How to Cultivate Mindfulness in Buddhism

0:00 Okay, very good. So let us begin. And I noticed there was someone snoring at the back today. Did you hear that? Isn't that kind of nice? You know, someone's really relaxing and being at ease. Straight away you feel a sense of compassion when you hear someone snoring. It's kind of nice. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:19 So you know that people are letting go when they're snoring. That's good. So they're following instructions. Report an error in the passage at 0:19 Highlight the passage at 0:19

0:30 So I'm going to talk today a little bit about the idea of mindfulness and what that means and especially how to cultivate it and how to make it an integral part of the practice of the Buddhist path. I was just recently, I came back from Vietnam. I was at a big conference in Vietnam in connection with the Vesak celebrations over there. Report an error in the passage at 0:30 Highlight the passage at 0:30

0:55 And when you go to these big conferences, there were about 3,000 people there. And there were people from 80 different countries and five territories. I don't know what that means, five territories, but anyway, lots of different countries or whatever. And it was very nice. You meet Buddhists from around the world, from everywhere in the world. Report an error in the passage at 0:55 Highlight the passage at 0:55

1:15 There was one... There was one lady I met, she was from Egypt. Who would have thought there was a Buddhist from Egypt? There was a Buddhist from Egypt coming to this conference. It's kind of extraordinary. She was a Palestinian originally. She was a Palestinian Buddhist from Egypt. So there you are. The world is very complicated. Report an error in the passage at 1:15 Highlight the passage at 1:15

1:35 So that was what was there. So one of the things when you go to these conferences is that you obviously listen to some of the talks. All kinds of talks were going on and I was also giving a short presentation there, which was one of the main reasons why I went there. And I listened to those talks and I was kind of interested to notice what kind of talks they were. Report an error in the passage at 1:35 Highlight the passage at 1:35

2:01 Many of these talks, the theme that I was listening to was how to develop inner peace that then leads to outer peace in the world. How our inner development of our minds actually has consequences in the world at large. That's a really nice theme. It obviously relates to meditation, practice and all of these kind of things. Report an error in the passage at 2:01 Highlight the passage at 2:01

2:22 So I listened to this theme and of course a lot of it was about Mindfulness, yeah, because that's kind of the hot word in the world these days, both in Buddhist circles and non-Buddhist circles and what have you. Mindfulness is kind of everywhere. And so that was a very important part of this. And you had all of these professors and academics and they were talking about how you... Report an error in the passage at 2:22 Highlight the passage at 2:22

2:44 Measure mindfulness, yeah, you kind of measure it in the world, see if it has an effect on people, see if they become better at their work, if they become better at school, seeing kind of how it affects society and organizations and all of these kind of things, how it kind of spreads into the world. Report an error in the passage at 2:44 Highlight the passage at 2:44

2:59 And there was two things I kind of picked up on that. The first one, no one really mentioned the word of the Buddha. The Buddha was kind of completely missing as if the Buddha was not the kind of person behind all of this. The Buddha is the one, that's where it all started. Mindfulness kind of began with the Buddha and he kind of put it into a system that was not mentioned. It was all that modern day science and measurements of these things. Report an error in the passage at 2:59 Highlight the passage at 2:59

3:24 That was the first thing I noted. And the other thing I noted was that all of this mindfulness research, all of the talks about mindfulness were all about How to create better lives for ourselves, how to create better societies, better institutions, more efficient studying for your exams. That's fair enough, you want to study for exams, you want to be more efficient or becoming better at your work. Obviously as monks we have to have some mindfulness to become better at our work, but for other people it's a bit different. Report an error in the passage at 3:24 Highlight the passage at 3:24

4:03 All of it was about how to apply mindfulness in a worldly context. But of course that is not how the Buddha used it. This is not wrong of course to do that. There is nothing wrong with creating a better life for ourselves and create a better society. Of course that is important. But at the same time the fact that no one talked about how the Buddha uses mindfulness was kind of very tangible. Report an error in the passage at 4:03 Highlight the passage at 4:03

4:29 How does the Buddha use mindfulness? Well, the Buddha uses mindfulness as part of a spiritual path. And that spiritual path actually leads you ultimately out of the world. It is not to create a perfect society, you know, where everyone is happy or whatever. Great if that could be done, but that can't be done, said the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 4:29 Highlight the passage at 4:29

4:47 This idea of utopias doesn't work. And so that whole thing was missing from this conference. No mention of the Buddha and no mention of how the Buddha really used mindfulness as part of how he discussed the practice of the spiritual life, how the spiritual life works. And so that to me is very interesting and it shows the kind of the... Report an error in the passage at 4:47 Highlight the passage at 4:47

5:13 Sometimes the dangers in this world, when we kind of separate mindfulness and make it into a separate category, separated from the rest of the spiritual practice, separated from the Buddha, separated from everything really, it becomes this kind of secular thing. Nothing wrong with secular, in fact I think that the distinction between secular and religion is kind of a way, it actually probably doesn't even exist, I think it's kind of a silly thing, but they have taken it out of the context, and that's really problematic. Report an error in the passage at 5:13 Highlight the passage at 5:13

5:44 And so this was one of the things that I noticed when I was there, and I thought that was fascinating. And of course the reason why this has happened, as I'm saying, is because Basically, mindfulness has been taken out of the context by many of the modern kind of Buddhist movements around the world. Secular Buddhism or mindfulness-based stress reduction, all of these kind of things. They have taken mindfulness out and taken it out of context. Report an error in the passage at 5:44 Highlight the passage at 5:44

6:15 And they will say things like, oh, mindfulness is kind of the most important thing in the dharma. Mindfulness is equivalent to vipassanā and vipassanā. That's what the Buddha taught. Vipassanā practice is kind of the Buddha's core message. And then they kind of say, this is really it. This is kind of the core and the essence of Buddhism. But is it the core and essence of Buddhism? Report an error in the passage at 6:15 Highlight the passage at 6:15

6:39 I would say that yes, it is an important part of the Buddhist practice, but it is neither more nor less important than any other aspect of the practice. It is one aspect of the practice. There is a noble eightfold path. I'm going to test you now. How many factors in the noble eightfold path? Report an error in the passage at 6:39 Highlight the passage at 6:39

