Faith and Relics

0:00 I think I do recognize a couple of Bhutanese come today. This is great. Because one of the things I was announcing earlier, just want to get yourselves comfortable, was there's going to be a relic exhibition happening on the 13th, on the 12th or 13th, on a Monday or Tuesday. And sometimes I like the ideas of... Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:33 Relics. Because I've seen some amazing things happen with them. One of those little stories which I remember reading as a kid, which I thought was inspiring, was when there was this person who apparently, it's one of the famous stories, he lived over in Lhasa and he was a business person. So he would take goods, you know, from around Tibet, and he would carry them over the mountain passes into India, sell them, and then purchase Indian supplies to again go over the mountain passes into Tibet and sell those there. Report an error in the passage at 0:33 Highlight the passage at 0:33

1:24 Import-export business. And one day his mother said, over in India, there are these Claims of holy relics of the Buddha. Can you actually get one for me, because I'm a devout Buddhist? He said, oh yes, mum, of course, yes, I would do that. And how many of you have promised your mum, yes, you'll get that for them. And when he was coming back from his trip to India, then he saw in the distance his hometown of Lhasa, and then he thought, oh my goodness. Report an error in the passage at 1:24 Highlight the passage at 1:24

2:04 I forgot. So when he actually went home he said, look, sorry mum, I was really busy, it was very profitable, so I can get you other things if you want, but I forgot the relics. Mum said, okay, never mind, just make sure you get some next time. So the next time he went over he said, I definitely promise mum I will get you those relics. Report an error in the passage at 2:04 Highlight the passage at 2:04

2:25 And again he went over the mountains, was very busy. You know what business is like? You forget the most important things in life. You know, when you do business. And so, he forgot a second time. But he said, look, I won't forget a third time. Definitely not, mum. And so the third time, when he went over to India, when he was coming back, he saw his hometown in the distance. Report an error in the passage at 2:25 Highlight the passage at 2:25

2:55 He realized he'd forgotten a third time. Oh my goodness, what should I do? And so he thought, I can't say no to my mum again. I can't let her know I've forgotten. So when he was thinking of something inspiring to do, he noticed on the side of the path, just a little bit down the slope, there was a carcass of a dead dog. Report an error in the passage at 2:55 Highlight the passage at 2:55

3:21 And he thought, bone's a bone. My mum won't know. Be careful if you have sons. So what he did, he scrambled down and got a little bit of bone from this dog. And then he had some of this very, very expensive cloth he was going to sell. Instead of selling it, he cut a piece off the cloth and he put this bone inside the cloth and wrapped it up. Report an error in the passage at 3:21 Highlight the passage at 3:21

3:51 You know with business, it's all about marketing. So when he presented it well, all wrapped up, looking like it was something expensive, then his mum, when he got to home, his mum said, did you remember this time? He never answered, he just got out this piece of cloth. Because it's bad to lie to your mum. He got out this piece of expensive cloth. Here mum. Report an error in the passage at 3:51 Highlight the passage at 3:51

4:16 And she opened it up and there was a bone inside. Oh, my wonderful son. He felt happy that he's satisfied his silly mum. And they went off to sell the rest of his stuff. Report an error in the passage at 4:16 Highlight the passage at 4:16

4:34 Apparently, according to the story, when he came home after selling all the stuff he had got from India, he could hardly get into the house. His house was packed with all these monks and other lay people. And he wondered, what's going on? Is my mum okay? Oh yes, she's fine. And when she went into the shrine room, which he had, he could hardly get in there. There's so many monks chanting. Report an error in the passage at 4:34 Highlight the passage at 4:34

5:03 And you saw all this light coming from the shine, big rays of light. What's that? That's from the relic you bought for your mum. Report an error in the passage at 5:03 Highlight the passage at 5:03

5:16 It had turned into a relic. That's what I've seen so many times. Even one of our members, one of the early members, a westerner, that was Maureen. I hope she's listening. Many of you remember Maureen Barton, she lives over in Manjimup, actually out of Manjimup, in the countryside there. And one of the great monks from Thailand gave her three Buddha relics. And when she received them, oh, she was so happy. Report an error in the passage at 5:16 Highlight the passage at 5:16

5:51 This was a really good monk, that was Ajahn Tate. I thought he was one of the great monks in Thailand. He was one of those monks, when I first went to Thailand, he had cancer. He was such a good monk. He was looked after by the king of Thailand at the time. And the doctors couldn't do anything with him. He was just going to die. There's no cure. Report an error in the passage at 5:51 Highlight the passage at 5:51

6:11 And so what he did, he said, if I'm going to die, I prefer to die in the monastery where I live rather than the hospital. So he got permission to go off to his monastery. It's on the banks of the Mekong River in the northeast of Thailand. He said, I'm going to die there. Report an error in the passage at 6:11 Highlight the passage at 6:11

6:31 So he kept his word. That's where he died. About 25 years after he left hospital, he went into remission. But anyway, that really inspired me about that monk. He was a beautiful monk. I tell all sorts of stories, but I'll keep the main story here. That particular... How do I get into this? Oh yeah, that's right. He gave these three Buddha relics to this lady over in Manjimak. She was so happy. Report an error in the passage at 6:31 Highlight the passage at 6:31

6:58 And she really looked after them. The problem was that her husband had left. She was living there by herself. So how do you do any renovations to the house? She needed some renovation done in her main room. That was where the little shrine was with the Buddha relics. And this Australian sort of renovator, decorator, he just hit the shrine by accident. Report an error in the passage at 6:58 Highlight the passage at 6:58

7:26 And the relics tipped over. He didn't know what they were. He just put the lid on and put it back on the shrine. And eventually when he told her, she'd realized she'd already vacuumed the carpet. Report an error in the passage at 7:26 Highlight the passage at 7:26

7:41 And what two of those relics were missing. He only had one left. This is real. And so she was really disappointed. Such a long time ago when my predecessor, Ajahn Jakaro, He went to visit that place. He told her, he said, look, as long as you're a good sort of Buddhist and keep precepts and stuff, they'll probably return. Report an error in the passage at 7:41 Highlight the passage at 7:41

8:08 And she decided to actually do the compost pile where all the stuff from the vacuum cleaner went. She decided to use a tea strainer and strain through all the compost pile. She actually found one. One of the other relics which was lost, she found, but still she only had two. When she'd lost, you know, she was still missing one. Report an error in the passage at 8:08 Highlight the passage at 8:08

8:36 And I know this story because I went to visit there. I went to visit there just, you know, to look after some of those people who, you know, don't have easy access to Buddhist monks and nuns like we do here. And I went there and she said, I asked her, has it returned yet? She said, no, we've only got two left. Report an error in the passage at 8:36 Highlight the passage at 8:36

8:57 She felt so disappointed. That's when I asked her, when was the last time you looked? She said, about a month ago. Hand it to me. And it was one of these wooden caskets, and you had to take the lid off. I took the lid off. She was watching. Took the lid off. How many are there? Count them. One, two, three. Report an error in the passage at 8:57 Highlight the passage at 8:57

