Conflict and Disharmony

0:04 This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness and who knows the path of peace. Let them be able and upright, straightforward and gentle in speech, humble and not conceited, contented and easily satisfied. Report an error in the passage at 0:04 Highlight the passage at 0:04

0:32 duties and frugal in their ways, peaceful and calm and wise and skillful, not proud and demanding in nature, let them not do the slightest thing that the wise would later reprove. Wishing in gladness and in safety, may all beings be at ease, whatever living beings there may be, whether they are weak or strong, omitting none, the great or the mighty. Report an error in the passage at 0:32 Highlight the passage at 0:32

1:17 medium short or small the seen and the unseen those living near and far away those born and to be born may all beings be at ease let none deceive another Report an error in the passage at 1:17 Highlight the passage at 1:17

2:08 Radiating kindness over the entire world Spreading upwards to the skies And downwards to the depths Outwards and unbounded Freed from hatred and ill will Whether standing or walking Seated or lying down Free from drowsiness One should sustain this recollection. This is said to be the sublime abiding by not holding to false views. Report an error in the passage at 2:08 Highlight the passage at 2:08

2:51 The pure-hearted one having clarity of vision, being freed from all sense desires, is not born again into this world. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu. Okay, very good. There you are, that's the marvelous Mettā Sutta. And it's a powerful Sutta. It's not just about Mettā. I think it's about the whole path actually. Mettā and kindness and meditation and wisdom and everything is included in that Sutta. Report an error in the passage at 2:51 Highlight the passage at 2:51

3:30 So Mettā is kind of the culmination of all of these qualities. So it's extraordinary. Extraordinary, yeah. So should I just talk then? Is that right? Catherine? Okay, I will just talk then. Okay, good. So I'll just talk. So the Mettā Sutta kind of shows us, you know, is one, basically the teaching of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 3:30 Highlight the passage at 3:30

3:53 And for that reason, I consider it very, very important because all the Buddhism goes back to the time of the Buddha, goes back to what the Buddha taught us. And all of the dharma is really meaningful only insofar as it relates to the word of the Buddha. The word of the Buddha is the foundation for everything. Report an error in the passage at 3:53 Highlight the passage at 3:53

4:13 And this is kind of really important. And it's something that we very often forget in Buddhism. And I will give you an example of that kind of forgetfulness because I recently came back from Vietnam. I was in Ho Chi Minh City in the south of Vietnam. I was part of the United Nations Day of Asak in Ho Chi Minh City. And a very large gathering at one of the universities, a Buddhist university of Vietnam. Report an error in the passage at 4:13 Highlight the passage at 4:13

4:44 And 3,000 people were there, over 1,000 people from around the world, from all corners of the world. I think there was from every continent, from Africa, from North America, from Europe, from all over Asia, from Australia. Australia was also represented. I have the pleasure of being able to say that. And I think the only place that was not represented was Antarctica. I think that was still left out. Report an error in the passage at 4:44 Highlight the passage at 4:44

5:08 But it was probably hard to get representatives from Antarctica, so I can still see why they weren't there. So Antarctica was kind of missing out, but otherwise I think there were people from pretty much everywhere around the world. And it's nice to be able to meet fellow Buddhists from different traditions, from the Mahāyāna, from the Vajrayana, from pure land Buddhists, from everything, every country pretty much. Report an error in the passage at 5:08 Highlight the passage at 5:08

5:34 80 different countries were represented there. And so we all came together, and that was kind of beautiful. And then Bhikkhu Bodhi, Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi, the kind of well-known American monk who has translated pretty much all the suttas, he gave the keynote address, and he gave a very powerful address. Report an error in the passage at 5:34 Highlight the passage at 5:34

5:51 I was very proud of him when I heard him speak, because one of the things that he said was that... All of you who are the leaders of Buddhism who are present here today, every one of you should ensure that there is an ordination of women, there is bhikkhuni ordination of women in your tradition. And I thought... Report an error in the passage at 5:51 Highlight the passage at 5:51

6:13 Wow, it's amazing. This is one of the leading gatherings of the leaders of Buddhism around the world. And here he has the guts to say that to this gathering. I thought, wow, good on you for doing that. What a marvelous thing that is. And I guess he has nothing much to lose, so he can actually be a bit controversial. He can speak truth to power, as the old saying goes. Report an error in the passage at 6:13 Highlight the passage at 6:13

6:36 And that's basically what he did. The entire trip to Vietnam was worth it just for hearing him say that. I thought that was really, really, really nice. And of course, that fits in very much with what we're trying to do here at the Buddhist Society of WA. So afterwards, I congratulated him on kind of giving such a nice speech because I know him a little bit from before. So that was marvelous. That was kind of, for me, the highlight of this whole thing. Report an error in the passage at 6:36 Highlight the passage at 6:36

7:04 But then later on, there was also... The 3,000 delegates were divided up into different groups and then there was talks and presentations given in different auditoriums around this university. And so it was divided up so you can only go to one out of ten talks because there were ten different auditoriums where things were being presented. Report an error in the passage at 7:04 Highlight the passage at 7:04

7:27 And so I went to the one, because I was also making a presentation, I went to the one where the same theme was presented as the theme that I was giving. And that was the theme of how to create, from inner peace, how to create outer peace. Starting from inner peace, how that leads to outer peace in the world. Report an error in the passage at 7:27 Highlight the passage at 7:27

7:48 It's a nice topic. The overall theme for the whole conference was unity and inclusivity from a Buddhist perspective, which is always a very nice idea, the idea of harmony and how to work together and all of these kind of things. And this particular theme where I was involved was a sub-theme, how to create outer peace from inner peace. And so I listened to all of these talks, and I have to admit I was kind of disappointed. Report an error in the passage at 7:48 Highlight the passage at 7:48

8:18 So, first of all, most of the presenters there were academics. These were professors from various universities. And some of them were very, very nice people. And I really enjoyed having a chat with them. They were really good people. Buddhists from every corner of the world, pretty much. But when they, first of all, when they presented the dharma, they presented it in a way that... Report an error in the passage at 8:18 Highlight the passage at 8:18

8:43 To my mind, you know, this is supposed to be a Vesak celebration. It's supposed to be inspiring. And then to get an academic that presents an academic talk with slides and with kind of a reading from a manuscript or whatever, it doesn't have the same power. It doesn't have that inspirational power that a Vesak celebration should have. And so I missed the inspirational side of a... Report an error in the passage at 8:43 Highlight the passage at 8:43