6:59 Let's see how sharp you are, okay? Okay, you don't get any kind of medals for guessing this one, but there's eight factors on the Noble Eightfold Path. Yeah, surprise, surprise. So eight factors. One of them is mindfulness, and there are seven others. And so mindfulness is one of these eight ones. And so mindfulness has been kind of built up to be something special, but actually it is just one aspect of the whole path. Report an error in the passage at 6:59 Highlight the passage at 6:59

7:24 And only when you understand the complete path do you understand what the Buddhist spiritual life is about. If we are to say that anything is unique or different about Buddhism, there is one thing that is unique and different about Buddhism. And to know what is unique about Buddhism, who should we ask? Report an error in the passage at 7:24 Highlight the passage at 7:24

7:49 Wow, interesting question. Ajahn Brahm, maybe? Maybe, but maybe he gets it wrong. I don't know. Maybe, who should we ask? We should ask the Buddha, right? The Buddha would know what is unique about Buddhism. If the Buddha doesn't know, we are in serious trouble. Because this is the whole point of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 7:49 Highlight the passage at 7:49

8:06 He's the original teacher of this whole thing. So the Buddha, we should ask, what does the Buddha say? The Buddha said, well the one thing that is unique about Buddhism in the world compared to all other philosophies and spiritual paths and what have you is, aha, I just want to see if people look puzzled or question marks and whether they kind of look like they know what's going on. Report an error in the passage at 8:06 Highlight the passage at 8:06

8:32 What is that one thing? Well that one thing is the idea of non-self. Non-self is the one thing that makes Buddhism stand out from all other teachings in the world. That is what the Buddha himself says in the suttas. This is his insight into reality. And mindfulness is part of the path that leads to that insight. It leads to that understanding of the nature of existence. Report an error in the passage at 8:32 Highlight the passage at 8:32

8:56 And this is kind of how it works. So for this reason, mindfulness is not enough. Mindfulness is just one part of this whole practice and this is kind of what we have to deal with. And so for that reason it is kind of problematic. One of the things that you will often hear in Buddhist circles is be mindful in daily life. Is there anyone here who has not heard that? Report an error in the passage at 8:56 Highlight the passage at 8:56

9:25 Most people have heard this. This is what we get told all the time. Be mindful in daily life. Wash the dishes mindfully. Dry the dishes mindfully. Mindful, mindful. Wiping, wiping, wiping the dish. Drying, drying. Whatever it is that you do. Be mindful. And of course, there is a lot of truth to that. There's nothing wrong with being mindful in daily life. But there is very often no instructions that go with that. Report an error in the passage at 9:25 Highlight the passage at 9:25

9:47 Exactly how should you be mindful? For what purpose? What exactly should you focus on? What does it actually mean to be mindful in daily life? And to understand this, you have to understand how the Buddha sees these things in context. The idea with being mindful in daily life, the idea seems to be, well, if you are kind of mindful all the time in daily life, then you will also be mindful when you sit down to meditate. Report an error in the passage at 9:47 Highlight the passage at 9:47

10:13 Because maybe the idea is that mindfulness begets mindfulness. So by being mindful in daily life, you become a more mindful outsider. Report an error in the passage at 10:13 Highlight the passage at 10:13

10:23 Maybe, maybe there's a little bit of truth to that. Or if you really try really hard to be mindful in daily life, you grit your teeth, you press the tongue against the roof of your mouth. Report an error in the passage at 10:23 Highlight the passage at 10:23

10:35 Try really hard. Maybe that will lead to mindfulness. But maybe not. Maybe that is the wrong way of thinking about it. In fact, what you find in the suttas... The Buddha doesn't actually say anywhere that mindfulness begets mindfulness. He doesn't say that merely by being mindful all the time do you then become more mindful in general. Report an error in the passage at 10:35 Highlight the passage at 10:35

10:56 As when you sit down or when you go on retreat, suddenly you're really mindful because you were so mindful in daily life. He doesn't actually say that. So we need to understand the context of all of this. So these are some of the issues when we're dealing with dealing with this and so it's Report an error in the passage at 10:56 Highlight the passage at 10:56

11:19 There's one other thing that kind of always caught my mind when I was reading the suttas, or kind of became clear to me after reading it for a while, and that is that also the limits of mindfulness in other ways. There's a beautiful verse in a little sutta called the Mani Bhadda Sutta. It's part of the yakka, connected discourses on yakkas. I'm not going to discuss now what yakkas mean here. Report an error in the passage at 11:19 Highlight the passage at 11:19

11:40 It does not mean hard yakka as in Australian. It's a different kind of yakka. I've lived in Australia for quite a while now. I know my local vocab, so I kind of get into hard yaka and things in the monastery. This is a different kind of yaka. These are kind of the spirits in Buddhism. And so there's this yaka that comes down to the Buddha. And very often these spirits, they will say a verse in the presence of the Buddha. And then the Buddha will either praise them or he will say, you know, you didn't get that quite right or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 11:40 Highlight the passage at 11:40

12:10 So this yaka comes down to the Buddha and says, oh, you know, the one who is mindful. All is always well, is always happy, is always good. The one who is mindful is always happy. The one who is mindful grows day by day. The one who is mindful overcomes ill will. And the Buddha responds, the one who is mindful is always good. Report an error in the passage at 12:10 Highlight the passage at 12:10

12:37 The one who is mindful is always happy. The one who is mindful grows day by day. But the one who is mindful does not overcome ill will. The one person who overcomes their will. And in the second verse, the person who overcomes their will is the one who develops harmlessness and who develops mettā, loving kindness, friendliness, goodwill to the world. Report an error in the passage at 12:37 Highlight the passage at 12:37

13:00 That is the person who overcomes their will. And so this shows us again the limits of mindfulness. Mindfulness helps. It's always helpful to be mindful, to be aware. But sometimes it is not enough. And sometimes you just end up being mindful of your ill will. Actually, that doesn't really help. Ill will, ill will. Report an error in the passage at 13:00 Highlight the passage at 13:00

13:22 What then? You've got to do something about it. You can't just go around having ill will all the time. That's kind of a miserable life right there. So you have to use these things in the right way. Otherwise it doesn't work. And sometimes I have noticed you are mindful, you try to be mindful, and then you lose your mindfulness. That's another problem with mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 13:22 Highlight the passage at 13:22

13:42 You try during the day to be mindful, and you just can't. You just lose it all the time. One reason, because you use your smartphone too much. Own up to it. Report an error in the passage at 13:42 Highlight the passage at 13:42

