The Illusion of Identity

0:00 Okay, everyone, so let us start the evening, or actually evening over here, but maybe, I don't know what it is where you are, but with the mettā sutta, which is a great way to start the day. So here we go. 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. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:29 Straightforward and gentle in speech Humble and not conceited Contented and easily satisfied Having few 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 happy, whatever living beings there may be, whether they are weak or strong, omitting none. Report an error in the passage at 0:29 Highlight the passage at 0:29

1:24 The great or the mighty, 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 happy. Let none deceive another. Report an error in the passage at 1:24 Highlight the passage at 1:24

2:10 Her child, her only child, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings, radiating kindness over the entire world, spreading upwards to the skies and downwards to the depths, outwards and unbounded, Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All rights reserved. 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 2:10 Highlight the passage at 2:10

3:07 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, everyone, so that is the mettā sutta starting off tonight's program in a good way, which is always very helpful. Report an error in the passage at 3:07 Highlight the passage at 3:07

3:41 And I can't, I didn't even listen, Gloria, when you were saying the sequence today, but I heard something about Q &A and talk and meditation. So I'm going to do that in a random order. So I hope you don't mind me just doing whatever. Report an error in the passage at 3:41 Highlight the passage at 3:41

3:54 So that's good. So I'll start off just talking a little bit about meditation practice because I think it's always good to be reminded of some of the basic ideas. It's very easy to kind of get a little bit lost in meditation. It's easy not to maybe remember some of the basic instructions. Sometimes meditation becomes a bit like a ritual. We just do it and we forget about investigating properly and asking the questions. Report an error in the passage at 3:54 Highlight the passage at 3:54

4:22 questions. Is it heading in the right way? Is it working for me? And this is such an important question to ask. And this is one of the reasons why at the end of the meditation, you should How did I let go? mean in that meditation? How did I... Report an error in the passage at 4:22 Highlight the passage at 4:22

4:55 your perception in the beginning, so you have like a good attitude. All of these kind of things are fundamental for meditation practice. But one of the kind of underlying things that is so important is this ability to relax with the meditation. And a lot of people, they approach the idea of meditation in the wrong way. They think it is a kind of an effort. It is a use of the will. Report an error in the passage at 4:55 Highlight the passage at 4:55

5:22 It is kind of the ego getting involved. I am going to make the meditation happen. And the moment you get involved in the meditation, the moment you think that you are going to be in charge, you are already heading in the wrong direction. Because you are trying to do it. The idea of meditation is that it's a natural thing that happens according to causes and conditions. It's a natural subduing of things, a natural allowing things to fall to rest and become peaceful. Report an error in the passage at 5:22 Highlight the passage at 5:22

5:55 And if you try to do that, you're just going to mess it up. And so one way of thinking about this that I've been talking about a little bit recently is that instead of thinking about us as Focusing on a meditation object, it is more like being with a meditation object. Being with is a very different idea from focusing on. Report an error in the passage at 5:55 Highlight the passage at 5:55

6:21 Focusing on usually implies like concentration, it implies willpower, it implies the doing activity of the mind. But being with is like you are with something, it's a natural state of just enjoying the presence of something. And you can imagine one way of thinking about this is, you know, again, because we live here in the bush. In Australia, the forest is called a bush because it's not really forest in the ordinary. Report an error in the passage at 6:21 Highlight the passage at 6:21

6:49 It's a bit bushy. It's a bushy kind of forest. We call it bush. and I live in the bush basically I can just go out to my cutie and I can just walk off into the forest there's nothing between me and just kilometers and kilometers of forest it's very privileged way of living your life yeah I live kind of on the edge of the monastery and behind me there's just kangaroos and trees and rocks and what have you going as far as you want to go and so I go into nature sometimes I go for little walks in the forest behind my my my little little cutie cutie. Report an error in the passage at 6:49 Highlight the passage at 6:49

7:21 And when I go, Report an error in the passage at 7:21 Highlight the passage at 7:21

7:26 I am with nature. I don't focus on nature. Yeah, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. When you go into nature, you don't focus on anything in particular. You just enjoy being with nature. And that is quite nice. When you are with nature, it means that you enjoy the kind of aliveness of the nature. You enjoy the greenery around you. Report an error in the passage at 7:26 Highlight the passage at 7:26

7:51 You enjoy the sense of peace. You enjoy maybe the freshness of the forest around you, the sense of calm. Report an error in the passage at 7:51 Highlight the passage at 7:51

8:26 Translation by — So this is kind of the idea of being with nature. And because you enjoy it, because nature is a nice place to be, usually, and maybe not for everyone, but very often it is. So if you are a nature lover and you'd like to go for walks, then very quickly the idea of the city life, the idea of civilization, the idea of people, it fades from your perception. Report an error in the passage at 8:26 Highlight the passage at 8:26

8:49 And all you have is this experience of being with something, but not... Focusing on anything here. And so we want to bring that kind of experience into the breath meditation or any kind of meditation you do. Whether it's mettā meditation or breath meditation, those are maybe the two main meditations we tend to do. Report an error in the passage at 8:49 Highlight the passage at 8:49

9:12 You have the idea of being with the breath, not focusing on the breath. And what that means, again, is that you allow the breath to come and go. If the breath disappears like the nature disappears because you start thinking, you don't force your mind back on the breath straight away. You just wait for the breath to come back again, in the same way as you are noticing being with nature when you are in the forest. Report an error in the passage at 9:12 Highlight the passage at 9:12

9:38 And it's a very easy way of thinking about meditation. You are there with the breath and then in the same way as enjoying the forest you enjoy the presence of the breath. The breath also has all these marvelous qualities. It is a natural phenomenon. It tends to be peaceful. It has a certain rhythm to it. Report an error in the passage at 9:38 Highlight the passage at 9:38

9:59 When the breath, initially, it may not be all that pleasant because it can be a bit rough, but as it calms down, it has a sort of softness to it and a gentleness to it, and it draws the mind in if you are able to notice those beautiful qualities of the breath. And so this is kind of the idea here, being with, instead of forcing your attention onto things. And if you do this in the right way, it becomes easy, it becomes delightful, it becomes enjoyable, like you are with a good friend. Report an error in the passage at 9:59 Highlight the passage at 9:59

