Perception of Nature

0:00 It's so nice that quite a few people have come again for the Friday night meditation, even though the footy season has started, and I think a lot of people have gone to watch the footy. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:15 So I was asked to come to give the talk this evening. Venerable Niputra was supposed to be here, but he had a knee problem, so I said, of course, I'd like to come see our beautiful people here in Nolamara. Report an error in the passage at 0:15 Highlight the passage at 0:15

0:34 I was asked to give the talk today. Somebody hinted a topic, a talk about nature. I said, yeah, okay, nature is a very nice topic. Report an error in the passage at 0:34 Highlight the passage at 0:34

0:46 Nature is one of those things what the early Buddhist monks and nuns actually praised. There's a lot of kind of quite negative things quite sometimes in the suttas. We always look at it like, oh, suffering, this and that, it's like terrible. But nature is actually ...braised in many places. There's wonderful passages even in the stories of the senior monks and nuns who praised the nature, how beautiful it is. Report an error in the passage at 0:46 Highlight the passage at 0:46

1:21 And especially I can just imagine when they were coming out of deep, deep meditations and they were like sitting there under a cool shade of a tree and they were like just... Saying how beautiful the nature is, it must be, you can imagine like your mind is very elated, very, very happy, and then you just look at the nature around you. Report an error in the passage at 1:21 Highlight the passage at 1:21

1:48 Pristine nature in India these days, I'm sure they've lost a lot of it in India, in those places where the monks and nuns lived in those days. Report an error in the passage at 1:48 Highlight the passage at 1:48

1:58 Even here sometimes, like Ajahn Brahm talked about the nature when he was meditating in the caves, right? He talks about it quite often and he said the most fragrant smell for him is the padpu smell. It's not some beautiful fragrance, but it's the padpu. And I can imagine that it evokes a memory of something beautiful. Report an error in the passage at 1:58 Highlight the passage at 1:58

2:24 It's interesting even for... As monastics in Porinjana Monastery, sometimes people come to monastery and they're just loaded, laden with those fragrances. And as a monk, you live in a forest and we don't use that many fragrances really at all. We're not supposed to use them. Or we even try to use very, very neutral washing powders. Report an error in the passage at 2:24 Highlight the passage at 2:24

2:49 voters or Soaps and things. And we tend to be a bit smelly anyways. We don't wash that often. Interesting fact in Porinjana, the monastery, the shower water we use is dam water. So this time of the year it starts to get a bit not so fragrant. It's very natural. So we tend to be a bit smelly, the monks. Report an error in the passage at 2:49 Highlight the passage at 2:49

3:16 But you get these people and they're well washed and it's like, spray all these all the cologne before they come to monastery and it's like you smell them mile away and it's when you're not used to it when you smell natural all day and all everybody else smells very natural around you it's it's very it's quite pungent and quite sort of it's not pleasant so it's interesting these perceptions what you perceive certain things like oh that smells nice you go to You go to this, I don't know, tax-free shop in the airport, and you smell all the things, things, oh, it smells really nice, and then you just got to spray it everywhere, and you come to monastery, and it's like, what? Report an error in the passage at 3:16 Highlight the passage at 3:16

4:04 It's too much. Report an error in the passage at 4:04 Highlight the passage at 4:04

4:08 Is that natural? I'm not sure. Why do we don't want to smell natural? I remember one time, see, I come from Finland, and I went to Russia. A few times. And then one time we were in this exchange program. And in St. Petersburg they have this really old metro system. That's one of the oldest in Europe. Report an error in the passage at 4:08 Highlight the passage at 4:08

4:32 And really the nature in St. Petersburg is such that they had to dig the metro subway really, really deep because it's actually built on really soft land. It's like bog. Report an error in the passage at 4:32 Highlight the passage at 4:32

5:14 A lot of people were using the metro and there were one thing they didn't have a lot of this like the things to you know the spray on yourself what we do these days try to keep the human bodily odors natural odors away and I remember you go there and what do you what do you try to do as a young man well you try to position yourself right always close to the young pretty ladies so you can like be next to them. Report an error in the passage at 5:14 Highlight the passage at 5:14

5:45 And the interesting thing is like you just sort of sit next to her and you assume they're going to smell nice. I don't know why I'm talking about this, but it just comes to my mind. And you just sort of like, what do you do? You just go next to her and you're like, oh, she's pretty. And you go like, she smells like human. Report an error in the passage at 5:45 Highlight the passage at 5:45

6:05 And it's interesting things why I just remember that because you don't expect a pretty young lady to smell like a human. You expect them to smell not natural. Report an error in the passage at 6:05 Highlight the passage at 6:05

