Personal Responsibility and The Nuclear Age (1986)

0:00 Guru Amaravati, this afternoon. The purpose of this series of talks is to open up subjects of interest and concern for people. At this time in Britain, social issues, religious issues, moral issues, these are becoming quite prominent, outstanding. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:33 People's minds. Because we're living at a time where we need to look more deeply at ourselves and the society we live in and the world that we share with all other beings. We Report an error in the passage at 0:33 Highlight the passage at 0:33

0:57 can no longer think in terms of isolation or living for ourselves alone. In the past 50 years it's become obvious that we're all on the same planet. Ajahn beings, all beings in fact, and that Report an error in the passage at 0:57 Highlight the passage at 0:57

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:53 disequilibrium, then result will be an increase in the suffering in the human realm as well as in the lives of all other creatures. Report an error in the passage at 1:53 Highlight the passage at 1:53

2:27 The America is that we're no longer nations that can live our lives independent disregarding the effect we have on the rest of the nations of the world. Report an error in the passage at 2:27 Highlight the passage at 2:27

2:45 So what I intend to do is to try to bring up subjects to be reflected on. What I'm trying to do here is not to Report an error in the passage at 2:45 Highlight the passage at 2:45

3:23 experience that I can give you, I can share that with you. Report an error in the passage at 3:23 Highlight the passage at 3:23

3:31 Your own responsibilities in your life as you live it and your experience of it, that is something you know and you must be honest about and come to terms with, understand. Report an error in the passage at 3:31 Highlight the passage at 3:31

3:48 This is one of the great attractions, I think, of Buddhism at this time is that it offers this way of intelligent reflection on the human predicament. Report an error in the passage at 3:48 Highlight the passage at 3:48

4:05 This situation that we all share of being born in the human form and living, having to live for a lifespan, maybe up to 70, 80, 90, 100 years at the most. And Report an error in the passage at 4:05 Highlight the passage at 4:05

4:25 during this time, this span of life in the human form on this planet, we have to experience all kinds of things from The best to the worst, from good to bad, from pleasure to pain. This is common to every single human being. There's no one exempt from this experience of suffering, of growth, of aging, of death. Report an error in the passage at 4:25 Highlight the passage at 4:25

5:01 Personal responsibility. Many more people now are beginning to ask, what must I do? What should I do with my life? Can I just live it according to impulses, fashions of the time, just what I feel like doing or not doing? Report an error in the passage at 5:01 Highlight the passage at 5:01

5:26 Do I have the right, really? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it beautiful behavior for me to just live life for my own safety, security, satisfaction and pleasure? Report an error in the passage at 5:26 Highlight the passage at 5:26

5:44 Or is there something I must contribute to the whole of it? Since this being here is a part of the whole, what is my responsibility in regards to the society I'm living in and to the planet that I share with all the rest of you? If I'm a selfish, small-minded being, then I think, get what I can for myself. Report an error in the passage at 5:44 Highlight the passage at 5:44

6:12 See what I can get for my pleasure, my security, even if it's at the expense of the rest of you. Report an error in the passage at 6:12 Highlight the passage at 6:12

6:32 what some people do. don't have a sense of personal responsibility. Report an error in the passage at 6:32 Highlight the passage at 6:32

6:39 their life. This has not developed. has not been encouraged fact the time has been one where responsibility has been for some people a Report an error in the passage at 6:39 Highlight the passage at 6:39

6:56 unpleasant issue to be avoided. Report an error in the passage at 6:56 Highlight the passage at 6:56

7:02 in modern Western societies. we think maybe the government, government should do everything for me. got to get the government to provide all the security, all the perks and pleasures of life, make sure that I have these for the rest of my life and my family have them. Report an error in the passage at 7:02 Highlight the passage at 7:02

7:25 So modern politics often plays upon this. Selfish interest in the citizens of Western democracies by promising all kinds of advantages and opportunities and securities. Report an error in the passage at 7:25 Highlight the passage at 7:25

7:43 And that appeals to us in one way. Sometimes we don't feel that we're really strong enough or capable enough to be responsible, that we still need an overriding protector of some sort, some kind of mother or father, That will take care of us, nurture us, pat us on the back, pat us on the head, tell us everything is all right, provide for all our needs, swage our tears. Report an error in the passage at 7:43 Highlight the passage at 7:43