13:55 It's true, isn't it? It's kind of just how it is for many people. You walk around in any city in the world these days and everyone is on their smartphone. Everywhere is exactly the same. It's kind of boring, isn't it? Everyone is on their smartphone everywhere. Another city, another smartphone. Sometimes you are mindful and you actually use that mindfulness in the wrong way. Report an error in the passage at 13:55 Highlight the passage at 13:55

14:18 Yeah, you do, you make wrong choices even when you are mindful. Because, why? Because there's something inside of you missing to make the right choices. And so then, seeing all of these problems with mindfulness, you realize that you have to do something more. There's something more to this whole practice than just being mindful. Report an error in the passage at 14:18 Highlight the passage at 14:18

14:39 And so what does the Buddha have to say about this? And what the Buddha has to say? I think I've said this here many times before. Is it this too? Or maybe I can't remember what I've said here before. I try to forget it as soon as possible. But anyway, what I think I've said before, in some places for sure, there's two supports or foundations for mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 14:39 Highlight the passage at 14:39

15:01 Two things upon which mindfulness should be built. And those two things are sīla. Sīla means morality. It means the goodness of your heart. This is sīla, and the other one is right view, or straight view, ujjuka ditti. Don't have to worry too much about the Pāli words, but straight view and morality. These are the foundations for mindfulness. And if you want to apply mindfulness in the right way, If you want to apply mindfulness and allow that mindfulness to grow over time, because it's not just a matter of having mindfulness, it's about making it as strong as possible. Report an error in the passage at 15:01 Highlight the passage at 15:01

15:42 It's a strong mindfulness that really works and makes a difference. Weak mindfulness doesn't get you very far. So these are the two qualities that we need to develop with mindfulness and then there are some very powerful results as a consequence of that. Straight view. And morality are the two things that have to come with it. So this is kind of where we have to start out. So what do we mean? Report an error in the passage at 15:42 Highlight the passage at 15:42

16:11 By morality in this particular context. And what we mean is that the more profound your morality is, the more profound your kindness is, the more powerful it's going to support your mindfulness. If you have a really good heart, if you feel a sense of goodwill for the whole world, if you have compassion for other people, then when you sit down, you're just going to feel good about yourself. Report an error in the passage at 16:11 Highlight the passage at 16:11

16:35 Your mind is not going to want to wander anywhere. And because of that, the presence The presence of the mind happens fairly quickly, especially if you go on retreat. Maybe not so much here. Here you are allowed to snore a little bit beforehand. But when you go on retreat, that's when you really find out whether you're able to develop that mindfulness or not. Report an error in the passage at 16:35 Highlight the passage at 16:35

16:53 That's kind of when it happens. So what do we do? I'll just give you some hints about the idea of morality in Buddhism. Morality in Buddhism is not to do the bad, but also to do the good. Morality in Buddhism is to do right by body and speech, but also by mind. So morality, or if you like, the goodness of your heart, is a very profound thing on the Buddhist path. Report an error in the passage at 16:53 Highlight the passage at 16:53

17:19 It is not usually what people think of as morality in the ordinary world. It's a very beautiful and profound thing. So if you're going to be moral by body, how exactly are you going to be moral by body? Well, obviously it is to... Show that you care, show that you are compassionate in your actions towards other people. Obviously that's part of it. So be compassionate to living beings, help living beings, from the tiniest insect to the biggest elephant and everything in between. Report an error in the passage at 17:19 Highlight the passage at 17:19

17:50 You support them, you help them, you have compassion, you understand that they have feelings, that they don't want to die, that actually it matters how you treat them. Report an error in the passage at 17:50 Highlight the passage at 17:50

18:00 And one kind of beautiful way, The beauty of showing your morality through body is how you move your body. Are you a gentle person? Do you move through the world with a sense of gentleness? Or are you someone who kind of moves a little bit too fast and a little bit too kind of haphazard in your life? And some people, they have a gentleness. You can almost feel that they are coming from a mind of goodwill by the way they move in the world. Report an error in the passage at 18:00 Highlight the passage at 18:00

18:29 So notice how you move, notice how you are. Do other people feel comfortable in your presence or do they feel a little bit scared sometimes when you are there because you are abrupt or whatever. And these are ways of making the world feel comfortable around us. The gentleness of movement, the kindness to all beings. Report an error in the passage at 18:29 Highlight the passage at 18:29

18:51 This is kind of how the bodily actions fall into place if you think like this. And it's very similar with speech. There are many different ways of talking about right speech in Buddhism. The gentle speech, the speech that creates unity and harmony in our society. The truthfulness. Truthfulness means not just not lying. It means actually being honest, really honest about things. And talking things that are meaningful. Report an error in the passage at 18:51 Highlight the passage at 18:51

19:19 But just generally... Reflect on how you can make your speech into a gift to the people around you. How can I say something that adds value to the present situation? And if it doesn't add value, maybe I shouldn't say it at all. Maybe there's no point in saying anything. Maybe the value in the moment is the peace, is the quietness, the non-saying of things. Report an error in the passage at 19:19 Highlight the passage at 19:19

19:43 It's very beautiful to be quiet around other people. We don't have to have this compulsion to always speak with other people. Some people feel uncomfortable if you don't speak in their presence. That's kind of unfortunate, isn't it? That's kind of anti-Buddhism. Please be comfortable around other people just by being silent. That's what we try to do when we meditate here on Friday nights. Report an error in the passage at 19:43 Highlight the passage at 19:43

20:06 That's what we try to do on retreats. When I hang out with Ajahn Brahm in the monastery, we often don't talk. He just sits there, I sit there, we have a cup of tea. If there's something to be said, we say it. If nothing to be said... Don't say anything. And actually much more comfortable in talking. After a while it's just, wow, really relaxed. Because you are just enjoying the peace and the good company of kindness of the other person. Report an error in the passage at 20:06 Highlight the passage at 20:06

20:31 This is how you add value through your speech. If you're going to say something, how can you add value? If there's nothing to be added, remain quiet. And then lastly, the most important thing of all, the thing that undergirds and supports all the other aspects of morality. Is where you are coming from, where is your mind state? Are you coming from a sense of mettā and loving kindness and care and goodwill to the world? Report an error in the passage at 20:31 Highlight the passage at 20:31

21:00 This is what we call mettā. Are you coming from a sense of compassion because you understand the suffering of all living beings? If you are, then all the morality falls into place. How can we have more goodwill in the world? And the way to have more goodwill in the world is to be open to the good qualities of the people around you. When you come to a place like this, there are so many people with good qualities. Report an error in the passage at 21:00 Highlight the passage at 21:00