9:30 And it come back by itself. She was really surprised and the way she dealt with that sort of kind of little mini miracle was that she just went to her desk, got out some paper and she wrote it all down. She wanted to keep a record of it. So many times with these relics, if you look after them, then they stay, they even grow or they even multiply. Report an error in the passage at 9:30 Highlight the passage at 9:30

10:00 And for those of you who come from places like Singapore, The little group in Singapore, which I got to know and got to support them for so many years now. When this monk in, he was actually, he met me over in the north of Malaysia, but he was Burmese. He was trying to rescue as many of these relics as possible. And so he gave me some relics, really valid ones, which he had found in a... Report an error in the passage at 10:00 Highlight the passage at 10:00

10:36 A relic in a stupa which had fallen over in Burma. And he gave many of them to me. Real Buddha relics and other relics. Most of those are over in Bodhinyana Monastery right now. But then he gave me these two relics of, no, sorry, this relic of Mahamoggalana. It was written on it. And so I presented these. Report an error in the passage at 10:36 Highlight the passage at 10:36

11:04 To our group over in Singapore, they called it the Buddhist Fellowship. And when I gave them to them, these were all professors, business people, some were very wealthy. They accepted them from me only because, you know, they wanted me to come back again. They didn't really believe in relics. I said, how can there be relics? There's too many of them. And I told them, just accept some. Report an error in the passage at 11:04 Highlight the passage at 11:04

11:35 And it was only about a month or two months when they sent me this email. I think it was a fax at that time, that's how long ago it was. They said, Ajahn Brahm wouldn't believe this. Those two relics, so one relic which you gave us, we now have two. It actually multiplied. I said, exactly. I just want to make sure you actually see these things for yourself. It's not miraculous, it's actually real. Report an error in the passage at 11:35 Highlight the passage at 11:35

12:06 So anyway, I love it when those sorts of things happen. Some of the things which shouldn't really be able to happen, do happen. So that's one of the reasons why when I have this relic exhibition, I don't know were those real relics in the past? That doesn't matter. It's people's faith and confidence. They've been worshipping those relics for years, for centuries. They turn into real ones. Report an error in the passage at 12:06 Highlight the passage at 12:06

12:36 That's the kind of part of Buddhism which... I find fascinating this. A similar story, we call that the story of the cat that went to heaven. Report an error in the passage at 12:36 Highlight the passage at 12:36

12:48 A strange story, heaven. I have a copy of that book because I first saw that book in a temple in London where I did a lot of meditation when I was a student in what's called Wat Buddha Padipa. And I was really interested in that little booklet because it was the most read booklet in the whole temple. And it was really difficult to get hold of that booklet. Report an error in the passage at 12:48 Highlight the passage at 12:48

13:19 And that little booklet was all about a story from Japan. And in this particular booklet, this Japanese poor artist was really struggling to survive. Didn't have hardly any money. And the local temple said, we need somebody to paint a little mural of the Buddha's passing away. And especially when the Buddha passed away, all the animals who went to pay respect to the Buddha. You know, there's many, many animals who looked after the Buddha, the elephants and the monkeys, even offering food to the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 13:19 Highlight the passage at 13:19

14:06 And anyway, they decided to choose this poor artist, so the artist had a job of making this mural. And in order to get enough paint brushes and paint, the artist housekeeper went to the marketplace to buy all this stuff for the artist and some food to give him some energy to do this. And the housekeeper As well as buying food and paint and brushes for the artist, also brought a little cat. And the artist was very upset. Report an error in the passage at 14:06 Highlight the passage at 14:06

14:45 I don't need a cat. You can't paint a mural with a cat. You can't eat a cat. But anyway, the cat was there. And after every day when the artist drew first of all the picture of the Buddha lying on his side at his Time of death. Painted all these other animals who came to pay respect. Lions and elephants and even big snakes. Report an error in the passage at 14:45 Highlight the passage at 14:45

15:17 And the cat was always washing every day. But the artist never drew a cat. You know why? There's no story of a cat visiting the Buddha. Cats are always very, very independent. Report an error in the passage at 15:17 Highlight the passage at 15:17

15:37 If they're in your house, it's almost like they run the house. They come and go as they want. So this little cat was looking every day and every day was getting more and more disappointed. Report an error in the passage at 15:37 Highlight the passage at 15:37

15:52 And the artist saw that. And the artist thought, look, I can't draw a picture of the cat because it's not known in Buddhism that a cat ever went to pay respect to the Buddha. A lion, yes. Report an error in the passage at 15:52 Highlight the passage at 15:52

16:08 Elephants, yes, but not a little cat. And so this little cat got more and more depressed. It was a good cat. And eventually the artist was almost finished and he looked at his little cat and the cat looked at the artist and the artist, why not? Report an error in the passage at 16:08 Highlight the passage at 16:08

16:33 And the artist drew a picture of that cat and the cat was sitting next to him. The very end of the line of animals worshipping the Buddha. And that little cat saw his picture there. And he died of happiness right there. It was a cat that went to heaven when the housekeeper saw that. What a wonderful thing that was. Report an error in the passage at 16:33 Highlight the passage at 16:33

17:01 You sacrificed your career. But nevertheless, what a beautiful thing that was. And the next day, the temple... The temple monks came to see and they were shocked. They said, why did you spoil that painting by doing a picture of a cat? Report an error in the passage at 17:01 Highlight the passage at 17:01

17:24 We'll accept that painting but we'll have to burn it in the temple tomorrow morning. He was ruined. Report an error in the passage at 17:24 Highlight the passage at 17:24

17:34 The next morning, you know, he was very, very upset that he'd lost his career, lost any chance of any fame. The following day, The monks came again. They said, please, come, come, come. And they took him into the temple. They had not burned the painting yet. They said, come and have a look. There's a huge number of people having a look at that painting. And when he went, he saw where he'd painted that cat, it was blank. Report an error in the passage at 17:34 Highlight the passage at 17:34

18:13 The cat had disappeared. And instead, he looked to the front of the line. of animals paying respect to the Buddha. And the one now in the front, instead of the elephant, was his little cat, with the Buddha Report an error in the passage at 18:13 Highlight the passage at 18:13

18:33 patting the cat. And that was the end of the story. They said it was a true story. When I first read, ah, come on, let's make it up, it's a great story. But apparently it was true, in a temple in Japan many, many centuries ago. And they call that the cat that went to heaven. Those are stories. Is that kind of a silly story? I don't think so. The power of compassion and kindness, how we can actually change what we think is possible. Report an error in the passage at 18:33 Highlight the passage at 18:33

19:08 And of course, I'm sure that you've experienced something like that somewhere. I know that when, you know, having terrible fires over in Victoria now. When we had our big bush fire, I don't know how many years ago was that now? But many of you, you know, saw the result of that. And of course, Just as a ground fire, trees exploded. I was there at the time. I saw that. We had to evacuate. But I remember just taking the chief fire officer in Perth around. Report an error in the passage at 19:08 Highlight the passage at 19:08

19:40 He wanted to see the damage. And one of those huts, it was the A-frame hut, the chief fire officer was with me and he walked around that hut. And I still remember him saying to me, Ajahn Brahm, this should not be here. Should have been destroyed. But there's sometimes, there's more in life than just science. And I say that as a theoretical physicist. Report an error in the passage at 19:40 Highlight the passage at 19:40

