:30,000
practice. 
And because this is such an 

613
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:33,680
important part of the Buddhist 
teachings, and because it is 

614
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:36,480
very easy to relate to, we can 
all relate to death. 

615
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:39,680
Yeah, we may not like to think 
about death, but it is a 

616
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:43,440
reality. 
Any serious spiritual practice 

617
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:47,760
is about death in part. 
If you can't think about death, 

618
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,560
then you're not really taking 
your spiritual practice all that

619
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:52,840
seriously here. 
So I would recommend you, if you

620
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:55,760
find it scary to think about 
death, just move towards very 

621
00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:58,160
slowly here. 
But it's a very important 

622
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:02,160
reminder to kind of clarify for 
us what really matters in life, 

623
00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:03,600
what is important and what is 
not. 

624
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:08,640
So this is how the Buddha looks,
looks on the idea of 

625
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:13,280
impermanence, big scale, large 
scale impermanence, how it 

626
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:16,920
affects our lives in a big way. 
And because it is easy to relate

627
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:20,760
to her, I would recommend you 
also to think about impermanence

628
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:22,920
in this particular way. 
Yeah. 

629
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:26,960
And as you do that, it actually 
has a very real impact in your 

630
00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:29,760
life. 
The micro scale impermanence 

631
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:33,080
that you see in your meditation 
practice only really becomes 

632
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:36,080
powerful once your meditation 
becomes quite deeper. 

633
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:39,280
Just sitting there watching 
things arising and falling and 

634
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:42,240
all this kind of stuff often 
doesn't have that much, much 

635
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:44,440
effect on your lives. 
Yeah, Why? 

636
00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:46,880
Because it isn't deep enough. 
It doesn't really touch you in a

637
00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:49,360
deep way here. 
Once the meditation becomes 

638
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:53,120
deep, that is where it really 
starts to take off and it has an

639
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:57,560
effect in your life. 
One of the reasons why we focus 

640
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:02,080
so much on the micro scale 
impermanence in our lives is 

641
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:05,120
largely because I think of the 
Sati Pattana Suta. 

642
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:08,840
Yeah, for those of you who know 
your Satya Batana Suta, it says 

643
00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:12,000
in there that you do all of 
these various things. 

644
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:15,360
You watch the breath, you watch 
the four elements, the feelings,

645
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:17,000
the mind states, all this kind 
of stuff. 

646
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:20,680
And you watch them in the 
arising and in the passing away 

647
00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:23,680
here. 
And this has had a tremendous 

648
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:27,360
influence in the world through 
all the famous meditation 

649
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:30,520
methods that come out of 
different countries, come from 

650
00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:32,280
various masters. 
Yes. 

651
00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:36,840
And this has had a tremendous 
influence on how we tend to look

652
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:41,640
at impermanence, anicha, but one
of the very interesting things 

653
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:44,520
about the Satya Bhatana suit. 
And this has been shown by some 

654
00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:46,480
of the best scholars in the 
Buddhist world. 

655
00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:50,320
And actually the Sati Pattana 
suitor is very likely to be a 

656
00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:56,360
compilation of many things that 
kind of all this accretion of of

657
00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:58,760
things that can be added to it 
over time. 

658
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:03,640
The original Sati Pattana suitor
was probably far simpler than 

659
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,440
the one we have today. 
How do we know this? 

660
00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:08,920
Well, we know this because there
are many versions of the Satya 

661
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:11,880
Patana Suta existing in 
different languages. 

662
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:13,600
Yeah. 
And then when you compare them, 

663
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:16,960
you actually realise that there 
is large variations in these 

664
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:20,480
things. 
And I think from reading about 

665
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:26,560
what this well known scholars 
have to say about this, it seems

666
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:31,840
to me fairly likely that that 
little refrain about watching 

667
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:35,720
the arising and passing away of 
phenomena in Satyipatana 

668
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,600
actually looks like it does not 
actually come from the Buddha 

669
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,080
himself. 
It seems to be a later addition 

670
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:44,600
to that suitor. 
I'm not saying it is wrong. 

671
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:46,880
I'm not saying that we shouldn't
be doing this. 

672
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:50,400
I'm saying I'm just saying that 
it may not have been originally 

673
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,840
part of the Satyapatana Sutra. 
That takes a little bit of you 

674
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:58,680
like the wind out of the sails 
of this kind of idea of watching

675
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,840
the arising and passing away in 
your meditation practice. 

676
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:04,880
The way the Buddha talks about 
meditation, the way the Buddha 

677
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:08,600
talks about seeing Anisha is 
actually quite different. 

678
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,520
The way he talks about you have 
to go to places like the 

679
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:15,920
Annapana Satisurta, the 
Discourse on on mindfulness of 

680
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:16,679
breathing. 
Yeah. 

681
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:20,480
And what he says there is that 
you take the mindfulness of 

682
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:24,800
breathing as deep as you 
possibly can, ideally to include

683
00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:27,280
deep samadhi, jaanas and all of 
this. 

684
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:29,960
Then you look at impermanence 
afterwards. 

685
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:32,000
That's when it becomes very 
profound. 

686
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:34,840
I'm not going to go there 
tonight because it gets too far,

687
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:38,639
but this is to give you some 
idea of how this actually works.

688
00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:42,440
So big scale impermanence is 
what the Buddha's talking about.

689
00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:45,560
Yeah, the impermanence of the 
world around us. 

690
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:48,719
Not, not need to look so much 
inside, but look at the world 

691
00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:51,440
around you. 
And once you start look at the 

692
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:56,120
world around you, what you see 
is actually how unreliable 

693
00:34:56,120 --> 00:34:58,760
everything tends to be here. 
Yeah, that's what I was talking 

694
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:01,640
about before. 
The politics, the climate, the 

695
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:04,800
refugees everywhere. 
But also in your personal life. 

696
00:35:05,200 --> 00:35:10,800
What about in our relationships?
Yeah, in our work, in kind of in

697
00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:12,840
the even the Buddhist teachings.
Yeah. 

698
00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:15,280
You come here, you're probably 
all Buddhists. 