9:06 Dhamma talk is well given. When you hear someone like Ajahn Brahm and he's kind of really holding forth in a powerful way, I find it really inspiring just to sit in the audience and listening to the Ajahn Brahm. There's a power not just in the words but in how the words are given, how they come out, where they are coming from. This is often far more important than actually the words themselves. Report an error in the passage at 9:06 Highlight the passage at 9:06

9:29 And this is what a good dhamma talk should really be about. It should inspire you. It should lift you up. It should make you... You feel different at the end of the talk from when you started out. But these talks were just too dry, and so I wanted to go to the organizers, these really big shot monks, and want to tell them, I said, please, in the future, bring some more inspirational teachers, because that's what Vesak should be about. Report an error in the passage at 9:29 Highlight the passage at 9:29

9:51 And if I have the opportunity, and to be very cheeky, I might actually do that, because I'm not... All that afraid of these senior monks, I'm quite happy to tell them what I think is a good idea. So I may very well do that if I have the opportunity. So that was the first thing that I thought was not quite right. Report an error in the passage at 9:51 Highlight the passage at 9:51

10:09 The dharma needs to be inspirational because it is from inspiration that meditation arises, that the whole path really is built upon that. But the second thing that kind of was very clear to me... Especially now, we're just chanting the Mettā Sutta, which seems to be the word of the Buddha, was that nobody was mentioning the word of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 10:09 Highlight the passage at 10:09

10:31 No one mentioned any suttas. They were all about when you practice mindfulness, then you become peaceful, and then when you kind of go into the world, then the world becomes a better place. or if you are mindful in your daily interactions with people or if you are mindful when you study you become a better student or if you are mindful that work and we have measured mindfulness in this way we can show through brain waves measurements that mindfulness works all this kind of stuff. Report an error in the passage at 10:31 Highlight the passage at 10:31

10:59 It was all modern stuff. There was no reference to how the Buddha talks about these things at all. It's all about what we're doing now, what universities are doing. No one even said that mindfulness actually comes from Buddhism originally. This is actually where all of these teachings are. All this research ultimately is derived from the suttas and the word of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 10:59 Highlight the passage at 10:59

11:20 The people who started the mindfulness movements, especially in the United States, because that is where it has taken off, Jon Kabat-Zinn and these people, mindfulness-based stress reduction and these things, they drew that inspiration from the dharma and then decided to divest it of what they considered religion so that only the pure mindfulness remained. Report an error in the passage at 11:20 Highlight the passage at 11:20

11:42 But that is a problem. Because there is no such thing as pure mindfulness. This is a wrong understanding of how the dharma works. Everything on this Noble Eightfold Path is interconnected. You can't take one factor out and think that there is such a thing as pure mindfulness. And so, to me, that was concerning. Report an error in the passage at 11:42 Highlight the passage at 11:42

12:02 What was concerning is that it's taken out of the Sutta context and then all of these ideas that come from America. Yeah, from the United States because of the hegemony of American culture around the world. It means that even these nations that are, you know, where everyone is a Buddhist, they take these American ideas back to their countries and now they present the dharma just like Americans do. Report an error in the passage at 12:02 Highlight the passage at 12:02

12:30 And I thought, we are losing something in this. We can't all become like Jon Kabat-Zinn and have mindfulness-based stress reduction. We are losing something very important here. And so I felt that kind of, you know, we are actually, we need that plurality in Buddhism whereby we do different things. And those who come from Buddhist countries, yeah, they have the right to present the dharma in the way that is more... Report an error in the passage at 12:30 Highlight the passage at 12:30

12:56 their culture rather than taking on board all of these Western ideas, especially American ideas because American culture is so hegemonic and so strong everywhere around the world basically. So that was kind of my gripe. I wasn't upset at this because I know this is just the way people are, but it occurred to me that we need to do something else. Report an error in the passage at 12:56 Highlight the passage at 12:56

13:19 And so what I... What I did then, I also gave a presentation, and my presentation was quite different from all the other ones. And what I said, all of these other ones was about how mindfulness creates a better life, how it creates a better society, and all of these kind of things. But I said that actually, this is all well and good. I have no problem with any of these things. These are positive contributions, obviously. But that is not how the Buddha talks about mindfulness in the suttas. Report an error in the passage at 13:19 Highlight the passage at 13:19

13:51 It's a very different thing. Mindfulness in the suttas is not really aimed at creating a better world. Mindfulness in the suttas is not really aimed at some perfect life, and now we can go out and enjoy ourselves because we are mindful in our relationships or mindful at work. That is not really the purpose of mindfulness in Buddhism. It is far more profound than that. And if we don't use the suttas as our reference point, we lose the profundity of the dhamma, what it really is about. Report an error in the passage at 13:51 Highlight the passage at 13:51

14:22 And that is really problematic because then we lose the essence of Buddhism. We lose this gift that we have for the world as Buddhists that kind of goes by the wayside because we are kind of too much staying with the zeitgeist and not actually being sufficiently using the suttas in the right way. And so when I gave my presentation, I started in a very different way. And I said, well, what does the Buddha have to say about conflict and disharmony? Report an error in the passage at 14:22 Highlight the passage at 14:22

14:55 Because this conference was all about unity and inclusiveness. So what does the Buddha have to say about unity and inclusiveness and the opposite, which is disharmony and conflict and war and these kind of things? And I said that what the Buddha said is actually that conflict and disharmony is an integral part of human society. Report an error in the passage at 14:55 Highlight the passage at 14:55

15:18 Yeah, from the Buddha's point of view, there is no final solution in society. There is no utopian world in which everything is fine. Yes, we can maybe create a better society if we choose our governments wisely, but that seems also to be very difficult to choose our governments wisely. You look at what's happening around the world, there's all kinds of... Report an error in the passage at 15:18 Highlight the passage at 15:18

15:40 Things seem to be going in reverse sometimes, and we just don't know what's going on. Actually, all of these things are so uncertain. And so I pointed everyone to the sutta called the Sakya Panya Sutta, a very interesting sutta found in the long discourses of the Buddha, the Dighanika, and number 21, the questions of Sakya. Report an error in the passage at 15:40 Highlight the passage at 15:40

15:59 So Sakya is the lord of the gods. So I don't know if Sakya actually... Ask the Buddha these questions, but that's kind of how it is set up in this sutta. And so Sakka comes down to the Buddha, and he asks the Buddha this really remarkable question. And I've always wondered why haven't more people in the world actually asked this question, because it's kind of very, very much to the point. And the questions he asks the Buddha, he says that, well, why is it that when everyone in the world wants harmony, wants freedom from conflict, He wants peace, wants to work together, wants unity. When everybody wants this, why is it that we still have conflict, we have disharmony, we have violence, we have wars in the world? Report an error in the passage at 15:59 Highlight the passage at 15:59