10:32 You don't have to focus on the friend, you just enjoy the companionship. Breath is your friend. The breath is the best friend in the world. The breath never argues back or anything like that. So the breath is kind of great. So if you want a really dependable friend until the day you die, the breath is going to be super duper. Report an error in the passage at 10:32 Highlight the passage at 10:32

10:51 And of course, ultimately, the breath goes a long, long way to make you experience all of the most meaningful things that you possibly can experience in your life. And so for this reason, very powerful and very interesting. So let's try to use this idea of being with. And even if you do another kind of meditation, you do mettā meditation for example, simple kind of, whatever kind of mettā meditation you do, try to be with that sound, that repetition, that mantra use, may all beings be happy or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 10:51 Highlight the passage at 10:51

11:28 Be with it. Don't focus too much on it. Allow it to come and go naturally. Enjoy what is going on. Same principle applies to the mettā meditation as to the breath meditation. Report an error in the passage at 11:28 Highlight the passage at 11:28

11:42 Okay, let's try to do a little bit of meditation together and see what comes of it. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 11:42 Highlight the passage at 11:42

· · · silence, 1 minute

12:47 Okay, everyone. So initially, in meditation, always take... Report an error in the passage at 12:47 Highlight the passage at 12:47

13:12 minutes of the meditation practice. So always take that time because the mind is a It develops gradually. If you try to go too fast, things will just tend to mess up. Allow the mind that freedom to settle by itself. You don't do it. You allow it to happen. You just enjoy whatever is going on, knowing that you are on a journey to peace and tranquility and meaning in your life. Report an error in the passage at 13:12 Highlight the passage at 13:12

13:43 And as long as you know that, the mind will tend to follow along like a faithful servant or whatever you want to call it. So just allow things to be, settle down, have a sense of evenness regarding all the phenomena that are happening, don't tie attached to anything, hold on to anything, push anything away or draw anything in, just be aware of what is going on. Report an error in the passage at 13:43 Highlight the passage at 13:43

· · · silence, 5 minutes

19:39 Let go of the past. Let go of all the Doings of the rest of your life, as you leave it all behind you, it is almost as if the breath just is there by itself. There's nothing that you have to do. And all you have to do is just to enjoy the presence of the breath. See if you can get into this idea of being with rather than focusing on. Report an error in the passage at 19:39 Highlight the passage at 19:39

20:10 Just enjoying the presence of this old friend called the breath. Beautiful friend, soft, gentle, sustaining you, giving you life. This is the dear friend breath, just enjoying the presence. And if that friend wants to go, allow the friend to go. Don't control your friend. And when the friend wants to return again, allow the friend to return. Report an error in the passage at 20:10 Highlight the passage at 20:10

20:38 You are just being with. You're not controlling. You're not doing anything apart from enjoying. The presence of the friend. And Report an error in the passage at 20:38 Highlight the passage at 20:38

· · · silence, 7 minutes

28:13 in a way it is as if you are allowing the breath to take the lead. The breath is just there and you just follow along. And as you follow along the breath, your mind gradually starts to get, acquire those same qualities as the breath has. So when the breath is nice and soft and gentle, your mind becomes the same. As the breath calms down, so does your mind. Report an error in the passage at 28:13 Highlight the passage at 28:13

28:45 All you have to do is to enjoy the presence of this friend of yours. And as you deal with the presence of the friend, you gain the same qualities gradually, gradually moving to deeper states of mind. Report an error in the passage at 28:45 Highlight the passage at 28:45

· · · silence, 13 minutes

42:06 Okay, so now just spend a few moments. To review your meditation, and again, ask yourself, how do you feel now? And if you do feel that there is an improvement in good qualities, in mindfulness, in clarity, in just feeling at ease and whatever, ask yourself why that is the case. How does this process of meditation actually work in terms of letting go and in terms of perceptions? Report an error in the passage at 42:06 Highlight the passage at 42:06

· · · silence, 1 minute

43:28 Okay. Everyone, so there you are. Meditation, the most important part of the evening or the morning or whatever it is where you are, has been concluded. So I guess we could, in theory, stop there, but we will carry on a little bit. And we'll talk a little bit about dharma in a more kind of general sense, a bit more background information about how the dharma works. Report an error in the passage at 43:28 Highlight the passage at 43:28

43:56 Which is also very helpful to develop the whole path and to find a kind of more balanced approach to the practice of Buddhism. And so one of the things I wanted to focus on today is, you know, one of the things that we have often tried to emphasize at the Buddhist Society of Western Australia is to talk about things that are current. Report an error in the passage at 43:56 Highlight the passage at 43:56

44:21 Things that are happening in society, what is the Buddhist kind of viewpoint or the Buddhist approach or the Buddhist response to some of the modern phenomena happening in the world and how we should think about them, how we can deal with them in our own life and maybe also perhaps how we can also be an influence for good in the world. Report an error in the passage at 44:21 Highlight the passage at 44:21

44:41 And one of the things that I have noticed in the world, when you read the news or you see what's happening around the world, is that there seems to be a lot of nationalism going on in the world. A lot about my country, a lot about being afraid maybe of foreigners, being afraid of being influenced by... Report an error in the passage at 44:41 Highlight the passage at 44:41

45:15 scary because we know that nationalism eventually tends to lead to conflict because it gives rise to this idea of us against them and these kind of things. So it can be a very problematic thing around the world. And not only is it problematic because it gives rise to an us and them feeling or perception, but also because sometimes the nationalism takes very ugly kind of forms. Report an error in the passage at 45:15 Highlight the passage at 45:15

45:39 It takes forms in terms of right-wing extremism. You see this also happening around the world now. People getting ideas that some people are more... more valuable, the more I'm hired. Report an error in the passage at 45:39 Highlight the passage at 45:39