699
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,360
Or maybe at least you're 
interested in Buddhism if you 

700
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,280
are here. 
And sometimes, you know, you 

701
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:21,480
become a Buddhist and then you 
kind of attach a little bit to 

702
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:24,440
Buddhist teachings. 
Is that good to attach to 

703
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:28,840
Buddhist teachings? 
OK, different opinions. 

704
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:32,520
OK. 
Yeah, it's have to attach a 

705
00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:33,120
little bit. 
Yeah. 

706
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:34,720
If you're not attached at all, 
you stop coming here. 

707
00:35:34,720 --> 00:35:36,000
So a little bit of attachment is
good. 

708
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:40,120
But once you attach a little 
bit, you also see that, you 

709
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:42,800
know, there's a danger there. 
The downside is you feel, oh, 

710
00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:44,360
maybe Buddhism is disappearing 
here. 

711
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:46,400
Maybe Buddhism is going down the
drain. 

712
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:47,680
Yeah, it's becoming worse and 
worse. 

713
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:49,840
Are there any arrow Hands left 
in the world? 

714
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:51,880
Are there maybe no arrow hands 
left in the world? 

715
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:53,880
What are we going to do? 
We're going to wait for my tray.

716
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:55,400
Unsure. 
Yeah. 

717
00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:57,920
What's going to happen? 
And you start to have concern as

718
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:01,160
soon as you attach to something.
Even when you attach to the 

719
00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:03,440
Buddhist teachings, which I 
think it's good, at least a 

720
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:04,600
little bit is good. 
Yeah. 

721
00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:06,880
Not kind of. 
If you don't attach at all, you 

722
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:09,360
stop being the president of the 
BSV, and that would be really 

723
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:13,240
bad. 
So. 

724
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:16,040
But you can see the danger there
straight away. 

725
00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:18,120
There is a danger that you 
actually feel. 

726
00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:20,520
Oh, no, it's all going to. 
It's all going to disappear, 

727
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:22,120
which of course it is 
eventually. 

728
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:27,440
That is the truth of things. 
So this is the problem of the 

729
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:28,360
world. 
Outsiders. 

730
00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:30,720
You see the danger in 
attachment. 

731
00:36:30,720 --> 00:36:34,160
And the way I like to look at 
it, I like to look at it as if 

732
00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:36,800
you are, you know, you're 
standing on the ground. 

733
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:38,560
Yeah, you're taking your stand 
somewhere. 

734
00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:40,640
OK, I'm going to stand here. 
This is like a safe piece of 

735
00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:42,720
ground. 
And as you're standing there, 

736
00:36:42,720 --> 00:36:45,200
you're standing on the carpet. 
Say this carpet here, this is 

737
00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:47,760
kind of a loose carpet. 
And as soon as you stand on that

738
00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:51,800
carpet, Shane comes and grabs 
one end and it pulls the end 

739
00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:53,680
out. 
And I stumble because I hit the 

740
00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:55,800
Shane grab shed would never do 
that, of course. 

741
00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:58,200
And this is just this is just 
kind of a simile. 

742
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:00,880
Yeah. 
And somebody comes straight away

743
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,920
and they kind of pull the carpet
from under your feet. 

744
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,040
And as you do that, you stumble,
you fall over and you hurt 

745
00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:10,520
yourself as soon as you take 
your stand somewhere. 

746
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:13,360
Taking a stand is like relying 
on something. 

747
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:14,760
Yeah. 
You rely on this piece of 

748
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:16,760
carpet. 
It looks pretty reliable. 

749
00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:19,800
But actually, if Shane grabs 
that and it's not so reliable 

750
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,000
anymore, it loses its 
reliability. 

751
00:37:22,240 --> 00:37:26,920
And this is the nature of all 
phenomena in the world around 

752
00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:28,320
us. 
They are unreliable. 

753
00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:31,560
As soon as you take your 
standard, as soon as you attach.

754
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:32,760
Yeah. 
As soon as you rely on 

755
00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:38,000
something, nature, not shame, 
but nature comes and pulls out 

756
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:41,160
the carpet from under your feet 
and says, ha, you're going to 

757
00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:42,680
suffer. 
You fall over. 

758
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:44,120
Yeah, actually, nature doesn't 
say that. 

759
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:47,040
Nature is kind of neutral, but 
that's kind of the effect of 

760
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:48,920
what's going on. 
That's how how it works. 

761
00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:52,920
It's almost like the world is 
almost perpetually shaking a 

762
00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:53,600
little bit. 
Yeah. 

763
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:56,640
And then the shaking becomes 
greater and it becomes smaller, 

764
00:37:56,880 --> 00:37:58,720
and the shaking is like 
impermanence. 

765
00:37:58,720 --> 00:38:00,720
And then the shaking becomes 
really big. 

766
00:38:00,720 --> 00:38:03,160
Sometimes in our lives, 
impermanence become larger. 

767
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:06,480
And then, of course, we fall 
over because the earthquake is 

768
00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:08,200
there, so we can't stand up 
anymore. 

769
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:10,280
Or maybe we fall into one of 
those cracks. 

770
00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:11,280
Yeah. 
Whoa. 

771
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:14,760
That'd be scary here. 
So this is this is really what 

772
00:38:14,760 --> 00:38:16,640
it's about that is impermanence 
for you. 

773
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,400
As soon as you take a stand, as 
soon as you attach a little bit,

774
00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:23,920
you're opening yourself up for 
suffering as a consequence. 

775
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:29,320
So remember that this is how the
world works and there's one very

776
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:32,280
beautiful Similarly and this 
similarly, I teach it on every 

777
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:36,000
retreat I go to and I promise 
you if you come on many of my 

778
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,120
retreats, you will be hearing it
again in the future as well. 

779
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:43,960
So if you and I do this because 
these symbolies of the Buddha 

780
00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:48,200
are so beautiful and so profound
and so meaningful, and every 

781
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:51,320
time you hear it, at least for 
me it does that, it has an 

782
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:54,520
effect every time I hear it. 
So please don't think. 