8:20 And that's tempting, there's the child in all of us that would really sometimes cries out for some external force to guide and help and nurture and comfort. Ajahn and ill and insecure. Report an error in the passage at 8:20 Highlight the passage at 8:20

8:53 or another, at least trying, thing one notices in Western democracies is how demanding the citizens can be, endless demands on the government for rights, privileges, kinds of opportunities. Report an error in the passage at 8:53 Highlight the passage at 8:53

9:14 Endless pressures placed and criticisms and very little gratitude. I've noticed this, this is my own observation in Britain and America, how little gratitude there is toward the good things and the generosity that our governments have given us. Report an error in the passage at 9:14 Highlight the passage at 9:14

9:39 We tend to dwell on the threat, the things that might be taken away from us or The things that haven't been done yet or things that we don't like and don't want. Then Report an error in the passage at 9:39 Highlight the passage at 9:39

9:54 sometimes we feel that the government fails us. Just like people sometimes feel God has failed them or their parents haven't done enough, haven't loved them enough. Because in spite of all the generosity and the security and benefits that we might have received from our parents, from the government, from God, Report an error in the passage at 9:54 Highlight the passage at 9:54

10:21 We still find ourselves suffering. We still find ourselves discontent. It's not enough, is it? There's not enough in the universe to truly satisfy, to give us complete satisfaction and complete contentment. Report an error in the passage at 10:21 Highlight the passage at 10:21

10:43 There's not a government that is possible to, that we can conceive of or even create that will be able to truly satisfy all our desires, needs. desire for security and Report an error in the passage at 10:43 Highlight the passage at 10:43

10:59 this the Buddha pointed to very clearly was the fact of the human mind itself that as long as we are ignorant and by ignorance I mean this term define this term as not knowing the truth of the way it is in Buddhist terms not knowing the dharma not Report an error in the passage at 10:59 Highlight the passage at 10:59

11:26 having realized the truth Not having penetrated the truth, then we operate from this state of ignorance, a self-view of me and mine as being as attached to this individual creature here. All its thoughts, feelings, moods, expectations, hopes, fears and dreads, the physical formation itself, one becomes so involved in, so identified with, so attached to that We can't see beyond it. So one can understand selfishness as the natural result of this form of ignorance, of being solely identified, solely attached to these changing conditions of body and mind. Report an error in the passage at 11:26 Highlight the passage at 11:26

12:19 In the West, our attachments have become complicated. Not only do we demand physical security, Report an error in the passage at 12:19 Highlight the passage at 12:19

13:05 expect so much. We demand so much in that we ask ourselves, how much have we offered? What can we offer back? Is there something that each one of us must do or should do? Or would it be wise? Is there something that is important for us to know in order to pay back our debts, in order to give back, rather than to be just the perennial child? Report an error in the passage at 13:05 Highlight the passage at 13:05

13:39 Endlessly demanding nourishment and safety from the mother. At Report an error in the passage at 13:39 Highlight the passage at 13:39

13:57 this time also, there's so many pressures on people to take sides in various ways. Our minds tend to easily seek to attach to one side or another, to have a fixed position to hold on to, such a political view that we are very much attached to. A religious view, a national view, social view, personal view, class, race, sex, all these we take sides with. Report an error in the passage at 13:57 Highlight the passage at 13:57

14:35 In Report an error in the passage at 14:35 Highlight the passage at 14:35

14:41 a modern university, this can be seen in some of its most absurd forms, where people desperately taking sides with the most ridiculous issues, having studied in the University of California in Berkeley. Report an error in the passage at 14:41 Highlight the passage at 14:41

15:02 Long before I became a monk, remember how dedicated young Americans were towards taking a side, having an opinion, having a viewpoint to operate from, either from the left or the right, or whatever, just as long as one adopted some particular viewpoint, position that one took, that one could use to They feel a sense of purpose and meaning to one's life. In those days, to not have an opinion about anything at all was considered, you were considered a hopeless bore. Report an error in the passage at 15:02 Highlight the passage at 15:02

15:46 Someone who was obviously so stupid they couldn't decide to go on this, the right or the left. Report an error in the passage at 15:46 Highlight the passage at 15:46

16:02 And yet we began to see that when we do take sides, when we attach to a particular viewpoint, then We become, and we become obsessed with that particular side, we lose our perspective, don't we? We lose our sensitivity to the other side. Report an error in the passage at 16:02 Highlight the passage at 16:02

