All About Kamma

0:00 So these sessions are not only about just one aspect, only learning through hearing, but also doing few things that are helpful, isn't it? Because we all are very busy people, have busy lives, do many things. So if I even tell you lots of very high dharma aspects and concepts and techniques, Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:26 Trying to applying it sometimes is difficult. So we have to also start from where we are at. And this is our busy, stressful, tired lives. We have to start from there and never say that I have to wait till I am old and retired and have time when my kids grow up. Report an error in the passage at 0:26 Highlight the passage at 0:26

0:48 Before that, some of us might die, right? Some of us might die. So we can't wait till all of that is sorted. To have a break, have a rest, have some peace in mind. So this is why we need to learn doing things from now. Report an error in the passage at 0:48 Highlight the passage at 0:48

1:09 So now I'm going to say a few things about kamma. Are you all familiar with the term kamma? Yes. And vipaka? Yes, consequences. Now has it ever occurred to you that in the world There are some people who do very bad things but they get good things all the time. Have you noticed? Have you wondered? And there are some really really good people and bad things happen to us. Have you seen that? Have you wondered? Report an error in the passage at 1:09 Highlight the passage at 1:09

1:47 Yeah? Have you had a little bit of a concern about this idea of kamma or not? How would you explain that? Being good doesn't guarantee that you will get rich. But the Buddha says, right? Good actions reap good results. Bad actions reap bad results. So how come bad people get good things and good people get bad things? Report an error in the passage at 1:47 Highlight the passage at 1:47

2:16 Seems unfair, isn't it? In the longer term, probably the consequences are coming. And maybe we might be reaping some things from the past, right? Report an error in the passage at 2:16 Highlight the passage at 2:16

2:29 Yeah, that's a good way to think because, you know, at the time of the Buddha, now I'm talking from a sutta. This is in the middle length discourses and it's called Mahakamma Vibhanga Sutta. Report an error in the passage at 2:29 Highlight the passage at 2:29

2:44 And in this sutta, even at the time of the Buddha in India, there were many people who had very deep meditations. Yeah, even before the Buddha, there were rishis, right? You know about rishis who live in Mount Kailash and all these places who have incredible psychic abilities, right? They have deep meditation. So there is a psychic ability called divine eye or dibba chakku, divine eye. Report an error in the passage at 2:44 Highlight the passage at 2:44

3:10 And people who have that true psychic ability, they can see when somebody die, where their stream of consciousness go. And get reborn. So pretty much they can see when somebody dies and getting born somewhere. So this is a psychic ability. Because we can't see, right? We can see somebody dying, but we don't know where they got born. But people, deep meditators with this psychic ability can see where these people are born. Report an error in the passage at 3:10 Highlight the passage at 3:10

3:41 So those very powerful meditators saw people who have done really good things in their whole life went to hell. And some people who did really bad things after they died and got born in heaven. So they got very confused because this is not just thinking and this is not like little, little things here. Report an error in the passage at 3:41 Highlight the passage at 3:41

4:04 We see sometimes politicians having a great time yet they do lots of corruptions, right? Not like this even, right? Imagine going to hell and heaven, right? And this was their own knowledge. It's not like they heard something. They saw this. Report an error in the passage at 4:04 Highlight the passage at 4:04

4:20 So then they were asking the Buddha, how is this possible? So we come to conclusion there is no good, there is no bad, it's just random. Fair enough as well, right? Because they see it. So they were thinking like this. So then the Buddha says, the reason is these people, even though with their psychic ability, they can see only this life and the immediate next life. Report an error in the passage at 4:20 Highlight the passage at 4:20

4:45 They say even it's like leaving one home. and going and entering another home entering another body where they are getting born so the Buddha says the reason is because you can like a Buddha can see many past lives yeah Report an error in the passage at 4:45 Highlight the passage at 4:45

5:02 the Buddha can see many past lives and he has seen that some of these people they have done many good things in the past but many bad things in this life but at the time of death Report an error in the passage at 5:02 Highlight the passage at 5:02

5:45 Have consequences. But when that is going to happen, it's complicated. It's not very straightforward. So we have this idea of trying to figure out why am I sick today? Why did I lose my money today? Why did I lose my job? Or why did I get a promotion? Or whatever we try to figure out. Yeah? It's not so simple. Report an error in the passage at 5:45 Highlight the passage at 5:45

6:07 Kamma, the workings of Kamma is not very simple. It's complicated because it is from many lifetimes. Things that you do this life and many previous lives. So there is a way in which this happens. But the Buddha says, whatever you have done cannot be completely abandoned. It is there. It can never be ended, in fact. And there's another wrong concept. This is very common in China and other religions as well, that you pay off your bad karma by doing hardships giving pain to your body have you heard this like trying to pay off when this also again from a sutta when people were doing like that even at the time of the Buddha the Buddha was asking these people so do you know how much bad whether you have done bad karma in the past because this life they have been good people they say i don't know or do you know even how much bad karma do you have They say, I don't know. So by doing all of these painful activities, giving pain to your body, do you know how many good karma, bad karma you have sort of overcome now? Report an error in the passage at 6:07 Highlight the passage at 6:07

7:20 They say, no. Because it is not possible, right? We don't know. And it's an empty activity. The Buddha says, that is not how you overcome and transcend these things. The Buddha says, karma, whatever intentional actions that we have done, they stay. And the strange thing now, this you may not like to hear, but it's not eye for an eye. Let's say you stole something and as a result of that, you lose something. Report an error in the passage at 7:20 Highlight the passage at 7:20

7:51 Somebody steals something from you and then accounts close. It's not like that. Intentional actions you have done keep coming back many times. And you wonder why? Because you think about it, right? Report an error in the passage at 7:51 Highlight the passage at 7:51

8:09 Let's say we stole something. Later you regret about it, right? And how many times you in your mind bring it up. Oh, I stole, that's bad. I stole, that's bad. Oh, I lied. And every time it's like another time. So now you wonder, is there anybody in the room here who has never done anything bad? Not, right? We have all done silly things. Report an error in the passage at 8:09 Highlight the passage at 8:09