21:24 People who want to do what is right. Sometimes it may not be immediately obvious. People who have really good intentions. And that is worth celebrating. That is worth really putting on a pedestal and bowing down to even. That's why we bow down to the Buddha sometimes. Because you're bowing down to some... Report an error in the passage at 21:24 Highlight the passage at 21:24

21:41 It's really beautiful. And so when you go around about your daily life, look at people in this way. Look at their good qualities. Build up the sense of mettā, loving kindness inside of you. People often ask, what should I do in daily life? Well, don't just be mindful. Build up this feeling of goodwill for the world around you throughout your day. Look at people. Report an error in the passage at 21:41 Highlight the passage at 21:41

22:06 See the goodness that is there. Wish them well in your mind, within yourself, as you go through the day. Build up the sense of gratitude and a feeling of goodness for the people around you at any time. You can always do this throughout your day. And as you do that throughout your day, as you start to see the whole universe, the whole world, the whole of society, everything in a new way, you start to change your outlook. Report an error in the passage at 22:06 Highlight the passage at 22:06

22:34 You view humanity and everyone around you differently as you do that. The Buddhist practice is very demanding. It takes enormous commitment. It takes enormous perseverance. And these are the sort of things that you can carry with you at all times as you go through your work and you do whatever things it is that you are obliged to do as part of your life, whatever that might be. Report an error in the passage at 22:34 Highlight the passage at 22:34

22:58 Or also the idea of compassion. When you go through society, you often see things that are not pleasant. It's difficult maybe to have goodwill. And if you can't have goodwill, you can always have compassion. When you look at the people in the world, sometimes people may look like they really have the act together, or they are really cool, or they are whatever. Report an error in the passage at 22:58 Highlight the passage at 22:58

23:20 But just behind the facade of every human being in this world, there is always some degree of suffering, some degree of pain, some difficulties. Report an error in the passage at 23:20 Highlight the passage at 23:20

23:32 There is no one in this world who doesn't have any difficulties, apart maybe from the fully enlightened ones, but they are rare and far between. There are not so many of them. How many enlightened ones here? I mean, if there's ever going to be enlightened ones, it's going to be in a place like this, right? But even here, there's no enlightened ones. Report an error in the passage at 23:32 Highlight the passage at 23:32

23:52 So what do you expect? So not so many in the world. That means, behind the facade, There is very often suffering. See people in a new way. If someone treats you badly, see the suffering behind that. If someone speaks in a bad way, it's usually because they are suffering in their heart. If someone is angry with you, it's got nothing to do with you. It has to do with their suffering and their conditioning. Report an error in the passage at 23:52 Highlight the passage at 23:52

24:17 And when you see that, you don't blame them when they treat you in a bad way. Instead, you have compassion for them. And it's so beautiful if you can do that. If you can do that throughout your day, all the time, see people in a new way. Just see the surface. Don't just see the outward expression. See what lies behind. And when you see what lies behind, you can have compassion, you can have goodwill. Report an error in the passage at 24:17 Highlight the passage at 24:17

24:42 These qualities start to come out. And these are the things you can develop all the time throughout your day, continuously in this way. Then you are really practicing this path in a very powerful way. And after a while... There's no one who you feel disappointed with when they treat you badly or treat other one else badly. Because you know the human condition. You know what it means to be a human being. Report an error in the passage at 24:42 Highlight the passage at 24:42

25:07 And you are building up something very... Powerful and beautiful within that you can take with you into the rest of your life. Then you come back on your meditation seat and suddenly you feel the mindfulness is there because you have built up all of these beautiful qualities inside. Now you are mindful and because you are mindful the meditation works. You are able to watch the breath. You are able to watch whatever it is that you watch because that is what happens when you have these qualities within. Report an error in the passage at 25:07 Highlight the passage at 25:07

25:37 So this is how we do things. Building up gradually, gradually, gradually. You use whatever mindfulness you have already to develop your virtue and good qualities. Then those virtues and good qualities enhance your mindfulness further, which enables you to develop your good qualities even more. So they work together in tandem in this way, like a spiral or whatever, yeah? Moving you up, lifting you up. Report an error in the passage at 25:37 Highlight the passage at 25:37

26:05 On this beautiful spiritual path to make you into a more wholesome, good, good-hearted human being. And we need more people like that in the world. Every time there is a good-hearted person in the world, we're helping the world move forward. So this is kind of part of that idea that was on that conference that I was on. Report an error in the passage at 26:05 Highlight the passage at 26:05

26:26 But there's more to it. And one of the, it's almost a bit like a catch-22. You have to be kind to be mindful and you have to be mindful to be kind. So I say, okay, build them up together, kind of get that. But is there something more to this? And the answer is yes. I mentioned before that there are two factors that support mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 26:26 Highlight the passage at 26:26

26:50 There is the virtue and then there is the right view. And right view, not only does it support mindfulness directly, and I'll come back to this in a second, but right view also supports the virtue. Because it's hard to be always to be kind. If I tell you don't get upset with anyone for the next week, You will say, impossible. I will have some irritation at least with somebody, guaranteed. Is there a day when no one irritates you at all? Report an error in the passage at 26:50 Highlight the passage at 26:50

27:23 It's impossible. Why? Because we are all irritating. And because we are all irritating, then irritation happens. And so sometimes I am going to irritate you, and sometimes you are going to irritate me, and sometimes we are going to irritate each other. And that's just the way it is. And it's very hard to overcome that. Report an error in the passage at 27:23 Highlight the passage at 27:23

27:41 And so because it is very difficult to always be virtuous, we need something more. And this is where the idea of right view, or straight view, or this idea of ujjakaditi comes in. Because that supports the virtue. Because that supports the virtue. And I will give you an example. I've been given this example here many times, many Fridays before, and I will give it again because, I don't know, I reckon it's a good idea to keep repeating things until there's no one left in the room. Report an error in the passage at 27:41 Highlight the passage at 27:41

28:13 Then I know I've gone too far. Too many repeats. But this is the idea of, you know, if you go into the city, Go down on St. George's Terrace or whatever, in the city, kind of in the middle of the day, lots of cars and everything there, and you have to cross the street. But you're not going to cross on the zebra crossing, you're not going to cross at the lights, because you are busy, you have to cross right there and then, in the middle of the street. It's called jaywalking, I wouldn't recommend it, but sometimes it may happen. Report an error in the passage at 28:13 Highlight the passage at 28:13