20:10 But anyway, back to the story which I was supposed to talk about this evening, not just the relics and wonderful things which happen, just ordinary things which happen. One of our friends, I'm sure she's listening, I did tell this story first to the monks. Last Wednesday, this particular story was about a person who died. And in this story, not a report from the other side, this person was a gambler. Report an error in the passage at 20:10 Highlight the passage at 20:10

20:47 Would always like going to casino, betting online, horse races, you name it, he'd always bet on it. And he was not a very good man. And so when he died, he was surprised. He reappeared in this amazing room. It was like a suite on the top story of a big condo. He had everything he needed in there. Lots of money, just a partner, and lots of nice food. And it was on top floor of a casino. Report an error in the passage at 20:47 Highlight the passage at 20:47

21:21 And so he went gambling every day. And every time he gambled, he always won. Every time. He never lost at all. And then he started to think, oh, can't I lose just once? It was no fun without losing. If you win every time, every time you go and play cricket, you always score a century. Every time you go bowling, this is for the Sri Lanka people here, you always get, you know, five or six wickets. Report an error in the passage at 21:21 Highlight the passage at 21:21

21:53 You always win. Could you stand that? This particular gambler got more and more depressed and more and more upset. It was just too easy. No challenge. He didn't have to work hard to actually to win. So he complained and he said, you know, I thought this was heaven. Can I lose sometimes and make heaven a bit more interesting? And that's when the person in charge of this casino said, this is not heaven. Report an error in the passage at 21:53 Highlight the passage at 21:53

22:29 This is hell where you always win and you always get what you want. You get bored so much if you don't strive and struggle. That was kind of the meaning of the story. Then I thought, hey, there's something wrong with that. This is what most of us feel if we're always winning and always striving to achieve anything and that's probably your experience in this world. Report an error in the passage at 22:29 Highlight the passage at 22:29

23:02 Always having to do something to get what you want. Sometimes you get what you want. If you always got what you want, you would not be happy. Report an error in the passage at 23:02 Highlight the passage at 23:02

23:15 If you always strived, you would not be happy. That describes our world. People think that if they worked hard, if they were smarter, wiser, they'd get more happiness in the world. That's how you're brought up at school, by your parents, universities. Report an error in the passage at 23:15 Highlight the passage at 23:15

23:36 If you have any suffering, it's your fault. Work harder, be smarter. How many people tell you how to enjoy suffering, to make peace with it, to see the beauty in the world? Report an error in the passage at 23:36 Highlight the passage at 23:36

23:53 Recently, after the New Year's Eve celebrations, you may think there were celebrations, it tired me out on New Year's Eve. I didn't sleep much that night and it was a really busy day the next day. So as soon as I got back to Bodhinyana Monastery on the 1st of June in the afternoon, I went straight in my cave and crashed out. Report an error in the passage at 23:53 Highlight the passage at 23:53

24:18 I was exhausted. Look at my age. You know, I'm born in 1951. I'm an old guy. Sometimes I say to make a point, I'm 888. At least I was last August. 888 months old. Next August on my birthday, I will be 900 months. It's old. And I work really hard. Can I retire? Mrs. President, where's she gone? Report an error in the passage at 24:18 Highlight the passage at 24:18

24:56 There you are. Can I retire? Report an error in the passage at 24:56 Highlight the passage at 24:56

25:02 No. As a monk, you have to work till you drop. Report an error in the passage at 25:02 Highlight the passage at 25:02

25:11 Is that what you have to do? Is there not an alternative? Of course there's an alternative. That's why I'm still a monk, still enjoying myself, still having a smile. How do you do that? So for the first couple of days I had a retreat in my cave. First couple of days I slept a lot. Recovered my physical health. But your life is not just physical health. Report an error in the passage at 25:11 Highlight the passage at 25:11

25:39 It's also your mental happiness as well. And that's when I realized something which... My teachers told me for such a long time, the mental happiness, how can you have mental happiness when you try so hard to get it? Report an error in the passage at 25:39 Highlight the passage at 25:39

25:59 You're deleting your energy rather than increasing it. If you want to charge up your mobile phone, you can't keep using it all the time. Put it down, leave it alone, it charges up. The same with me. When I want to charge up my mind, My brain is, you know, subsidiary to my mind. You have to sit down in your heart and learn how to do absolutely nothing. That's what I was just doing and I was trying to teach you how to do that and the guided meditation. Report an error in the passage at 25:59 Highlight the passage at 25:59

26:33 To sit down, look at your body, relax it all and don't do anything. Don't try to do things like watching your breathing. You'll get frustrated. For years I tried that. Report an error in the passage at 26:33 Highlight the passage at 26:33

26:49 So instead of trying to watch the breathing, you do nothing. Your breath comes to you. You don't need to go watching for it. This is one of the stories which I told last, I told you this one before, I told it to my monks last Wednesday. Again, it's kind of an embarrassing story, but it's so true. My sixth year as a Buddhist monk, I found this monastery in the north of Thailand. It was a perfect monastery. Report an error in the passage at 26:49 Highlight the passage at 26:49

27:28 Number one, it had a really big cave, so I'd have breakfast in the morning, go into the cave after breakfast, and then I only had one meal a day then, and then sit in there until three or four o 'clock in the afternoon and come out and make myself a cup of tea and do some more meditation in the afternoon. Report an error in the passage at 27:28 Highlight the passage at 27:28

27:47 It was a perfect monastery. Report an error in the passage at 27:47 Highlight the passage at 27:47

27:51 The lay people there, all they wanted to do was feed me. They never asked any questions. And also, that monastery, honestly, I was an English monk, and it was in the middle of a tea plantation. I could have as much tea as I could drink. It was like paradise. I often say this, I'm sure you remember this, there was a traffic problem. Report an error in the passage at 27:51 Highlight the passage at 27:51

28:21 The traffic problem, one car a week. And you had to be looking in the correct direction to see it. It's up in the mountains, it's very hard to get to. Everything was actually so wonderful. But you know what happened? During the range retreat, my meditation went really haywire. And I didn't have anybody else to speak to there. It got worse and worse and worse, really restless. I'm talking about Ajahn Brahm. Report an error in the passage at 28:21 Highlight the passage at 28:21

28:53 I started thinking about my ex-girlfriends. Remember, I was only six years as a monk. I was 29 years of age at the time. I still have memory of what I was up to when I was a student. And I started thinking these crazy thoughts. You know, she was very nice. I wonder if she was still available. And I thought, no, I want to. Report an error in the passage at 28:53 Highlight the passage at 28:53

29:24 I love being a monk. I tried to stop those thoughts and I couldn't. And then another ex-girlfriend would come to my mind, she was really nice, no stop it. That restless mind is always something enjoyable there to try and hook you. And so I was fighting my mind almost all day. It gets tiring, exhausting. And I want to be a monk, I've always wanted to be a monk. Report an error in the passage at 29:24 Highlight the passage at 29:24

29:52 And that was really troublesome, one of the most troublesome times I've ever had as a monk. And so, out of desperation, I went to the big Buddha statue. It's the only thing I could talk to. You know, a statue, okay? I was desperate. I bowed three times. You know what I asked? Help. I really was desperate. Report an error in the passage at 29:52 Highlight the passage at 29:52