8:37 Because we didn't know even sometimes what is good, what is bad, driven by the people around us, driven by consequences. We have all done things that we are not proud of. So what are we going to do about it now? It's important, isn't it? It is important. So it is important how do we deal with all of these things. Report an error in the passage at 8:37 Highlight the passage at 8:37

8:59 So again, what I'm going to say now is also called Lona Pallasutta. So I again am sorry that I don't have the reference for it. It's called the simile of the lump of salt. Report an error in the passage at 8:59 Highlight the passage at 8:59

9:16 And the Buddha says if your bad actions are like salt and your good actions are like water, if you put a lump of salt into a glass of water, is the water very salty? Undrinkable, right? If it's a big handful of salt, it is. Report an error in the passage at 9:16 Highlight the passage at 9:16

9:37 If you put a handful of salt into a big bucket of water, it's mild. How about if you put it into like a big swimming pool? Even less. And in the Sutta, the Buddha compares it to Ganges River, which is massive, right? Enormous, incredible, the end to end. You can't even see how big it is, few kilometers long. Huge, massive body of water and you put the same lump of salt. Report an error in the passage at 9:37 Highlight the passage at 9:37

10:06 So this is where sometimes randomly you might encounter a sodium chloride atom in between your Water molecules. But chances are low, but it can happen. That is when we get the surprise, like I've been so good, but this happens to me. It's not fair. It feels like that, but it's those things. But what is most important is that even though you can't really get over them or you can't sort of eliminate them or extinguish them, you can get enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 10:06 Highlight the passage at 10:06

11:01 So kamma can only come to fruition If you have another birth, you have to be born again for the karma to come to action. If birth has ended, if you have no future births, can your karma come to fruition? You can't because there's nobody to. So this is what it is. You don't get enlightened by ending all your bad karma. Report an error in the passage at 11:01 Highlight the passage at 11:01

11:28 Do you get the point? We cannot end our bad karma. We've been in saṃsāra for such a long time. We've done lots of good and lots of bad. They don't tally out. It's just like the sodium chloride and H2O molecules there. They're there, but what happens is the whole body of water vanishes or you get out of the water or something like this, right? Report an error in the passage at 11:28 Highlight the passage at 11:28

11:56 Then there is no possibility for the karma to come to fruition. So when you hear, when somebody gets enlightened, there's no more suffering. Do you think Arahants and the Buddha suffered or not? Did Buddha have suffering? Did he? Are you sure? Yeah? What kind of suffering? Report an error in the passage at 11:56 Highlight the passage at 11:56

12:24 What do you think, Praveen? Buddha didn't have any suffering? He saw many people suffering. Suffering is more about your reaction of your reaction. Report an error in the passage at 12:24 Highlight the passage at 12:24

12:44 Yeah. There's physical and mental suffering, right? Suffering is two parts. There's physical suffering and mental suffering. So physical suffering the Buddha and the Arahants had because they had a body. This body, their last body was their last resulting from the previous khamma. They already got a body. They were born. So the Physical body, the pains, illnesses. Yes, if you read the suttas, you can hear even how the Buddha mentions how much suffering. He says the kind of headache he had sometimes, it was like two ropes tied on her head and two strong people pulling it apart. Report an error in the passage at 12:44 Highlight the passage at 12:44

13:26 Can you imagine? Two strong people pulling the two ropes and that's the kind of headache. The tummy ache was like somebody cut open your tummy with a knife. Because at the time, there were no painkillers, no antibiotics, no antivirals, right? Very simple. There were good medicines, but not comparable. Report an error in the passage at 13:26 Highlight the passage at 13:26

13:48 So they had to endure a lot of physical pain sometimes. I mean, Buddha didn't always endure. He had a good doctor. He had the best doctor at the time. Who knows the name of the Buddha's doctor? Report an error in the passage at 13:48 Highlight the passage at 13:48

14:01 You're not allowed to say that. His name was Jivaka. Jivaka the doctor. He was the best doctor in town. He didn't say proudly, I am a Buddha. I can endure this. It's nothing for me. I'll get into my deep meditations and deal with it. He didn't do like that. Because physical body, he said, the nature of a body is to get sick. Report an error in the passage at 14:01 Highlight the passage at 14:01

14:30 The nature of a body is to get old. The nature of a body is to die. And this is true for the Buddha and to the enlightened beings as well. So he didn't really say anything. So suffering, that means pain of the body was there. But the pain that they didn't have is the mental pain. Now think about it. When we have some wound in our leg, Or when we have a backache, have you ever thought, oh, I might get bedridden, I may never walk, this may never get better? Sometimes these kinds of thoughts come, right? Report an error in the passage at 14:30 Highlight the passage at 14:30

15:08 When you get sick, it's as if, oh my goodness, it's going to be really bad, I'm going to suffer, I might even die. And you worry so much, isn't it? So the mental, I don't want it, this is so bad, I can't stand it, isn't it? But if you really look at the pain, the actual physical pain, It's only that much. Yes, it is painful, but only that much. But it is the mental pain that is far more difficult. Report an error in the passage at 15:08 Highlight the passage at 15:08

15:36 So the Buddha says for unenlightened beings, when we are struck by pain, like when we have pain, strike with one arrow, we take another arrow and poke ourselves a few more times. The second arrow is called the mental arrow. So the Buddha and the Arahants don't have the They only have the first arrow. So the suffering that they have transcended is the mental suffering and any suffering that would arise in the future lives. Report an error in the passage at 15:36 Highlight the passage at 15:36

16:08 Because there is no more rebirth, right? When somebody becomes enlightened, that's the idea. Rebirth has ended. No more being born again. Anywhere. Did you know this? So the idea of enlightenment. The idea of nibbāna is not being born somewhere very nice and live happily forever after. There is no. So the way it is answered is what happens when you enlighten. Report an error in the passage at 16:08 Highlight the passage at 16:08