28:46 Yeah, so sometimes people do that. I sometimes do a jaywalk, not so much as a monk, but before I was a monk I was terrible. After I became a monk I became a more law-abiding citizen. Report an error in the passage at 28:46 Highlight the passage at 28:46

29:01 So what do you do? You come to the street. Now you have two options when you come to that street. Option number one is to kind of... Just walk straight into the street, yeah? Just bang, and just cross the road. That's option number one. Option number two is to look left and right at other cars and then cross the street. Report an error in the passage at 29:01 Highlight the passage at 29:01

29:22 So in the middle of the day, when there's lots of cars, which one do you normally choose? Just checking. Seeing if you are mad or not. Any sane person looks left and right before you cross. Otherwise you're going to be dead basically. So if you don't want to die, you tend to look left and right. Everyone does that. But what is so interesting about this is that it doesn't really matter how distracted you are. Report an error in the passage at 29:22 Highlight the passage at 29:22

29:49 The level of mindfulness has nothing to do with it. To do with this. I just mentioned mobile phones before. People walking through the street with their mobile phones, I don't really know what they're doing, filming themselves or watching TikTok videos or whatever it is that they're doing. I don't really know what they're doing, but they're kind of walking with their mobile phone, sometimes talking and sometimes doing things. When they come to the street, even if they have virtually zero mindfulness, they still look left and right. Report an error in the passage at 29:49 Highlight the passage at 29:49

30:16 And that's kind of really interesting. Because why is it that they look left and right even though they have almost zero mindfulness? And the answer is because they have right view. That right view is streets are dangerous. That's right view. They are dangerous. That right view is so powerful, implanted in your mind that when you come to that street, regardless of how... Report an error in the passage at 30:16 Highlight the passage at 30:16

30:55 street if there are no cars. And so that shows you that mindfulness is not the most important thing. Right view is the most important thing. Right view is what enables us to do what is right. Right. Surprise, surprise. This right view leads to doing what is right. Right view informs the mindfulness which then allows you to kind of do what works in your life. Report an error in the passage at 30:55 Highlight the passage at 30:55

31:21 And it's exactly the same thing with virtue. If you have the right view, if you understand the power of kindness, the power of virtue, Fully, it will be so implanted in your mind that every time you're about to say something, every time you're about to think something, certainly do something, you are kind of compelled by that right view to do what is right. Report an error in the passage at 31:21 Highlight the passage at 31:21

31:45 The mind leans in the right direction. The mind is always on the outlook for doing what is moral and doing what is right in the world. So what is that right view? Well, what that right view is, there's many, many aspects to that right view, and you can take it in many different directions. But one aspect of that right view is to remember the urgency of doing good, the urgency of doing what is right. Report an error in the passage at 31:45 Highlight the passage at 31:45

32:11 And the reason why it is urgent is because everything is so uncertain in this world. Do you know whether you will have the opportunity tomorrow? When are you going to die anyway? Do you know when you're going to die? You don't, right? This is kind of the scary thing about death. We don't know when it's going to happen. And so if you have this awareness that now is my only opportunity to do good, I don't know when it's going to come back again. Report an error in the passage at 32:11 Highlight the passage at 32:11

32:37 Every time I make a mistake, it's going to be one step backwards on the path. I can't afford that. Why? Because this is the only thing that really matters in life. The walking of the spiritual path. Everything in the world is so unreliable, out of control. You can't rely on what's happening in the world. I think the last few months have been pretty strong evidence of that. If you ever needed evidence that the world is out of control, I think the last few months have been very, very powerful evidence of that. Report an error in the passage at 32:37 Highlight the passage at 32:37

33:08 So the world, no way. Forget it. Let it go. Let it go its own way. I'm going to practice the spiritual path because that is really the only place where you have a degree of certainty. And that is urgent, really urgent, because you don't know when you're going to die. And because you don't know when you're going to die, now is the only opportunity to do what is right. That now is like all the time. Report an error in the passage at 33:08 Highlight the passage at 33:08

33:35 And so one of the contemplations that I sometimes try to do in my daily life, I try to... Think, I don't know, I'm not sure if this will sound very depressing to you, but I try to think that I'm always on my deathbed, or maybe my death seat, whatever it is, death, whatever. I'm always, when I'm going to die, it means that I'm potentially always on my deathbed. Report an error in the passage at 33:35 Highlight the passage at 33:35

34:04 And if I am ready to die now, then I will be ready when it eventually happens. If I'm not ready now, why will I be ready when it happens? It may very well be a day just like this, a car hits me, bang, finished. And then Ajahn Brahm does a funeral service, and I'm gone. I'm cremated, and something happens, and whatever, and I'm off somewhere else. Report an error in the passage at 34:04 Highlight the passage at 34:04

34:29 So, because... Of that, this feeling, this sense, it can be developed as a very powerful feeling. You are always on your deathbed, always ready to die because you don't know when it's going to be. Now is the only opportunity. Report an error in the passage at 34:29 Highlight the passage at 34:29

34:47 Yeah, you bring in this mindfulness of death, which brings with it the urgency of doing good. Because on your deathbed, you're not going to do any bad things on your deathbed. You're not going to argue with people, that kind of stuff. Yeah. If you look at people who have been living a good life, Report an error in the passage at 34:47 Highlight the passage at 34:47

35:05 you look at them at their deathbed, they are often very peaceful and quiet on their deathbed. That's what usually happens. So it makes you a better person to contemplate death. So you contemplate death. if you look at people who have been living a good life Report an error in the passage at 35:05 Highlight the passage at 35:05

35:17 You bring it into the present, you know the uncertainty of the world, you know the urgency of doing good, because you don't know when that opportunity will come. You have the opportunity right now, don't know when it will be next. So moment after moment after moment, you always do the right thing. This is how Right View supports virtue. And virtue then leads to mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 35:17 Highlight the passage at 35:17

35:40 And all of these things build up in this way. So there's many, many more aspects to right view. And all these various aspects of right view build up under virtue. One of the things that I didn't mention just now when I talk about thinking about death is the idea of rebirth. Because one of the reasons why it is so important to be virtuous is because of rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 35:40 Highlight the passage at 35:40