6:17 But these things what we call natural these days, we're shifting away maybe from the nature. I think sometimes nature is not as clean or organized or the way we want it to be. Sure, we want to eat natural foods. What is natural food? What does it mean? Organic food maybe is natural. Report an error in the passage at 6:17 Highlight the passage at 6:17

6:47 We see ourselves somehow outside of nature. You are as nature as anything. We are animals. I always quite often think about how we came as a part of evolutionary process. And here we are. This is the nature we created. We created all these cities. We created halls. We created cars, driveways, everything. Report an error in the passage at 6:47 Highlight the passage at 6:47

7:16 That's our nature now. That's what we created. And we are animals who create these kind of things. But maybe that is a natural habitat for us humans now. I was just talking to Venerable Kimballa here, my co-pilot tonight, how maybe we have changed a lot. Report an error in the passage at 7:16 Highlight the passage at 7:16

7:39 It's hard now to know if we would get somebody coming for 200 years ago or 300 years ago. And they would come to me and look at me, and they were like, I talk about all my problems and this and that. It was like, oh, you're a sissy. Report an error in the passage at 7:39 Highlight the passage at 7:39

7:58 Maybe they were a lot tougher in those days. I'm not sure. It's hard to know sometimes what happens, how we are, because we cannot be outside of history or outside of our society where we live. Report an error in the passage at 7:58 Highlight the passage at 7:58

8:14 So never see yourself somehow separate from nature. And even with your mind, just see it as a natural process. It evolved in a certain way. And in very, very big extent it's very positive, very good to see our body as just being part of nature. Report an error in the passage at 8:14 Highlight the passage at 8:14

8:44 Our bodies are just made out of natural things. And if you look at how many cells we have, there's probably... Not just probably, there is more bacteria in our bodies than the human cells, right? And yet, quite often we are sort of upset with our bodies. The body is aging. The body is sick. Report an error in the passage at 8:44 Highlight the passage at 8:44

9:09 Why do we have to be upset with the body? The body belongs to nature. It's part of nature. If the body would belong to us, belong to you, you could say, I don't want my body to be this way, and then it would observe your wishes and whims. Report an error in the passage at 9:09 Highlight the passage at 9:09

9:29 But it doesn't. You cannot tell your body to be this way or that way. The body just belongs to nature. It's really, really important to contemplate these things. This Sunday I will go through a sutta and that's one of those things which comes up in that sutta is sickness, old age and death. Report an error in the passage at 9:29 Highlight the passage at 9:29

9:57 So when you contemplate these things that this body is just a natural body, you're lessening that attachment to the body. Report an error in the passage at 9:57 Highlight the passage at 9:57

10:07 We will all get sick. There's no avoiding it. We will all age, die. There's no avoiding it. It's good to think about it, contemplate it, often. Report an error in the passage at 10:07 Highlight the passage at 10:07

10:22 It's good to think about other people's bodies. They just belong to nature as well. When you see other people around you are suffering, they have bodily suffering. There is a lot of things we know, our parents. Relatives, loved ones, we attach to them. It's natural. When you spend time with somebody, you just become attached to them. Report an error in the passage at 10:22 Highlight the passage at 10:22

10:51 And you look at them, it's like their body is subject to natural things as well. Therefore, I need to take care of them. Report an error in the passage at 10:51 Highlight the passage at 10:51

11:02 And same with their mind. Their mind just comes whimsically. Report an error in the passage at 11:02 Highlight the passage at 11:02

11:11 I need to take care of others around me. I will lose them at one point. It's very easy to break things. But it's very difficult to keep things together. Report an error in the passage at 11:11 Highlight the passage at 11:11

11:30 And it's interesting, even if you think about this will all end tomorrow. AI will take over. It's going to wake up tonight. Who knows? Who knows what those big, what do they call them, tech bros, what they have access to. They have unlimited tokens. Imagine Elon Musk has his personal AI. Report an error in the passage at 11:30 Highlight the passage at 11:30

12:01 What can he do with it? Unlimited tokens. He's in control. Tonight, Ajahn will wake up. Tomorrow, maybe tomorrow we're here. But if the world will end day after tomorrow, what should you do tomorrow? Report an error in the passage at 12:01 Highlight the passage at 12:01

12:26 Plant a tree. Do something for nature. The tree will outlast you. The tree will outlast the imminent. Take over by AI. The tree will be there, right? Plant the tree tomorrow. Do something good for nature. Take care of our natural world. Maybe we have to be wiped out. Maybe it is just our destiny. We created this world. This became our natural habitat. We controlled it in a way. Report an error in the passage at 12:26 Highlight the passage at 12:26