783
00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:56,920
Oh, no, we're going to talk 
about the same old simile. 

784
00:38:57,160 --> 00:39:00,520
Please don't think like that. 
Have this Zen mind, beginner 

785
00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:01,080
mind. 
Yeah. 

786
00:39:01,080 --> 00:39:04,320
Where you actually listen to 
things afresh every time. 

787
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:06,080
That is really the right 
attitude. 

788
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:11,200
And this simile is a simile for 
basically for the sensual world.

789
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:14,400
Now, the sensual world is the 
world around us. 

790
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:18,920
Yeah. 
Sensuality is not just about our

791
00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:22,880
cravings and desires. 
Sensuality has to do with the 

792
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:27,000
objects of the sensual world. 
And these objects of the sensual

793
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:31,880
world are inherently unreliable.
And this is how the Buddha makes

794
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:34,080
this beautiful simile to make 
this point. 

795
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:37,760
And he says it's just as if a 
man or a woman or whatever. 

796
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:38,800
Someone. 
Yeah. 

797
00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:42,280
They borrow goods. 
And in those days, borrowing 

798
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:44,160
goods meant he borrowed a 
carriage. 

799
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:45,400
Yeah. 
And some jewellery. 

800
00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:46,920
Yeah. 
That was kind of what they 

801
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:49,880
borrowed, I guess in those days.
Yes, we had a carriage and a 

802
00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:52,280
jewellery. 
And then he paraded around town 

803
00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:55,440
in his carriage wearing all this
fancy jewellery, gold or 

804
00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:58,080
diamonds or whatever it was. 
They had that in those days as 

805
00:39:58,080 --> 00:40:00,040
well. 
Nothing has changed in terms of 

806
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:02,360
gold and diamonds always been 
very popular. 

807
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,360
So he parades around town, but 
he has borrowed this stuff. 

808
00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:07,480
Yeah. 
And as he parades around town, 

809
00:40:07,480 --> 00:40:09,520
people say, wow, look at this 
person. 

810
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:12,640
They are wealthy. 
This is how the rich enjoy their

811
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:14,000
wealth. 
Yeah. 

812
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,680
And once somebody kind of says, 
yeah, look at this person, he's 

813
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:20,000
rich, yeah, you start to take a 
bit of pride in that. 

814
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:21,360
Yeah, I'm wealthy. 
Yeah. 

815
00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:23,160
I'm important because I'm 
wealthy. 

816
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:24,600
This what happens when you're 
wealthy. 

817
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:25,960
You start to think you're 
important. 

818
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:28,960
Of course, that's a delusion, 
but still, that's how you often 

819
00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:32,600
think because people start to 
kind of, you know, suck up to 

820
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:34,200
you a little bit if you're 
wealthy, you know what it's 

821
00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:36,720
like. 
And then kind of you start to 

822
00:40:36,720 --> 00:40:38,600
feel more important as a 
consequence. 

823
00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:41,800
And then, of course, because all
of that wealth has been 

824
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:45,560
borrowed, then those people who 
actually own those things, they 

825
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:49,000
come and take it away. 
Yeah, the carrier is taken away.

826
00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:50,880
All that nice jewellery is taken
away. 

827
00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:55,240
And how do you feel if you have 
attached to that, if you have 

828
00:40:55,240 --> 00:40:59,320
identified with those things, if
you not identify as a rich man 

829
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:02,120
but it's taken away from you, or
a rich woman for that matter, 

830
00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:05,720
and it's taken away from you, 
suddenly you feel naked. 

831
00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:07,680
Yeah. 
It's like something has been 

832
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:09,720
ripped away from your 
personality. 

833
00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:12,920
You have attached to that and 
you suffer as a consequence. 

834
00:41:13,040 --> 00:41:17,240
So this is the Buddha's simile 
of the borrowed goods. 

835
00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:21,160
And the power of the simile of 
the borrowed goods is that 

836
00:41:21,240 --> 00:41:24,800
everything in our life, Not 
everything here, but a large 

837
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:28,680
part of the things in our life 
are borrowed goods. 

838
00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:34,240
Yeah. 
And if you think about it, so 

839
00:41:34,240 --> 00:41:37,280
many other things in our life 
there, we have them now, but 

840
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:40,440
suddenly they disappear things, 
especially things like the 

841
00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:42,520
material things that we have in 
our world. 

842
00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:44,920
Yeah. 
Suddenly you kind of lose money 

843
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:48,080
on the stock market or a thief 
breaks into your house or a Bush

844
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:51,000
fire burns down your house. 
A couple of years ago, we had a 

845
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:53,480
whole town close to our 
Bodhinada Monastery park. 

846
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:56,120
The whole town burnt down. 
It was a tiny little town, but 

847
00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,320
the whole town was burnt down. 
Nobody died because they were 

848
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:00,800
able to evacuate. 
Yeah. 

849
00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:04,680
And so everything is so 
impermanent in that external 

850
00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:07,360
world in the in terms of the 
things that we own. 

851
00:42:07,960 --> 00:42:12,080
And of course, the real 
impermanence comes when we die. 

852
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:15,400
When you die, you can be 
absolutely sure that these 

853
00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:17,240
things are going to going to 
have to go. 

854
00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:20,080
Yeah. 
So what is it? 

855
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:23,680
It is all borrowed goods. 
We have it for a while. 

856
00:42:23,760 --> 00:42:26,480
And then when you pass away, 
you're going to have to give it 

857
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:28,840
up. 
All these things that we have in

858
00:42:28,840 --> 00:42:32,960
our life, all the material 
things, all the wealth that we 

859
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:35,160
have. 
But much more than that, the 

860
00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:39,120
relationships that we have, the 
people around us, our friends 

861
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:43,720
and acquaintances, our family 
members, they also are borrowed 

862
00:42:43,720 --> 00:42:46,360
in a sense. 
We have them for a while, and 

863
00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:50,480
then they're going to have to 
go, Yeah, our physical body. 

864
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:52,920
Our physical body is a borrowed 
goods. 