16:39 It's like when there is a light, a lamp. Can you see the lamp and the flame? You see it, right? That's like us. Made up of conditions. There is oil. There is wick. And there's heat. As long as these three things are there, you see a lamp, like a light, right? A flame. But when the flame goes out, because the wick runs out or the oil runs out or it becomes cold, if I ask you, where did the flame go? Report an error in the passage at 16:39 Highlight the passage at 16:39

17:17 What's the answer? Did the flame go anywhere? No. Same like us. We are also here. Because of conditions. Five aggregates it's called. I might not get into five aggregates today. It's another deeper topic. But we are conditions. There's a body. There are feelings. There are perceptions. All of those things is what makes a self. Report an error in the passage at 17:17 Highlight the passage at 17:17

17:45 When those things fall apart, they're bound by craving. Our wanting is what keeps us together. When our craving ends, there is no more. Going into another existence. Now, looking at the faces in the audience, I'm worried. Maybe you want to change. Report an error in the passage at 17:45 Highlight the passage at 17:45

18:08 Are you sure you want to get enlightened? Maybe not. Fair enough. That's all right. You need to understand the big problem and you may not get it straight away. After a while, it might hit home. That existence, even in the best possible way. There's no end to it, yeah? Because things happen and you go back and forth. We have been in saṃsāra for such a long time, going between heaven and hell. Report an error in the passage at 18:08 Highlight the passage at 18:08

18:38 So long. We don't know what happens, what's around the corner. We don't know what kamma we have in the baggage. Right now, we are reaping the good kamma. We have a good life, living in a good place, doing good things. But who knows what else we have done. in the past and what will come up in the future isn't it when you think like that when you realize like that For some people, the idea comes in, yes, there is no point to this going again and again and again. Report an error in the passage at 18:38 Highlight the passage at 18:38

19:12 How much do you want to eat? How much do you want to listen to music? How many movies do you want to watch? Report an error in the passage at 19:12 Highlight the passage at 19:12

19:24 have how many children do you want to have how many places do you want to go how many experience do you want to have is there end to all of these things it's never right they are called insatiable you can't they never end by giving more and more yeah you want more and more there's no end to these things but Have you also realized that trying to get these things, that you also reap a lot of suffering? Now think about, just for the sake of this, the best kind of relationship. Report an error in the passage at 19:24 Highlight the passage at 19:24

20:01 That is where we put the best idea, right? Of happiness is the best kind of relationship. Our sufferings are also born from problems in relationships, right? So if you have the best kind of relationship, eventually one of you have to die, right? Report an error in the passage at 20:01 Highlight the passage at 20:01

20:20 How is the pain? The more amazing the relationship, the more pain, right? Can you see? The more amazing what you had. If you had a really incredible expensive house, bushfire comes and burnt it down, very painful, right? If it was just a little touched roof place, if it burnt out, no problem. Just gather a few more things and build up again. If it was your very expensive Jaguar, I met with an accident and got right off. Very painful. If it was your very old, 20-year-old car, just check it out, get another one. Report an error in the passage at 20:20 Highlight the passage at 20:20

21:03 Do you know? Even the good things, when you have the separation, because nothing is permanent, right? Nothing can be held on to forever. We have to depart. We have to die for everything. We have to leave one day. Is that one day going to be somewhere far away? Can that day be tonight? We may not be ready to think like that, but it can happen, right? Report an error in the passage at 21:03 Highlight the passage at 21:03

21:30 It could be tonight. It can happen tonight. This is the truth. And do you know where you're going to go? We don't know. When we depart from him, here, is everybody coming with us? All our loved ones, all our money, all our belongings coming with us? No. What do we have with us? Only the stream of consciousness, our good and bad actions, the joy, peace that we have built up or any bad things. Report an error in the passage at 21:30 Highlight the passage at 21:30

22:03 So it's important to reflect like that, not to be heedless and not to be fooled by the world. So these things, it might be hard sometimes. You may not be ready to hear this. I am sorry for saying this. If you are not ready to hear it. But sometimes you need to hear things that are true. That you might not want to listen. But this is reality. When it happens, otherwise it's a much bigger shock. Report an error in the passage at 22:03 Highlight the passage at 22:03

22:30 Much better we hear it and slowly, slowly prepare for it. You don't have to be ready tonight. You don't have to be ready now. Report an error in the passage at 22:30 Highlight the passage at 22:30

22:39 But you can take that idea on board, on the side maybe, and slowly come back to it when you're ready. Slowly, slowly coming back, preparing it, understanding it. This is right view. This is true, right? What I'm saying is not false. It is true. This is we know. This is reality. This is truth. So this is when sometimes we realize, okay, I might want to work towards Report an error in the passage at 22:39 Highlight the passage at 22:39

23:10 So this is where enlightenment comes about. So how you end your kamma, it's not about ending your kamma. Kamma just becomes end in the sense there is no more existence for the kamma to fruit. Do you get the point? Yeah, that is how it happens. But why these meditations are important is because we have so much Good and bad, but also a lot of bad in our society. So we don't know how much sodium chloride, let's say, using that simile for the bad we have. Report an error in the passage at 23:10 Highlight the passage at 23:10

23:45 Sometimes the kamma can get in the way of our progress. You see this time and time again. You really get started with your spiritual journey and you fall really sick or something really bad happens to your people around you. All kinds of problems come. For some people, the kamma blocks you also. So this is how powerful kamma can be. But other times it's not so. Other times you still have a way. Report an error in the passage at 23:45 Highlight the passage at 23:45

24:16 But when you have like jhāna, for example, like really deep states of meditation, then the amount of water, the good kamma, is like the river Ganges. So that your lump of salt, whatever the bad kamma you have, let's say you have even a bucket or like a whole big sack of salt, Even a big sack of salt in the amount of water like in the river of Ganges gives a big chance for you to make the big leap into big insights. Report an error in the passage at 24:16 Highlight the passage at 24:16

24:46 So this is how like your bad karma then is pushed into the back. It's not that it's not there, but you have much more better chances of progressing more. So the more and more deep meditations because deep meditations are like the highest forms of karma. Report an error in the passage at 24:46 Highlight the passage at 24:46