13:10 Everything we see around us. It's perfectly for our size, right? Everything fits to us humans. We're trying to make everything fit more and more. Everything is our size in this world. Report an error in the passage at 13:10 Highlight the passage at 13:10

13:28 But maybe now is the time to go. But the nature will stay. Report an error in the passage at 13:28 Highlight the passage at 13:28

13:39 But if we are part of this natural world, it's still a beautiful world, right? Sometimes we do loving-kindness meditation. And when I like to do loving-kindness meditation, I like to start it for myself. And I always emphasize it's very, very important to care about yourself. Report an error in the passage at 13:39 Highlight the passage at 13:39

14:03 Why do you care about yourself? Because the world revolves around you. That's the truth, right? You think about you. So why, that's why you care about yourself first. Because your world revolves around you, so... It's good that the one thinks about yourself all the time, takes care of you. Ajahn Nisarano, one of my teachers, he lives now in Newbury Monastery. Report an error in the passage at 14:03 Highlight the passage at 14:03

14:38 He's been the abbot there for a while in Melbourne. And I went to one of his talks and he said it very beautifully. He said, if you have money in the bank, you can give money. If you don't have money in your account, what happens when you give? You're going into debt. That's right. Report an error in the passage at 14:38 Highlight the passage at 14:38

14:59 So it's the same with loving-kindness. If you have loving-kindness in your bank account, when you're giving, you can give loving-kindness. If you have a zero or negative loving-kindness, what are you giving? It's not loving-kindness. And you're going into debt. So have loving-kindness bank account first. Keep doing loving-kindness towards yourself. Report an error in the passage at 14:59 Highlight the passage at 14:59

15:22 Acceptance, forgiveness, all those things towards yourself. More and more. Accept yourself. Nobody else is really going to do it for you. You have to do it. Keep doing it. Keep doing it. Keep doing it. Then you do, you have a bank account, then it starts playing out. Then you can start caring about others, or you actually will start caring about others. In the correct way, right way, then it actually is compassion. Report an error in the passage at 15:22 Highlight the passage at 15:22

15:51 If you don't know what compassion is, you cannot give it. Report an error in the passage at 15:51 Highlight the passage at 15:51

15:58 So when you start doing this loving kindness, okay, going back to the idea of like this globe, we live in this beautiful blue planet, right? So we start loving kindness for ourselves. That's what I'm saying. Start doing the loving kindness meditation. I really care about myself. Obviously, I learned the care from somebody. Report an error in the passage at 15:58 Highlight the passage at 15:58

16:19 Who do I learn? How do I learn the care? I learned it from my mom and dad. I learned it from my grandmother. I learned it. For our dog we used to have. I learned it from people around me. I know what it feels to be cared. I learned it from these people, others. And then I direct it from myself. I care about myself. And you start spreading a little bit towards the world. You think about the beautiful nature we live in. Report an error in the passage at 16:19 Highlight the passage at 16:19

16:46 It's good. We belong in this earth. We are part of this nature. And then you start going out and out and further and further. And then even when you go up in space when you're doing loving kindness and you're looking down into this beautiful blue planet and you're having kindness towards this whole planet. Report an error in the passage at 16:46 Highlight the passage at 16:46

17:09 It's amazing. We live in this planet which is just in this vast space around us. And we're all here together. Report an error in the passage at 17:09 Highlight the passage at 17:09

17:23 Why would I feel anybody's different than I am? When we're all here together, how can you not have kindness towards everybody? How can you think somebody's different than you? Report an error in the passage at 17:23 Highlight the passage at 17:23

17:38 Even if I think, my friend, Donald Trump, he's just like me, wakes up in the morning, he's brushing his teeth, he uses the toilet, then he goes and does important things. I do the same thing. This morning, what was the important thing I did? I ate breakfast. Then... Oh, I cleaned my hut. That was an important thing. Because I was coming here for the weekend, so I had to clean my hut. Termites ate the door ledge on my hut, so I had to take that off as well. Report an error in the passage at 17:38 Highlight the passage at 17:38

18:15 So I did a little work. Important work. I'm sure Donald does maybe more important things. But, you know, it's about the same. Not a big difference there. His world goes around him, and my world is very important for me. It's all the same. It's not much difference. So he's not different than I am. I cannot have bad attitude towards him. Poor Donald. People don't understand him. Report an error in the passage at 18:15 Highlight the passage at 18:15

18:45 The same way nobody understands me. I have problems. Report an error in the passage at 18:45 Highlight the passage at 18:45

18:54 Life is difficult. Oh, I could tell you a joke. You might have heard this, but this Ajahn Brahm joke. So our friend Donald... He woke up one morning and said, nothing is going my way. I try my best. People don't understand. So being Trump, he calls the Pope. Report an error in the passage at 18:54 Highlight the passage at 18:54