16:48 When what we want is the opposite, why do we get the opposite of what we want? It's a really good question. You would think that if we really wanted that, we would be able to do it, right? So something is out of whack here. And this is what he says to the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 16:48 Highlight the passage at 16:48

17:03 Then the Buddha replies and he has this long list of cause and conditions kind of taking this back stage by stage. So one of the cause and conditions in this long list is desires and aversion. We have desire and aversions for things and this is one of the reasons why we have conflict for obvious reasons. If you have a lot of aversion you reject things and if you have a lot of desire you want to accumulate more for yourself and then we get into conflict. Report an error in the passage at 17:03 Highlight the passage at 17:03

17:29 It kind of makes very good sense. He analyzes this further and he takes it back stage by stage going backwards to the root cause of conflict. And this is where it gets really interesting because he says that the root cause Report an error in the passage at 17:29 Highlight the passage at 17:29

18:02 An idea is based on the proliferation of the mind, the mind that always goes out and proliferates and makes things out of nothing, basically. And in the suttas, this whole idea of papancha is rooted in one thing, and that one thing is the sense of self. So the sense of self is the root cause of conflict in the world. Report an error in the passage at 18:02 Highlight the passage at 18:02

18:27 That has very, very powerful implications because what that means is that there's always going to be people with a sense of self in the world. You're not going to be able to eradicate the sense of self from all beings in the world. That's impossible. It's hard enough to do it yourself, right? You have probably all tried to kind of reduce the sense of self. You know how difficult it is. Report an error in the passage at 18:27 Highlight the passage at 18:27

19:08 such thing as a society where there is no conflict, where there is no disharmony, where there is no violence, even where there is no war. This is hardwired, baked into our societies because of our defilements. That is very interesting already in its own right. And it is very interesting because it means that the idea looking for a utopian society As we often do as human beings, we have tried utopian experiments around the world and usually with disastrous consequences, killing millions of people. Report an error in the passage at 19:08 Highlight the passage at 19:08

19:46 We know what happened in Cambodia with the killing fields and Pol Pot and all of that. It was terrible. And there's many other examples of that in history of the world. Report an error in the passage at 19:46 Highlight the passage at 19:46

19:57 Ideology and utopian ideas getting in the way of kind of reality. So Buddhism says actually that's impossible and that's already a very, very useful insight. Report an error in the passage at 19:57 Highlight the passage at 19:57

20:08 So this is kind of the starting point. That's already useful. The other kind of very powerful insight coming from this is that there is a limit to how much effort we should make in trying to kind of create an external world that is perfect. If it is impossible and if we know that violence is always going to come back, we start to change our values. Instead of putting all our values and what the world is like, instead of trying to correct the world in all kinds of ways, we start to understand the power of the spiritual path because it is on the spiritual path where we can overcome the sense of self. Report an error in the passage at 20:08 Highlight the passage at 20:08

20:48 That is kind of the idea of the spiritual path from a Buddhist perspective. And so suddenly the spiritual path becomes incredibly important because that is where we can achieve the thing that the Buddha is talking about. And of course, if you then are able to overcome the sense of self, at least to some extent in your own personal life, that will... Report an error in the passage at 20:48 Highlight the passage at 20:48

21:12 Then also express itself outwardly in the world outside. And so by living the spiritual life in the right way, by reducing or even overcoming the sense of self, not only are we personally becoming peaceful, but we're also kind of allowing that to go into the world. That is the consequence of that. And maybe I'll come back to that in a second to talk more about that. Report an error in the passage at 21:12 Highlight the passage at 21:12

21:37 So this, to me, is the right way of thinking about this. This is kind of the Buddha's insight into the nature of the world. And at a large conference like in Vietnam, I think we don't have to only talk about these things, but at least they should be mentioned. So I'm very glad I was there because I mentioned it. So that's what happened. So I had the opportunity to kind of balance things out a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 21:37 Highlight the passage at 21:37

22:02 So I was very pleased with that. But there is another place in the suttas where the Buddha also talks about the problem with the world and why it is impossible to have a world that is always in harmony and which always is peaceful. And that is a simile that I kind of often use in my dharma talks. And this is a simile of the birds and the piece of meat. Report an error in the passage at 22:02 Highlight the passage at 22:02

22:31 Some of you have probably heard this simile before because I talk about it quite a lot. This is the idea that if a bird gets hold of a piece of meat, a piece of meat is very valuable in the bird kingdom because usually they have to eat insects or whatever, whatever they eat. But if it gets a piece of meat, it's like, yay, I got a piece of meat. Hooray, so happy. So it grabs onto this piece of meat, takes it with a beak or whatever and flies off. Report an error in the passage at 22:31 Highlight the passage at 22:31

22:59 But of course, because the piece of meat is so valuable in the bird world, it means other birds also want the same piece of meat. And so as soon as this first bird gets hold of that piece of meat and it flies off, all these other birds, bigger ones like hawks and eagles or whatever, they fly after it and they try to rip that piece of meat out of that other bird's claws or beak or whatever it is. Report an error in the passage at 22:59 Highlight the passage at 22:59

23:28 So what happens then? Well, what happens then if that first bird, if it doesn't let go of that piece of meat, then, of course, it will end up very disastrous for that bird. Maybe it will die, or maybe it will get hurt very badly, or who knows what. But disaster is kind of waiting here. And so this is the idea here, is that the piece of meat is a symbol for the external world. Report an error in the passage at 23:28 Highlight the passage at 23:28

23:51 Especially it is a symbol of all the things that we have in common in the world. Yeah, the idea that Report an error in the passage at 23:51 Highlight the passage at 23:51

24:01 You know, we are sharing basically the external world. We are sharing all the same kind of resources. And we often want the same things in the world. We want the same promotions. We want the same houses. We want the same cars. Everyone wants the best stuff in the world. We want the same partners. That is a really big one. We are fighting over the partners or whatever. And that is one that causes enormous conflict in the world. And so the idea here is that we share the external world. Report an error in the passage at 24:01 Highlight the passage at 24:01

24:30 We share the sensory world, if you like. And because we share it, there's always going to be competition. And because there's going to be competition, there's going to be winners and losers. And because there's winners and losers, there's going to be conflict, there's going to be violence, even going to be war. Sometimes we go to war over resources. Report an error in the passage at 24:30 Highlight the passage at 24:30