25:04 So in talking about karma being our topic, I'm just touching on all different aspects just to think about these things. In another sutta called Velama Sutta, the Buddha talks about the levels of karma. Report an error in the passage at 25:04 Highlight the passage at 25:04

25:20 So in that sutta, roughly this is not exact, but roughly how I remember it, you can read about it, Velama Sutta. If you gave 100 carts of food to Buddha, And the Arahants, like the whole Saṅgha, 100 carts of food in the morning for breakfast, 100 carts of food for lunch, and all the medicinal things in the evening. Report an error in the passage at 25:20 Highlight the passage at 25:20

25:47 If you did all of that, that doesn't compare to you keeping your five precepts properly. We never even think about keeping precepts as merit, right? Whenever we think about merit, we think about Giving things. Think about dana. Of course, dana is the starting point and this is very powerful, right? Giving to the Buddha, giving to an Arahant is higher merit as well. Report an error in the passage at 25:47 Highlight the passage at 25:47

26:15 Now he is telling, including the Buddha and so many Arahants, hundred cards of food morning and lunchtime. Doesn't compare. Doesn't compare to you keeping the five precepts. Very powerful. So keeping the five precepts properly, And refining it, incredibly powerful karma. It goes many hundredfolds. The jump is hundredfolds. Like we think about, you know, doing meritorious acts. Report an error in the passage at 26:15 Highlight the passage at 26:15

26:44 So then the Buddha says, compared to that, if you do mettā meditation, spreading of loving kindness, even for the time, snap of a finger, it's much more powerful than keeping the sīla. But not just may you be well and happy, but deep meditation, mettā jana. Mettā jana doesn't happen for a second, but this is a way of saying mettā meditation taken to the highest level is really powerful. Report an error in the passage at 26:44 Highlight the passage at 26:44

27:17 Another quantum leap, if I may say. And much more than that, the merit is higher if you are doing meditation on impermanence. Again, this is post jana vipassanā. Okay, so this is after deep meditation. Understanding, really insights coming up about the idea of change, idea of impermanence. So this is just not to get deep into things, but to give an idea of the scale of things, about merit. So this is why, you know, giving dana even to the saṅgha, to anybody, is probably like the swimming pool. Report an error in the passage at 27:17 Highlight the passage at 27:17

28:01 Right? So meditation, Deep meditations are like the river Ganges, the water. Can you understand? It's important to understand about karma. So now we all said, we started this by saying, yes, we have all done things that we are not proud of. That is normal. That is being a human being with defilements. Report an error in the passage at 28:01 Highlight the passage at 28:01

28:23 We can't help ourselves. So what do we do? This is important as well, right? Is this important? Are you interested? Are you interested to know what to do? Yes, it is. We have to be interested. What we do is we realize, okay, these things that I have done in my life are not skillful. So recognition is important. So we have to acknowledge, not justify. Report an error in the passage at 28:23 Highlight the passage at 28:23

28:52 We have a tendency to justify, right? We have a tendency. I did this because of that. I stole some bread because I was so hungry. My family was hungry. Yes, that might be true. But justification doesn't mean that your action is going to go away, right? Acknowledge, yes, I stole. Reason doesn't matter, but I did steal something. I did something that is unskillful. Acknowledge it. And see, yes, that is not skillful. Report an error in the passage at 28:52 Highlight the passage at 28:52

29:21 But understand, Why you did it? Condition, right? Different conditioning. You may have gone hunting. You may have killed animals. I'm sure we have done these things as other people do. You may have got dragged by your friends, people around us. Last week we spoke about, last month we spoke about associations of the wise and the fool, right? Report an error in the passage at 29:21 Highlight the passage at 29:21

29:43 How when we associate the fools, how we can end up doing bad things. So we see the conditioning we got. And how we got conditioned to doing stupid things. So when we see that, we can forgive ourselves. Forgiving ourselves doesn't mean that we say what we did is not bad, but we understand. We can't help it. This is nature of saṃsāra. We just go around in the world. This is why saṃsāra is dangerous. We don't know who you're going to meet, what kind of people you're going to meet at work, your neighbors. Report an error in the passage at 29:43 Highlight the passage at 29:43

30:16 You know, you just don't know good and bad. Sometimes because you encountered good people, you end up in a place like this and hearing dharma. You could also end up in another place, go and end up in, learn how to do some bad things. This happens, right? So life can be quite dangerous in the world. So anyway, so when you realize that, you know, the condition nature, you can forgive yourself. So you acknowledge, you forgive. Report an error in the passage at 30:16 Highlight the passage at 30:16

30:46 When you make a determination, try not to do it again. Right? And you might fail few times because sometimes strong habits cannot be stopped quickly. But as long as you have the intention to stop, as long as you understand these are not helpful, so you are making progress little bit. And one day, it will stop. And then you also do much good. Much good. Report an error in the passage at 30:46 Highlight the passage at 30:46

31:15 And keep doing your good actions. That's why even the snake story, even though funny and simple it may sound, it's quite a profound story. Do you understand that it was quite a profound story? Even though it sounded funny? Reflect on that. It's got lots of dharma in there, actually. Lots of dharma. And it was very important for the bad snake to realize, acknowledge, take up the precepts, keep those precepts, even when it was difficult. Report an error in the passage at 31:15 Highlight the passage at 31:15

31:44 To make a determination, to do good, to turn things around. So as long as you start keeping your precepts, lots of good merits start to accumulate. A lot of those bad that you have done is going to go down by the wayside very quickly. So five precepts, very powerful. And from time to time, if you are able to keep eight precepts, which is quite common, right? You do on full moon days, new moon days, you can take eight precepts. Report an error in the passage at 31:44 Highlight the passage at 31:44