30:16 And the idea came into my mind, because I was a Westerner, do a deal. And the deal was, for 23 hours of the day, I would behave, watch my breath as best I could and obviously have a sleep as well. But for one hour a day, I set the time 3 to 4 p.m. every day. I would allow my mind to think whatever it wanted. Please excuse me, the language, I call that sexy time. Report an error in the passage at 30:16 Highlight the passage at 30:16

30:50 Only for one hour. I said, if you want to think like that, go for it from three to four, the rest of the day you behave. And I made that resolution in front of the Buddha statue. I took that seriously. But what happened? It changed a lot of how I regard how meditation works. Report an error in the passage at 30:50 Highlight the passage at 30:50

31:15 My mind was still crazy. It was still a struggle to stay with the breath. All these other fantasies would come up. But when it got to 3 p.m., I thought, okay, now, mind, I'm not going to try and train you. I'm not going to do anything. Mind, you can be aware of whatever you want to. Report an error in the passage at 31:15 Highlight the passage at 31:15

31:36 And that was the amazing thing. I just gave it full freedom. And for the next hour from 3 to 4 p.m., my mind watched every in-breath and out-breath without missing one. Report an error in the passage at 31:36 Highlight the passage at 31:36

31:52 It was crazy. It's not what I expected at all. That's what happened. It taught me a marvelous insight on how to be peaceful. You don't fight the mind. You make peace with it. Report an error in the passage at 31:52 Highlight the passage at 31:52

32:08 Make peace with it. So after three days of just a lot of physical rest, when I just last week, my mind, my body felt energized. So then I started doing some really nice meditation. I never did anything. Just blissed out. Report an error in the passage at 32:08 Highlight the passage at 32:08

32:31 I never force the mind. I've explained about meditation before, the deep meditations. You know, be able to watch the breathing. Breathe in, breathe out. Can you do that? Is it difficult? It's almost impossible to do. If you stop the doing, it's really easy. Report an error in the passage at 32:31 Highlight the passage at 32:31

32:53 And then make it happy. Really enjoy the meditation. And that's where it really sort of, you get so much happiness and joy. You bliss out when you're not trying, not expecting. You understand how to relax to the max, how to make peace and what happens when you make peace. How on earth can you be a monk for such a long time? How on earth can you go on retreats and just sit there doing absolutely nothing and enjoying every moment of it? Report an error in the passage at 32:53 Highlight the passage at 32:53

33:30 How on earth can you get so much bliss coming up? A lot of times in the world, we don't know the importance of peace, stillness, what happens when you see the beauty in what other people think is ugly. Report an error in the passage at 33:30 Highlight the passage at 33:30

33:51 I already mentioned many times about the two bad bricks in the wall story. It's one of the great stories. When I started building, I wasn't a great builder. I was a theoretical physicist. I was in my head. When I built the first brick wall, I made two mistakes. What do you do when you make two mistakes? Number one, you try and ignore it. Report an error in the passage at 33:51 Highlight the passage at 33:51

34:16 I didn't do that, but everyone knew I did that. So try and get those two crooked bricks out. You couldn't. The mortar was solid. Next thing, I did actually ask, can we buy some, I don't know, jet ignite, I think. So we can actually blow it up and I can start again. I'll get a big bulldozer and push it over so I can start again. Two bad bricks spoiled the whole wall. Report an error in the passage at 34:16 Highlight the passage at 34:16

34:43 And I was just, they didn't really spoil the wall at all. They made my ego feel that I was hopeless. But we couldn't afford that. I was stuck with a wall which I did. And I made a big mess of. And I felt terrible about that. Have you ever made big mistakes? People in the company where you work keep on criticizing you, you're hopeless, you're no good, you make too many mistakes. Report an error in the passage at 34:43 Highlight the passage at 34:43

35:14 How does that feel? Or in a relationship when it doesn't work, you think I did it wrong, I laid too bad bricks. Please, have a look at the bricks above, below, to the left and the right, the crooked ones. Report an error in the passage at 35:14 Highlight the passage at 35:14

35:33 And you see so many beautiful bricks there. That was why this guy, it was a guy, he was with me and I said, you know, I laid that wall. He said, that's a beautiful wall. And I thought he was just trying to be nice to me. You know, sometimes people don't tell the truth because they want you to go to Adana or something. Report an error in the passage at 35:33 Highlight the passage at 35:33

35:52 Or they want you to go and give a talk at their place later on. But this guy was being honest. He said, that's a beautiful wall. I said, can't you see those two bad bricks? And what he said next, It taught me one of the most wonderful things about life. Yes, he's not being in denial, he's being truthful. I can see those two crooked bricks, but I can also see the 998 perfect, beautiful bricks. Report an error in the passage at 35:52 Highlight the passage at 35:52

36:20 And that was the first time in three months or six months I could see anything except my mistakes. Have you ever felt like that before? The mistakes you've made in life or the mistakes that other people you live with or work with make mistakes about life. You may see somebody who's died and you love them so much and it's like, why do we have two bad bricks? Report an error in the passage at 36:20 Highlight the passage at 36:20

36:47 Why do people have to die like that? When you actually see the rest of the world, the bricks to the left, the right and above and below, it's amazing how you can find so much wisdom and peace. And even happiness. Of course you will make mistakes. Of course I make mistakes, many mistakes. Do I make mistakes? Report an error in the passage at 36:47 Highlight the passage at 36:47

37:16 I thought he would say that. He's honest. Of course you make mistakes. But when you make mistakes, look at the beautiful things you've done as well. And you find out that this is like our world. How we can be at peace in this world. Honestly, did the Buddha ever make mistakes? Of Report an error in the passage at 37:16 Highlight the passage at 37:16

37:41 course he did. Report an error in the passage at 37:41 Highlight the passage at 37:41

37:44 He could have done things better, but we don't know. But mistakes are part of being a human being, even an enlightened being. If we think, no, Buddha's absolutely perfect, that perfection, we don't understand what perfection really is. That perfection, what it really is, is always uncertainties happen, things we never expect, things which we don't understand. Report an error in the passage at 37:44 Highlight the passage at 37:44

38:15 When those things happen, you have to let them be. An example, the Buddha making a mistake. For those of you who know your Buddhism, he gave full ordination to his cousin, Devadatta, who tried to kill the Buddha later on. Report an error in the passage at 38:15 Highlight the passage at 38:15

38:39 Was that a good thing to do? Report an error in the passage at 38:39 Highlight the passage at 38:39

38:44 I'm a preceptor too. I've never given full ordination to anybody who's tried to kill me. Report an error in the passage at 38:44 Highlight the passage at 38:44

38:59 So that sometimes, sometimes, you know, what is a mistake? What is an error? Sometimes people will say, no, the Buddha needed to do that. Report an error in the passage at 38:59 Highlight the passage at 38:59

39:09 No, Report an error in the passage at 39:09 Highlight the passage at 39:09

39:14 just thinking that once there was this guy, this is in one of the suttas or the commentaries, that he decided to try and find out all the teachers in the time of the Buddha. Who were the really smart ones? Many times they say, okay, they can read minds, predict the future. So what he did, he had one of these teachers and he invited them for dana, for lunch. And he built a big trench in the garden in front of his house. Report an error in the passage at 39:14 Highlight the passage at 39:14