24:49 That's kind of a well-known phenomenon in the world. And so you can see again, this is very similar to the previous idea, the idea that conflict is inherent to our society. We can't avoid conflict because we have the external world in common and because we want the same things, guaranteed there's going to be conflict. Report an error in the passage at 24:49 Highlight the passage at 24:49

25:14 So this is the starting point for this whole thing. And so what we have to do then, we have to... Reduce the sense of self if we can. And we also have to let go a little bit, not hold on so hard to the things in the world. We have to reorient our values, move our values more onto the spiritual life and a little bit away from the worldly things because the worldly things are obviously problematic. Report an error in the passage at 25:14 Highlight the passage at 25:14

25:42 So the question then is, well, how do we do that? What is the right way of doing this? And you might think, Just having heard now the simile of the piece of the bird and the piece of meat, you might think, well, we all have to let go of the meat. Are you ready to let go of the meat? Report an error in the passage at 25:42 Highlight the passage at 25:42

26:01 Probably not. It's hard to let go of the meat because the meat is everything we've got in our lives. The meat is our house. The meat is our dearest belongings. The meat is our relationships. That's the meat. So it's very, very hard to let go of that meat. And so it's a very high demand from the Buddha when he uses this kind of simile. So what can we do? Well, the first thing that we can do, and this is of course what the Buddha says when he talks in the A variety of suit as he talks about meditation practice. He says that we should be atta-dipa and dhamma-dipa. We should take our refuge in ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 26:01 Highlight the passage at 26:01

26:40 And we should take the dhamma as our refuge. We should be an island unto ourselves. Dipa means island. And that happens through meditation practice. And this is one reason we have the International Armoured Air Group. Is that an oxymoron, Catherine? International Armoured Air Group? I think it's an oxymoron. Report an error in the passage at 26:40 Highlight the passage at 26:40

26:58 I think it's kind of a contradiction in terms of... Anyway, it's a kind of... Cute, cute term, yeah, the International Alhambra Group, so we'll call it that then. So this is why we have this group, is because we are actually trying to fulfill that very idea in the dhamma, the idea of making yourself into an island, making an island out of the dhamma. Report an error in the passage at 26:58 Highlight the passage at 26:58

27:18 To kind of withdraw from the world. Because meditation is precisely that. When you close your eyes and you go inward, the idea there is to let go of the world and find a refuge within. That refuge within, if it really works, is a refuge of peace. It may be a refuge of joy. It's a refuge of freedom. That you find inside of yourself. And the deeper your meditation is, the more powerful that refuge is. And you actually start to gain an independence from the world outside. Report an error in the passage at 27:18 Highlight the passage at 27:18

27:51 And you are letting go of that piece of meat. The piece of meat actually doesn't matter so much anymore. You understand you gain a kind of resilience in the face of all the problems in the world, in the face of all the change that happens in everyone's life. And because of that resilience, you are able to deal with the problems of life even better because of that. But you may think that that kind of meditation is really... Report an error in the passage at 27:51 Highlight the passage at 27:51

28:18 How can we kind of get to that point in meditation? Because actually it is not always easy to gain access to all of the profound peace in meditation. Some of you may do that, some of you may have really good meditations and that's wonderful if you can, but some of you are probably also struggling a little bit more. Report an error in the passage at 28:18 Highlight the passage at 28:18

28:37 And so we need something more than just meditation practice. And we need kind of the earlier steps and the other steps of the path. And what is nice about these other steps of the path is that they too lead to a kind of refuge from the world. They too lead to a reduction in the sense of self. They too lead to a releasing of the piece of meat a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 28:37 Highlight the passage at 28:37

29:01 And one example of that is an act of generosity. Yeah, generosity is a very, very important part of the Buddhist path. And I would really recommend all of you, if you can, to get into the idea of generosity. In various kind of ways, make that an integral part of your life, wherever it is. Do it often. Be generous, not just kind of once in a while, but do it often. Report an error in the passage at 29:01 Highlight the passage at 29:01

29:27 Do it every day. Small little acts of kindness, small little acts of kind of helping and doing something positive for someone else without expecting anything in return. Be generous to strangers, because if you're generous to strangers, there is no expectation of anything in return. And there's something very powerful about generosity. The idea of generosity is very closely linked to the idea of non-self. Report an error in the passage at 29:27 Highlight the passage at 29:27

29:55 Generosity and non-self are very closely linked to each other. And often I don't think we fully appreciate that. Because when you give something, remember the things that are yours. They are really an extension of your sense of self. The sense of self wants to own things because when the sense of self owns things, it feels safe. It feels it can enjoy pleasures in the world. Report an error in the passage at 29:55 Highlight the passage at 29:55

30:19 That's why we have relationships. That's why we have houses. That's why we have possessions. And we always think of these things as Mine. These are my things. It's a sense of self extending into the world, grasping onto things in the world. So when you are being generous, when you are giving something which truly is yours, you are doing the opposite of holding onto things in the world. Report an error in the passage at 30:19 Highlight the passage at 30:19

30:43 You are doing an anti-self movement. You are letting go of your sense of self. And if you notice, Please notice what happens when you are truly generous, when you truly let go of something, when you truly give something to someone else. Notice what happens there because actually what you will feel if it is a strong movement of generosity, you feel a sense of release. Report an error in the passage at 30:43 Highlight the passage at 30:43

31:09 You feel a sense of freedom and that freedom Part of that freedom is the release from the sense of self that you're feeling right at that moment because the sense of self is confining. The sense of self makes you small. It makes you kind of, this is my space and the world outside is dangerous. But at that moment, you're opening up to the world, reducing that feeling of confinement and limitations that you may have inside of yourself. Report an error in the passage at 31:09 Highlight the passage at 31:09

31:37 So this is actually a way of overcoming the sense of self, simply by being generous. So it's very powerful, very, very simple things that are very, very powerful. And that's why we should be generous all the time if we can. I really recommend this to you. Small acts. Bring one of your colleagues. Cup of tea or a glass of water and how can I help you today or whatever it is. Little things like that. Don't be afraid of looking like a fool sometimes. Report an error in the passage at 31:37 Highlight the passage at 31:37

32:07 It's okay to look like a fool if you do it for a higher purpose. That's what matters in life. So don't be afraid to sometimes make mistakes because that's the only path forward. If you take no risks in your life, you're never going to go very far. Few risks are always so important. So remember these things. Report an error in the passage at 32:07 Highlight the passage at 32:07