36:07 You're going to go somewhere else afterwards, says the Buddha. And not only the Buddha, many other people say that too. And because of that, everything you do now will affect not just the rest of your life, but also what happens afterwards. That's a very powerful thing, and that enables that death contemplation, gives it even more force, because you start to understand what is going on. Report an error in the passage at 36:07 Highlight the passage at 36:07

36:30 And I would recommend you, if it's difficult for you to kind of get your head around the idea of rebirth, I would recommend you to read up a little bit on things like near-death experiences. I don't know about you, but I have found it so powerful It's powerful to read about these things. It's like you see people who basically have died, they call it near death, but maybe it's more like death experiences, I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 36:30 Highlight the passage at 36:30

36:53 It's kind of, you're basically dead and you kind of come back again. And it's very powerful to read that. And it's actually life-altering just to read about other people's experiences. And so please, check those out. What is also fascinating, by the way, is the connection between Report an error in the passage at 36:53 Highlight the passage at 36:53

37:13 New death experience and some of the things the Buddha said. Actually, there's fairly clear connections there. I was in Singapore recently, I gave a talk on the connection between dependent origination and new death experiences. That was kind of cool, I enjoyed that talk. That was kind of a fairly unusual subject. That was good fun because I had to think of it differently from what I normally think, giving a different topic. Report an error in the passage at 37:13 Highlight the passage at 37:13

37:37 So, yeah, again, the idea. Right view, straight view, leading to virtue and then eventually leading to mindfulness. But there is one more thing, and this is what I haven't really spoken about yet, but which is also very to the point here, and that is the idea that right view also supports mindfulness directly, immediately. Report an error in the passage at 37:37 Highlight the passage at 37:37

38:02 If you have right view, it enables you to be mindful right here and right now. And the reason for that is because right view sorts out what our values are. Our values are determined by right view. So what you value, if you value the world, the reason why we value the world is we think the world is... Wonderful, the world, yay! Peace and harmony everywhere and everyone is hugging each other and there is no problems in the world. The world is a marvelous place and we all have a good time together. Report an error in the passage at 38:02 Highlight the passage at 38:02

38:37 I want to travel everywhere. I want to see the Great Wall of China. I want to see the Sydney Opera House. I want to go to the Tower of London and see the Eiffel Tower. Yay, the world! I'm going to eat French food and Chinese food and Japanese food and what have you. But stay away from the Norwegian food. I'm just letting you know just because I have Personal experience for that one. So, yeah, this is kind of, we value the world. And relationships, yeah, relationships are of course important to some extent. Report an error in the passage at 38:37 Highlight the passage at 38:37

39:07 But we value the world. And when we value the world, what are you going to do when you meditate? You're going to think about that blooming world, yeah. It's going to be in your mind. It's going to be, oh, I've got to do this, and I'm going to have this meal when I come back home. I know many of you have been on meditation retreats, like nine days. Do you ever kind of sit in the afternoon meditating, oh, I wish I could have dinner, oh, I was going to eat this, I was going to eat that. Report an error in the passage at 39:07 Highlight the passage at 39:07

39:33 This is quite common during meditation retreats because you're not used to not eating in the afternoon, so it's kind of hard. And so this is what we value the world. We think about the world. We worry about the world. We think, oh, what's going to happen in the U.S.? Is there going to be another world war? Report an error in the passage at 39:33 Highlight the passage at 39:33

39:50 And we kind of worry about that world because it's valuable, important to us. This is what I mean by right view gives you the right kind of values. Wrong view is the wrong kind of values. So right view, what does it tell you? It tells you that the world is out of control. It tells you that the world is impermanent, unreliable, uncertain, always changing, nothing can be held on to. Report an error in the passage at 39:50 Highlight the passage at 39:50

40:13 Things are always moving around. And we can't see these forces. They happen out of sight, under the surface. And eventually they build up to a certain momentum. Then they come crashing through. And that's what we're seeing right now. All of this... All the momentum of all these hidden forces crashing through and then making the world really unstable and very uncertain what's going to happen next. And so the Buddha says, don't hold on to that world. Report an error in the passage at 40:13 Highlight the passage at 40:13

40:40 If you do, you're always going to be disappointed. Life always ends in death and when you die, everything has to go except one thing. And that one thing that doesn't have to go when you die are the spiritual qualities that you have built up. Report an error in the passage at 40:40 Highlight the passage at 40:40

40:58 Priority is right. And by getting your priorities right, I mean when you sit down and you close your eyes, you actually prioritize the breath. You don't prioritize thinking about World War III. It's a waste of time anyway, right? You know that, but you still think about it because you can't let go. That's the problem. And so you prioritize the right thing. Report an error in the passage at 40:58 Highlight the passage at 40:58

41:18 And this is how, if you have right view, this is exactly how your mind leans. It's so beautiful when I talk with Ajahn Brahm and I ask Ajahn Brahm, I said this thing before, how do you meditate Ajahn? Ajahn Brahm says, oh, when I meditate I go to my room, or my cave rather, because he has a nice cave. Report an error in the passage at 41:18 Highlight the passage at 41:18

41:42 Have you seen Ajahn Brahm's cave? Ah, Sandra, you had to come and see Ajahn Brahm's cave. So Ajahn Brahm has a cave in the monastery, a man-made cave, actually a monk-made cave, made by one of the monks. Beautiful cave, kind of in granite stone and these kind of things. And he goes into his cave, and how he meditates is like this. He sits down, and he kind of leans back a little bit, because he's tired from the day, whatever it is, leans back. Report an error in the passage at 41:42 Highlight the passage at 41:42

42:11 Then he says, I just wait. I just wait in the present. I don't do anything. He doesn't think about anything, because there's nothing to be thought about. He kind of lets go of the whole world. He sits back and he waits in the present. He's mindful. He's aware. And then as he waits, everything calms down, becomes very peaceful and beautiful. And the bliss starts to arise. The happiness just arises by itself. Report an error in the passage at 42:11 Highlight the passage at 42:11

42:35 Why? Because he has the right priorities. And then as he allows the bliss to arise, this beautiful light starts to arise in the mind. And then bang, he's off into the most powerful meditation imaginable. That's how a real meditator meditates. Why? Because the priorities are right. It's beautiful when you have your priorities right. You know what really is valuable in the world. So study the world of the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 42:35 Highlight the passage at 42:35