39:47 He never told anybody and he filled it with cow poo and he put just a little bit of earth on the top so it just looked like the garden. And then he invited... So these senior monks from other religions to come into his house for dharma. When they started walking on that part of the garden, they fell in the trench of poo right to their stomachs. Report an error in the passage at 39:47 Highlight the passage at 39:47

40:19 And then they asked, that shows you never saw the future. You keep on saying that you know what's going to happen, but you don't. And then the monk said, Oh, I knew what was going to happen. I knew I was going to fall into the poo. But then I didn't want to actually to show off by telling people I knew what was going to happen. Report an error in the passage at 40:19 Highlight the passage at 40:19

40:41 Just basically the way of lying. So sometimes, you know, people do make mistakes. And there is nothing wrong with that. Please be honest. This is life. Learning how to be at peace with things. When you're at peace with things, You'll find no matter what happens to you in life, you'll be so accepting, so content, easily satisfied. You'll never get stressed out when you don't get stressed out by complaining about things. Report an error in the passage at 40:41 Highlight the passage at 40:41

41:18 I never said this during the last meditation, but I did hear a couple of people snoring. I did hear the police cars, I'm not sure who they were after, but they're making noise. Ajahn Chah would always teach me, it's never the noise disturbs you. It's you who disturb the noise. Report an error in the passage at 41:18 Highlight the passage at 41:18

41:44 Noise is part of life. You never, ever, ever get a silent place to meditate until eventually you go in your box in a funeral home. Report an error in the passage at 41:44 Highlight the passage at 41:44

42:01 Would you like to do that? Report an error in the passage at 42:01 Highlight the passage at 42:01

42:05 So after a while, It's not the noise disturbs us, it's we who disturb the noise. We don't know how to deal with it, with peace and with a sense of freedom and respect. It's one of the reasons why that story which offends people, which I often say because it's teaching not just a funny story but an important point of Dhamma. Report an error in the passage at 42:05 Highlight the passage at 42:05

42:32 How that time... During a meditation retreat, I was getting some really nice meditation. I had to go to the toilet. It was at Jahana Grove. I had to do a number two. You know what a number two is? And I made a mistake. My mistake was after doing the number two, before I pressed the button, I looked in the toilet bowl to see what I'd done. Report an error in the passage at 42:32 Highlight the passage at 42:32

42:58 Wow! Never in my life have I seen such a beautiful piece of poo. Look, next time you go there, it's not just the brown, it's different shades of brown. And just the way those different shades of brown interacted, it was like a work of art. And just not just the colors, the shape, the little balls all stuck together. It was like a Michelangelo work. Report an error in the passage at 42:58 Highlight the passage at 42:58

43:35 And I'm being honest with you. Can I be honest? That's how I looked at it. I kept on going, wow, wow, wow, wow. And then we got to the fragrance. Report an error in the passage at 43:35 Highlight the passage at 43:35

43:49 Oh, come on, why do you always feel that if it's poo, it had to smell awful? You ask any, you know, how many dogs are here in the world? If they were judging that, they'd say, oh, that's so fragrant. That's a marvelous job you've done there, Ajahn Brahm. You're only laughing because no one ever says that. Report an error in the passage at 43:49 Highlight the passage at 43:49

44:09 But that was true. You're not going crazy. You're... Perception is changing, you become much wiser. If you can see a piece of poo as the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, how can you criticize anything in this world and say, that's wrong, that's bad, why does that happen? After a while, you can see beauty in places you never expected. That's one of the fun things about being a monk or a nun, being a meditator. Report an error in the passage at 44:09 Highlight the passage at 44:09

44:43 After a while, honestly, you can see You don't judge things as you used to do. That's bad, that's wrong, that's awful. You see things and see the beautiful bricks in that wall, the beautiful colors. Other people will think that's terrible. You see beauty in so many places which people miss. That's one of the reasons you can go in the wildflower season and as a monk you can just see all those beautiful flowers. Report an error in the passage at 44:43 Highlight the passage at 44:43

45:16 Other people are going too fast to see anything. They're being so conditioned by what other people have told them. You can't see beauty. You can't see fragrance. You can't enjoy this world where other people think that's disgusting. You can actually enjoy it. When that sort of thing happens, then you can actually learn how to be very, very peaceful, very, very happy. Report an error in the passage at 45:16 Highlight the passage at 45:16

45:46 You're seeing the world in a different way. And that's how meditation can really change the way you look at life. You never get critical. You never go blaming things and blaming people. Report an error in the passage at 45:46 Highlight the passage at 45:46

46:02 You can look at your body and it gets so peaceful, so lovely. You enjoy everything. This is where your enjoyment, don't you want to enjoy life more? Report an error in the passage at 46:02 Highlight the passage at 46:02

46:15 Have more happiness? Be able to look at your partner, you've been with them for so long, oh my goodness, do I have to keep going with this guy? Report an error in the passage at 46:15 Highlight the passage at 46:15

46:27 You see the beauty in them. A real beauty. The joy in them. You see their good qualities. There's two bad bricks in the wall story. That has solved so many marital problems. Report an error in the passage at 46:27 Highlight the passage at 46:27

46:50 That's one of the first stories which I tell when people come for marriage counselling. Why just worry about wanting to get divorced? Or even like fighting, even like teddy bears and fighting. Report an error in the passage at 46:50 Highlight the passage at 46:50

47:08 Why are you fighting those teddy bears? The teddy bears are nice. So let the teddy bears make peace. Report an error in the passage at 47:08 Highlight the passage at 47:08

47:20 You know that's one of the reasons we use teddy bears in meditation? First time I saw that was over in Hong Kong. And this guy brought his two teddy bears out to our meditation retreat. People wanted to borrow them, not buy them, just to borrow them. They put them on their laps and they realized how peaceful and cuddly those teddy bears were. Report an error in the passage at 47:20 Highlight the passage at 47:20

47:44 They became so popular. At the end of the retreat, they wanted to purchase those teddy bears. He said, no. They offered thousands of dollars for those teddy bears. Thousands of US dollars for a teddy bear. because They got to realize its power and realize its way of creating compassion and kindness in life. When they did that, they realized how wonderful that was as a meditation aid. Report an error in the passage at 47:44 Highlight the passage at 47:44

48:17 That's why even now, even now, many people teach bare awareness. They don't know what real bare awareness is. Aren't you going to giggle at least? That was a joke. Report an error in the passage at 48:17 Highlight the passage at 48:17

48:35 Bear, teddy bear awareness. Okay, somebody giggled, thank you. But anyhow, this is actually how we learn to see beauty in everything. Life may be a bit tough sometimes, but then it passes and you learn so much from it. It's a beautiful way to live. Instead of rejecting, getting angry and trying to get rid of things, we make the most out of things. And that way we have a very, very happy life. Report an error in the passage at 48:35 Highlight the passage at 48:35

49:07 You have kids. Do you expect your kids always to behave? Please remember they've got your genes, so it's your fault. Report an error in the passage at 49:07 Highlight the passage at 49:07