32:27 One of the things that I discovered several years ago is that many of the words that are used for generosity in the suttas are words that are also used in the Third Noble Truth. The Third Noble Truth is about nibbāna. It's about the final ending of the sense of self. And so it means that the movement of the mind that you are encouraging by giving is basically the same movement of the mind that you have when you reach enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 32:27 Highlight the passage at 32:27

32:56 The same kind of freedom. It's just that one of them is far more profound. But the same kind of idea. That is how important generosity is. And this is why the Buddha encourages it so much on the path. So this is what... Generosity does to you. So you can see that already you are creating a kind of an island for yourself. You are building up spiritual qualities. Report an error in the passage at 32:56 Highlight the passage at 32:56

33:18 Already moving in the right direction. And obviously you are also releasing the piece of meat. Because when you are giving, that is exactly what releasing the piece of meat is all about. You are giving something that you previously held on to. So that is the starting point and then of course you have the ethics, the morality, the kindness of the Buddhist path and the kindness of the Buddhist path is also Very similar here, when you are kind to others, you are not thinking of yourself, you are letting go of your selfishness, thinking what I can get of this, your focus is on the world instead, your focus is on other people. Report an error in the passage at 33:18 Highlight the passage at 33:18

33:57 And of course the weird thing is that if you do focus on other people, you want to make them happy, you want to do the right thing towards them, the person who benefits the most is yourself. It's just that you don't think about it. It just happens automatically. This is kind of the weird thing about this. So again, you are letting go of the piece of meat because you're not thinking of yourself. Report an error in the passage at 33:57 Highlight the passage at 33:57

34:19 It's a non-self action because you're not thinking of yourself. And then you actually reap that benefit of finding that island within yourself, using the dharma as an island as a consequence. And then... All of these things start to happen. Then eventually your meditation deepens because you are really fulfilling the path. And as I mentioned before, that is when you find that real refuge from the world within yourself as a consequence. Report an error in the passage at 34:19 Highlight the passage at 34:19

34:49 consequence and then the All these factors start to come together. You feel in harmony with yourself. You feel at peace with yourself. And when your meditation comes together, you know that that meditation depends on your external harmony. And because it depends on your external harmony, you become a force for good in the world, even more so than you did before through generosity and through your morality. Report an error in the passage at 34:49 Highlight the passage at 34:49

35:17 You understand that meditation Only works if you live at peace with the world, you live at harmony in the world. And so you become this beautiful person. And, you know, sometimes we underestimate how much power we have as individuals. Remember the Buddha. The Buddha was one person. And the Buddha had immeasurable influence of the world. Report an error in the passage at 35:17 Highlight the passage at 35:17

35:40 For over two and a half thousand years. And we should all try to live a little bit more like the Buddha. And if each one of us can be like a little Buddha, if you wish, do a little bit of these things, we will have also contribute to the world in a similar way, on a much smaller scale obviously, but in a similar way as the Buddha did. Report an error in the passage at 35:40 Highlight the passage at 35:40

36:01 Every time you do an act of kindness, it's like you're throwing a rock in the water and the ring is spread out, touching. touching people around you. And you know that. I know that. I know how people have touched me in my life through their kindness, through their generosity. This is how the world works. And we all become, this is how you create. Report an error in the passage at 36:01 Highlight the passage at 36:01

36:21 Anyway, Report an error in the passage at 36:21 Highlight the passage at 36:21

36:28 that is... also how you create peace within yourself. Report an error in the passage at 36:28 Highlight the passage at 36:28

36:30 All I have to say, my half an hour is up, so I have to stop now. So let's do some meditation together. Now the time has come for putting the theory into practice. Report an error in the passage at 36:30 Highlight the passage at 36:30

· · · silence, 3 minutes

39:11 Okay, everyone, so now finally we can settle down a little bit. And just to remind you, just very briefly, two of the main principles of meditation is, on the one hand, letting go. And on the other hand, the enjoyment of the meditation. And letting go initially is really about just relaxing and allowing things to be. Report an error in the passage at 39:11 Highlight the passage at 39:11

39:38 And so if you are able to relax, you are actually letting go. Because the non-relaxed state is a state of holding on. So just sitting back, just allowing the world to pass by without reacting, without getting involved. involved, without allowing the thoughts to come, but not really sticking onto those thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 39:38 Highlight the passage at 39:38

40:25 Think it means. It's simple. It's just really relaxing deeply. That is what, in a sense, it is about. As Report an error in the passage at 40:25 Highlight the passage at 40:25

· · · silence, 3 minutes

43:32 you let go in this very simple fashion, just doing nothing basically, allowing things to be, then notice the peace of that. Even if there are thoughts going on in your mind, there's something peaceful and beautiful about not doing anything. It's as if your energy comes back into your mind. It's as if the clarity slowly returns and the mindfulness arises. Report an error in the passage at 43:32 Highlight the passage at 43:32

44:01 And please be aware of that enjoyment of the meditation, the good qualities that are there and how enjoyable it is to allow these good qualities to arise. The more you enjoy the meditation, the more easy it becomes to just be peaceful and just enjoy. And then, as you let go, as you enjoy the process that is going on, then mindfulness will arise. And there comes a point when you kind of naturally follow the breath. Report an error in the passage at 44:01 Highlight the passage at 44:01

44:33 The breath is just there. You don't need to look for it. You don't need to try. You don't need to hold on to it. The breath is a bit like the wind in the trees. Something that is there. You are present. The breath is present. And you just observe it because it is there with you. No holding on, no trying, no striving, just enjoying the soft touch of the breath. Report an error in the passage at 44:33 Highlight the passage at 44:33

44:58 And in this way, gradually allow things to deepen. Report an error in the passage at 44:58 Highlight the passage at 44:58

· · · silence, 21 minutes

1:06:18 Okay, everyone, so now please just spend a moment or two just to review your meditation today and ask yourself if you... Do you feel more peaceful or at ease or mindful or whatever? Ask yourself why that is the case. What is this process of meditation? What does it mean to let go? And how do you develop your perceptions? Report an error in the passage at 1:06:18 Highlight the passage at 1:06:18

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:07:38 Okay, okay, okay. So there you are. So now we can take some questions or comments or whatever. So please... Please just fire away whatever you'd like to bring up. Please do so. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:38 Highlight the passage at 1:07:38

1:07:58 Ajahn, I have a question. When you mention about pure mindfulness, there's no such thing as pure mindfulness. Can you elaborate on that? What do you mean by that? Okay, so what I mean is that mindfulness does not exist in a kind of vacuum. It does not exist... Just on its own it exists as a kind of in a network of causes and conditions and also results. So if you talk just about being mindful in daily life we are missing out on a lot of how mindfulness actually is developed. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:58 Highlight the passage at 1:07:58