16:21 One can be so righteous, so caught up in righteous behavior, dedication to a particular view, particular point of view, particular side, that one loses all sensitivity, even towards one's own group, towards one's own family. Report an error in the passage at 16:21 Highlight the passage at 16:21

16:46 can be so dedicated towards political viewpoint we're willing to destroy the whole world to to this view. Report an error in the passage at 16:46 Highlight the passage at 16:46

17:05 of mind where one will blow up the world rather than compromise or change one's viewpoint in any way course these kind of human beings are extreme They're not the kind of very extreme type of minds. Most human beings do have a sense for some sense of proportion perspective in which we tend to wobble and waver. Report an error in the passage at 17:05 Highlight the passage at 17:05

17:34 We become confused because we're not quite sure whether we're really fully left or fully right on which side we should really align ourselves but Ajahn Report an error in the passage at 17:34 Highlight the passage at 17:34

18:03 we could be that strong, convinced, that sure. Report an error in the passage at 18:03 Highlight the passage at 18:03

18:10 this side is absolutely right and other side is absolutely wrong of us wouldn't really feel secure if we could feel that that things were purely Pure white and pure black. And then the choice would be easy. Of course, we'd choose white. Report an error in the passage at 18:10 Highlight the passage at 18:10

18:36 There's always the one that would choose black. But most people think in terms of white being better than black. I'm not talking about race. So this Report an error in the passage at 18:36 Highlight the passage at 18:36

19:00 stage in between, this range in between extremes, this is where we have to live most of our life, isn't it? We can't, even the most Diaphanatic has to come to terms with the facts of life and they have to eat food, find a place to live, clothe the body, get old, suffer from illnesses and lose loved ones, be separated from what one likes and wants. Report an error in the passage at 19:00 Highlight the passage at 19:00

19:34 We all have to be with, many times in our life we find ourselves in situations that we don't like and don't want. We all suffer from the desire for wanting things that we don't have, and then there's the inevitable death that we all must experience. Report an error in the passage at 19:34 Highlight the passage at 19:34

19:58 So that most of our life is in this realm of neither right nor left, where we're just getting on with life as best we can on the physical plane, trying to get on in some way with the people around us emotionally, emotionally, trying at least to some peace and friendship and amongst other human beings. Report an error in the passage at 19:58 Highlight the passage at 19:58

20:30 much of our life is just a waiting process and we're waiting for things. just going from one place to another. Life, so much of it really is just the waiting for something else. Report an error in the passage at 20:30 Highlight the passage at 20:30

20:48 the expectation or the fear, caught up in worry, really with The way life is, not acknowledging, not accepting life as it really is because the mind is so caught up with waiting for the next thing, longing for the next experience, waiting for the bus, waiting to get over the illness, waiting to die. The Report an error in the passage at 20:48 Highlight the passage at 20:48

21:24 teaching of Buddha, the reflection on dharma, this allows all of us to open our minds to life without Being forced to take a position. Report an error in the passage at 21:24 Highlight the passage at 21:24

21:40 We're not against taking positions. We're not saying you shouldn't have any position, have any viewpoint, any opinion whatsoever. But to transcend the need and the blind desire to just be attached to views and opinions means that we can contemplate, we can reflect on this tendency we all have towards being attached to them. Report an error in the passage at 21:40 Highlight the passage at 21:40

22:05 And this, I notice, is a particular strong problem with Western civilization, is that we've become so idealistic, so caught up in theories and views about how everything should be. I notice the people that, just the monks, the nuns that live here, and the people that I meet in Britain, their standards are very high. Report an error in the passage at 22:05 Highlight the passage at 22:05

22:35 Most of them. They want the best. They know how everything should be. I meet very few people who are just deliberately mean and deliberately uncaring and totally selfish. Those are rare. Most of the people that I've met here have very high standards. Report an error in the passage at 22:35 Highlight the passage at 22:35

23:02 They want the best of life. They want to perfect everything. They'd like to have everything at its best, whatever that best might be to that particular person. We Report an error in the passage at 23:02 Highlight the passage at 23:02

23:22 can imagine the best, can't we? We can conceive with our minds how things should be. And that's why we become so critical, because we can see that the society isn't really what it should be. British society, is it? It should be other than this. It should be better. better we can Become so aware of the things that have gone wrong, the mistakes that have been made, the inefficiency of it, the bureaucracy of it, the injustices that we see and know about. Report an error in the passage at 23:22 Highlight the passage at 23:22