865
00:42:55,160 --> 00:42:58,720
Borrowed goods, Yeah. 
This is because this too is 

866
00:42:58,720 --> 00:43:00,800
going to have to go when you 
die, it's all going to have to 

867
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:05,080
go. 
And lastly, the final thing that

868
00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:07,680
is also borrowed goods actually 
could probably come up with much

869
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:11,960
more, is actually so much of our
identity, who we take ourselves 

870
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:16,480
to be, is also tied up with this
world, tied up with this life 

871
00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:18,920
right now. 
Your position in your family, 

872
00:43:19,040 --> 00:43:22,400
whether you are male or female, 
what kind of education you have,

873
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:26,600
your social status, all of these
things also are essentially 

874
00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:30,400
borrowed goods that are tied to 
this life right here and right 

875
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:33,000
now. 
And once you understand that 

876
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:36,320
these things are borrowed goods,
you start to relate to them in a

877
00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:38,600
very different way. 
Yeah. 

878
00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:43,160
And I'd like to make a kind of 
extend the simile a little bit. 

879
00:43:43,160 --> 00:43:45,800
So imagine that you are renting 
an apartment somewhere. 

880
00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:48,040
You're renting it for two or 
three months. 

881
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:50,560
After two or three months, 
you're going to have to go and 

882
00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:54,240
go somewhere else. 
How much of your own effort, of 

883
00:43:54,240 --> 00:43:57,320
your own energy, of your own 
money, of all these things are 

884
00:43:57,320 --> 00:43:59,800
you going to put into that 
apartment if you know you're 

885
00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:01,200
going to have to leave in two 
months? 

886
00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:06,000
It is when we own things, when 
it's my house, my apartment, 

887
00:44:06,240 --> 00:44:09,560
that's usually when we put in 
extra effort to make it nice and

888
00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:10,720
because it's mine. 
Yeah. 

889
00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:14,560
But that mine is a delusion that
real. 

890
00:44:14,760 --> 00:44:18,640
The reality is that all of these
things in our life are actually 

891
00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:22,480
like that rented apartment. 
We have it for a while, then 

892
00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:26,560
it's going to have to go. 
So what this does to us, once we

893
00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:30,600
understand that so many of the 
things in our life are temporary

894
00:44:30,600 --> 00:44:34,080
here, are there for a while, 
they are borrowed goods, it 

895
00:44:34,080 --> 00:44:36,440
changes our investment strategy 
here. 

896
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:38,960
Yeah. 
Instead of investing in things 

897
00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:42,120
that you have borrowed, instead 
of investing in that apartment 

898
00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:44,720
that you're going to have only 
for two months, you start 

899
00:44:44,720 --> 00:44:48,120
investing in things that you 
have for the long term instead. 

900
00:44:48,720 --> 00:44:51,000
Now, what is it? 
According to the Buddhist 

901
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:54,480
teaching, what is the one thing 
that goes beyond this life? 

902
00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:57,960
And the one thing that goes 
beyond this life is your mind. 

903
00:44:58,120 --> 00:45:00,200
Yeah. 
You take your mind with you as 

904
00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:03,800
you pass away, so investment 
strategy changes a little bit. 

905
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:09,520
Instead of thinking about how I 
can invest in the things that 

906
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:13,520
belong to this world and have to
remain in this world, you start 

907
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:16,160
instead. 
You start to invest in things 

908
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:18,280
that are there for the long 
term. 

909
00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:21,160
Yeah, the mind. 
You start thinking about the 

910
00:45:21,160 --> 00:45:24,800
mind instead, and that becomes 
your new investment strategy. 

911
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:29,040
How do we invest in the mind? 
What does it mean to invest in 

912
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:31,440
the mind, first of all, and what
it means? 

913
00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:36,200
It means that we build up a mind
that is more bright, more 

914
00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:39,800
beautiful, more light, more 
happy, that has less suffering. 

915
00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:43,880
And as we do that consistently 
with commitment and 

916
00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:47,400
perseverance, gradually, 
gradually, gradually, your mind 

917
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:51,440
changes from what it was like 
earlier on from year to year to 

918
00:45:51,440 --> 00:45:53,400
year. 
Your mind actually does become 

919
00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:55,640
lighter, more happy, more 
beautiful. 

920
00:45:56,440 --> 00:45:58,960
Yeah, That is what it means to 
invest in your mind. 

921
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:03,880
How do we do that? 
And it's very simple, the idea 

922
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:07,200
of investing in things that 
belong to this world. 

923
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:11,680
That is measuring everything in 
terms of the successes we have 

924
00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:15,760
in this world, status, how much,
you know, how much we have in 

925
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:20,160
this particular life. 
But the alternative investment 

926
00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:24,400
is not so much about looking at 
what we have, how we, how we 

927
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:26,280
succeed with the worldly 
phenomena. 

928
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:30,600
Rather we look at the process 
that gets us to the to those 

929
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:33,480
goals. 
How do we live is what matters. 

930
00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:35,920
Yeah. 
The goal is themselves, OK. 

931
00:46:35,920 --> 00:46:37,360
They may come, they may not 
come. 

932
00:46:37,520 --> 00:46:39,560
We don't focus so much on the 
goals anymore. 

933
00:46:39,720 --> 00:46:42,280
We start to focus on the process
instead. 

934
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:45,680
How do we actually live it, 
actually, what starts to matter 

935
00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:49,480
in our lives? 
And instead of just forgetting 

936
00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:52,120
about the process and looking at
the goals, that's what many 

937
00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:54,520
people do. 
If you forget about the process 

938
00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:57,480
and all the focus on the goals, 
often you do things that are 

939
00:46:57,480 --> 00:46:59,320
bad. 
You do things that are immoral 

940
00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:03,040
because the goal is what matter.
The process is insignificant. 

941
00:47:03,040 --> 00:47:07,760
Yeah, the the means kind of the 
goal. 

942
00:47:08,400 --> 00:47:10,960
The goal justifies the means. 
There is kind of ancient 

943
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:14,160
principle which is really dodgy,
doesn't really work in Buddhism 

944
00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:16,920
because you think like that 
anything is acceptable. 