19:20 He said, look, I need something. It's not happening. I try everything. People just don't see how well I do in the world. I need a miracle. You have the number to the big guy up there? The Pope says, yeah, maybe. He said, look, I heard you fixing one of the chapels there in Vatican. They're like, you could have a bit of a kickback. Report an error in the passage at 19:20 Highlight the passage at 19:20

19:51 And, you know, don't worry about it. If they go over projects, I'm sure we could suss it out. So the Pope says, okay, yep, I think I can make a couple phone calls. You know, I have the number. So he makes the phone call, and then he calls back to Trump, and he says, look, it's all sorted. Tomorrow's Monday. Report an error in the passage at 19:51 Highlight the passage at 19:51

20:11 You wake up in the morning and then have a press release in front of the White House. And you know, you have the pool there in front of the White House, which you just built with the new extension. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, go to the pool and you will be able to walk on water. So Trump goes there on a Monday morning, he calls all the press. Report an error in the passage at 20:11 Highlight the passage at 20:11

20:42 Okay, you know, like I'm going to give this amazing announcement now. We have the new extension for the White House. Now we have the new beautiful pool here designed by me. It's called the Donald Trump pool. And then I will show you something. So he goes into the edge of the pool and he takes the leap of faith and he doesn't sink in. Report an error in the passage at 20:42 Highlight the passage at 20:42

21:09 He's walking on the water. He walks across the pool and everybody's watching him. The press is watching him. Everybody sees what he's just done. And next day, news, New York Post, Washington, whatever, all the headlines are. He's even worse than we thought. He cannot even swim. Report an error in the passage at 21:09 Highlight the passage at 21:09

21:41 It's not working for him. Okay, so back to the nature. Talk about nature. So, nature. One thing we all the time talk about, climate change, right? We always see these things about something to be worried about. Everything. Bad news, sell. Report an error in the passage at 21:41 Highlight the passage at 21:41

22:11 What if this is going to happen? What if that's going to happen? What if? And then what? And then what? And we keep speculating, and then what? And then what? Report an error in the passage at 22:11 Highlight the passage at 22:11

22:26 What if it doesn't happen? Report an error in the passage at 22:26 Highlight the passage at 22:26

22:30 What if the world doesn't end? What if tomorrow is just a regular day? Sure, it might be warm. We can forecast the weather pretty well tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be hot. But what if the world doesn't end? What if your worst thing, what you thought about your life, didn't come true? Report an error in the passage at 22:30 Highlight the passage at 22:30

23:02 Anything you think in life, this actually comes. Sort of from the suttas. I should talk about sometimes a little bit about the suttas since being a monk and I'm here to talk about dhamma. The Buddha described that whatever you think about the future, it's always going to be different. So the nice thing about, you can consider that anything what comes to your mind, it turns out different. So at least you can tick those boxes. Report an error in the passage at 23:02 Highlight the passage at 23:02

23:33 Well, at least that's not going to happen. Even in your own world, you're always speculating, what is going to happen, and terrible, and it's not going to be good, this and that. Okay, well, great. Well, those things are not coming to true. So always come back into this kind of reality a little bit. All of these things, what we perceive, how we perceive the world, it's just your perceptions. And how much reality there is in your perceptions. Report an error in the passage at 23:33 Highlight the passage at 23:33

24:08 What do you think? The way you perceive the world. You can see something beautiful or you can see them not so beautiful. We can see things changing in the world, climate change, in the nature, but we can still see a lot of beauty in nature. Like I said, the early monks and nuns, when they were meditating and they were really, their mind was super clear, very uplifted. Report an error in the passage at 24:08 Highlight the passage at 24:08

24:35 It's a really beautiful, beautiful time when When you come out of meditation, and it doesn't even mean that you go into jhānas, into deep meditation, but you just have this uplifted meditation. You just have calmness, and you feel like you are just part of this nature. The birds, they sound beautiful. The rustling of the leaves, how the sun sieves through the leaves, the green you see, how beautiful it is. Report an error in the passage at 24:35 Highlight the passage at 24:35

25:11 But the nature is just the same. It didn't change. What changed? It's your perception. So be careful about negative perceptions about the world or yourself. Don't believe into those too much. Report an error in the passage at 25:11 Highlight the passage at 25:11

25:30 Don't take your perceptions to be you and don't take it to be that is exactly correct. Quite often we see others in a certain way. It's the Report an error in the passage at 25:30 Highlight the passage at 25:30

26:01 best we Report an error in the passage at 26:01 Highlight the passage at 26:01

26:21 can do. Report an error in the passage at 26:21 Highlight the passage at 26:21