24:01 These become dominant in the mind because we can imagine that a state without all this, the utopian society where everything is as it should be, the paradise where everything's fair and just, equal kind loving but Report an error in the passage at 24:01 Highlight the passage at 24:01

24:27 then life as it is how is it for you your own life what is your life really like without using your critical faculty without blaming now this is what we call opening the mind to the way it is it's not looking at the life we're living by criticizing it I said, I don't like this, it should be otherwise, this, I wish this weren't here, I don't want that, I want to keep this, I want to hold on to this, this person, if this person would go away, if that would change, if things could be otherwise, so then we become complainers, thinking that if everything were otherwise, and if everything were the way that we wanted it to be, according to our idea, then we'd be happy. Report an error in the passage at 24:27 Highlight the passage at 24:27

25:26 But this way of opening the mind to the way it is, is we're not criticizing, we're not, this isn't to criticize or to affirm anything, but just to open up to life as we're living it. To be truly sensitive and open to both the good, the bad, the justices, injustices, the day and night, the sun and the rain, the heat and the cold. Report an error in the passage at 25:26 Highlight the passage at 25:26

26:06 Mindfulness. In Buddhist terms, we talk about the way out of suffering. The way out of this endless realm of suffering and disease is through mindfulness. But the mind is full. It's open. It's alert. It's attentive. It's receptive. Sensitive. These words describe mindfulness. Report an error in the passage at 26:06 Highlight the passage at 26:06

26:44 Now, when you're attached to positions and views and ideas, then, of course, we can be totally heedless. I can tell each one of you what you should be without knowing any of you. I don't have to take the time to even know your name, talk to you for two minutes to tell you what you should be. I Report an error in the passage at 26:44 Highlight the passage at 26:44

27:16 also notice it's very easy to give advice to people when other people are suffering. having great problems it's very easy to give advice of what they should do how cool one can be when someone else is very upset but Report an error in the passage at 27:16 Highlight the passage at 27:16

27:33 then you begin to notice that when you're upset it's not so easy to follow your own advice is it when your emotions are stirred and agitated to say now be mindful Sumedho now just let go of it don't don't don't say anything in anger don't give it a second thought All this tremendously good advice is not as easy when one is going through that realm, emotional suffering in one's own life. Report an error in the passage at 27:33 Highlight the passage at 27:33

28:10 But when you do it, I find it very easy. I sit here and say, well, just now be mindful, accepting. It will pass. Why is that? Why is it easy to solve other people's problems and it seems so difficult to solve one's own? Report an error in the passage at 28:10 Highlight the passage at 28:10

28:39 Mindfulness. This is something that each one of us can do. It's not asking you to do something that is impossible. But we need to really contemplate what that means. When I first started meditation, practicing meditation, I kept talking about mindfulness. And I didn't quite know what that meant actually. I kept thinking that it was like concentrating on every little thing that... Report an error in the passage at 28:39 Highlight the passage at 28:39

29:11 So that you were supposed to be concentrated on when you moved your right little finger that you were mindful of it. Meaning you knew that you were moving your right little finger. And each step you knew this is the right foot stepping and then the left foot touching and on and on and like this. Mindfulness was just slowing down to Where you could actually concentrate on the movements of your body or on lifting a glass or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 29:11 Highlight the passage at 29:11

29:50 But this seemed to be a very impractical thing to, if this was the way out of suffering, then it would be very difficult to live one's life fully. Because one would be so busy concentrating on the movements of one's body that you'd never have time for anything else. Report an error in the passage at 29:50 Highlight the passage at 29:50

30:17 Open the mind to life. At a monastery I lived in for a while in Thailand, I remember they used to teach this method of mindfulness where you walk very slowly. Report an error in the passage at 30:17 Highlight the passage at 30:17

30:33 And one afternoon they had a meeting in the hall there for all the monks were supposed to come. The meeting was scheduled for two o 'clock, like this meeting, and Report an error in the passage at 30:33 Highlight the passage at 30:33

30:50 Those of us who were not doing this kind of meditation were there by two. But those that were doing this meditation, we had to wait about half an hour for them to get to move slowly from their little huts. Report an error in the passage at 30:50 Highlight the passage at 30:50