945
00:47:17,360 --> 00:47:21,000
But if you focus instead on the 
actual process, on the how of 

946
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:24,840
getting there, and you forget 
about the goal for a while, then

947
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:26,800
you can start to live morally 
here. 

948
00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:30,080
Then you can start to live with 
kindness because you understand 

949
00:47:30,080 --> 00:47:33,760
that living with kindness, that 
is what really matters, is the 

950
00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:35,600
process. 
That is important. 

951
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:39,480
And very often what you find is 
that if you focus on the process

952
00:47:39,720 --> 00:47:42,600
and you forget about the goal, 
the goal kind of happens anyway.

953
00:47:42,600 --> 00:47:45,640
Yeah, good people very often 
have good results. 

954
00:47:46,080 --> 00:47:48,720
That is my experience anyway. 
I hear people sometimes say 

955
00:47:48,720 --> 00:47:50,600
that, oh, bad people, they get 
good results. 

956
00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:54,640
Well, maybe, maybe not, but 
anyway, it's superficial. 

957
00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:56,600
Good results anyway. 
It doesn't really matter. 

958
00:47:57,160 --> 00:47:59,840
But if you focus on the process,
even if the goal doesn't turn 

959
00:47:59,840 --> 00:48:02,080
out, yeah, even if you don't get
to the goal that you're kind of 

960
00:48:02,080 --> 00:48:05,480
looking for, it doesn't matter 
so much because you have done 

961
00:48:05,480 --> 00:48:08,880
the process in the right way. 
And by doing in the process in 

962
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:11,440
the right way, there is another 
goal that you reach. 

963
00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:14,520
And that is an inner goal. 
The inner goal of purifying 

964
00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:18,600
yourself, of brightening up your
mind, making yourself more happy

965
00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:23,840
here, making your your life a 
more light, beautiful, kind 

966
00:48:23,840 --> 00:48:26,600
life. 
And you feel another kind of 

967
00:48:26,600 --> 00:48:29,880
goal, which actually has much 
more to do with the real meaning

968
00:48:29,880 --> 00:48:33,000
of life, that is what is being 
fulfilled instead. 

969
00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:36,880
So make sure you get your 
investment strategy right. 

970
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:38,800
Yeah. 
If you want to have investment 

971
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:41,160
advice, always come to Buddhist 
monks. 

972
00:48:41,560 --> 00:48:44,760
We give the best investment 
advice long term. 

973
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:47,120
You're not short term, really, 
really long term. 

974
00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:49,400
Investment advice is what this 
is what it's all about. 

975
00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:52,360
So remember that. 
It's such a powerful simile. 

976
00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:54,640
Almost everything in life is 
borrowed goods. 

977
00:48:54,960 --> 00:48:58,760
Look at those things where you 
have a degree of control, where 

978
00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:01,280
you have a degree what where do 
you have control? 

979
00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:05,160
Your inner life, you can choose 
whether you're going to be kind.

980
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:07,160
You can choose whether you're 
going to be generous. 

981
00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:10,240
You can choose whether you're 
going to have meta kindness and 

982
00:49:10,360 --> 00:49:12,200
whether you're going to have 
compassion or whether you're 

983
00:49:12,200 --> 00:49:14,760
going to be mean. 
Yeah, there we have some degree 

984
00:49:14,760 --> 00:49:17,440
of choice. 
External things we can't really 

985
00:49:17,440 --> 00:49:20,040
control at all. 
Your inner life, that is where 

986
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:23,280
you have a measure of control. 
So go for where you have a 

987
00:49:23,280 --> 00:49:26,240
measure of control. 
Then you're living the spiritual

988
00:49:26,240 --> 00:49:29,760
life in the right way here. 
So this is the Buddha's 

989
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:35,200
beautiful simile of the borrowed
goods, and I'm soon talking on 

990
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:37,000
borrowed times. 
I've got to be careful here. 

991
00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:40,800
So. 
So what does that mean? 

992
00:49:40,960 --> 00:49:43,320
So how So what? 
What else does that mean? 

993
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:44,960
Does it have any other 
consequences? 

994
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:49,320
And one of the consequences it 
has for me, one of the nice 

995
00:49:49,320 --> 00:49:52,080
things I also learnt from 
Ajambram, is to learn to be more

996
00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:56,400
of a passenger in the world, to 
be more of a visitor to the 

997
00:49:56,400 --> 00:49:58,640
world rather than an owner in 
the world there. 

998
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:01,440
The more your own thing is in 
the world, the more you are the 

999
00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:04,960
owner of your relationships, of 
your House, of the things around

1000
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:07,680
you. 
The more you try to control, but

1001
00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:09,400
the more you are a visitor in 
the world. 

1002
00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:11,800
You've come to this planet, 
you're visiting here for a 

1003
00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:15,040
while, yeah, you're enjoying the
sites, you're enjoying the good 

1004
00:50:15,040 --> 00:50:18,120
company of people around you. 
But if you are visiting somebody

1005
00:50:18,120 --> 00:50:20,840
elses house, you don't try to 
control that house. 

1006
00:50:21,080 --> 00:50:22,960
You don't try to kind of sort 
things out. 

1007
00:50:23,200 --> 00:50:26,160
You just wander around in the 
house and you have a good time 

1008
00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:28,720
and you enjoy yourself. 
So you become more like a 

1009
00:50:28,720 --> 00:50:31,760
visitor in this life. 
And when you are a visitor in in

1010
00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:35,800
this life, you start this less 
attachment there and then this 

1011
00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:39,760
attachment, you're able to live 
that spiritual life in a far 

1012
00:50:39,760 --> 00:50:44,480
better way as a consequence. 
So this is how then you deal 

1013
00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:47,760
with the impermanence in the 
skilful way in the world. 

1014
00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:50,400
Ultimately, you have to go even 
beyond that. 