32:15 However many precepts you can keep from time to time. And from time to time meditate. Even for a little while making your mind peaceful. Learning how to do meditation. So even though mettā meditation done in a simple way without jhāna level is not the same effect. It's still much more powerful. It's a meditation. It's wishing other people well, right? Truly. So very powerful these things. Is it important to do these things in our life? Report an error in the passage at 32:15 Highlight the passage at 32:15

32:44 Much more than anything else, isn't it? These should be our real goals, not the goals of getting the promotion, going on your next holiday, you know, getting your next house or upgrading your car or whatever other worldly goals you have. They are okay. They are much more secondary because can you take your car or your house or your achievements with you if you die tonight? Report an error in the passage at 32:44 Highlight the passage at 32:44

33:12 No, isn't it? Remembering this, you put things in the right order of things. A lot of your stress also goes away, right? Because a lot of our stress is about trying to achieve these goals in our life. I'm not saying don't do that. Do that, but have a perspective. Get the more important things out of your way first. Report an error in the passage at 33:12 Highlight the passage at 33:12

33:38 And that is... Keeping your precepts to your best ability. Learn ways how to deal with it. It can be challenging, right? Sometimes people come and tell me, our work force us to lie, right? When you're signing the contracts, you know. Then they say, how long are you going to do? How long is it going to take this? Report an error in the passage at 33:38 Highlight the passage at 33:38

34:00 Six months. The boss tells you, tell six months. But you know it's going to take two years. But they want to win. They say, no, no, lie and tell six months. Do you know this? This happens. You're forced sometimes. It's very difficult. I don't have a direct answer to this work. So change your work if it's worth it. Report an error in the passage at 34:00 Highlight the passage at 34:00

34:22 I don't know if it's the best answer. But there are other times as well. So try to figure out ways to refine your precepts. Keep your precepts. It's very important. Because we might die tonight. We can't afford. Report an error in the passage at 34:22 Highlight the passage at 34:22

34:41 To live with too much bad. So precepts, as you saw, is very powerful. Try and see whether you can do a bit of meditation. It's not so hard. Was it okay to be able to do that body scan? It's nice, isn't it? It's a very relaxing way to do. And at the end, you can go to breath meditation. But even if you didn't go to breath meditation, never mind. Even stopping that thinking mind is already good. Report an error in the passage at 34:41 Highlight the passage at 34:41

35:09 If you can learn to do a bit of mettā meditation, spreading may all beings be well. There are many, many recordings. There are many guided meditations available. All of those, any of those would be fine. The idea is to bring up affection in your heart and sending it out. These are very important things. Report an error in the passage at 35:09 Highlight the passage at 35:09

35:28 So in your day, make sure you have at least 10-15 minutes of this. Because we can't afford to live life Without that, isn't it? Because who's going to suffer if we're born in a bad place? If we allow our bad karma from the past to come to fruition at the time of our death, we surely have bad karma. There's no doubt about it, right? Because we've lived so long. The Buddha said we have done everything possible in our various different lives. So those sodium chloride atoms, so to speak, is still there. Report an error in the passage at 35:28 Highlight the passage at 35:28

36:04 So it is really important. So this is why having done good deeds is so important. And this is also what brings us to good as well. This is why so many people, right? There are so many people in Sydney, so many of your friends who didn't turn up for this session, for example, to listen, to meditate, to do something good, to build up your mind, to cultivate goodness in our heart. Report an error in the passage at 36:04 Highlight the passage at 36:04

36:32 Why is that? They probably don't have the good merit, right? Not that inclination to want to incline mind. Do you see that? Sometimes there are very people who are very, very rich, but they never think about it. It's not because they're greedy, but it never occurs to them to give. Have you seen such people? Report an error in the passage at 36:32 Highlight the passage at 36:32

36:53 Yeah, there are sometimes people because they've never done. It's hard to understand how they became rich now. Again, it may have been because they have done something good a long time ago and then after a while they never did. And a long time ago karma came to fruition. But you do see these things. And there are other people who don't have very much, quite very poor. Report an error in the passage at 36:53 Highlight the passage at 36:53

37:14 But they have a very generous heart. Yeah, so this is the thing. So if you've done good things in the past, that inclination brings you towards goodness as well. So it is important. So continue to do good. Continue to cultivate your mind. Uplift your mind. And then you sort of have a tendency to get together with good people, good situations, end up in a good locality. Report an error in the passage at 37:14 Highlight the passage at 37:14

37:42 All this, was it random that you end up in Australia? It's not random, right? I sometimes wonder how I ended up in Australia. You know, my mother lives in USA and everybody's dream is usually to go to USA, right? US dream is people's dream, especially from Sri Lanka or India. You know, we have this kind of dream usually. So when my mother was in USA, I never ended up in USA. Report an error in the passage at 37:42 Highlight the passage at 37:42

38:12 I never wanted to go to USA. I don't know why. To this day, I don't know why I wanted to come to Australia, really. It felt like it was closer to Sri Lanka and the culture was probably a little bit milder than the very crazy US culture. So I probably preferred, I don't know. But the thing is, I ended up in a city, even out of all of Australia, I ended up in Perth, not Sydney. Report an error in the passage at 38:12 Highlight the passage at 38:12

38:38 I lived for more than 20 years in Perth. And Perth was a place which had one of the most amazing monks called Ajahn Brahm. The magazines out there. He is one of the best meditation masters in the world, we can say, without any doubt. And not only that, there was a nun's monastery in Perth for fully ordained nuns. Report an error in the passage at 38:38 Highlight the passage at 38:38

39:06 Again, extremely rare in the whole world. There are very few monasteries for fully ordained nuns in the world. I somehow ended up there. I feel that it would have been my good karma bringing me here, right? I could have gone to so many places, isn't it? So sometimes it's really interesting how we end up in different places, meeting the kind of people that we meet. Report an error in the passage at 39:06 Highlight the passage at 39:06

39:37 So it's interesting to see. It gives also good encouragement when you see, not to think about only the bad side of things that went wrong. Surely we have had things go wrong in our lives. We've all gone through hardships, no doubt. But instead of focusing on that, focus on the good side and encourage the good. Report an error in the passage at 39:37 Highlight the passage at 39:37