31:05 Of course, we could be mindful of the irritation we were feeling at that time. One had to acknowledge that there was a certain kind of irritation that one was experiencing, an impatience. But one wondered whether they were mindful of the fact that they were late in keeping everyone else waiting. Or were they just so busy concentrating that they didn't take into account the time and the place, what is necessary for that particular time and place. Report an error in the passage at 31:05 Highlight the passage at 31:05

31:39 So if we fix on a view of what is mindful, then that is a delusion, isn't it? We become heedless, insensitive. If we consider mindfulness as Report an error in the passage at 31:39 Highlight the passage at 31:39

31:51 special stylized way. we think mindfulness is doing things slowly, then when we have to move quickly, what is that? Do we have to be heedless when we move quickly? Report an error in the passage at 31:51 Highlight the passage at 31:51

32:14 in the English language now, many more, say, English-speaking people now are discovering the nature of mind. These words aren't so alien to us, are they? Mindfulness, concentration, words dealing with mental... Report an error in the passage at 32:14 Highlight the passage at 32:14

32:43 good about describing external Report an error in the passage at 32:43 Highlight the passage at 32:43

32:51 good at the externals, but And the internal, the way the mind actually is, the nature of mind itself, it hasn't been until fairly recently that there's been any attempt to form any kind of vocabulary about that. Because this takes the effort of the individual human being to look at himself or herself. To know what mindfulness is, to read a definition of it in a book, you may not be mindful at all. Report an error in the passage at 32:51 Highlight the passage at 32:51

33:26 Even though you can recite the definition of mindfulness. Mindfulness is my definition, from my experience of it, is the open, the mind open, receptive, sensitive, not fixed on anything, but Report an error in the passage at 33:26 Highlight the passage at 33:26

33:50 able to fix on things according to what is necessary, what is needed in time or in the time and place. So Report an error in the passage at 33:50 Highlight the passage at 33:50

34:03 with mindfulness, We no longer are forced to take positions, take sides, get caught up in the quarrels and problems of our families, organizations, societies, but we can open the mind to this whole conflict. The mind is capable of embracing both sides, of being sensitive to everything, to being open, receptive and clear in regard to The right, the left, the good, the bad, the east and west, north and south, male and female. Now Report an error in the passage at 34:03 Highlight the passage at 34:03

34:52 getting back to personal responsibility, we regard ourselves very much as a personality. We have a strong sense of being a person. In the West, I think this is a very strong identity, the sense of being an individual, unique personality. Our identities are so limited now to this body, this particular creature here that even family identities have no priority for many of us. Report an error in the passage at 34:52 Highlight the passage at 34:52

35:29 What our families are isn't so strong. To think of sacrificing oneself for one's family is maybe an old-fashioned idea. Something that is maybe for our grandfathers. Report an error in the passage at 35:29 Highlight the passage at 35:29

35:49 But the modern trend is to live life for yourself, to develop yourself, to have your freedom, to do what you want, to develop your own talents, to live life on your own terms. Have the freedom to do what you want. I hear this a lot. People, marriages breaking up and the woman saying, I just want the freedom to live my life and understand myself without that husband of mine always butting in. Report an error in the passage at 35:49 Highlight the passage at 35:49

36:25 I want to develop myself, my life, my way. And we can do that. We have the society that supports that now. Western society now even encourages that view, to live life for oneself. Report an error in the passage at 36:25 Highlight the passage at 36:25

36:43 And there are certain advantages and disadvantages to that. Report an error in the passage at 36:43 Highlight the passage at 36:43

36:50 One thing it does, drive us to the position where when you live solely for yourself, you become so lonely. When you're just thinking about yourself alone, when you... All you care about is yourself. You end up feeling totally out of communion with anyone else. You feel incredibly lonely. Report an error in the passage at 36:50 Highlight the passage at 36:50

37:14 There is tremendous depression and loneliness in people's lives because we no longer know how to, many people anyway, do not know how to unite, how to have communion with another human being or with others. Report an error in the passage at 37:14 Highlight the passage at 37:14

37:38 We get inverted, isolated in our own self-view. This takes us to the point of emotional, such emotional anguish that many of us have taken such desperate steps as even to ordain as monks, to come to terms with that. Going Report an error in the passage at 37:38 Highlight the passage at 37:38