1015
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:53,640
You have to go beyond even the 
idea of making a beautiful mind 

1016
00:50:53,640 --> 00:50:55,960
and all these things. 
And that is where the deep 

1017
00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:59,360
meditation comes into place, 
where you have real insight into

1018
00:50:59,360 --> 00:51:02,520
all of these things. 
And that is certainly really, 

1019
00:51:02,520 --> 00:51:05,160
really worthwhile. 
But it's much further down the 

1020
00:51:05,160 --> 00:51:06,200
track. 
Yeah, yeah. 

1021
00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:08,880
They're not going to go there 
tonight because I think it's 

1022
00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:10,200
probably going a bit too far 
here. 

1023
00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:13,400
But that is where things like 
the mindfulness of breathing and

1024
00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:17,040
all the meditation practices 
come into their own when you 

1025
00:51:17,040 --> 00:51:20,720
want to see impermanence in a 
really deep and profound way 

1026
00:51:20,720 --> 00:51:26,040
here. 
So what about, I said I was 

1027
00:51:26,040 --> 00:51:27,680
going to talk about the three 
characteristics. 

1028
00:51:27,680 --> 00:51:28,760
Cheapest. 
That's only one. 

1029
00:51:28,920 --> 00:51:31,640
OK, very briefly about the two 
other characteristics. 

1030
00:51:33,400 --> 00:51:36,680
Second one is the idea of 
dukkha, of suffering here. 

1031
00:51:37,040 --> 00:51:41,000
How can we understand the idea 
of suffering in a way that is 

1032
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:43,920
useful? 
One of the, of course, one of 

1033
00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:47,120
the things that we have to do is
just to understand the suffering

1034
00:51:47,120 --> 00:51:50,800
of ordinary life, not to be kind
of blind to the fact that there 

1035
00:51:50,800 --> 00:51:53,400
are problems in life. 
Sometimes you hear people say, 

1036
00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:55,240
Oh yeah, I don't have any 
suffering in my life. 

1037
00:51:55,600 --> 00:51:58,560
And of course, to me that is 
just a delusion. 

1038
00:51:58,560 --> 00:52:00,440
Everybody has suffering in their
life. 

1039
00:52:00,760 --> 00:52:02,920
Why? 
Because everybody attaches. 

1040
00:52:02,920 --> 00:52:05,400
When you attach to something, 
there's bound to be suffering 

1041
00:52:05,400 --> 00:52:08,200
coming along with that. 
It's impossible to have a life 

1042
00:52:08,200 --> 00:52:10,840
without suffering unless again, 
you're on Arrowhead, you're 

1043
00:52:10,840 --> 00:52:12,840
fully enlightened. 
That is really be the only 

1044
00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:15,200
possible case. 
So that's the first thing, just 

1045
00:52:15,200 --> 00:52:16,960
to be honest about what life is 
about. 

1046
00:52:17,520 --> 00:52:21,040
But the second thing to do is 
remember that understanding 

1047
00:52:21,040 --> 00:52:25,440
suffering fully is actually part
of the insight onto the Buddhist

1048
00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:26,880
path. 
Yeah. 

1049
00:52:26,880 --> 00:52:32,000
So understanding suffering fully
really starts when you start to 

1050
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:36,000
practice these teachings and you
start to kind of go deeper into 

1051
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:39,480
your meditation practice. 
And one of the beautiful similes

1052
00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:42,640
that is found in the suit as 
used by the Buddha is where the 

1053
00:52:42,640 --> 00:52:45,960
Buddha says there's two similar 
the two friends that come to a 

1054
00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:47,800
mountain here. 
Here, they come to this 

1055
00:52:47,800 --> 00:52:50,880
mountain. 
And then one friend kind of 

1056
00:52:50,880 --> 00:52:52,280
stays at the base of the 
mountain. 

1057
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:54,320
The other one goes to the top. 
Yeah. 

1058
00:52:54,320 --> 00:52:56,960
And then the one who goes to the
top, he kind of looks out. 

1059
00:52:56,960 --> 00:52:59,080
He's like, wow, I can see so 
much from up here. 

1060
00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:00,840
And he shouts down to his 
friend. 

1061
00:53:00,840 --> 00:53:04,760
Yeah, Listen, friend, I can see 
fields and villages and houses 

1062
00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:07,800
and forests and kind of 
everything from this top of this

1063
00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:12,120
mountain here. 
And then this friend at the 

1064
00:53:12,120 --> 00:53:14,840
bottom of the mountain, he says 
no way. 

1065
00:53:14,840 --> 00:53:17,520
I don't believe it is no way 
that you can see all that stuff 

1066
00:53:17,520 --> 00:53:18,760
from the top of the mountain 
here. 

1067
00:53:19,320 --> 00:53:21,680
And then this kind of friend on 
the top of the mountain, he gets

1068
00:53:21,680 --> 00:53:23,120
a bit kind of exasperated. 
Yeah. 

1069
00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:26,240
And here I can actually see it. 
So he goes down to the bottom, 

1070
00:53:26,240 --> 00:53:29,040
grabs him by the arm, pulls him 
up to the top. 

1071
00:53:29,040 --> 00:53:31,240
Yeah. 
And says, OK, look, what do you 

1072
00:53:31,240 --> 00:53:32,560
see? 
Oh, yeah, He's a bit. 

1073
00:53:32,560 --> 00:53:33,720
He's a bit sheepish now. 
Yeah. 

1074
00:53:33,720 --> 00:53:35,640
Yeah. 
I can see villages, fields and 

1075
00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:39,480
all these kind of things. 
And the idea of the simile, and 

1076
00:53:39,480 --> 00:53:42,600
this is the idea of how to 
understand suffering here, is 

1077
00:53:42,600 --> 00:53:46,160
that once you climb this 
mountain here, climbing the 

1078
00:53:46,160 --> 00:53:48,960
mountain here is a similarly for
meditation practice. 

1079
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:51,960
Yeah, you got deeper and deeper 
in your meditation. 

1080
00:53:52,120 --> 00:53:55,760
It's like climbing the summit of
samadhi, getting out of the 

1081
00:53:55,760 --> 00:53:58,520
world, climbing to a higher 
realm if you like it. 