40:00 Keep doing the good. That is good intentional actions. Okay, so it has come to seven o 'clock. How do you all feel? This is a very big subject. I would really like to open up and engage in conversation because I did a lot of talking because there's many aspects I at least wanted to touch and we can continue this for the next session as well because it's very important. Report an error in the passage at 40:00 Highlight the passage at 40:00

40:28 But I want to open up for questions, comments or anything from the audience. It's nice to have that. What would you like to say? Anybody? Report an error in the passage at 40:28 Highlight the passage at 40:28

40:43 Yes. My favorite statement. I come from Austria, from Europe. So I feel now after I have become a Buddhist that greed made me born in the West and wisdom take me back to the East. So what you have in the palm of your hand from your heritage, please don't throw it away. Because it's not so simple that we are born in a good buddhist environment have good teachers have good now we have really the opportunity to see the good and the bad and really to go forward and realize the buddhist teaching it's just So what else would you, anybody else like to ask us? Report an error in the passage at 40:43 Highlight the passage at 40:43

41:27 yes um yeah i might miss one of the points Report an error in the passage at 41:27 Highlight the passage at 41:27

41:40 yeah yeah that is the meditation on impermanence so that is actually the highest form but it is not Vipassanā is very misunderstood. So the right time to do vipassanā. Vipassanā means V means clear. Passana means see. So your seeing becomes clear only when Your hindrances are down in the mind. So that gives an indication the vipassanā that the Buddha talks about comes after deep meditation, jhāna. Report an error in the passage at 41:40 Highlight the passage at 41:40

42:17 So that's why I said post-jhāna, vipassanā is the highest form. That is like the ultimate, because it's insights. It changes your right view permanently. It's irreversible. Once you see for yourself something, When you experience, when you touch with your own body and mind something and it becomes, then that is very powerful. It changes, right? Report an error in the passage at 42:17 Highlight the passage at 42:17

42:44 Right now, many things you take on board out of good faith, right? In somebody like a Buddhist nun telling the Buddhist things, you take a lot of it on board and take it down. But when you start to experience this, when you see it from your own insights, from your mind then your mind completely gets established in right view so it's a very big difference that's why it's very powerful because it's irreversible after that but for that to happen deep meditation is necessary it doesn't mean that you don't do your normal reflections with whatever level you see that's still helpful right but it doesn't do a very powerful change in your mind the powerful change is what is the highest form but regardless of that Even on your day to day life, if you start to see impermanence, it's very important. But you have to be careful. Because for some people, when they start to see a lot of this impermanence, they get into depression. Report an error in the passage at 42:44 Highlight the passage at 42:44

43:48 So you have to be very careful. So that is why when the mind is after jhāna or after deep meditation, or at least with some degree of good meditation, When the mind has joy states, because that's a part of meditation, right? It goes from gladness to pīti to tranquility to sukha. When the mind is in those states, when you see impermanence, when you see suffering, when you see non-self, you don't get depressed because mind is elevated. Report an error in the passage at 43:48 Highlight the passage at 43:48

44:18 In fact, you are seeing, your perception is on suffering, but what you experience is joy. It sounds like oxymoron, right? It's hard to understand, counterintuitive. But this is what it is. That's the right time to actually do. That is the danger in trying to do vipassanā in a normal mind state because then you just see constantly the suffering in the world, the impermanence, and it comes too much to you. Report an error in the passage at 44:18 Highlight the passage at 44:18

44:46 And then people actually become depressed. So not to do it too much. See those things, not believe in too much permanence, but more do the meditation. And when your mind is joyous, then reflect. Yes, even this joy is impermanent. This life is impermanent. All of those things. Right time and place is very important when you do the practice. Report an error in the passage at 44:46 Highlight the passage at 44:46

45:12 Otherwise, it can go quite badly. And this happens to people. This happens to people who practice. So that is why it's important. So don't be too hurried to do vipassanā. Important to build up peace first. Strength. Strength of mind. So any other questions? Does it make sense? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 45:12 Highlight the passage at 45:12

45:38 That's okay. yeah sorry that's okay so people with a tendency for mental health yeah problem It's a good, it depends on the kind of mental health problem, not for all, but for a lot of the mental health problems, yes, meditation can be a problem. So it depends, like very mild forms of depression, building up mindfulness is helpful, but not, they can't even, they won't be able to do deep meditation anyway. Report an error in the passage at 45:38 Highlight the passage at 45:38

46:15 Because the starting point is gladness of the mind. A mind that is glad means a mind that is straight, uplifted and bright. So a person with depression has a bent mind, a dark mind, a depressed mind, right? So it is not possible. So when you try to force, this is what sometimes people do. When they force, they actually end up with psychosis and much more difficult problems. So you have to put in the right... Report an error in the passage at 46:15 Highlight the passage at 46:15

46:43 Right place. So first of all, we need to come out of depression by doing acts of generosity, kindness, joy states born out of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 46:43 Highlight the passage at 46:43

46:55 And then only. And for certain people who are in clinical depression states, deep meditations or stillness meditations are not recommended. They can still work on karma. They can work on building up joy states by generosity and things like that. So this is very important. For some people, this can be happening. Report an error in the passage at 46:55 Highlight the passage at 46:55

47:15 So yeah, mental health, it depends on which kind. Certainly if you have schizophrenia or tendency for those, definitely not recommended because the condition can actually get worse and people also misunderstand the results of schizophrenia as deep meditative experiences. This is also quite common. So it has to be very careful. Report an error in the passage at 47:15 Highlight the passage at 47:15

47:38 And normally teachers also don't accept people with severe mental problems because out of this reason, it's not that they're not compassionate, but they can see there is limitations and dangers in it, you know. It can be dangerous, yeah. You have to keep teaching, be good and kind on a level, but not in the intensive meditation. Sīla and generosity and building up right view was a long way, yeah, right view. Report an error in the passage at 47:38 Highlight the passage at 47:38