26:26 We cannot change what it is. We see the world through our own Report an error in the passage at 26:26 Highlight the passage at 26:26

· · · silence, 1 minute

26:30 We can only change ourselves. We can only say things which are positive. We can only try to keep things together. Make it better. Breaking is easy. Taking care is hard. Right? Report an error in the passage at 26:30 Highlight the passage at 26:30

26:54 So it's this world we live in is good enough. Our bodies are good enough. Everything we have is good enough. So try to have That kind of perceptions in life. Go towards nature, how it is naturally. Don't think yourself you're outside of it and we somehow destroyed everything. We're just part of it. We're not different. So I think that's enough for tonight. Report an error in the passage at 26:54 Highlight the passage at 26:54

27:32 30 minutes and I can see our Eddie is already sleeping. So we can go now for Q &A if there's any questions. Thank you for everybody and thank you so much. Report an error in the passage at 27:32 Highlight the passage at 27:32

28:03 Anyways, we can start from the, yeah, I think they had to, the nature was calling for our AV team. I can see, I saw the whole team went together towards the toilet, so nature calling. So is there any questions in the hall if anybody wants to make comments, questions? Report an error in the passage at 28:03 Highlight the passage at 28:03

28:28 Good, then the microphone is coming right to your way. Okay, I'll try and put this in words, but what about those that, Okay, personally. A lot of what I think does eventuate. Right. Yeah. Good. And I have a real struggle with accepting that my perception isn't reality. Report an error in the passage at 28:28 Highlight the passage at 28:28

28:56 Yeah, and I have a lot of problems trying to let go of things. Yeah, what about those that maybe are in tune with? with nature and you know can almost predict like Nostradamus Right. Report an error in the passage at 28:56 Highlight the passage at 28:56

29:18 Well, I think the intuition is something to intuition. And I like the idea of gut feeling. It's like your gut feeling is telling you something. But even then, you have to be... Those kinds of people. Right. How do they fit into everything you think? Report an error in the passage at 29:18 Highlight the passage at 29:18

29:42 Quite careful with it because sometimes the gut feeling, you sort of overlay things on it. But yes, we should trust ourselves and you trust your gut feeling about things. But quite often, at least I can see in myself, there is a lot of if... Report an error in the passage at 29:42 Highlight the passage at 29:42

30:06 If my mind is not clear, the interesting thing is that when my mind is clear, when I meditate more, or had good meditation, so to speak, I can see that there was actually a lot of baggage which was coming with how I previously acted. When your mind is not clear, It's hard to see where you're coming from. And when you're sort of outside of that a little bit, then you say, oh, I was doing that, but I didn't realize that. Report an error in the passage at 30:06 Highlight the passage at 30:06

30:43 But you can have an even small sense that when you're just walking and just paying, instead of thinking, thinking, thinking, it's like, oh, what if I just walk? And then you're walking and you realize how heavy your head is, how many things were running in your mind all the time, in your head. But sure, intuition, you know, like somebody's going to call you and you know who's going to call you and then one second later the call comes from that person. Report an error in the passage at 30:43 Highlight the passage at 30:43

31:14 Or I've had intuitions like somebody, I think something has happened and I've heard the relative has died. Or something has happened. Recently my mom just broke a hip. And I was like, something is not right. And then I got an email from my sister. My mom had broke a hip. There was a little bit like inclination. And it was just, I think it's natural. And it's just part of nature as well. Report an error in the passage at 31:14 Highlight the passage at 31:14

31:44 And I do believe that there is things which you cannot explain. But yeah, so long story short. But sure, it's good to believe you. intuitions. Report an error in the passage at 31:44 Highlight the passage at 31:44

32:03 I've been thinking recently that the monasteries are actually quite important in terms of conservation of nature. The monasteries cover large tracts of land, beautiful woodland, and the suttas are full of stories about nature. The cell trees flowering at the Buddha's Parinirvana. the cell trees flowering when the Buddha's mother gave birth. In Thailand, monks ordain trees. Report an error in the passage at 32:03 Highlight the passage at 32:03

32:44 I forget what the term is. Yeah. Yeah, they put the robes around them. Yeah, they put the robes around the trees and ordained the trees to prevent them being cut down. And I just wondered how you view yourself as a steward of nature or how you feel about the... role of monasteries in conservation? Because you really are in a privileged position. Yeah, I didn't think of that. Report an error in the passage at 32:44 Highlight the passage at 32:44

33:13 I haven't thought of that. I mean, the nice thing is that even when you do... I talked briefly about the contemplation. And sometimes I do think about this, like how we have this idea of Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 33:13 Highlight the passage at 33:13