1082
00:53:58,880 --> 00:54:02,520
And once you go to the higher 
realm, only then can you see the

1083
00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:06,560
landscape underneath properly. 
Only then can you understand how

1084
00:54:06,720 --> 00:54:10,360
the world actually works. 
So you practice your meditation 

1085
00:54:10,360 --> 00:54:13,120
Practice. 
Yeah, until one day you are so 

1086
00:54:13,120 --> 00:54:16,280
above your ordinary life. 
You have the bird's eye view of 

1087
00:54:16,280 --> 00:54:18,840
the eagle's eye. 
You look out of the world and 

1088
00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:22,280
you see the sensual world 
especially for what it actually 

1089
00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:24,400
is like. 
And when you see it for what it 

1090
00:54:24,400 --> 00:54:27,040
actually is like, because you 
have the view above the world, 

1091
00:54:27,320 --> 00:54:31,120
you've given up the world in a 
sense, then you can start to 

1092
00:54:31,120 --> 00:54:32,920
understand what suffering is 
about. 

1093
00:54:32,920 --> 00:54:36,240
Only when you come up to that 
high kind of level there, that 

1094
00:54:36,240 --> 00:54:38,640
is where you start to understand
these things properly here. 

1095
00:54:39,480 --> 00:54:42,600
So there is a degree, there has 
to be a degree also of faith 

1096
00:54:42,600 --> 00:54:46,120
sometimes, or confidence if you 
like, in the teachings of the 

1097
00:54:46,120 --> 00:54:48,040
Buddha here. 
And this is what this is about. 

1098
00:54:48,040 --> 00:54:50,520
When the Buddha says there is a 
higher happiness, there's a 

1099
00:54:50,520 --> 00:54:53,880
higher vantage point from which 
you can see and look at the 

1100
00:54:53,880 --> 00:54:56,120
world. 
And this is what is happening in

1101
00:54:56,120 --> 00:54:58,960
this particular case. 
Then you can start to understand

1102
00:54:58,960 --> 00:55:03,640
these things in a deeper way 
here very briefly towards the 

1103
00:55:03,640 --> 00:55:05,880
end. 
The idea of non self. 

1104
00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:07,920
Yeah. 
That's one of the most profound 

1105
00:55:07,920 --> 00:55:09,560
aspects of the Buddhist 
teachings. 

1106
00:55:10,120 --> 00:55:12,880
And very often when you talk 
about non self, people get 

1107
00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:13,800
scared. 
Yeah. 

1108
00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:16,520
What do you mean non self? 
That sounds really scary, 

1109
00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:19,600
especially if you come to the 
Buddhist teachings, you know, 

1110
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:22,920
for the beginning you think non 
self is really kind of worrying 

1111
00:55:22,920 --> 00:55:25,320
and A and a problem. 
After a while you get used to 

1112
00:55:25,320 --> 00:55:26,480
the idea it's not a problem 
anymore. 

1113
00:55:26,480 --> 00:55:29,040
But that's also a danger to 
getting used to things because 

1114
00:55:29,040 --> 00:55:31,160
then it doesn't really impact on
you anymore. 

1115
00:55:31,560 --> 00:55:34,680
So how can we understand non 
self in a way that it isn't so 

1116
00:55:34,680 --> 00:55:37,320
frightening here? 
Why do we get frightened by the 

1117
00:55:37,320 --> 00:55:40,960
way by non self? 
And the reason is because when 

1118
00:55:40,960 --> 00:55:45,600
we say that things are non self,
it actually challenges our very 

1119
00:55:45,600 --> 00:55:47,520
existence. 
Yeah. 

1120
00:55:47,520 --> 00:55:50,880
If, if, if someone tells you 
that your perceptions of the 

1121
00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:53,240
world or your, your, your will, 
Yeah. 

1122
00:55:53,240 --> 00:55:56,680
Your, your, your, your sense of 
agency doesn't really come from 

1123
00:55:56,680 --> 00:55:58,160
you. 
It's kind of scary. 

1124
00:55:58,160 --> 00:55:59,560
Yeah. 
Because this is these are things

1125
00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:04,200
that are very deeply rooted in 
us as our sense of identity. 

1126
00:56:04,200 --> 00:56:07,640
And that's why it is scary here.
So how can we avoid that 

1127
00:56:07,640 --> 00:56:10,640
scariness? 
And actually, it's very easy. 

1128
00:56:10,640 --> 00:56:12,680
It's very, it's not that hard to
do. 

1129
00:56:13,280 --> 00:56:16,280
Any of you who have been here 
for come here for a long time, 

1130
00:56:16,280 --> 00:56:19,160
in practising Buddhism for a 
long time and done some 

1131
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:24,600
meditation practice, you will 
know that when your mind becomes

1132
00:56:24,600 --> 00:56:26,480
more peaceful. 
Yeah, when there is less 

1133
00:56:26,480 --> 00:56:30,200
thinking going on your in your 
mind, the more peaceful you are,

1134
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:33,760
the more happy you tend to be 
here, the better things tend to 

1135
00:56:33,760 --> 00:56:35,960
be here. 
And as you become very, very 

1136
00:56:35,960 --> 00:56:39,560
peaceful, you get all kinds of 
joy and happiness is so many 

1137
00:56:39,560 --> 00:56:41,680
wonderful things arising inside 
of you. 

1138
00:56:42,560 --> 00:56:45,120
But one of the things that you 
notice as you become more 

1139
00:56:45,120 --> 00:56:48,560
peaceful is that your sense of 
self starts to diminish. 

1140
00:56:49,360 --> 00:56:52,240
Yeah, the sense of self 
expresses itself through your 

1141
00:56:52,240 --> 00:56:55,800
thinking mind, through all the 
doing, through all the activity 

1142
00:56:55,800 --> 00:56:59,440
inside of us. 
But as you let go of that, as 

1143
00:56:59,440 --> 00:57:02,240
the sense of self goes down, you
actually feel happier and 

1144
00:57:02,240 --> 00:57:05,160
happier and happier here. 
So once you get that, once you 

1145
00:57:05,160 --> 00:57:08,920
start to see the connection 
between the lack of sense of 

1146
00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:13,440
self inside and happiness, on 
the other hand, you start to 

1147
00:57:13,440 --> 00:57:16,800
understand that this non self 
business actually is pretty 

1148
00:57:16,800 --> 00:57:18,240
cool. 
Yeah, it's good stuff. 