43:03 Understand what is truly valuable in the world. Understand where the real refuge is to be found. The real refuge to be found on the Noble Eightfold Path. In the spiritual practice, in the meditation, by being quiet, by sitting down, by feeling the joy, feeling the bliss within, that is the real refuge. Report an error in the passage at 43:03 Highlight the passage at 43:03

43:23 Why? Because you're withdrawing from the world. The bliss and the happiness and the joy inside of you, that's your happiness. Something that you can access whenever you are on the right track, whenever you know how to meditate in the right way. The world outside is always going to be out of control. Obviously, that inner refuge is far more interesting, far more powerful than the world outside, which is not under your control. Report an error in the passage at 43:23 Highlight the passage at 43:23

43:49 If you can access that at all times, wow, you have a real home for yourself. And so that is kind of the whole Noble Eightfold Path. It comes together. That is ultimately the refuge. That is what we're trying to do. And that is where this practice happens. Report an error in the passage at 43:49 Highlight the passage at 43:49

44:08 What I'm saying here today is simply two things. There are two things that support mindfulness. Mindfulness in itself is not enough. Don't just go around the day being mindful, mindful, mindful. No. Understand why you're mindful during the day. You're mindful to achieve something higher. You're mindful to achieve a really good heart. You're mindful to achieve more goodwill towards the beings around you, more compassion. Report an error in the passage at 44:08 Highlight the passage at 44:08

44:34 That is why you're mindful in daily life. Build up that sense of... Kindness and goodness and goodwill inside of you. Then when you build that up, then the mindfulness will happen. And then also at the same time, understand the dhamma. Understand how the Buddha saw the world. Build up that right view, that right understanding. And that too will support both the virtue and the mindfulness itself directly. Report an error in the passage at 44:34 Highlight the passage at 44:34

45:01 And then all of these things will... Come together very, very powerfully, and then you are on the spiritual path in a far more powerful way than if all you do is just focus on mindfulness. So mindfulness is not enough. Bring in all the factors on the Noble Eightfold Path, and then you will be in very good stead indeed. Report an error in the passage at 45:01 Highlight the passage at 45:01

45:25 Okay, so that's the talk for today. So now you can say sadhu if you like. Report an error in the passage at 45:25 Highlight the passage at 45:25

45:35 I'm just saying that because this is kind of the Buddhist way of saying whatever. So great, okay everyone. So if you have any questions or comments on the talk tonight, you are most welcome to ask or to comment as you like. Report an error in the passage at 45:35 Highlight the passage at 45:35

45:57 Eddie has a question. Is it a question or comment, Eddie? Both, okay. Report an error in the passage at 45:57 Highlight the passage at 45:57

46:09 Please keep it reasonably short, Eddie, if you can. Ajahn Brahmali, when Report an error in the passage at 46:09 Highlight the passage at 46:09

46:23 we practice mindfulness, don't you think it's important to not forget the importance of the four foundations of mindfulness? Report an error in the passage at 46:23 Highlight the passage at 46:23

46:38 What I would say is that the four foundations of mindfulness is what you do when you go on a retreat. In daily life, the main focus should be on just living well. Focus on the support factors. Not enough people focus on the supporting factors. This is the hard work. Always being kind is actually quite difficult. Report an error in the passage at 46:38 Highlight the passage at 46:38

46:58 This is where the real support comes. What I mean is the Four Foundations, I think it's important because it deals with our well-being. Report an error in the passage at 46:58 Highlight the passage at 46:58

47:11 Mindfulness of our body, of our feelings, our thoughts, the phenomena. phenomena. So whenever there is, like if we have any disturbing feeling or what, you know, oh, then we know, it comes from our mind, you know, something happened not good, our mind hops on it, and then we feel bad. You know, this understanding helps a lot, doesn't it? This is one aspect of mindfulness, an important one. Report an error in the passage at 47:11 Highlight the passage at 47:11

47:39 Remember that most of the things that you find in Satipaṭṭhāna, the four, The four applications of mindfulness. It's really about meditation practice. It's not so much about daily life. It's about mindfulness of breathing, watching the breath, watching your feelings and these things. They come together in the Ānāpānasati Sutta. In daily life, there is mindfulness, but it's not really the four foundations, not the four applications. Report an error in the passage at 47:39 Highlight the passage at 47:39

48:05 That comes with meditation practice. In daily life, mindfulness is more related to living well, living good. So be aware of your thoughts, absolutely. But know why you are aware of those thoughts. Be aware of those thoughts so you can be a better person. So you can have more mettā, you can have more karuṇā, compassion, these things. Report an error in the passage at 48:05 Highlight the passage at 48:05

48:23 That's why you are aware of the thoughts. But why do they say four foundations of mindfulness? Because you should become a better person. That's why. There you are. Yeah? This is really important, you know. For me, you know, okay? Yeah. For me, I use this mindfulness whenever, most of the time, it's okay, you know. Report an error in the passage at 48:23 Highlight the passage at 48:23

48:41 Okay, good. That's great. Report an error in the passage at 48:41 Highlight the passage at 48:41

48:59 So carry on. Thank you. Good. I have any disturbing emotion, you know, something happened in my mind, I don't feel good. Do what works for you, Eddie. So if it works for you, wonderful. I would think of my mind, thinking of that, you know, and I work on that, and that helps me. Okay, good. Report an error in the passage at 48:59 Highlight the passage at 48:59

49:06 So, yeah, please. While he asks the question, can you please have a look at this, because I just see these icons on the screen, or maybe you can have a look, yeah. So touching on what Eddie was saying, the four foundations of mindfulness, do they relate at all to the four stages of enlightenment? No, these are basically the seventh factor of the Noble Eightfold Path, right mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 49:06 Highlight the passage at 49:06

49:36 And so these are like you observe different aspects of the mind and the body. This is kind of what this is about and by that observation you reach deeper stages of meditation. The classic way is just watching the breath and as you watch the breath you have good feelings and the mind becomes in the focus and these kind of things. Okay, so then the eighth fact of the Noble Eightfold Path, Samādhi, that these You know, the right mindfulness culminates into it and the other six factors of the Eightfold Path? Yeah, so the first six factors of the Noble Eightfold Path, they support the mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 49:36 Highlight the passage at 49:36

50:15 And those six factors are basically about right view, the first one, and then the other ones are a lot about morality. It's about right speech, right action, etc. So you have right view plus morality leads to right mindfulness, the seventh factor, and then that leads to samādhi, which is the eighth factor of the path. Report an error in the passage at 50:15 Highlight the passage at 50:15