48:04 Even if you're depressed, you can understand. Right view. So like that, these are helpful things. It doesn't mean that you can't do the path. Absolutely you can do things. And we must do something. But we need to do the right thing at the right time. Do you agree? Yeah. Also going for refuge with a dharma saṅgha can be very helpful to those people. Report an error in the passage at 48:04 Highlight the passage at 48:04

48:25 Because they need a clutch to clutch on to. Any more questions? Yes? I heard that there are some disadvantages of doing meditation if you do it wrong. So how do I do it if I do it wrong? Okay, it's a good question. This is an important question. Okay, so after you meditate, that's why I didn't do it today. There were lots of kids, so it's very hard to do a proper meditation. Report an error in the passage at 48:25 Highlight the passage at 48:25

48:55 You normally sit and you reflect back. How do you feel? After your meditation, you reflect back. How do you feel? And when you reflect back, if you see your joy states come up, the mental energy is coming up, you feel more at ease, you are more peaceful, that's a good sign that meditation is going well. Report an error in the passage at 48:55 Highlight the passage at 48:55

49:20 But if after meditation you feel tired, stressed, all kinds of other states, which some people have because they're trying too hard and the wrong way, pushing their mind too hard. And after they sit, they feel exhausted. And if you feel like that, then you know you are doing it the wrong way. Right? Yeah. So it is very important not just meditate and get up and go. Before you get up, always reflect back and see how is your mind. Report an error in the passage at 49:20 Highlight the passage at 49:20

49:53 Yeah? How is your mind? And if you see that it's sort of going a bit strange, it's important that you meet a teacher and discuss about it. Because sometimes we don't know. We don't know our mind, our chemistry of our brain, because even though mind and brain are two different things, they're quite closely related. Report an error in the passage at 49:53 Highlight the passage at 49:53

50:14 So we don't know the chemistry of our brain. Sometimes it takes a long time before things come out in ourselves. We don't know. And this may be true for any one of us. We don't know. So therefore, it is important to see. And if you start seeing things that are very strange, Without deep meditations and feel and hear different things, it's important to check. They can happen. Report an error in the passage at 50:14 Highlight the passage at 50:14

50:40 There can be perceptions taking wings and strange experience can happen. But never to give any importance to them because meditation is not about getting strange experiences. They are actually distractions. They take you for a detour. We meditate to get enlightened. enlightened to end the ruse. Subside the defilements and uproot the defilements. So therefore, those are also things to watch out for. Whether you get very strange things, then to discuss it with a good meditation teacher. Report an error in the passage at 50:40 Highlight the passage at 50:40

51:12 It's very important. It's a good question because this is possible. This happens to people sometimes. But it doesn't mean that you've got to be scared. You put the right foundations. If you're not in a hurry and you... Put the right foundations. For me, the way I see it, good meditation is almost like a reward of having done the good work. Report an error in the passage at 51:12 Highlight the passage at 51:12

51:37 And that is being a kind person, a generous person, living your life in a good way, brightening up your mind, straightening up your mind in day-to-day activity also. And when you have a very uplifted, bright mind, then you sit for meditation. There would not be any... Pre-preparation. It's a result and you settle down. The mind just settles down. Meditation is not complicated. Report an error in the passage at 51:37 Highlight the passage at 51:37

52:06 It's actually quite a simple thing. This is important. Maybe we can speak more about those things again as well. Anybody else has anything else to say? Report an error in the passage at 52:06 Highlight the passage at 52:06

52:22 so this is a situational question yeah so i know that something is very important for me to do at this moment Right. Report an error in the passage at 52:22 Highlight the passage at 52:22

52:36 You know, procrastination is not all bad. As well, it's much better than impulsively acting. Right? That's a different thing. But if you always procrastinate and never do, then there is also a problem. Right? So then it is important that but somehow i just procrastinated so how to get rid of this right Report an error in the passage at 52:36 Highlight the passage at 52:36

52:57 You, first of all, never mind. Become peaceful. See whether you can just sit and make your mind a bit peaceful. And see whether you can really allow you to listen to yourself. When there's too much thought and when you try to figure it all out by thinking, then you can't figure it out. Your thinking and your ideas gets in the way. Report an error in the passage at 52:57 Highlight the passage at 52:57

53:25 But if you are able to learn to meditate a bit, become peaceful, leave all of those knowledge and everything aside, and when you have a bit of joy, when you have a bit of peace, then bring up the idea, why is it that I am hesitating to do this? Report an error in the passage at 53:25 Highlight the passage at 53:25

53:44 Then you might get an answer. Some things could be related to past lives too. Some of the past life experiences might stop you from doing certain things as well. It's interesting. If you can't figure it out from this life why you are not doing something and procrastinating, it could be related to a past life habit too. Report an error in the passage at 53:44 Highlight the passage at 53:44

54:08 So then if it is actually wholesome thing that you need to do your procrastinating, then you need to figure out a way to get inspiration. But if it is not, then it's not a problem. Report an error in the passage at 54:08 Highlight the passage at 54:08

54:21 Isn't it to say patience is the highest virtue? Yeah, patience. But she's talking about not patience. It's more like putting things off and never getting started and not being able to get started sometimes of certain things. So sometimes it's because you don't have enough inspiration. If it's a good thing, then it is important. If you know that it's a good thing and you can't get started, then you need to build up. Report an error in the passage at 54:21 Highlight the passage at 54:21

54:47 Inspiration, why you need to do it, the benefits of it and bring up that energy. But also there are also brain chemistry related to this, right? When people's dopamine levels, serotonin levels are low, it's also hard to get motivated to do. So it's good to know that, but not to worry about it. You can build them up in your ways of thinking. So like having gratitude, you're bringing up gratitude, for example. Report an error in the passage at 54:47 Highlight the passage at 54:47

55:17 It could be because of our bad chemistry and the neurotransmitters that are in our mind. It could be due to past life things. It's amazing sometimes what you hear. Report an error in the passage at 55:17 Highlight the passage at 55:17