1:08:39 So first of all Mindfulness has many different levels to it, many different stages. You can have ordinary mindfulness, which is very everyday. You're trying to be aware of what you're doing or whatever. Then you can have the meditation that you have So the mindfulness you can have in meditation, that often can be more deep. And then you can have the mindfulness that arises out of deep meditation, maybe after samādhi and these kind of things. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:39 Highlight the passage at 1:08:39

1:09:07 And so we need to understand mindfulness kind of in a more holistic, in a more complete way. And we need to understand all the factors that lead to that development of that mindfulness. In a sense, this was what the last part of the talk was about. I was talking about generosity, I was talking about sīla, very, very briefly, but I didn't mention it there. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:07 Highlight the passage at 1:09:07

1:09:28 And if you do those things well... That will actually lead to real mindfulness. And when you have real mindfulness, that will lead you to samādhi. And when you have real samādhi, that will actually lead you to the kind of insights the Buddha was talking about. And if you get some of those insights or you get some of that samādhi, well, that is what the Buddha really is on about when he's teaching the dharma. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:28 Highlight the passage at 1:09:28

1:09:52 He's not talking about mindfulness. you know so much in daily life or just using it as a kind of daily thing to kind of balance yourself out that is important as well but it's only really a very preliminary step. in the Buddhist practice and then it goes much, much deeper than that. So all of the causes of mindfulness and the results of mindfulness is what is important. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:52 Highlight the passage at 1:09:52

1:10:17 The purpose of mindfulness in the suttas is very different from the purpose of mindfulness that you see in the present world usually. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:17 Highlight the passage at 1:10:17

1:10:28 Ajahn, just now, I don't understand you when you talk about the conditional, it's all conditional in a sense. When you mention Samādhi, if I achieve Samādhi, and I come up from Samādhi, I should continue to practice Vipassanā as much as possible during the daily life and reflect on the teaching of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:28 Highlight the passage at 1:10:28

1:11:05 Is this the right way? Or I should not... I get so hanged up with, oh, I must get somebody, I must get somebody. But very much just continue with the practice, you know, concentrate on the breathing, whether I get it or don't get it. And after, you know, of course, after meditation, I come out in my daily life, you know, every single moment, I reflect on the teaching of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:05 Highlight the passage at 1:11:05

1:11:38 Am I on the right path? Yeah, yeah. No, it sounds to me like you're on the right path. You sound like you are. This is good. Yeah, you're reflecting on the teaching of the Buddha, bringing that with you. And you're right. Don't try too hard to kind of think, I have to get samādhi, because this often becomes just a hindrance. It becomes more craving. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:38 Highlight the passage at 1:11:38

1:11:59 Instead, enjoy the meditation. Samādhi is the outcome of the causes and conditions being right. And if the cause and conditions are right, then the samādhi will happen. But if you... Report an error in the passage at 1:11:59 Highlight the passage at 1:11:59

1:12:11 What is not a cause and condition of samādhi is wanting the samādhi too much. If you want it too much, actually that becomes a hindrance very often. You have to want it a little bit because you have to want it enough to come to the armada group. If you don't come to the armada group, you're not going to get any samādhi. So you have to want to come to the armada group. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:11 Highlight the passage at 1:12:11

1:12:29 You have to want to bring out your cushion and sit down on your bottom. So there has to be some initial desire to meditate. but the kind of this corrective Craving to achieve something on the path is always just going to be a hindrance. So put in the causes. And the causes, as you say quite rightly, they happen in daily life. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:29 Highlight the passage at 1:12:29

1:12:49 They happen with how you interact with the people around you. They happen with, again, as you say also, reflecting on the dharma because very often you may not know, well, what should I do now? And then you think, well, what does the dharma say? What does the Buddha say? What would Ajahn Brahm say? Should I... Report an error in the passage at 1:12:49 Highlight the passage at 1:12:49

1:13:08 Tell this person off or should I just have compassion? Okay, maybe I just have compassion today. So you ask yourself what the dharma is, right? And in this way you use the dharma to kind of guide you during daily life, to kind of bring you in the right direction. And so, absolutely. So use the dharma, use the idea of right view. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:08 Highlight the passage at 1:13:08

1:13:25 To enable the kindness, to enable the compassion in the world. And as you develop this as much as you possibly can, meditation will improve. Mindfulness will improve. Samādhi will eventually just happen. And so, yeah, please carry on. I think you're doing the right thing. Yeah, great. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:25 Highlight the passage at 1:13:25

1:13:49 Okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:49 Highlight the passage at 1:13:49

1:13:57 Please. I think, yeah. Hi, this is Martha. Hi, Martha. And I... if everybody just could ask their questions. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:57 Highlight the passage at 1:13:57

1:14:04 I would like to ask about, I think you kind of actually answered it a little bit, but just a question because when it comes to the mettā sutta, I was conditioned to worry about what other people were thinking and to obsess to the point where I really gave up paying attention to my own senses. So as not to be rude or impolite when someone comes in and gave me a kiss when I was real young or, you know, a clean plate flubber and then worrying about reputation as opposed to safety and health. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:04 Highlight the passage at 1:14:04

1:14:47 So in the metatheta where it talks about let me not do the slightest thing that the wise will later reprove, I am wondering, and I think that you brought it up because you said don't let... Don't be afraid to look a fool if you're being generous. I don't know if you can talk more about letting go of other people's and what is wise, although you just said what would be wrong. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:47 Highlight the passage at 1:14:47

1:15:15 I think it's very important not to be too concerned about what other people think because very often that kind of concern actually leads us to doing stupid things. If you are too concerned about others, it means that sometimes to please others you might do something which is actually wrong, something which is immoral. And this is the ultimate consequence of being too much of a people pleaser and these kind of things. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:15 Highlight the passage at 1:15:15

1:15:41 So we should act from integrity. We should ask ourselves what is right, what is the right thing to do. And if other people don't like that, actually it is their problem. Yeah, it is not our problem. And sometimes those people who don't like that we live well, that we do the right thing, well maybe it's... Report an error in the passage at 1:15:41 Highlight the passage at 1:15:41

1:16:22 friends who are more Who help you to practice a spiritual life. Who kind of make it more conducive, make it more possible to do the right thing. So acting with integrity is critical. Always asking yourself, what is right? And it doesn't matter what other people want. That's kind of irrelevant. It's what is right that is important. And even the Buddha says that sometimes... Report an error in the passage at 1:16:22 Highlight the passage at 1:16:22