49:20 No, but we learn how to tolerate and see the best in things and to praise people. When you praise people, you praise yourself. You have a much more wonderful life. Come much closer to being enlightened. Please don't try and change your kids. Don't try and change yourselves. Don't try and change your wife. Don't try and change your country. Just change the perception you have of it. And then you'll find you can be at peace, so deeply at peace. Report an error in the passage at 49:20 Highlight the passage at 49:20

49:54 Remember, I never tried to stop thinking of those stupid thoughts. I just stopped trying. I could watch every breath so easily and get so blissed out. Report an error in the passage at 49:54 Highlight the passage at 49:54

50:07 That's how Buddhism teaches freedom. Thank you for listening. Report an error in the passage at 50:07 Highlight the passage at 50:07

50:18 Excellent. Okay. Questions, comments and complaints. The three C's. Report an error in the passage at 50:18 Highlight the passage at 50:18

50:29 Any questions or comments from the audience? Report an error in the passage at 50:29 Highlight the passage at 50:29

50:37 Okay, Eddie, go on. Oh, no. I didn't see you. Yeah. Hello, Ajahn Brahm. Hi. Hey. My question is about the sutras and just learning to enjoy the word of the Buddha more. Oh, yeah. Just because as a part of the Enlightenment factors, there's the training. And just when it comes to being a layman, because I haven't really read much sutras, just actually learning the perspective of where the Buddha is coming from and how the Buddha is trying to help me and other people in my life, where I've been meditating a bit and a lot, but I want to just read what Buddha has to say. Report an error in the passage at 50:37 Highlight the passage at 50:37

51:26 And I'd ask you, what is Buddha... Trying to essentially or instead of trying to like really intellectually engage with the sutras like trying to feel the sutras like how to actually perceive that if that makes sense. If you try and intellectually understand the sutras you're missing out on so much. See if you can emotionally understand the sutras. Report an error in the passage at 51:26 Highlight the passage at 51:26

51:55 Some of those sutras are are in prison. Imprisoned by the culture of the past. How can you understand that in the culture of the present? One of the reasons why, things like relics. All those stories I said, you know, like true modern stories, some of them like Maureen's relics just reappearing and all of those kind of the inspiration. Report an error in the passage at 51:55 Highlight the passage at 51:55

52:29 Inspiration is an emotional response. And that inspiration makes going to see those relics worthwhile. And if you have the intellectual, they're just bones. Report an error in the passage at 52:29 Highlight the passage at 52:29

52:42 That's one of the reasons why when I brought all these relics into Australia years ago, then I had to take them through the customs. And I'm an honest monk. I had to declare them. And so I declared them under the category of human remains. Report an error in the passage at 52:42 Highlight the passage at 52:42

53:02 That's the closest kathariya you have. So I said, they asked me, they said, what have you got in there? I said, they're human remains. They said, really? And I showed them these Buddha relics and other ancient relics which I was bringing into Australia. And the guy said, this is a bit too hard for me, so I brought the boss of the customs department in Perth airport to come and have a look. Report an error in the passage at 53:02 Highlight the passage at 53:02

53:30 Apparently these days, Sometimes you have this on the TV channels, but this was much earlier than that. It would be wonderful if I'd had the TV channel on channel 7 or 9 or 8 or whatever it is, and to actually record a monk importing Buddha relics into Australia. Because when the boss came, he said, what are these? I said, they're human remains. Report an error in the passage at 53:30 Highlight the passage at 53:30

53:56 What do you mean human remains? Are there relics of the Lord Buddha, relics of Maha Moggallāna and Sāriputta which this monk gave to me in the north of Malaysia coming from Burma? Report an error in the passage at 53:56 Highlight the passage at 53:56

54:08 And he had a look at these. You know what he said to me? He said, way too difficult for me. Get out of here. So I brought them into Australia. Report an error in the passage at 54:08 Highlight the passage at 54:08

54:20 Honesty really works. But you know, some of those interesting things that... If you are a scholar, you miss a lot the kindness and being able to see beauty in places you haven't seen beauty in before. Being able to, that's one of the reasons why when I taught this, I was talking about this earlier, taught Buddhanussati, meditation on the qualities of the Buddha on a wayside day in Singapore. Report an error in the passage at 54:20 Highlight the passage at 54:20

54:56 To four-year-olds and five-year-olds, how can you teach kids such as that how to meditate? And I told them, I said, look at the big Buddha statue in the hall they had there. And you look at the big Buddha statue, how is it sitting? It's got its right leg over the left leg, right arm over the left arm, right palm over the left palm, back straight, eyes closed, comfortable. Report an error in the passage at 54:56 Highlight the passage at 54:56

55:27 Now imagine you're the Buddha, I said to these four and five year old kids, imagine. Because I know that children can imagine, can visualize really easily. Their emotional world develops much earlier than their intellectual world. Imagine you're a Buddha sitting there in a beautiful place, calm, comfortable, you're not hungry, you don't have anything to do. Report an error in the passage at 55:27 Highlight the passage at 55:27

55:56 You don't have to go to school and do your homework. You don't have to deal with your sister or your brother. You just buy yourself perfectly safe, perfectly happy, not hungry. Have nothing to worry about at all. And all these kids really got into it. And after about five or ten minutes, they were meditating really peacefully and I thought, I better stop now. Report an error in the passage at 55:56 Highlight the passage at 55:56

56:21 So I opened my eyes and all the other teachers, they saw I was opening my eyes and said, Report an error in the passage at 56:21 Highlight the passage at 56:21

56:28 And it's a really successful meditation for four and five year olds. So successful that when I finished that the parents, many of the parents were there and they said to me, please, why don't you ever teach that to us? Report an error in the passage at 56:28 Highlight the passage at 56:28

56:46 It was actually getting the emotional parts of the meditation really going. And to this day, often when I go to... Any places which have some power to them, some places where the Buddha lived. One of my favorite places is in Rajagaha, the vulture's peak. You know that's where the Buddha actually meditated. You sit there. In the days when I went there, you just can walk up there and just sit there. Report an error in the passage at 56:46 Highlight the passage at 56:46

57:17 Don't have any guards or pay any money or do anything. You just sit and you know... And really the Buddha actually sat there. That's really freaky. It's so easy to meditate there. Who else was meditating here before? Wow. That really gets you going. That emotional content is really important. Report an error in the passage at 57:17 Highlight the passage at 57:17

57:46 Thank you very much. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 57:46 Highlight the passage at 57:46

58:03 Ajahn Brahm, my question is on relics. Oh yeah. Buddhist relics. You know, these relics, Ajahn Brahm, they have energies, powers in it. Report an error in the passage at 58:03 Highlight the passage at 58:03

58:18 Because they come from the bones of those highly peaceful people, you know? Yes. So, like you see here Buddha statue, there's relic down there, you see? Go there, there's some healing power. Yeah, why? And the reason is, how come these relics can disappear and then come back again? Report an error in the passage at 58:18 Highlight the passage at 58:18

58:43 How can they be changed to real Buddha relics in that first story I said about from Japan? How that happens is there are other beings in this world, they're called heavenly beings, devas. Okay, I can give another talk on that another time. But you have evidence about that. There are such beings. And some of these beings, it's only like a week... Report an error in the passage at 58:43 Highlight the passage at 58:43