45:59 all kinds of discrimination and violence and all kinds of issues. And so I wanted to... Discuss a little bit about what is the Buddhist answer to nationalism. How do we deal with this? How do we think about it? How do we understand people who fall into this trap? Is there anything that we can do to maybe help ourselves or help people around us or a viewpoint that actually does something positive for the world? Report an error in the passage at 45:59 Highlight the passage at 45:59

46:28 So one of the most first things that I think is very obvious from a Buddhist point of view is that Nationalism really is just an expansion of our personal identity. So when someone has an idea that you belong to a certain nation or you belong to a certain culture or you have a certain language or you belong to a certain religion, all of these kind of things are just an expansion of our sense of self or our identity. Report an error in the passage at 46:28 Highlight the passage at 46:28

46:59 And of course, identity is a core part of what it means to be a human being. We cannot avoid having an identity. Everyone here today has some kind of identity. And I don't know the exact composition of your identity, but all our identities are composed of various components that kind of make us into who we are. Report an error in the passage at 46:59 Highlight the passage at 46:59

47:21 And some of those components are going to be national components. Maybe not for... Maybe not so much, but at least a little bit. Some of them are going to be language components, religious components, all of these kind of things. Other things are going to be more personal things about family or about how we regard ourselves in terms of spiritual development and all of these kind of things. Report an error in the passage at 47:21 Highlight the passage at 47:21

47:44 But the idea of identity is a given. And because the idea of identity is a given, we should not be too surprised that people become... Because that is a way that people express that identity in their life. That is what they feel like. And so it is something that we should really expect as Buddhists that this is going to happen. Report an error in the passage at 47:44 Highlight the passage at 47:44

48:09 And because we expect it, because we understand that this is how people live. Report an error in the passage at 48:09 Highlight the passage at 48:09

48:46 Who you are as a person becomes threatened. And if that sense of who you are as a person is threatened, you will react in a certain way. And so this is, I think, a very useful perspective to take because instead of just denouncing people who are nationalists, instead of denouncing people who don't want too many immigrants to their country, we start to understand why that is the case. Report an error in the passage at 48:46 Highlight the passage at 48:46

49:11 It is actually something deep inside of us that feels threatened. And if that feels threatened, we are going to react in a certain way. Report an error in the passage at 49:11 Highlight the passage at 49:11

49:22 Once we understand that people feel threatened in this way, instead of dismissing people who have such ideas, we can actually try to encompass, we can try to make policies in our society to try to encompass these people so they also are looked after in a certain way. They don't feel that sense of threatenedness anymore. Report an error in the passage at 49:22 Highlight the passage at 49:22

49:43 So I think this is a very useful starting point and it's a very kind of Buddhist idea. We cannot just change. We cannot just become different from we are. Our identity in many ways is set in a certain way and we have to accept that people are going to be like this. So this to me is like a kind of background idea to become more accepting of people in the world. Report an error in the passage at 49:43 Highlight the passage at 49:43

50:07 What can we do? However, to reduce maybe that sense of identity, especially as Buddhists or as spiritual practitioners, we don't want to fall into that trap ourselves. Maybe we can help other people also to reduce that sense of threat from external things so that we identify maybe in a different way. And this is really the critical thing. If you want to reduce that sense of threat, then identity, we want to shift that identity to other things. Report an error in the passage at 50:07 Highlight the passage at 50:07

50:40 And when we shift that identity towards other things, then we can reduce that sense of threat from external phenomena. And then we can actually find greater harmony in our society as a consequence of that. And one of the things that many of you may have noticed is how even in Buddhist countries, Report an error in the passage at 50:40 Highlight the passage at 50:40

51:01 This idea of nationalism is often very strong. We have seen that in Myanmar. We saw that a few years ago when the Rohingyas were invading or coming in, not invading, they were coming into Myanmar because they were refugees. We have seen that in Sri Lanka, the problem between the Tamils and the Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka. You've seen it in Thailand. In Thailand also there has been a lot of problems in the south of the country where the Muslims have been kind of... Report an error in the passage at 51:01 Highlight the passage at 51:01

51:32 threatened by the Muslim minority in the south of Thailand. So even in Buddhist countries where you would have thought maybe that compassion and things would have been, had a higher kind of value, still this feeling, this threat from this nationalist feeling has been felt in all of these Buddhist countries. Report an error in the passage at 51:32 Highlight the passage at 51:32

51:52 is that. And so Why did that happen? And the reason I think it happened is because people identified in the wrong way. And the main identity that they have in these places is the identity, I am a Buddhist. And the moment you identify as a Buddhist, the moment that becomes part of your personality, how you see yourself, if you see some external force that looks like a threat to Buddhism, You feel personally threatened because that is who you are. And so no wonder that these things happened in these Buddhist countries because the identity as Buddhist was threatened. Report an error in the passage at 51:52 Highlight the passage at 51:52

52:33 And so then we end up oppressing those minorities because we feel that our personal sense of self is threatened by them. And so what we need to do then, we need to shift our idea. We need to shift our sense of identity. Instead of thinking of ourselves as Buddhist, what we should do, I think, and it's a very simple kind of solution, is to see yourself as a practicing Buddhist instead. Report an error in the passage at 52:33 Highlight the passage at 52:33

53:01 And the moment you make that small shift from an identity as a Buddhist to a practicing Buddhist, at that moment instead of Being threatened by external forces or external religions or whatever, actually you now think in terms of your identity is one of having compassion. Your identity is one of being kind. Your identity is one of virtue and how to live in harmony with other people regardless of who they are because that is the identity of a practicing Buddhist. Report an error in the passage at 53:01 Highlight the passage at 53:01

53:35 So it shifts the entire way of thinking about things. I am a practicing Buddhist. I am a kind person. I am someone who is compassionate. I am someone who understands the humanity of everyone. And because of that shift in identity, suddenly you are able to deal with other people in an entirely different way. Report an error in the passage at 53:35 Highlight the passage at 53:35

53:55 You don't feel threatened anymore in the same way. If there is a problem, you are able to at least personally deal with that. And this, I think, is one way that we should also maybe is an idea that we can bring out into society itself. Because this, I think, is a very powerful idea. Because it's an idea that shows you how identity is a malleable thing. And it's not something that is stuck, that you have to have this kind of identity. Report an error in the passage at 53:55 Highlight the passage at 53:55