1:16:45 He gives a simile of a child that is choking on a piece of meat. And he says that even if you have to draw blood, you might stick your... Report an error in the passage at 1:16:45 Highlight the passage at 1:16:45

1:17:03 people to even to learn how to move in the right way. Sometimes the Buddha could be a bit fierce with the monks. He could tell them off because they were doing stupid things like being noisy or being too socializing. So ask yourself what is right from a Dhamma point of view, not what is right from people's People-pleasing point of view. Thank you. I appreciate you so much. Very good. Great. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:03 Highlight the passage at 1:17:03

1:17:33 Thank Report an error in the passage at 1:17:33 Highlight the passage at 1:17:33

1:17:38 you, Ajahn. I have two questions. Firstly, I have recently put on hold my studies so that I can focus my life on following the Dharma. And one thing that I've found is that one of my teachers that I always look at is Ajahn Sujatha. And he's mentioned that... A wise way when you're learning dharma is rather than, for example, listening to multiple talks per day, just one teaching slowly, sit on that, absorb that, which is what I'm trying to do because I also think that it's quality over quantity. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:38 Highlight the passage at 1:17:38

1:18:20 However, what I'm finding is that the more that I get into my practice, I feel there is a conflict between listening to teachers who... sort of say you know see for yourself just for you know do your own practice and things will come to you with the teachings to have very focused Okay, Report an error in the passage at 1:18:20 Highlight the passage at 1:18:20

1:18:56 so I... know focus on this part of your breath and then do this and then do this and i'm a bit conflicted as to whether to have a more purposeful pointed practice or to sort of just let things go if that makes sense and be okay Report an error in the passage at 1:18:56 Highlight the passage at 1:18:56

1:18:59 What matters is that you kind of follow the advice of the Buddha, that you follow what he said. That's what matters. And so as long as it is in line with the dharma, you are kind of on the right path. And, you know, there are certain things where you should have very clear focus. For example, when it comes to... Report an error in the passage at 1:18:59 Highlight the passage at 1:18:59

1:19:15 You know, when we talk about practice, we shouldn't kind of limit that word down to meditation practice. Practice means everything on the Noble Eightfold Path. So if you say, if you're talking about sīla, if you're talking about morality, you should be very committed to that, very kind of super-duper committed. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:15 Highlight the passage at 1:19:15

1:19:31 It should be like every moment matters, and now matters. What am I thinking right now? Oh, wait, I'm thinking the wrong thing. Let me move back again. And so you should have a very strong commitment to it. The idea of kindness, including generosity and all of these kind of things. So it depends what you mean by that. When it comes to meditation practice, again the idea is to understand the instructions of the Buddha as clearly as you can. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:31 Highlight the passage at 1:19:31

1:19:59 So let's take for example the idea of mindfulness of breathing. The way that is described in the suttas is that first you establish mindfulness, then you watch the breath. And so very often what happens in real life is that people try to use the breath so as to establish mindfulness. And this is why the translation of Satipaṭṭhāna, the foundations of mindfulness, is very problematic, because it gives the idea that you use meditation to establish mindfulness, when actually what the Sutta says is that you establish mindfulness first, then you use that mindfulness that you have to enable you to follow the meditation object. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:59 Highlight the passage at 1:19:59

1:20:41 So if you understand the sequence of things, I think a lot of the confusion will go away. So when you meditate, the idea is, well, how do I establish mindfulness? If you go straight to the tip of your nose, you're going to go crazy because you're going to have to hold on to it and your mind is going to go off and it's not really going to work. But if you understand that, okay, establish mindfulness first, sit back. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:41 Highlight the passage at 1:20:41

1:21:02 Enjoy the peace, what is happening. Have the right kind of values, the value of enjoying peace, of enjoying tranquility, not the value of enjoying thinking about the world. The world is out of control anyway. What's the point of thinking about the world? Let the world go. So the right values combined with the enjoyment of the peace, combined with the ethics that you bring to the meditation, all of these things will congeal and then allow mindfulness to rise as a consequence. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:02 Highlight the passage at 1:21:02

1:21:32 And then when the mindfulness is sufficiently strong, as you kind of allow the world to fade, you feel that you are reasonably well present, then it's almost as if the breath emerges by itself. It's easy to watch the breath. It's pleasant to watch the breath. You're just sitting there and it's like you're watching the sunset or you're watching the wind in the trees or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:32 Highlight the passage at 1:21:32

1:21:55 The breath is just another object in the world. There's no sense of having to hold on to it or grasp on to it. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:55 Highlight the passage at 1:21:55

1:22:20 the sequence right and then the whole dilemma will resolve itself automatically by whether you should focus or not focus or relax or not because it's about doing the The right time, everything at the right time. And when the mindfulness is there, well then the focus will come by itself. So something like that is what I would reply. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:20 Highlight the passage at 1:22:20

1:22:39 Thank you Ajahn. And my second question is about recently I was in a temporary seminary program here in Indonesia. And during that time we just constant walking meditation, sitting meditation, tea meditation throughout the day. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:39 Highlight the passage at 1:22:39

1:22:59 My advisor mentioned that when we, let's say we were walking, and instead of the focus on our feet, we got lost in thoughts, we'd sort of stop what they mentioned to just label it as thinking, not focus too much on the content of the thoughts, but the fact that there was thinking. And they stated very clearly that they didn't want us to be judging the thoughts and investigating it because that content can often be quite worldly. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:59 Highlight the passage at 1:22:59

1:23:24 Now, coming back to my own practice, I've found sometimes maybe I'll do eating meditation and I'll notice, oh, okay, I've got a thought. But I tend to go, oh, that's rooted in greed, for example. Now, I wanted to ask whether that would be more helpful because I'm thinking that if I can notice that, then I might be able to take more purposeful positive actions to sort of combat the negative roots. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:24 Highlight the passage at 1:23:24

1:23:53 Or is it better to just be like thinking? Okay, so it depends on the context. So if you are meditating, you're watching the breath and you are quite peaceful, then it's best just to be aware and not look at the content, just aware of the thought. Because the moment you look at the content, you're going to get sidetracked from the meditation. So within meditation, just be aware of the thought and let it go as quickly as you can. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:53 Highlight the passage at 1:23:53

1:24:17 However, in daily life, if you are doing things and you're trying to have right effort, Report an error in the passage at 1:24:17 Highlight the passage at 1:24:17