38:02 off to faraway places in Southeast Asia to become monks, nuns. That's because of this. A very powerful anguished isolated feeling and yet living in a society of abundance surrounded by friends and relatives and endless opportunities and options for self-fulfillment and freedom and yet the more one indulges in all that and fixes into the self-view the more isolated and lonely and desperate one begins to feel. Report an error in the passage at 38:02 Highlight the passage at 38:02

38:47 Like all things, what might be considered taking individualism to an extreme is also taking us back to, say, something else. Because now one feels, say, not an identity on a grander scale. One feels a communion or a union with all beings. Say, the life of a Buddhist monk, It's very much one where you eventually begin to feel a oneness, a unity related to all beings. Report an error in the passage at 38:47 Highlight the passage at 38:47

39:31 Where, say, from the other extreme, from being totally isolated in this wretched body, with these boring old thoughts that just keep bashing away inside, and these emotions, and a kind of desert, bleak, dried up, mental state that you you're in and the kind of hopelessness of the situation from that miserable state to the grandeur of say feeling in communion with all beings so then this is the the the opening of the mind say Report an error in the passage at 39:31 Highlight the passage at 39:31

40:09 of mindfulness to where the universe is in the mind the mind can embrace the whole universe rather than my mind With my little thoughts, my opinions and views, what I think, what I want for me, that small, wretched little self is released and allowed to fade out for this wholeness. Report an error in the passage at 40:09 Highlight the passage at 40:09

40:44 Now religion is the convention for that type of realization. Report an error in the passage at 40:44 Highlight the passage at 40:44

40:55 I'm sure all religions are meant to take us to that. Realization of wholeness and total union, of oneness, rather than just increase our, to be a divisive force lost as a Buddhist against the Christians or the Theravadans against the Mahāyāna Buddhists or taking sides with this group against that group. Report an error in the passage at 40:55 Highlight the passage at 40:55

41:25 I mean, it's easy, it's very ordinary for Buddhists to do this, in fact. Western Buddhists to take sides on schools of Buddhism or sects, because our minds are so conditioned to do that, we just, whatever, even with the grandest, most altruistic views of oneness and wholeness, we manage sometimes to grasp, become sectarian Buddhists. Report an error in the passage at 41:25 Highlight the passage at 41:25

41:57 You see, some Buddhists are totally against Christianity, just think Christianity is totally wrong. Report an error in the passage at 41:57 Highlight the passage at 41:57

42:08 So this is not an opening of the mind to the whole, is it? It's taking sides still. We're still caught in this unfortunate delusion of self that has to choose a side and then be pitted against the opposite. Because whatever side you choose, its opposite will attack you in some way or another. You'll feel threatened by it. As long as you're fixed, attached and bound to one view, you'll be threatened by its opposite. Report an error in the passage at 42:08 Highlight the passage at 42:08

42:38 Now just contemplate that, just in little things, the views about men and women, just the views about what men are, what women are in the modern time, about capitalism and communism, views about Christianity and other religions, views of racial views or class views, all of these, whatever, even if we're attached to the greatest view, To the grandest view, that attachment binds us to a viewpoint which does not allow us to be more mindful. Report an error in the passage at 42:38 Highlight the passage at 42:38

43:17 As long as we're lost and bound to a viewpoint, we're no longer mindful, we're insensitive. The Report an error in the passage at 43:17 Highlight the passage at 43:17

43:27 human potential, though, is for the enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 43:27 Highlight the passage at 43:27

43:35 This ability of a human being, as we've evolved now, humanity has evolved now at this time, to be able to To develop this reflectiveness to a very, to its ultimate place of enlightenment. We Report an error in the passage at 43:35 Highlight the passage at 43:35

43:58 find at this time, just in a country like Britain, people in this country, not everyone, but many, definitely have very receptive minds. Report an error in the passage at 43:58 Highlight the passage at 43:58

44:15 You don't, at least from people that I meet, their minds are quite receptive and open. The opinions and views that they do have, you can encourage them to look at, to investigate. Report an error in the passage at 44:15 Highlight the passage at 44:15

44:36 People want to find out what they should do, how to live their lives. People ask this question all the time. People come here to this center and they're very open and interested to something that must seem very strange in the cultural context of Britain. Report an error in the passage at 44:36 Highlight the passage at 44:36

44:58 To a Buddhist monastery. To Buddhist monks. Buddhist nuns with shaven heads. All these kind of strange, exotic or alien looking creatures in Report an error in the passage at 44:58 Highlight the passage at 44:58