54:24 But you can shape it into something that leads to more harmony and it leads to more positive consequences for our society. So this is the kind of the first thing that I would argue is something that we can do to shift the whole discourse, the whole idea, at least in our personal lives, but maybe also in broader society to change some of the bad consequences that we have seen around the world in recent times. Report an error in the passage at 54:24 Highlight the passage at 54:24

54:51 Another very powerful idea. Report an error in the passage at 54:51 Highlight the passage at 54:51

54:57 Buddhist. And this is the idea of rebirth. Because as I have, I think, mentioned many times before in various contexts, once you understand rebirth, you understand also that, you know, When you go through the sequence of rebirth, moving from one kind of person to another kind of person, from one country to another country, from one gender to another gender, it means that we have all of these identities within ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 54:57 Highlight the passage at 54:57

55:28 There isn't really any absolute distinction between a man and a woman. There isn't any absolute distinction between someone who is an Asian person or a person from a Western country background. There isn't any absolute distinction between someone who is handicapped and someone who is not handicapped. There isn't any absolute distinction between a person who is intelligent and not so intelligent. Report an error in the passage at 55:28 Highlight the passage at 55:28

55:51 We have all of those identities inside of us. We have been there before. We have all been these personalities. And again, you're breaking down this barrier between us and them. You no longer see... Foreigners, people from a different nation that's fundamentally different, know they are basically the same way you are. And this is something that, again, is very unique to Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 55:51 Highlight the passage at 55:51

56:17 And it kind of makes us all understand each other so much better if we can think about the world in this way. So this is some of the ways of thinking about the whole... problem of nationalism and how we can change our sense of identity in a positive way to reduce these kind of problems in our society. Report an error in the passage at 56:17 Highlight the passage at 56:17

56:41 So that is one very preliminary part of what I wanted to start to say. But I thought also it would be nice to ask a little bit about the question of how... Report an error in the passage at 56:41 Highlight the passage at 56:41

56:58 How frightening it is or how challenging is it to, for example, bring Buddhist ideas into new societies? You know, one of the kind of remarkable things that we have seen in the world is that as Buddhists, Usually you tend to be fairly welcome in your societies. Maybe not always, but reasonably welcome. It is not a very challenging religion that challenges the status quo in other societies. Report an error in the passage at 56:58 Highlight the passage at 56:58

57:24 You get kind of your evil Buddhist kind of go away, you are bad. It doesn't happen all that often. We still have a fairly good name as Buddhists. We may throw that good name away sometimes by our silly actions, but we still have a reasonably good name. And there are other religions or other people who often have more privilege Report an error in the passage at 57:24 Highlight the passage at 57:24

57:48 example, tend to have much more problems when they change their places and move around. So I wanted to say a little bit about the dhamma and how we can think about Buddhism and whether it is a challenge. And if it is a challenge, how we can reduce that so there's less friction when it moves into new societies. Report an error in the passage at 57:48 Highlight the passage at 57:48

58:11 What is about Buddhism that tends to make it more acceptable in new settings compared maybe to some other religions or other ways of thinking about the world? So I think that one of the... First things about the dharma, and one of the things that we should think about when we come to new societies, is that the dharma is not really a proselytizing teaching. Report an error in the passage at 58:11 Highlight the passage at 58:11

58:37 We don't go out to convert other people. Yeah, we don't... One of the problems in certain religions is that the idea of proselytizing, of converting, is at the foundation of what that religion is about. Because you have to convert because only if you convert are you going to be safe. Only then are you going to go to heaven or whatever it is. But in Buddhism it isn't really like that. Report an error in the passage at 58:37 Highlight the passage at 58:37

59:01 In Buddhism it's not about converting as such. The idea in Buddhism, rather, is to gain a sense of... Understanding of the world. So it changes your way of practice. It changes the way you look at things. And it allows you to develop yourself spiritually in a certain way. And it is not enough just to convert, to become a Buddhist. You have to be convinced about the teachings. So you can kind of form your life around those teachings. Report an error in the passage at 59:01 Highlight the passage at 59:01

59:31 Make them part of who you are as a person. And then they will work. So conversion is not the point. The point is rather to enable people to see the world through the eyes of the Buddha, to understand the world in a new way, and then live according to that. So we are trying to do something much deeper. And that deeper thing takes more time. Report an error in the passage at 59:31 Highlight the passage at 59:31

59:55 It takes the kind of voluntary coming into Buddhism so that you actually then can practice the religion properly as a consequence. That's a very different way of thinking about things compared to most other religions. And I think this is a very important point. I think we should keep that in mind as Buddhists. We are not there to proselytize. And that is not the point of the dhamma. Report an error in the passage at 59:55 Highlight the passage at 59:55

1:00:18 The point of the dhamma is to make the dhamma accessible so if people are interested, they can come, they can learn, they can use this teaching for benefit in their own life. But we are not there to convert. And I think this is already a very kind of... Beautiful thing about the Buddhist teachings, which is kind of, which often maybe is underplayed a little bit. So we don't proselytize, number one. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:18 Highlight the passage at 1:00:18

1:00:44 The next thing about the dharma, that to me, if we're, actually maybe I should say a little bit about Buddhist culture, because that may be often the most difficult thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:44 Highlight the passage at 1:00:44

1:00:56 Because Buddhist culture can sometimes seem very different when you come to a new culture, you come to kind of a European country, or you come to Australia for that matter, and you bring your Buddhist culture with you, sometimes it can be kind of scary when you see things in an entirely new way. And I remember the first time I went to a Buddhist monastery, it was very foreign to me. You come into this room, there are kind of large Buddha statues, there are all these monks and maybe nuns, in weird stuff everybody has shaven heads everyone seems very serious and kind of restrained and holding back and you're not sure if you're allowed to speak or what you can do and it I was a little bit sort of, whoa, what's going on here? First time I went to a Buddhist monastery here. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:56 Highlight the passage at 1:00:56