55:44 When people have past life regressions done from hypnosis, then they realize, oh, this is blocking you and stopping you from being able to do certain things. Because you probably had a very traumatic experience or a bad experience in the past or something like that. But other times it could be, I don't know, maybe just not inspired enough. Report an error in the passage at 55:44 Highlight the passage at 55:44

56:06 So hard to answer in a direct way, but try those. Does it make sense? Report an error in the passage at 56:06 Highlight the passage at 56:06

56:13 Yes. Someone has asked online, what do you mean about past karma blocking progress in meditation? Oh, yeah, it's not, you can't exactly say, but there's a sutta. Unfortunately, again, I don't have the reference for it, but sometimes some things that you have done can get in the way. This is like, you know, you might... Report an error in the passage at 56:13 Highlight the passage at 56:13

56:39 try but because that you may have maybe you know done something really bad to stop somebody from you know attaining somebody from getting good teachings because this is a very important thing you know when you block somebody generosity it's quite a bad thing it's you block somebody doing a good act another person receiving the gift and yourself Blocking it, bad mental karma, three times. So if somebody just blocked somebody else from going into meditation retreat, listening to dharma, access to dharma or gave the wrong things and stuff like that, those are quite heavy bad karma sometimes. Report an error in the passage at 56:39 Highlight the passage at 56:39

57:24 So they can, when we are trying again, can get in the way sometimes. It happens. So like I said, it's hard to tell exactly because workings of karma are very complicated that's why we have to be very careful because once we do it we can't take it back yeah so we can do more to dilute it but some of them are going to go but the thing is not to get too disheartened the Buddha says now one of the ways that it blocks you is in this life in this life if you have killed your mother killed your father or killed an enlightened being or harmed the Buddha or created disharmony and separation in the saṅgha they are called anantariya compass they're the highest kind of bad and you are not going to be able to get enlightened in this life it definitely So that can get really in the way of enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 57:24 Highlight the passage at 57:24

58:35 If you haven't done it in this life, you can't say maybe I did it in the past life. It doesn't work like that. Whatever life you've done it, you've already gone to hell and come back again now. So it has to be this life. If you haven't done these five things in this life, you still have the ability to get fully enlightened. Even those things can block, try to get in the way. Report an error in the passage at 58:35 Highlight the passage at 58:35

58:55 You can strive and you can help yourself. So in the time of the Buddha, there were some monks. One of the monks, he had really bad digestion. Report an error in the passage at 58:55 Highlight the passage at 58:55

59:05 Couldn't eat anything. All kinds of things. Even the Venerable Sāriputta tried to find suitable things. Can't eat. It was very difficult. I can't actually remember whether he got enlightened or not. But things like that happen. We hear this time as well. So sometimes kamma can get in the way. But some people can still keep going and do good and dilute and keep going. Report an error in the passage at 59:05 Highlight the passage at 59:05

59:32 so but Yeah, I wish I had the reference for the other sutta, but it is in the suttas. Lalit, you were going to ask a question. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 59:32 Highlight the passage at 59:32

59:46 By the way, my name is Larry. I'm originally from Sri Lanka. And I never knew until one o 'clock today that there's something like this happening. So we went to see the residents today for the arms deal. And they said the Indian community is going to come. They didn't He made that. Can you come here? This is the first time I see totally foreign audience. Somebody is giving a dharma talk. Report an error in the passage at 59:46 Highlight the passage at 59:46

1:00:14 While I thought of telling this, we were born Buddhist. We have done meditating at the age of four as well. But still this one and a half hours we have spent here, we got so much insight from this. We have gone for ten days retreats, thousands of dharma talks. We just came the one and a half hours. It was so, this was so many insights. And you all of all, I just thought of carrying this message. You're so fortunate out of 1.4 billion Indians, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:00:14 Highlight the passage at 1:00:14

1:00:53 Living, I've been to India for more than 15 times, most of the places in India. I was just thinking how fortunate they were still in Karman, even in the right place. Listening to these teachers, they are not, actually we have a lot of monks by the way. And they are academically qualified, experience everything in life. And with that experience, with teaching a Buddha, they are given something. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:53 Highlight the passage at 1:00:53

1:01:18 For me, it's worth billions. It's not like coming to city, Western University, city, university and this and this. So please, only request this. You're so fortunate. I've been in the corporate world, done so many things in life, right? But every word that she was telling is so meaningful. So please encourage. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:18 Highlight the passage at 1:01:18

1:02:01 want my We would love to come and attend this with your permission for every month. Everybody's invited. This is all inclusive because it's at the Western Sydney University. So everybody's welcome. I would also like to thank the two, three members because I think everyone came from that far, 150, 107 kilometers away from me. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:01 Highlight the passage at 1:02:01

1:02:16 always welcome. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:16 Highlight the passage at 1:02:16

1:02:33 And after having a very tiring day with us and you both came, I think, so thank you so much. You're welcome. And also for Aunty Peng who drove us. I was just sitting in the car. So for all the other people, I mean, you all also contribute. So I also take this opportunity to say that we can't do anything like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:33 Highlight the passage at 1:02:33

1:03:02 You need somebody to give, but there has to be people to receive as well. So I so appreciate you keep coming. Some of you are coming quite far. It's not like 10 minutes. Yeah. And also your generosity in putting together and helping out and also the nice dinner that is going to come out. So the contribution. So that's why there's a donation box. It's not to earn money for anybody or anything. It's just to cover the cost. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:02 Highlight the passage at 1:03:02

1:03:32 are very fortunate, thanks to Meta Center, who's also co-hosting this event. So it's an event co-hosted by Santi Forest Monastery and Meta Center. And Meta Center is the one who was able to get this as a free venue. You know, living in Sydney, how expensive a venue like this would cost for this kind of amount of time, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:03:32 Highlight the passage at 1:03:32

1:03:51 We get this for free, and it's incredible. And it's nice that we can all come together, not worry about having to cook dinner, have a nice meal together, have time to spend afterwards with like-minded people. This is so important, isn't it? This is really important. So also want to thank you all for your contribution. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:51 Highlight the passage at 1:03:51