33:32 For example, tree devas, for example, that there is actually beings which are inhabiting these areas. And there's something about, like even in the monastery, like you go, we have full moon nights and you're walking through the forest and then there's just a full moon out there. And we're so lucky we don't have a lot of light in the monastery in Porinjana where it's just very, it's in that. Report an error in the passage at 33:32 Highlight the passage at 33:32

33:57 also the light pollution it is a pollution and you see the milky way and you see the canopy or you know over with the moonlight and so there is something magical about quiet forests so um i whether we do so much about um Report an error in the passage at 33:57 Highlight the passage at 33:57

34:19 conserving the forest but i think it was good for us to just leave it alone it was was like like don't don't like Ajahn Brahm has always been Report an error in the passage at 34:19 Highlight the passage at 34:19

34:28 We don't plant things too much or we don't have lawns and stuff like as you've been in a monastery many times you say like a lot of it's just nature and nature is messy you know like you think it was like we want you want hedges and they be have to be hedged but birds love you know thickets of things which just look like scrap. Report an error in the passage at 34:28 Highlight the passage at 34:28

34:48 wood but so a lot of things is sometimes it's good to just allow nature to be nature and it's like not to control it so and that's what we if anything we've done in a body that we don't try to control it too much yeah i'll take care of it the best of our ability um yeah i don't know Thank you for your talk tonight. It's very interesting. I live by the ocean and I go to the beach and I connect with nature in that way. Report an error in the passage at 34:48 Highlight the passage at 34:48

35:16 Keeping the connection, When you return home and life gets busy and things start to happen, being a pragmatic person, I'm just wondering whether you might have like a step one, step two, step three to keeping the connection. Right. Well, one thing you do, I have to remember that what we talk about here always, it's your whole life. Report an error in the passage at 35:16 Highlight the passage at 35:16

35:46 starts to be lined with the teachings you come as a Buddhist society our teachings are like you meditate that's what we do here but it's not just meditation we need to over and over again bring this kind of subject into our minds like how am I living because how you meditate is how you live you know if you what people say oh I cannot meditate or I cannot go into deep meditation. I cannot stop thinking. Well, that's how you live. So it's like, how do you align your life to be in the way you would like to be? Report an error in the passage at 35:46 Highlight the passage at 35:46

36:29 Okay, so it needs this kind of active doing, but in a sense that you start understanding yourself more and more. You start seeing those kind of like, oh, this is how I think. Okay. I haven't been really kind towards myself, therefore I lost that nice feeling of being in nature. I haven't been able to let things go, let things be, so to speak. Report an error in the passage at 36:29 Highlight the passage at 36:29

37:01 Quite often we think, oh, I'm supposed to be something different. I'm supposed to fight against these things I have in who I am, instead of just allowing it to be, be like nature. We don't try to control the nature or change the nature. Nature is beautiful because you go to the beach and it is just what it is. Report an error in the passage at 37:01 Highlight the passage at 37:01

37:22 You don't control it. I think that's the beauty of nature. We cannot control it. So we try to come more and more towards that idea. Report an error in the passage at 37:22 Highlight the passage at 37:22

37:37 This is who I am. This is just conditioned being who I am. I don't need to fight it. But you need to learn who it is. Like you investigate nature. Be interested about it. That's the mindfulness practice. This is the meditation what gives you the feedback. And then more and more you go into this kind of like, it's okay. Report an error in the passage at 37:37 Highlight the passage at 37:37

38:00 This is who I am. And then in that sense you become... Even when you are busy life, you have your priorities corrected. What if you go to doctors on Monday and they said, well, we did the test and yeah, you have cancer. Then you get your priorities corrected, but then it's forced on you. Let's not wait until then. Let's just say, hang on, what are my priorities? Report an error in the passage at 38:00 Highlight the passage at 38:00

38:33 What will the small little, you know, The bottom line will be on my funeral. What will they read? It's good to contemplate it. It's good to contemplate death. Old age sicknesses. Instead of like, oh, it will be some... I'm busy now. I don't have time. No, don't think that way. Get your priorities sorted. And then that kind of nature who you are, you're okay with it. Report an error in the passage at 38:33 Highlight the passage at 38:33

39:04 And then everything else sort of comes in line with that you can meditate better, you're less busy because you understand there's no point of spending our life running around. Yeah, contemplate. I think it's very, very important. Report an error in the passage at 39:04 Highlight the passage at 39:04

39:29 Okay, Eddie. Look, there's Eddie Tim here. I'll read these and then I'll come to you. Eddie Tim. Dear Ajahn from Indonesia, what do we do to Today, feeling that arise, whether it is wholesome and unwholesome, should we enjoy or ignore or watch them? How is this concept of being mindful connect to this? So, okay, this wholesome and unwholesome things, like I said, this knee-jerk reaction obviously is to, like, let's all fight it. Report an error in the passage at 39:29 Highlight the passage at 39:29