1:01:42 And so one of the things that we should do as Buddhists, I think, we should be aware of that, that some of the things that we take for granted, that I now take for granted, are actually quite difficult to accept in our Western societies. You know, one of the things is this kind of enormous Buddha statues that we sometimes have in... Report an error in the passage at 1:01:42 Highlight the passage at 1:01:42

1:02:03 In monasteries and in Buddhist centers. And I have sometimes thought that to kind of make Buddhism more accessible, because I think it is important that we make it accessible, is that we shouldn't always have these large Buddha statues everywhere. Because they can be scary. It looks a bit like we are having idols or something like that. It's nothing to do with idols, of course. That's what it may look like from an external point of view. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:03 Highlight the passage at 1:02:03

1:02:27 And so I think sometimes we can have small Buddha statues, like this one over here. This is a much less threatening Buddha statue. It's kind of a nice one. It has a nice smile on its face. It has all the qualities you expect of a Buddha, but it doesn't have the enormous size where you feel completely overpowered by something. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:27 Highlight the passage at 1:02:27

1:02:45 You feel like this small little being compared to this enormous thing here. So we should be aware of these things. Sometimes it is useful to have lay people teach the dhamma because it's easier for them to relate to other lay people rather than seeing some kind of weird monk. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:45 Highlight the passage at 1:02:45

1:03:01 After a while, they get used to monks. They don't seem so weird anymore, but initially they seem really strange. Why do you wear this funny dress? You look like a woman. You're wearing a dress. Isn't that a dress that you're wearing? Whatever. But you can see how people can react in this way. So we need to adapt a little bit, to change a little bit, to have some flexibility so we are not threatening in the new culture that we come to, not holding on to our traditions too strongly. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:01 Highlight the passage at 1:03:01

1:03:52 identity, we can be much more loose with Report an error in the passage at 1:03:52 Highlight the passage at 1:03:52

1:04:10 more Buddhist than we actually necessarily have to be. The same thing with things like bowing down. In the Western world, the idea of bowing is very strange. The idea of Anjali seems to be coming into vogue in the West. I think after the COVID, people were doing Anjali because they were afraid of shaking hands. That's kind of becoming more kind of mainstream, actually, which is kind of cool. Anjali is becoming mainstream. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:10 Highlight the passage at 1:04:10

1:04:34 It's been mainstream in India for already 3,000 years and now it's kind of moving around the world, which is great. But bowing maybe is still kind of one step too far. Personally, I think bowing is a very beautiful thing. It's a nice way of showing your respect for higher qualities, for something very special. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:34 Highlight the passage at 1:04:34

1:04:55 But it takes a bit of time to get used to it. So it's not something that we should force onto people. And we should be very careful with these kind of things. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:55 Highlight the passage at 1:04:55

1:05:11 Buddhists, that other cultures will not be able to understand our Buddhist culture straight away. But we should try to keep that in mind. Sometimes I see the people from a Buddhist background and some Western person come to a Buddhist center and then they... From a good heart, they're coming from a good place. They tell them off straight away. Don't do this. Don't do that. Yeah, this is wrong. This is right. Do it this way. And this poor Western person is completely, oh, everything I do. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:11 Highlight the passage at 1:05:11

1:05:39 It's very hard sometimes when you get criticized straight away for doing the wrong thing. And you're so afraid of making sure that you don't do a faux pas or whatever, that you become a bit alienated from that center straight away. So we should try to avoid being too strict. After a while, they learn. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:39 Highlight the passage at 1:05:39

1:05:57 After a while, they will pick up on what's going on, and then they will fit in very nicely. So those are the things we should be careful with. Another thing, however, is more the idea of the Buddhist teachings as such. Because to my mind, there's something about the Buddhist teachings that are very modern and actually fit in to Western society really, really well. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:57 Highlight the passage at 1:05:57

1:06:24 Sometimes you will hear nationalists in Western societies and they will say things that Christianity is our natural religion, we should be a Christian nation, we should be built on Christian values. And of course, Christianity has a very deep cultural... Report an error in the passage at 1:06:24 Highlight the passage at 1:06:24

1:06:42 Affinity with the Western, many, many Western countries, European countries or North American countries or South American countries or whatever, because it has been there for so long. It's deeply embedded in the culture. And that is true. However, I think it is also true that Western culture is not just shaped by Christianity, but is also shaped by the entire idea of the Enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:42 Highlight the passage at 1:06:42

1:07:07 The Enlightenment was basically an idea of putting religion on the back burner and focusing on rationality, on focusing on what works, on coming back on using science, using technology, using... The rational mind to create better societies and better functioning governments and all these kind of things. So Western societies, yes, there is a strong element of Christianity, but it's a kind of Christianity that is tempered, that has been shaped by the enlightenment experience of starting in the 16th century and then moving on to the present day. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:07 Highlight the passage at 1:07:07

1:07:48 So it's not so much a... Pure kind of Christianity. It is more a search for truth through the scientific method and these kind of things. And of course here it is very similar to Buddhism. Buddhism is also a search for truth ultimately. Buddhism is a search for understanding. It is a different kind of search for truth compared to science because science is often a kind of a third party external... Report an error in the passage at 1:07:48 Highlight the passage at 1:07:48

1:08:18 Search for truth where we do experiments or whatever. Buddhism is about an internal search for truth. But they are both searches for truth. An external search for truth and an inner search for truth. Ultimately, they have to work together. And they can't really contradict each other. If they do, obviously something is wrong. And so Buddhism has the same ethos, the same purpose as the kind of the enlightenment in the... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:18 Highlight the passage at 1:08:18

1:08:59 assumptions. Those assumptions have been pushed Pushed back all the time. They've been pushed back because they didn't fit with science. And so they had to change Christianity as a consequence of not fitting with science. We all know how that has been. There's been the God of the gaps. The gap that you couldn't explain with science hadn't yet explained things. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:59 Highlight the passage at 1:08:59

1:09:19 That was where God was put into that gap. And then that gap narrowed down, narrowed down because more and more was explained by science. And so God got a lesser and lesser position. In those Western societies, until now, it's almost completely gone. There's almost no gap anywhere. So God is becoming some kind of very hard thing to pin down. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:19 Highlight the passage at 1:09:19