45:17 a house. And trying to talk about morality in Hampstead was getting me nowhere. Was driving people away. That Report an error in the passage at 45:17 Highlight the passage at 45:17

45:34 was a word that in 1977 people did not use except as a kind of Morality was a disparaging sign. Morality meant you were narrow-minded, you were prudish, you weren't with the modern trends, you weren't with it. You were something from your grandmother's time, from the time of Queen Victoria. Morality was not a word that people liked or wanted to hear. Report an error in the passage at 45:34 Highlight the passage at 45:34

46:10 They wanted to hear about freedom. They wanted to hear about having more and more freedom to develop themselves, to live their lives, to do what they want. And Buddhism in those days would be considered, their interest was that hopefully if they became Buddhists, that this would give them more freedom, more ability to enjoy everything. Report an error in the passage at 46:10 Highlight the passage at 46:10

46:40 You could just take it. A course in Buddhist meditation where you could get over all your inhibitions, all your fears, so you could fully enjoy everything all the time. Report an error in the passage at 46:40 Highlight the passage at 46:40

46:55 Now that was only nine years ago. And now I find that the word morality is now quite an acceptable word. I even hear Prince Andrew is using the word. Report an error in the passage at 46:55 Highlight the passage at 46:55

47:09 So Report an error in the passage at 47:09 Highlight the passage at 47:09

47:17 it must be all right now. That's why after I found that he is using it, I thought, well, maybe I can use it now. Report an error in the passage at 47:17 Highlight the passage at 47:17

47:32 For Buddhist morality, the word sīla, the Pāli word sīla, Buddhist morality is a morality for reflection and wisdom. It's not moral principles kind of handed to you, laid upon you. What we try to do in teaching, in talking to people, is to present Report an error in the passage at 47:32 Highlight the passage at 47:32

48:02 The morality, not as something that I impose on you and sit in judgment on you, that you should refrain from drinking, from promiscuity, from this, from that. You should, and if you don't, the result will be that you will fall into a hell realm. Report an error in the passage at 48:02 Highlight the passage at 48:02

48:29 That's what we equate with morality, isn't it? A kind of threat from above. Where somebody from above says, you should do this, you shouldn't do that, and then out of fear you blindly obey or disobey. Report an error in the passage at 48:29 Highlight the passage at 48:29

48:49 But Buddhist moral precepts are standards to be reflected on. Morality is not an absolute fixed position that one takes. Report an error in the passage at 48:49 Highlight the passage at 48:49

49:04 Morality cannot be an absolute. It is a Convention, the Sīla, say the five Sīla, the five moral precepts of Buddhism is a moral convention to be reflected on, to be contemplated on, to be considered. So that when you contemplate this, you begin to open your mind to what morality really means. That it's not a kind of horrible limitation placed on you. Report an error in the passage at 49:04 Highlight the passage at 49:04

49:42 taking all the pleasure out of life but it is a kind of freedom to know that to have the wisdom to know that doing certain things like killing other human beings is something that you that acting on such impulses will only lead to increasing misery from all sides now just that alone that first precept Report an error in the passage at 49:42 Highlight the passage at 49:42

50:16 of non-killing, non-violence is the most important moral precept and should be adopted on the international scene. I think so many of these problems of the nuclear age could be solved just through the respect for that first precept refraining from intentional killing of other human beings or violent behavior intentional violent behavior. Report an error in the passage at 50:16 Highlight the passage at 50:16

50:51 Now Report an error in the passage at 50:51 Highlight the passage at 50:51

50:55 that, if say, more and more human beings resolved to keep that precept, or even nations, then of course the need for nuclear armaments, nuclear arms race, and all the threatening happenings that are going on now, that could cease, isn't it? There would be some foundation for trust. Report an error in the passage at 50:55 Highlight the passage at 50:55

51:26 But there's no foundation at all anymore for trust, is there, in the nation itself, in Britain or in Europe or on the international scene. There's no way that any country can trust another country because politics has degenerated into power struggling, into force and intimidation and blame, all conditions which Create fear and suspicion and hatred, jealousies. Just look in your own life, in your own experience. Report an error in the passage at 51:26 Highlight the passage at 51:26

52:09 The more you blame somebody else, the more you, say, connive and live in a dishonest way with yourself and with others, the more suspicion you feel, the more fear you feel. Report an error in the passage at 52:09 Highlight the passage at 52:09