1149
00:57:18,680 --> 00:57:21,600
And then of course, it starts to
inspire you and you start to 

1150
00:57:21,600 --> 00:57:24,880
imagine how far can I go on this
path of non self. 

1151
00:57:24,880 --> 00:57:28,120
And you start to extrapolate how
where meditation is going to 

1152
00:57:28,120 --> 00:57:30,280
take you in the future. 
And once you start to 

1153
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:33,480
extrapolate, you can start to 
get some idea where this is 

1154
00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:35,800
heading. 
The less sense of self there is,

1155
00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:39,400
the more powerful the stillness,
the more powerful the happiness.

1156
00:57:39,760 --> 00:57:42,640
This is what this magical path 
that Buddhism actually promises 

1157
00:57:42,640 --> 00:57:45,320
you that suddenly non self is 
not scary anymore. 

1158
00:57:45,320 --> 00:57:48,120
It's bloomin marvellous. 
No, sorry. 

1159
00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:50,480
It is really good. 
Yeah. 

1160
00:57:50,480 --> 00:57:51,920
And this is kind of the point of
this. 

1161
00:57:52,280 --> 00:57:56,160
So instead of trying to think 
about it, instead of trying to 

1162
00:57:56,160 --> 00:58:00,640
rationalise the idea of non 
self, try instead to experience 

1163
00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:03,440
it as a felt reality. 
And when you do that, you 

1164
00:58:03,440 --> 00:58:06,200
actually start to see this is 
really good stuff. 

1165
00:58:06,200 --> 00:58:08,560
It's very beautiful. 
And that is how we can get the 

1166
00:58:08,560 --> 00:58:12,840
handle on the Buddhist idea of 
even of non self and all the 

1167
00:58:12,840 --> 00:58:14,800
three characteristics of 
existence. 

1168
00:58:16,160 --> 00:58:19,200
So these are, in brief, how to 
think about the three 

1169
00:58:19,200 --> 00:58:21,280
characteristics. 
This is the outlook. 

1170
00:58:21,280 --> 00:58:23,720
Yeah. 
The way of looking at the world.

1171
00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:26,280
The more you look at this in the
right way, the more you 

1172
00:58:26,280 --> 00:58:28,280
understand, especially in 
permanence. 

1173
00:58:28,680 --> 00:58:32,080
The reason why I focus so much 
on impermanence was because this

1174
00:58:32,080 --> 00:58:34,960
is perhaps the easiest one of 
the three characteristics to 

1175
00:58:34,960 --> 00:58:37,400
relate to. 
The more you understand that, 

1176
00:58:37,520 --> 00:58:41,520
the more your values change. 
Instead of values being worldly 

1177
00:58:41,520 --> 00:58:45,960
values, how to kind of, you 
know, get this right status, how

1178
00:58:45,960 --> 00:58:48,000
to get, you know, the right 
possessions, the right 

1179
00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:50,280
relationships, all of that. 
Instead of that being the 

1180
00:58:50,280 --> 00:58:53,920
values, you start to look for 
the inner values instead. 

1181
00:58:54,320 --> 00:58:58,800
Yet a rich inner life, an inner 
life of compassion, kindness, 

1182
00:58:58,800 --> 00:59:02,640
matter, peace, all of these 
positive things, that is where 

1183
00:59:02,640 --> 00:59:04,520
your value starts to lie. 
Why? 

1184
00:59:04,840 --> 00:59:08,000
Because, you know, that is 
something which is there for the

1185
00:59:08,000 --> 00:59:10,640
long term. 
How can we ensure that this 

1186
00:59:10,640 --> 00:59:13,120
happens? 
How can we ensure that this we 

1187
00:59:13,120 --> 00:59:18,280
are moving continuously towards 
a great more and more better and

1188
00:59:18,280 --> 00:59:20,320
better Buddhist outlook in our 
lives? 

1189
00:59:20,720 --> 00:59:24,160
That we understand impermanence 
better and better over time so 

1190
00:59:24,160 --> 00:59:28,320
that it informs our values, 
which in turn inform our 

1191
00:59:28,320 --> 00:59:30,360
priorities in life. 
How can we do that? 

1192
00:59:30,360 --> 00:59:33,440
And the way to do that is to 
come back to the Buddhist 

1193
00:59:33,440 --> 00:59:35,960
teachings. 
Read the Buddhist word. 

1194
00:59:35,960 --> 00:59:38,400
Yeah. 
Come to damatogs that actually 

1195
00:59:38,400 --> 00:59:40,080
talk about the word of the 
Buddha. 

1196
00:59:40,440 --> 00:59:43,200
Come back to this beautiful 
teachings again and again and 

1197
00:59:43,200 --> 00:59:46,120
again. 
And as you do so, gradually your

1198
00:59:46,200 --> 00:59:49,560
outlook will shift, your valid 
will shift accordingly. 

1199
00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:52,760
And eventually also your 
priorities in life will also 

1200
00:59:52,760 --> 00:59:54,920
alter her. 
It's a gradual thing, but it's a

1201
00:59:54,920 --> 00:59:58,080
very beautiful path. 
And as you see this path moving,

1202
00:59:58,680 --> 01:00:02,360
as you see see things changing 
inside of you, you're gradually 

1203
01:00:02,360 --> 01:00:05,680
moving away from suffering, 
moving away from problems, 

1204
01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:09,320
towards greater and greater 
satisfaction, contentment, 

1205
01:00:09,320 --> 01:00:12,960
completion, and all of these 
positive, positive things in 

1206
01:00:12,960 --> 01:00:14,960
life. 
You're moving towards 

1207
01:00:15,320 --> 01:00:19,440
discovering the very meaning of 
life itself, because this is 

1208
01:00:19,440 --> 01:00:22,400
ultimately what the Buddhist 
teaching is all about.