1:09:43 So Buddhism is very similar to that. It's an idea of explaining the world, understanding the world. world from a kind of inner Report an error in the passage at 1:09:43 Highlight the passage at 1:09:43

1:10:17 with that. So this is One way in which it is very, very helpful in how it fits in with the Western societies, I'm talking most about Western society because I live in Australia and I'm originally from Norway, so I come from a kind of Western perspective, but I'm sure you can probably all relate to what I'm saying anyway. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:17 Highlight the passage at 1:10:17

1:10:41 The other thing which I think is... Also, where Buddhism fits in really, really well with Western society is in the idea of the area of psychology. In the Western world, psychology is very important. Psychology and psychiatry is a very important way of thinking about human. We try to have good psychologists because we want to help people in their lives, especially over the last maybe 50 to 100 years. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:41 Highlight the passage at 1:10:41

1:11:11 It is a profession that has been growing very, very rapidly because we want to help people to have basically less suffering in their lives. One of the main aspects of psychology has been to reduce suffering. The purpose has not been so much to look at the happiness of human beings, moving towards happiness, Report an error in the passage at 1:11:11 Highlight the passage at 1:11:11

1:11:49 fixing up human beings, but also to bring more happiness in their lives. And of course, this is where the dhamma comes in so beautifully. Because the dhamma, to my mind, is basically a teaching about psychology. The dhamma is not a philosophy. There is a philosophical aspect, but it's not really a philosophy. It's not about kind of having an understanding of the world as such. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:49 Highlight the passage at 1:11:49

1:12:14 The dhamma... It can be used as a religion, but at the core it is also very different from many other religions. But what the dharma certainly is, is psychology. It's about knowing how to use the mind. It's about how to reduce suffering in life. The whole purpose of the Buddha is actually to eliminate suffering completely and to find the highest kind of happiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:14 Highlight the passage at 1:12:14

1:12:36 And so the dharma plugs in right there into this... looking for how to make human beings flourish more in our society, which is such an important part of that outlook that has led to so much psychologizing and so much psychiatrizing in our human society. We have something to add, something very powerful that kind of fits. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:36 Highlight the passage at 1:12:36

1:13:01 And so, I think, and I think probably... Apart from Western society, I suspect that these issues are probably true for most societies around the world, that actually the dharma is a really good fit. Because deep down, if you go beyond all the externalities, all the things that have to do with nationalism, all the things that have to do with my religion versus your religion, all the things that have to do with what separates us. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:01 Highlight the passage at 1:13:01

1:13:32 Deep down, we all have that same yearning. Deep down, we all want to find a solution to the problems of life. Deep down, we want to find meaning. We want to find completeness. We want to find how we can get over this problem inside of us, the sense of lack, the sense of not being fulfilled, and the dhamma. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:32 Highlight the passage at 1:13:32

1:13:54 is the place where you find that answer. And to my mind, you find it in the Dhamma far more than you find it anywhere else. So even the ultimate solution of Buddhism, which is awakening itself, is an answer to the deepest problems that we face as human beings. And so yes, I think... using the Dhamma, we can overcome some of the modern problems of nationalism, of division in our society. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:54 Highlight the passage at 1:13:54

1:14:21 We can understand why people are moving towards these extremist political positions. And if we play our cards right, we can become a force for good within that society, even when there are more divisions happening in the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:21 Highlight the passage at 1:14:21

1:14:40 So, there you are. That's just a little bit of a... Talk about how I think that the dharma can be used in a positive way, especially in a troubled world of ours where there are so many negative things happening. So, yeah, there you are. So, please, let's open up for questions. So, please fire away. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:40 Highlight the passage at 1:14:40

1:15:05 Start? Yeah, please, Suzanne. Okay. Well, thank you for the inspiration. I'm actually right now in a situation where I'm... thinking about with some other person to start like a dharma circle kind of thing here in center of germany and i'm wondering like i've been like the last couple years going to retreats with Ajahn Brahm and connecting with forest tradition monasteries here in germany and but there's nothing right here and i'm doing a lot of like online participating online but it's kind of it's missing for me like meeting people in person um but so since i'm not really feeling like i'm a teacher which i'm you know i'm not and the person he's very experienced also meditation but well we're not really clear about this but is there some kind of um way to go about this Starting a group, you mean? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:05 Highlight the passage at 1:15:05

1:16:14 Not really. You just have to kind of get some people to come together, you know, and then you have to decide what you want to do. Maybe you listen to a little bit of dharma together and you sit some meditation together and then you have a discussion together or something like that to kind of try to understand things. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:14 Highlight the passage at 1:16:14

1:16:31 So you just have to find a nice place if you're really keen. Maybe you can even just invite people to your home or something like that. That's also a possibility if someone is willing to have a place to do things. But you just have to get started, basically. And as you start, the ball starts to get rolling. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:31 Highlight the passage at 1:16:31

1:16:51 And once it gets rolling, eventually, before you know it, you have a monastery where you are, and then things are going really well. So there are things happening, however, around the place. And one of the places where things are happening is in Poland. In Poland, there may be a monastery in Poland in the future. Still early days. We don't know exactly what's going to happen. But there may be. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:51 Highlight the passage at 1:16:51

1:17:16 And I usually travel to Europe every year. So this year, I will be traveling to the UK and also going to Poland, also going to Norway because I have to visit my family in Norway. So if you want to join those programs, please do so. That's going to be in June. I will be coming to Europe. I just signed up for that in England. You did? Okay, cool. I'll see you in England then, Susanne. That's wonderful. Susanne. You're German, so Susanne. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:16 Highlight the passage at 1:17:16

1:17:48 So just start building gradually. Start just doing things, doing little things together. Don't be too ambitious in the beginning. Start small. Be humble. And as you start doing things, things just tend to happen by themselves. That's kind of how you just have to do it, basically. That's the hardest part. Okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:48 Highlight the passage at 1:17:48