40:08 That is very, very... natural human thing to do and us religions we tend to tell you to fight your unwholesomeness I'm sure there's a lot of religions who propose you do this or don't do that. Dress this way, don't dress that way. Don't use your sexuality this way or that way. I'm sure. As religious figures can tell you many things which are unwholesome, so to speak. But we should always remember this kind of unwholesome and wholesomeness is that are you hurting somebody? Report an error in the passage at 40:08 Highlight the passage at 40:08

40:58 Are you hurting yourself? Are you hurting others? Are you leaning towards being more kindness, towards more kindness and more accepting? There is no like what is unwholesome is to. It is to actually be unkind, to hurt. Things which you know are not good for you. But if you have, what do you think, unwholesome things come into your mind, you don't ignore them? No. Enjoy them? Report an error in the passage at 40:58 Highlight the passage at 40:58

41:30 Again, no. I mean, the thing is, let's say you go to certain places in internet and you think that it's enjoyment, but you think, Oh, I just do it and then it will be over and done with. It's not. So we should move away from this gross defilement, so to speak. Report an error in the passage at 41:30 Highlight the passage at 41:30

41:54 So lean towards caring and kindness and all that and then propagate, make more of that. And again, it always starts from yourself. Make more of the good things about yourself. Report an error in the passage at 41:54 Highlight the passage at 41:54

42:13 But sometimes I find it easier instead of like, oh, it's not really working. Just drop it. Just ignore it. It is actually a valid thing to do. That's why I always say, when you're walking, sometimes just walk. Just walk. Why are you thinking all the time? Why are you fighting yourself? No one's going to win. Dear Ajahn, mind has in German different meanings depending on this context. Report an error in the passage at 42:13 Highlight the passage at 42:13

42:42 Could you please define mind in the spiritual Buddhist context and attributes to it? Thank you kindly. Report an error in the passage at 42:42 Highlight the passage at 42:42

42:52 Yes, okay, sure, it has a different kind of attributes. A mind is not one single thing. There's many things like a perception is your mind, it's part of it, but without going too deep into it, just look, somebody, a monk who has thought about Anathalakana Sutta, Ajahn Brahm was brilliant teaching that. So just look what the Sutta is teaching on non-self. Report an error in the passage at 42:52 Highlight the passage at 42:52

43:21 So those are the different attributes to a mind. But the mind is wherever your attention is. That's pretty much who you are. Wherever the mind lands to, It's in your knee for a while, and then it goes into your mind, and then you perceive something, and then that grows. Any one of those things is you at that moment. Report an error in the passage at 43:21 Highlight the passage at 43:21

43:53 So it's not that difficult. When you look at your mind, you close your eyes, you start seeing, it's like, oh, it runs here and there. And it's like, ah, that's who I am. Report an error in the passage at 43:53 Highlight the passage at 43:53

44:05 It's not reality, but that's as good as you get. A question from Bolivia. If giving leads to being rich and mettā being beautiful, why do we often find stingy rich people or angry beautiful persons since childhood? I don't believe delayed karma is so potent. Report an error in the passage at 44:05 Highlight the passage at 44:05

44:30 Okay, it's hard to know where the karma comes from and all that. Um, uh, Report an error in the passage at 44:30 Highlight the passage at 44:30

44:38 But Yuga is like, okay, let's say this mettā being beautiful, it actually being perfectly, if you look at this, where it says, actually it says, it talks about being more like non-ugly, but kindness leads to non-ugliness. But you can think about it this way, even if you are an ugly person, maybe I shouldn't look at anybody, even if you are an ugly person, if you are kind, Report an error in the passage at 44:38 Highlight the passage at 44:38

45:08 People perceive you as beautiful in that sense. So who are beautiful people in my mind? I think of my grandma. I don't think when she was 80 years old that she would have won maybe the Miss Universe. Report an error in the passage at 45:08 Highlight the passage at 45:08

45:29 Maybe, but highly unlikely. But I could perceive her as a beautiful person, right? That's beauty. And in that, we can believe that. And rich people are the ones who feel rich, not the ones who have a million or billionaires these days. They're not rich because they don't have enough. People who have enough, they're rich. So the people give is because they feel like they can give. Report an error in the passage at 45:29 Highlight the passage at 45:29

46:04 A giving person is wealthy in a sense because they can give. even if you have a million dollars but you cannot give anything well you're not very wealthy are you Report an error in the passage at 46:04 Highlight the passage at 46:04