1:24:39 important because if you do Do use right view to overcome the defilements of the mind. Actually, in the long run, these thoughts will become less and less and less because you're using right view to see the world afresh, to see the world in the way the Buddha saw the world. And as you strengthen that right view over time, it becomes clearer and clearer. The thoughts also become less of a problem over time. So again, context is what is most important here. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:39 Highlight the passage at 1:24:39

1:25:09 Yeah. Very good. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:09 Highlight the passage at 1:25:09

1:25:33 on gender, and unfortunately he didn't get to give it. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:33 Highlight the passage at 1:25:33

1:25:41 been at least some movement among Buddhists to... Report an error in the passage at 1:25:41 Highlight the passage at 1:25:41

1:26:00 is that still a big issue in this fight? The second point is, I think Bhikkhu Bodhi was quite critical about Buddhists being quite silent about all these. Hi, John. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:00 Highlight the passage at 1:26:00

1:26:15 violence around the world etc so even though we don't want to be attached to the world Buddhists, practicing Buddhists, it doesn't mean we don't do, you know, take a stand and follow the eightfold path and right view, and that comes back to Siva and a good solid meditation. one of your comments on that yeah Report an error in the passage at 1:26:15 Highlight the passage at 1:26:15

1:26:43 Of course, I'm not happy to comment on anything really. Yes, is there a movement? There's definitely a movement happening in the world in terms of women's ordination. That's really changing dramatically. There's so many bhikkhunis now, nuns around in Sri Lanka, in Thailand. It's happening. And the fact, as you say, that he was allowed to give that speech in that kind of gathering because everyone knew what he was going to say beforehand. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:43 Highlight the passage at 1:26:43

1:27:10 He was given approval to give that particular talk. It means that something is happening here. So that's on the one side. On the other side, I spoke to one of the Burmese monks who was there afterwards. And he said he's also very pro-Bikinis, which is actually very rare in Burma. So that was kind of, wow, this Burmese monk was pro-Bikinis. That was kind of very interesting. And he said to me that at least... Report an error in the passage at 1:27:10 Highlight the passage at 1:27:10

1:27:37 The young monks here, yeah, for them it is very good to hear a talk like this because the young monks, they see the world differently. And so they will then be conditioned in a different way to kind of become more accepting of this. For the old ones, usually you're so stuck in your ways when you're kind of past a certain age that you can't really change, right? It's like Ajahn Brahm says that science advances one funeral at a time. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:37 Highlight the passage at 1:27:37

1:28:01 That's kind of one of his sayings. And I think sometimes it's kind of... Bhikkhuni ordination might be a little bit like that. One funeral at a time, we advance. But yes, I think it's a positive sign and things are changing. The monk who excluded Ajahn Brahm at that time, he was there in the hall and he approved Bhikkhu Bodhi's speech. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:01 Highlight the passage at 1:28:01

1:28:25 That's kind of a good sign. So on the other thing about talking about issues in the world and about the inequalities in the world, yes, obviously we should do things. We should do what is right and we should speak out against injustice and we should act against it. Maybe more important to act against injustice than speaking out. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:25 Highlight the passage at 1:28:25

1:28:46 Too many people speak, not enough people actually do things. And I think that's a kind of very important point that we often forget. But I think the point is that Report an error in the passage at 1:28:46 Highlight the passage at 1:28:46

1:29:16 closely under the surface there. You need to understand that the world is conditioned by so many things. You have no idea what's going to happen in the world. Yes, you do your best. Maybe it has a tiny effect. Maybe it has no effect. Maybe the world is going to... Report an error in the passage at 1:29:16 Highlight the passage at 1:29:16

1:29:40 control, if you understand that deeply, you're not attached to the outcome, and that is the important thing here, because if you're not attached to the outcome, you can come back to your meditation, you can close your eyes, and you can be peaceful in your meditation, even though the whole world is kind of being blown up, yeah, because you know, that's the nature of the world, sometimes it blows up, sometimes you have war. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:40 Highlight the passage at 1:29:40

1:30:00 Wars, yeah, sometimes all kinds of things going on. And that is kind of the thing here. So you try to balance these things. So you do the right thing because you are a moral person and you know that morality is a factor of the path and because it's good to be kind in the world. Then you are doing it in the right way. I Report an error in the passage at 1:30:00 Highlight the passage at 1:30:00

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:31:00 understand what you're saying. I mean, you know, we shouldn't get too attached to the outfield tribe despite social injustice. Yeah. Yeah, personally I think that, just very briefly, personally I think that the most important kind of morality is the morality with our near relations with people who are close to us because that affects us very, very powerfully. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:00 Highlight the passage at 1:31:00

1:31:24 If you have a good relationship with your family, with your work colleagues, with your spiritual community, that is the most powerful kind of morality because it affects you. Very, very badly if those things are bad. Yes, we should also do things in the larger world, but that affects us less in a sense. And so that is a secondary thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:24 Highlight the passage at 1:31:24

1:31:44 So it's also kind of a slight hierarchy there, I would say. So, yeah. Okay. Andrew, did you have a super quick question? Report an error in the passage at 1:31:44 Highlight the passage at 1:31:44

1:32:00 Yes, I'm a bit lost in a sense because according to Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, we need to concentrate on the breathing first. So I need to relearn what I have learned. Thank you, Andrea. Let me just briefly comment on that, Catherine. So remember that mindfulness is... is a matter of degrees so you know you so you have to be mindful in daily life but it's kind of a preliminary it's always a matter of degrees so you start off with a bit of mindfulness and then you live better as a consequence the mindfulness increases and so it's not entirely Anyway, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:00 Highlight the passage at 1:32:00

1:32:42 when is the mindfulness strong enough to meditate etc. etc. and as you do that it kind of becomes more clear I think, yeah, anyway, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:42 Highlight the passage at 1:32:42

1:33:00 Supporting each other, all of us in our practice. Ajahn Brahmali, your generosity. A great example of walking the talk in coming and teaching us tonight. So it was terrific to hear what you said and thank you for your time. And to everybody. We look forward to coming together again next week. Before we stop, Catherine, we have to pay respect to the Buddha Dhamma Saṅgha. Is that okay? That would be great. Yeah? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:00 Highlight the passage at 1:33:00

1:33:31 Great. Yeah. So I'll listen. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:31 Highlight the passage at 1:33:31

1:33:50 Svakkhato bhagavata dhammo Dhammang namasamim Report an error in the passage at 1:33:50 Highlight the passage at 1:33:50

1:34:02 [chanting]

1:34:19 Okay, bye everyone. See you next time. Thank you, Ajahn Brahmali. Great, bye-bye. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:19 Highlight the passage at 1:34:19