50:33 So how do you know that you've got the other seven correct so that you can get the eighth? So how do you know that you've got right speech, right intention, right livelihood? You know because your meditation is going really well. Okay, so if your meditation is not going very well, then you won't have the eightfold power? Report an error in the passage at 50:33 Highlight the passage at 50:33

50:54 Is that correct? Yeah, so can you say that again please? So if your meditation is poor and you have a lot of... Dukkha and unpleasantness in your meditation, that means that the Noble Eightfold Path is, in your perspective, is not correct. Yeah, it's not developed fully yet. Yeah, it's not fully developed. And so then how can you tell which factor of the eight you need to work on? Report an error in the passage at 50:54 Highlight the passage at 50:54

51:20 So you just have to investigate your life. See what is your speech like? What are your habits like? What are your thought patterns like? How do you think about people? You just have to investigate them in light of the Noble Eightfold Path and you will see. Basically, you have to just know yourself. That's kind of what it comes down to. Report an error in the passage at 51:20 Highlight the passage at 51:20

51:41 Okay, so knowing yourself. Okay, thank you. Okay, very good. Okay, anyone else want to say anything? No? Everyone else happy? Okay, let's have a quick look at the questions from outside. So we have a question from Germany. How does mindfulness help me handle my tumor? I think of death daily and what can I do that my loved ones don't worry and how can I lose my fear of losing them? How do I live wisely? Report an error in the passage at 51:41 Highlight the passage at 51:41

52:12 So how does mindfulness help you handle your tumor? I think better than mindfulness is to have loving kindness. The goodwill, the mettā is more important for handling your tumor. This is, you know, sometimes... All kind of illness, it actually has a beneficial effect if you have mettā and you have goodwill towards illnesses. Often you can emerge from sicknesses because of that. Report an error in the passage at 52:12 Highlight the passage at 52:12

52:43 So I think that is more important. But of course mindfulness helps you to remind you to have that mettā, to have that goodwill. So have goodwill towards yourself. If you can, have goodwill even to the tumor. The tumor is just there, it doesn't know what it's doing. It's just kind of... Causing you misery, of course, but it doesn't really know itself what it is doing. It doesn't have any independent consciousness or anything like that. And so have mettā towards everyone. Report an error in the passage at 52:43 Highlight the passage at 52:43

53:12 So then you will develop many good qualities right there and that will also reduce your fear of losing the people in your life because you become more resilient if you have these kind of good qualities within you. So you build up resilience by having mettā, by having loving kindness in this way. So just keep doing the very best you can to practice all the factors of the Noble Eightfold Path, all the factors together. Report an error in the passage at 53:12 Highlight the passage at 53:12

53:36 That makes you more resilient, that makes everything go. better as a consequence. So yeah, so that's kind of, that's really. Report an error in the passage at 53:36 Highlight the passage at 53:36

53:47 Yeah, so see what happens, see if you can make use of that and see if that gets you somewhere. Question number two. A question, dear Ajahn. I'm still learning. So if Buddhism is real, why did nature create these hard-to-discover phenomena like karma, rebirth in nirvāṇa? Why does this even exist? Report an error in the passage at 53:47 Highlight the passage at 53:47

54:11 Why did nature create this hard to discover phenomena? Well, there's lots of kind of hard to discover phenomena in the world. yeah, and Report an error in the passage at 54:11 Highlight the passage at 54:11

54:21 Why are there such things? You know, one of the things about the Buddha is that he doesn't really answer these kind of questions. These kind of questions are kind of beyond the scope because these are more like philosophical questions. Why does this exist? What exactly is it? What the Buddha is concerned about is the diagnosis of the world. The diagnosis is that there is suffering. Report an error in the passage at 54:21 Highlight the passage at 54:21

54:42 There is a problem to be resolved. And that problem... has the following solutions, says the Buddha, and then you go for the solution. You don't ask too many questions. Now part of the problem is that there is rebirth. It exists according to the Buddha. There is karma, there is nibbāna or nirvāṇa, all these things exist. And that is what makes both the suffering more acute and it also leads to the possibility of escape from that suffering. Report an error in the passage at 54:42 Highlight the passage at 54:42

55:10 here. Report an error in the passage at 55:10 Highlight the passage at 55:10

55:13 So sometimes I'm not sure if there are any answers to this question why these things are there. They just are there. Why are we here? You can ask that question. Why am I even here? I don't know why I'm here. I'm just here. This is what happens. I walked into this hall and now I sit here. So things just happen and sometimes it's very hard to pin down exactly why. Report an error in the passage at 55:13 Highlight the passage at 55:13

55:36 Question from Singapore. How do we use mindfulness to cope with supervisors who tend to be negative and always respecting the subordinates and people in the company? Thank you. So these supervisors have compassion for them. They don't know what they are doing. Yeah, they are... Blind and silly and stupid and just have compassion. Bring them a nice cup of tea and say I hope you're having a nice day dear supervisor. And then maybe they will become less suspicious of you and become nicer. Report an error in the passage at 55:36 Highlight the passage at 55:36

56:08 It's something about being kind to others that opens doors. Being kind opens connection to other people. When you treat someone with kindness it opens up something. It opens a feeling of Of humanity, of connecting with people around us. There's something very beautiful, an act of generosity, an act of kind speech, it does something very beautiful. Report an error in the passage at 56:08 Highlight the passage at 56:08

56:32 So do that to your boss. Your boss is just another human being who... Who doesn't really understand life. Who is blind just like everyone else. Everyone in the world is blind. No one knows what they're doing. Everyone deserves compassion because they haven't got a clue what's going on. They're trying to find their way through this weird thing called life. You get born into this world and you die and you wonder what it's all really about. It's kind of a weird thing, this thing called life, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 56:32 Highlight the passage at 56:32

56:57 Everyone tends to follow along doing the same thing. No one really takes enough time to wonder what actually they should really be doing. And your boss is probably just as blind, maybe more blind than everyone else. So be kind, be compassionate, try to understand, then you're going to be on the right track. Report an error in the passage at 56:57 Highlight the passage at 56:57

57:18 Okay, everyone, anything else? Everyone happy, not happy, neutral, whatever? I'm going to go anywhere now, so whatever the reality is, it doesn't really matter. Let's just pay respect to the Buddha Dhamma Saṅgha. Report an error in the passage at 57:18 Highlight the passage at 57:18