1:18:05 Thank you. Very good. Hello, Eddie. Please go for it. Hello, Ajahn. Thank you for your teaching. I've been meaning to ask you about the practice of mindfulness, like in the day-to-day practice. Like I've been trying to practice mindfulness, like sometimes it gets quite confusing because the understanding can be quite broad. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:05 Highlight the passage at 1:18:05

1:18:34 Like I try to watch the feelings, the emotion that arise day-to-day. So say that when you are selling... the products or you're doing the business good you feel that kind of excitement or when you read the news and some politicians say something that's really horrible you you get that kind of disturbing feelings inside you and you you've been trying to be aware of every feeling or phenomena Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:34 Highlight the passage at 1:18:34

1:19:09 Because you don't want to get... to exhaust it with everything like you have to be aware moment to moment in your day-to-day practice. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:09 Highlight the passage at 1:19:09

1:19:18 I would recommend you don't watch too much news because news is very depressing. Remember that the news is always the worst things in the world get on the news. The world isn't actually like the news. The news is just the bad things in the world. The good things in the world, they happen silently. They happen on the Armadale Group. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:18 Highlight the passage at 1:19:18

1:19:37 That's where the good things in the world happen, right? They happen on the individual level. There are lots of beautiful individual people in the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:37 Highlight the passage at 1:19:37

1:19:53 And so for that reason, I don't recommend really watching the news so much. Reality happens in individual people. The second thing I would say is don't be so concerned about just being mindful in daily life. It is not all that important to be mindful. What is much more important is how you actually, what your responses are to the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:53 Highlight the passage at 1:19:53

1:20:15 If you can respond to people with kindness, if you can respond to people with understanding. understanding, if you can have compassion for the people, that is much, much more important than just being mindful itself. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:15 Highlight the passage at 1:20:15

1:20:26 I think there's an overemphasis on the idea of being mindful. Mindfulness is supposed to have a purpose, and the purpose is to give you the ability to react in a good way. If you're mindful, you can choose your reaction. If you have no mindfulness, you cannot choose your reaction. That is why mindfulness is important. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:26 Highlight the passage at 1:20:26

1:20:47 So you are aware, okay, my emotions are going in a certain way. If I'm not careful now, I will say something bad because I can feel myself getting upset or whatever. That is the important point. You know that you are maybe going to say something stupid and then you stop yourself. You change your perception. You have compassion instead of getting angry with the other person. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:47 Highlight the passage at 1:20:47

1:21:07 And that is the main reason why you have mindfulness in the early days. So mindfulness is not... helpful just to be mindful. Mindfulness is helpful because it regulates your responses to the world and you can respond to the world in a more precise way. Very often it feels like we are just reacting to the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:07 Highlight the passage at 1:21:07

1:21:28 And if you are just reacting, that reacting can often be negative. It's like because reacting is an automatic thing, you just react. But we don't want to react, we want to respond instead. Responding is like a carefully... carefully calibrated way of, you know, dealing with things rather than just being an automatic reaction. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:28 Highlight the passage at 1:21:28

1:21:51 So that's what I would recommend, Eddie, so yeah. Thank you Ajahn, so say that if we practice that way and we keep being aware of what we think, what we say and our action, it will at the end lead us to the kind of peace that we are looking for. The more you live an ethical life, the more kind you are, the more you treat other people well, the more peace you will have in your life. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:51 Highlight the passage at 1:21:51

1:22:18 The foundation for peace. is two things in the suttas. One is sīla. Sīla is ethics, basically, or your conduct. The other one is your view, what kind of view you have. These two things are what leads to satipaṭṭhāna practice. Satipaṭṭhāna is always based, founded on these two things. So instead of practicing satipaṭṭhāna in daily life, practice sīla in daily life. Use the mindfulness you have to practice sīla. You won't be able to practice satipaṭṭhāna anyway in daily life. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:18 Highlight the passage at 1:22:18

1:22:50 That's something you do on retreat. Daily life, practice sīla. Thank you, Ajahn. Great. Hello, Marianne, please. Hello, Ajahn. Thank you for being here with us. And thank you for a very original dharma talk. I have a question about... Report an error in the passage at 1:22:50 Highlight the passage at 1:22:50

1:23:10 Anger and reaction to anger. Every morning I call my mother because I want to make good karma and to be nice to her and listen to what she has to say. And that's the intention I have. But sometimes I argue. I end up arguing with her and even sometimes I shout. And I feel so disappointed with myself, with my lack of control, with my emotions and my bad qualities. So my question is, do you think I should call less often, like avoid situations when I can get anger rising up in me and not being able to control it? Report an error in the passage at 1:23:10 Highlight the passage at 1:23:10

1:23:46 Or do you think I should investigate more in why I get angry, my need to be listened to, and how I feel hurt if she criticizes me or laughs at me? like is it avoidance or is it being exposed and investigating better or do you think I should read the sutta about how to remove anger every day or meta-meditation? Report an error in the passage at 1:23:46 Highlight the passage at 1:23:46

1:24:12 Thank you for your advice. I think you should do all of those things. You know what to do already. I mean, this is the nice thing. You have already given so many solutions for yourself. Yeah, I say... Less often. Every day is too much. Every day is not enough time to reset yourself so that you can actually reset your mind properly and you can build up. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:12 Highlight the passage at 1:24:12

1:24:35 You need a bit of defense work in your mind. The defense is the compassion. The defense is the mettā. When you have a bit more distance from your mother, you can... Remind yourself of her good qualities. You can remind yourself of, actually, she's just a human being with her own suffering. She doesn't want to hurt you. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:35 Highlight the passage at 1:24:35

1:24:53 She just doesn't understand what she's doing. She needs compassion just like everyone else. And so you build up this kind of defense in your mind. So next time you listen to her, you listen with renewed power inside of you which enables you to do it. Make the talk a bit shorter. Tell your mom. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:53 Highlight the passage at 1:24:53

1:25:27 that. You know your limits. And then you also Try, as you listen to her, you try to be very patient, you try to restrain, you try not to say anything. And if she says something that is upsetting... Then don't react at all. It's better not to react at all than actually reacting in an unskillful way. Just wait, wait and wait until you know, now I can react in a skillful way. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:27 Highlight the passage at 1:25:27