46:15 And then the last one, kid, I'm a kid, how do I meditate? Report an error in the passage at 46:15 Highlight the passage at 46:15

46:24 Close your eyes. Report an error in the passage at 46:24 Highlight the passage at 46:24

46:33 What's moving? It doesn't matter. Report an error in the passage at 46:33 Highlight the passage at 46:33

46:39 Just relax. Just watch the movement. That's it. That's how you meditate. Report an error in the passage at 46:39 Highlight the passage at 46:39

46:51 Ajahn Mudito, you know. I like to Today's topic, you know, nature. I particularly like the word you mentioned, nature. When I hear the word nature, I was trying to link, you know, like how it's a Buddhist talk, how this nature links to me, you know, how it can help me. Don't you think the Buddha's teaching is nature? Report an error in the passage at 46:51 Highlight the passage at 46:51

47:21 Yes, yes, dharma. Yeah, because it tells us about the five aggregates, okay, directly, just directly, okay, to do with our mind, our thinking, our feelings, you know, the ideas, mental form, you know, the five aggregates, all these things, okay, yeah, yeah. So he's telling us and he showed us a way, you know, his teaching is suffering and out of suffering. He's told us all these things. Yeah. But then, We are not, a lot of us, okay, we have a lot of dust in our eyes, you know, they can't see this thing, okay. Report an error in the passage at 47:21 Highlight the passage at 47:21

48:01 Whenever there's a problem or anything, we fight it, you know. We forget to tell it to the person, have patience, you know. Patience, tolerance, understanding are the highest virtues which everyone must cultivate, you know. So we do all this and then we suffer. We go against the... Nature. The nature, you know. Yeah, no, I mean, sometimes dhamma, depending on the context, you can, like, Buddhist teaching, dhamma is Buddhist teaching, but it's also, you could translate some context sometimes as nature. Report an error in the passage at 48:01 Highlight the passage at 48:01

48:30 Yeah, yeah, no, it's... It's very much nature. It's very much nature. Bodies belong to nature, our mind belongs to natural things, and dhamma is, basically, whole dhamma is how the world works, how the, what the, you know... What the natural things are, how the Buddha saw it a certain way and then he just kept trying to explain us, like this is his, see through my eyes. Report an error in the passage at 48:30 Highlight the passage at 48:30

48:57 Yeah. Thank you. It's hard, it's hard, but it needs practising it. Yeah, sure. It takes a bit of time. Look, we have good teachers and good friends and we'll try our best. Can I just add a little bit more? You know, we have the Buddha's teaching, the nature to help us. On the other hand, we have the spiritual thing. Report an error in the passage at 48:57 Highlight the passage at 48:57

49:24 What do you think of spiritual help, like for example, Kuan Yin? You know, like when you have problems, you know, you turn to God, all this, you know. I mean, that, I mean, ultimately it's yourself do it, okay? But when you, when you, we don't have that, the understanding of the teachings, you know, you still need that spiritual help too, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 49:24 Highlight the passage at 49:24

49:52 You know, just to help you a little bit through, to give you some confidence. Yeah, sure, of course. But then, where do you get it? Where, you know, you get it by listening teachings? I don't know. Yeah, to come, you know, spiritual help sometimes. Yeah. And so once you are more confident with the Buddha's teaching, and then you lessen the spirit, you know, ultimately it's yourself, it's your mind. Report an error in the passage at 49:52 Highlight the passage at 49:52

50:19 Yeah. It's from the mind, you know, the mind. Yeah, sure, I mean, the mind is forerunner of all things. Of all things, it's a forerunner. Yeah, and that's, you know, sounds complicated, but basically... But that's nature, that's the real thing. Yeah, but don't make it into too much of a thing. What we're supposed to be doing, instead of like making this self into massive things, like, oh, look at me, and then there's... Report an error in the passage at 50:19 Highlight the passage at 50:19

50:47 the self is like we're trying to just shed this idea of self and not not be so make it into like i said that's why i like the idea of mind belongs to nature body belongs to nature don't don't hold on to too much onto it it's like don't make too much But for a person who doesn't know much about the teaching yet, they can see it. Report an error in the passage at 50:47 Highlight the passage at 50:47

51:12 Enough. Sorry. You know enough. Yeah, yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, thank you for everybody and thank you for the volunteers. We had Conrad and Jana and Jana, eight years old. See, look, we have the child labor here. Thank you, Jana, volunteering to being our recording team. We even have the little children helping us. Thank you, everybody, for being here and thank you. Report an error in the passage at 51:12 Highlight the passage at 51:12

51:42 And we see you around this weekend. So, good. We pay respect to the Buddha Dhamma Saṅgha. Report an error in the passage at 51:42 Highlight the passage at 51:42