59:07 Remember that quiz we had on New Year's Eve? Some of these beings, it's only been... For them, only a few days, a week or something since the Buddha was around because their time is totally different. So they still look after these places. I often say, you can tell if these are real relics or not by doing a little bit of meditation and just feeling the presence of any sort of heavenly beings. Report an error in the passage at 59:07 Highlight the passage at 59:07

59:36 That's where the energy comes from. They're still looking after the place. I'm looking after those people who respect them. You see, relics is one thing, Ajahn Brahm. Say you, for example. Report an error in the passage at 59:36 Highlight the passage at 59:36

59:52 I'm a relic. I'm very old. You release positive energy so the people come to hear the talks, all these things. You get all these positive energies coming to us. Hopefully. On the contrary, Okay? Say for a negative person, you know, say for example, Donald Trump. Donald Trump. Donald Trump, yeah. You know, like his relics next time, I'm just, you know, like, I mean, with the negative energy, the relics next time will be not, you'll be sick, but now there's a lot of, even down before his death, there's a lot of protests going on, you know. Report an error in the passage at 59:52 Highlight the passage at 59:52

1:00:39 Good luck. If I can look at the contents of a toilet bowl and see such beauty, imagine if I had Donald Trump or anybody here. You know, years and years ago, please excuse me if I offend anybody. I thought, what would happen, say, with an Adolf Hitler? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:39 Highlight the passage at 1:00:39

1:01:07 He's already dead. Where would he go? If I was a heavenly being, And decided where he should be sent. You know what I would say? I'd say, look, you really loved your mum. You made a lot of mistakes in your life. But punishing you will not help. Instead, I would tell him that, please, we'll shave off that silly moustache and change your hairstyle. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:07 Highlight the passage at 1:01:07

1:01:35 But it'll still send you to a heavenly realm. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:35 Highlight the passage at 1:01:35

1:01:40 Imagine someone who gets praised or respected. For some of the good they did, what would that do for them? Report an error in the passage at 1:01:40 Highlight the passage at 1:01:40

1:01:52 It's not a forgiveness, a sense of no consequences. Their consequences will always be inside. You want to actually show them how to be free of that stupidity. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:52 Highlight the passage at 1:01:52

1:02:07 But it would also change your name so that nobody gets confused when you go up to a heaven realm. There's no way in the world I could send anyone to a hell realm. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:07 Highlight the passage at 1:02:07

1:02:20 That's one of the reasons why that we always used to say that the doors of any hell realm are always open. You can leave whenever you want. You only make your punishment and think you deserve it. That's why you stay there. I'm going to tell you about what freedom is. You made a mistake. Learn from it, grow from it, but don't punish yourself. Amnesty. So the world we're living in, Ajahn Brahm, now here, it's all energies, a play of energies. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:20 Highlight the passage at 1:02:20

1:02:52 There's a problem with negative energy flowing. Negative energy, but negative energy is pretty easy to change into positive energy. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:52 Highlight the passage at 1:02:52

1:03:03 Yeah, I know, but some is difficult, you know. Some is difficult, but there's always ways and means. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:03 Highlight the passage at 1:03:03

1:03:14 Just go and give Donald Trump a big hug. what that means. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:14 Highlight the passage at 1:03:14

1:03:16 No, no, no. Sometimes I was just thinking, you know, all these things, you see the problem we have in this world. We learn from there, Ajahn Brahm, maybe from this example, there could be something from, you know, the problem, all these things. After this, then the people realise, oh, negative thing. They put in positive, you know, vote in positive thing. And then you can imagine, you know, if you can have USA, Russia, China, all combined together, all good energy, you know, together. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:16 Highlight the passage at 1:03:16

1:03:45 To make the world a better place to live in all. It's just energies. People. People's minds. How many wars and conflicts we have. It's not worth it. Imagine if we could forgive. Huh? If we could forgive and see what the problem is. There's enough resources to share with everybody. We all know that. Enough food. Enough places to stay. Maybe we have too much children. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:45 Highlight the passage at 1:03:45

1:04:14 That's why I always think we need more monks and nuns. And that will lower the population. Easier to look after. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:14 Highlight the passage at 1:04:14

1:04:30 Okay. Was there any questions on the internet? No? I have one. Okay, yeah. Yes, Ajahn Brahm, the beautiful tree out here, I haven't heard a story about it, but it's a Bodhi tree, isn't it? Oh yeah, which one? I don't know. The one right outside that's got the shrine. I think that one was moved from our first temple here in Magnolia Street. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:30 Highlight the passage at 1:04:30

1:05:05 We loved it so much. We very carefully dug around. It was only very small at the time. I moved it over there and it's done so well over there over the years. There are other Bodhi trees over in this part of the world in Western Australia. And I do even remember the story they told me in Malaysia. There was a big Bodhi tree in Malaysia and they wanted to put a highway over that area. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:05 Highlight the passage at 1:05:05

1:05:32 And they tried to demolish that Bodhi tree and they couldn't. Explosions, big bulldozers. So they found it was cheaper to leave it. And they built the highway around it. I thought, good on you, Bodhi tree. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:32 Highlight the passage at 1:05:32

1:05:51 There's just something quite magical about that tree when you were talking about magical or special things. But I didn't know it was a Bodhi tree. I didn't know what I was walking under years ago when I first came. But I didn't actually see it. I heard it. That beautiful sound in the leaves. And that gentleman that was asking about getting in touch with some of the... Report an error in the passage at 1:05:51 Highlight the passage at 1:05:51

1:06:20 Emotional aspects of things, there's something quite special about that tree. Yeah, sometimes people can really relate to it. This body tree was given to us from Sri Lanka. And they got the roots from the Buddha's enlightenment tree. It came from there. And it was planted by Ron and Bianca. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:20 Highlight the passage at 1:06:20

1:06:45 The one in front of the old hall? Is it? Hello? Is that the one in front of the old hall, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, that's from the original Buddha's enlightenment there. It was presented to us, okay, from Sri Lanka and was planted on that, in the evening, you know, we were giving a talk, you know, Ajahn Jagrow at the time, yeah, and then they planted, they made a lot of noise, they said, I think ask them to be quiet, be quiet, you know, they're giving a talk. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:45 Highlight the passage at 1:06:45

1:07:17 Yeah, it was the original tree from the Buddha's enlightenment. That's power there. Yeah, special three, this thing, yeah, yeah, that one, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:17 Highlight the passage at 1:07:17

1:07:32 A lot of questions from overseas? Yes, we're just having some technical difficulties with the iPad. Are you okay if I read the questions out for you? Yeah, okay, yeah, go on. So the first one says, thank you for your book, Opening the Door of Your Heart. I recently turned 40 years old. Can you talk about the midlife crises? How can I deal with the fear of becoming a relic? Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:32 Highlight the passage at 1:07:32

1:08:00 You create a lot of happiness for people if you're a relic. Midlife crisis. I don't think I've ever had midlife crisis. By that time you understood about the world and about aging. And sometimes the more older you are, there's many things you cannot enjoy. There's many other things you can enjoy. If you're midlife or elderly or old, please enjoy that. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:00 Highlight the passage at 1:08:00