1:25:54 And it's actually very powerful. I notice it with myself sometimes. I do that. I also call my mother every now and again. I know what it can be like to speak to your mother. It can be challenging sometimes. So sometimes if a mother says something that I find a bit funny, I just wait until I can say something positive again. Because it doesn't take long. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:54 Highlight the passage at 1:25:54

1:26:14 It comes back and I can very easily say something positive. I can say, I love you, mom, or I really appreciate this about you, or whatever. I can kind of turn the conversation into something positive. But it takes patience. It takes kind of standing back. It takes the ability just to observe what is going on. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:14 Highlight the passage at 1:26:14

1:26:34 Responding rather than reacting to the feeling that arises in your mind. So I think you know all the things already. You just have to put it into practice and you'll be fine. I'm sure you'll get there. So yeah, best of luck. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:34 Highlight the passage at 1:26:34

1:26:52 Okay. I have received online questions. Yeah, please, Gloria. So the first one is that Ajahn kind of silly question. If I take precepts, can I listen to mettā sutta chants? Report an error in the passage at 1:26:52 Highlight the passage at 1:26:52

1:27:09 I don't know how to pronounce the name. Oh, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:09 Highlight the passage at 1:27:09

1:27:24 Oh, yeah, yeah Rinpoche? Rinpoche, yeah. Is it okay to chant with a melodious rhythm? Thank you. Yeah, just, you know, I know that chanting you're talking about is a very famous singer in Malaysia. And she has this very beautiful rendition of the metasuta, which is so, you know, very, very beautiful. And if some of you are interested, you can look it up on the internet. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:24 Highlight the passage at 1:27:24

1:27:46 I'm sure it's downloadable from the internet. And so, yes, it is okay here. Just you have to know what to do at the right time. Sometimes you may feel very agitated. Sometimes you may feel stressed out or whatever. Then listening to some beautiful chanting like that can be helpful. At other times, if you are very, very peaceful already because you are meditating in a deep way, then maybe you don't want to do that because maybe you feel a sense of attachment or drawing into these things. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:46 Highlight the passage at 1:27:46

1:28:16 So it's always about knowing the right thing at the right time. Using the five sense world, using sensuality, it is okay, especially as a layperson. As a monastic, it's a bit more tricky, but as a layperson, it's okay. You come back after a long day's work, have a nice cup of tea, have something nice to eat, listen to some calming music. It's a gradual calming down until you can do some meditation or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:16 Highlight the passage at 1:28:16

1:28:43 Know how to use the five sense world in a good way. Even the monks in the ancient time, In the time of the Buddha, they would often go to the forest. They would enjoy the forest. Enjoying the forest, enjoying the mountains, enjoying nature is also a five sense enjoyment. But it is a five sense enjoyment that leads to peace, that leads to calm, and that is why it actually works. So just be wise in your own life, and as you are wise in your own life, you will know how to use the senses in a positive way to lead you in the right direction. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:43 Highlight the passage at 1:28:43

1:29:22 Thank you. So the second question is that, hello Ajahn Brahmali, I hope you don't mind this question. It doesn't have a lot to do with the talk, but I wanted to ask about practicing Theravāda Buddhism in a country where it isn't really present. In particular, I wanted to ask whether it's possible to practice the Dharma properly when you have access to mostly online resources. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:22 Highlight the passage at 1:29:22

1:29:52 And you can't discuss it face to face too much and have a constantly available spiritual friend. Okay, please ask any questions you want. You don't have to apologize for asking questions that are not related to the talk. It's perfectly okay. And I would say, yes, you can. Even if you live in a country where the dharma is not there. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:52 Highlight the passage at 1:29:52

1:30:10 Even if it is a spiritual desert in the rest of the country. Sometimes in certain countries there's not much spirituality going on. Yes, of course you can practice. practice. You have online communities such as this Zoom group here, which is a great one. There are many other online communities available around. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:10 Highlight the passage at 1:30:10

1:30:29 Sometimes, even if there isn't anyone near you, maybe sometimes you can take a holiday and you There are Buddhist communities now. In Australia, it is very strong. We have lots of monasteries and retreat centers going on in Australia. It is also happening in Europe as well. There are places in North America where you can find good Buddhist communities. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:29 Highlight the passage at 1:30:29

1:30:53 Also, the These days the word of the Buddha is available online. So you have direct access to the greatest spiritual master in human history. He's right there for you. And you can just go and you can read the teachings of the Buddha and then you have the Buddha teaching you, for goodness sake. You have the best teacher in the world right there available on the internet. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:53 Highlight the passage at 1:30:53

1:31:16 That's kind of awesome when you think about it. You get to have the best Buddhist teacher in the whole world. Only for you on the internet in the privacy of your home. So please make use of all those resources and guaranteed you can make progress even in your private life. And then when you have the opportunity, come on a retreat. Yeah, I don't know if you can come to Australia. You're very welcome to come to our Jhana Grove Meditation Center in Australia, which is a top-notch meditation center. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:16 Highlight the passage at 1:31:16

1:31:45 And please come and visit us. And maybe we can have a nice retreat together down here. All right, Gloria. Thank you so much for leading the group. It's wonderful of you to do all of this hard work on behalf of everyone. And when we work together like this, we can have a very good spiritual community, even online. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:45 Highlight the passage at 1:31:45

1:32:06 So I will finish off by paying homage to the Buddha Dhamma Saṅgha. So if you want to join me in this, please do so. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:06 Highlight the passage at 1:32:06

1:32:14 [chanting]

1:32:27 mi. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:27 Highlight the passage at 1:32:27

1:32:31 Svakkhato bhagavata dhammo dhammang namasami. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:31 Highlight the passage at 1:32:31

1:32:42 [chanting]

1:32:58 Okay, everyone, take care, look after yourself, and we'll see you next time. Thank you, Ajahn Brahmali. Thank you, Gloria. Thank you, everybody. Bye. Thank you, everyone. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:58 Highlight the passage at 1:32:58

1:33:18 Marion, before you leave, I want to give you a hug. Okay, bye. you. Bye. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:18 Highlight the passage at 1:33:18