1:08:28 See the benefits in being elderly. It's wonderful. There's things you can do which other people can't do. You have to walk slowly because you've got no energy to walk fast. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:28 Highlight the passage at 1:08:28

1:08:44 So basically, see the positive sides in being midlife or being old. And also just, what do you need? All one really needs is like that peace and contentment, being easily satisfied. Not proud and demanding in nature. You know where that comes from? Mettā Sutta. Yeah, well done. That's why we translate it into English so you can remember that. So please chant the Mettā Sutta and you see all the beautiful words in there. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:44 Highlight the passage at 1:08:44

1:09:17 And that defeats all midlife crisis. Defeats all old life crisis. Defeats all young life crisis. Why do we call it crisis? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:17 Highlight the passage at 1:09:17

1:09:30 Okay, next question. This is a question from Germany. It says, Dear Ajahn, how do I generate enough kindness to find peace when pain or fear or sadness due to illness are stronger? How to find kindness when you need it most? How to find kindness? You develop kindness when you don't need it. This is one of the reasons, there's an old Chinese saying which says, love the tiger at a distance. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:30 Highlight the passage at 1:09:30

1:10:01 If you love the tiger too close, it might eat you. So love the tiger at a distance. If you have any sort of enemy or something you fear, develop that kindness when it's a long distance from you so that when it comes close to you, it's so easy to be kind. It becomes a habit to be kind. If you have an enemy in life, it always causes you trouble. Learn how to love them at a distance when they're not right in front of you. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:01 Highlight the passage at 1:10:01

1:10:31 And if you love them at a distance, Sometimes you may just meet them unexpectedly, they're right in front of you. You have so much kindness towards them, because that's how your training has been. Love tigers at a distance. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:31 Highlight the passage at 1:10:31

1:10:46 Even like tigers, I'm talking about real tigers now. I mean, they don't really want to eat you. It's bad karma to eat a monk. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:46 Highlight the passage at 1:10:46

1:10:59 You know, I came face to face with a tiger once. It was only about just a few feet in front of me. Was I scared? Answer, no. You know why? Because the tiger was in the zoo. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:59 Highlight the passage at 1:10:59

1:11:25 They know the tigers. They just do their thing. You do your thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:25 Highlight the passage at 1:11:25

1:11:32 Okay, next question. Question from Kazakhstan. When I do walking meditation, my eyes close on their own. If I walk for a long time, my upper back and shoulders hurt, even though my body is relaxed. What's your advice? It's usually just keep your eyes open, first of all, because that makes it more relaxed. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:32 Highlight the passage at 1:11:32

1:11:53 You know where you're going. You don't need to look around left, right, but just keep them slightly open, look at body length in front of you, and then you feel safe. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:53 Highlight the passage at 1:11:53

1:12:05 And don't do too much walking if that's causing you some stress. Instead, just do some sitting meditation. There was this one monk, I remember meeting him once, and he was just a farmer. And he heard, this was Ajahn Mun's funeral service. He heard one of the monks say, you need to do is to sit a lot and walk a lot. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:05 Highlight the passage at 1:12:05

1:12:31 And when he ordained, that's all the teachings he needed. He would walk on his walking meditation path. When he got tired, he would meditate sitting down. When he had enough of sitting down meditation, he'd get up and walk. And he became a great monk afterwards. Remember when we went to see him. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:31 Highlight the passage at 1:12:31

1:12:53 Once, and he was asking us where we were from. And I said, no, I was staying in Australia. He said, where's that? He was just a farmer. He didn't have much education. He said, it's down south. Down south? You mean south of Thailand, south of Bangkok? Yeah, a long way south of Bangkok. And I think Ajahn Yana Dhamma was with me, and he said, if you really go even more far down... Report an error in the passage at 1:12:53 Highlight the passage at 1:12:53

1:13:21 You get to Antarctica. What's that? Lots of ice and snow down there. Really? And so he was actually fascinated by that. And the following morning we went to see him. He said, you know, you're right. If you go further down south, there's lots of ice. It's very cold down there. He wasn't making it up. You know, he left his body to check us out, see if we were telling the truth. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:21 Highlight the passage at 1:13:21

1:13:49 Simple farmer monk has some really great meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:49 Highlight the passage at 1:13:49

1:13:56 So anyhow. There we go. Enough questions? There's one more from Medan in Indonesia. How do we find the most suitable meditation teacher where in Buddhism there are many masters with different techniques? How about finding not just masters but mistresses? Why male teachers? How about some females, some bhikkhunis? That's why we've got many bhikkhunis here now. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:56 Highlight the passage at 1:13:56

1:14:28 And see what works for you. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:28 Highlight the passage at 1:14:28

1:14:33 Types of food and restaurants you like to go to. There's many, many different chefs. But you go to the ones which you like, which, you know, the cuisine which makes you healthy and you enjoy. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:33 Highlight the passage at 1:14:33

1:14:48 So find a teacher and see what teacher really works for you. That's one of the reasons I told this meditation for you today. Kind of a simple meditation. How much more simple can that be? To sit down and do nothing. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:48 Highlight the passage at 1:14:48

1:15:08 Can you get more simple than that? Trouble is, when I say that, I say, well, what else? If I teach honestly how I'd like to teach, then many of you would leave and say, well, I've heard that. You want complicated teachings. Is that true? To give you an example, Ajahn Gunha, he's a very good teacher over in Thailand. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:08 Highlight the passage at 1:15:08

1:15:41 He's the one who pats snakes. They don't ever harm him. But I remember him many times. He came to spend a range retreat here years ago. And I've been to see him many, many times. Sometimes to do events together. And when he gives a talk, I said, can you teach meditation to people? He said, yeah. And so what he says is, a breathing sabha. You may not know the word sabha. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:41 Highlight the passage at 1:15:41

1:16:13 It means nice and comfortable and easy. And joyfully, breathe in, sabah. Then breathe out, sabah. And that's it. For years you never teach anything else. Just breathe in, sabah. Breathe out, sabah. Very powerful. He didn't make it complicated. Would you prefer more complicated meditations? Report an error in the passage at 1:16:13 Highlight the passage at 1:16:13

1:16:49 Okay, so that's the teaching. Breathe in, sabah. Breathe out, sabah. Oh, that's nice. Thank you all for listening. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:49 Highlight the passage at 1:16:49

1:17:05 And I did get a piece of paper here. If anybody wants to put your name down, you'd like to go to the Relic Exhibition so we can actually maybe even... Do people actually want to arrange public transport or arrange carpooling or something? Report an error in the passage at 1:17:05 Highlight the passage at 1:17:05

1:17:26 Party bus, yeah. Some of the people went to Dhana with today. They had a, was it a 12 seater bus? And they said they were very happy to help out the BSWA. Anyway, if anybody really wants to go there, please put your name down. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:26 Highlight the passage at 1:17:26

1:17:44 Yeah, of course you can go. Easy. But sometimes people would like to go all together to Kapur. But anyway, it's up to you. So please put your names down if you want to help out. So thank you anyway for listening. So now we can pay respects to the Buddha, Dhamma, Saṅgha. And then you can go on your journeys wherever you need to go. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:44 Highlight the passage at 1:17:44