52:30 The more violent you are, the more you mistrust others, the more you expect violence to come to you. What you're obsessed with, you see in everyone else. Report an error in the passage at 52:30 Highlight the passage at 52:30

52:44 If you have ever met like a thief, someone who has lived their lives through stealing, and they look upon everyone else as thieves. They suspect everyone. They see theft in everyone because that's all they can see in themselves. Report an error in the passage at 52:44 Highlight the passage at 52:44

53:16 Nonviolence. Refraining from violent action, from violent speech, from doing things that disrupt, breed fear and suspicion. This we have to start doing in our own lives. And this is what I mean by personal responsibility. This we can actually, our gift, our offering to the society we're in is our willingness to try to live in a way that Report an error in the passage at 53:16 Highlight the passage at 53:16

54:14 they listen to you, pay attention, they emulate. They follow, they admire. And so more and more people begin to feel the joy, the pleasure, the freedom of being responsible for their lives. Report an error in the passage at 54:14 Highlight the passage at 54:14

54:34 And of course this is the foundation of any society, isn't it? A society is a group of individual human beings. Report an error in the passage at 54:34 Highlight the passage at 54:34

54:45 It's made up of individual human beings. It's not just one mind, is it? to try to... To teach morality from the top, to impose moral laws on a society can be a tyranny, can't it? Suddenly the British government decided to punish everyone who is immoral in Britain. It would be a tyranny, wouldn't it? It would be a terrible tyranny. Report an error in the passage at 54:45 Highlight the passage at 54:45

55:22 Because this has to, what this sense of sīla in Buddhism is, has to come from wisdom and growth within. Personal responsibility, Report an error in the passage at 55:22 Highlight the passage at 55:22

55:33 personal knowledge of oneself, the attempt to really understand wisely the way things are, see the dhamma, see clearly, get beyond this ignorant view, this small, narrow, painful, anguished and despairing view of self as this very limited, imperfect creature here. Report an error in the passage at 55:33 Highlight the passage at 55:33

56:04 So now I would close this talk on this note and open up the rest of the time for questions, discussions. Report an error in the passage at 56:04 Highlight the passage at 56:04

56:26 be rather confused, but if we can accept that a nuclear age we should be working non-violence and non-violent attitudes, Report an error in the passage at 56:26 Highlight the passage at 56:26

56:42 though that means taking up a position. Is it sufficient to work on one's own self and one's own internal aggression, to think about one's own morality? Or should the moral person take a more active part in aiming to bring about non-violence in society? Report an error in the passage at 56:42 Highlight the passage at 56:42

57:18 there are traps in this one goes out on a on a non-nuclear march and behaves in a very violent way it's not really going to bring about a view Report an error in the passage at 57:18 Highlight the passage at 57:18

57:35 there not a case for a sort of double track? Well, this is one of the... I'm glad you asked that question because that is a question that people, many people are concerned with. Report an error in the passage at 57:35 Highlight the passage at 57:35

58:16 important to that the priority always has to be with... Report an error in the passage at 58:16 Highlight the passage at 58:16

58:24 The internal conflict, solving that conflict, which doesn't cancel out taking part in the society. Because as you begin to understand yourself more and more, then you have a mind that really can have the perspective to know how to work with the society you're in. Report an error in the passage at 58:24 Highlight the passage at 58:24

58:51 Also, we need to take into account the position in the society that we have. Like how to use our position in a way that is skillful and in the spirit of dharma and truth. Like if you're in business or in a civil servant or in medicine or education. Any of these, any professions that are... Report an error in the passage at 58:51 Highlight the passage at 58:51

59:18 Just working in a factory or a secretary in an office. Whatever. This is also to be considered something that we can develop as our practice, as our way of living our life in the right way, of being a moral being, one who is responsible for what one is doing. And sometimes people want Buddhist month to kind of make statements. Report an error in the passage at 59:18 Highlight the passage at 59:18

59:47 On peace marches or peace movement. Kind of supporting the peace movement. But this is because of the position of Buddhist monks. Their function in a society is to not be aligned with groups. But to be a reflective mirror for all. For all sides. So that Buddhist monks, especially in... There are certain Buddhist monks that... Report an error in the passage at 59:47 Highlight the passage at 59:47

1:00:18 that are willing to, say, take an active part in peace movements. But, say, from our tradition, we're not supposed to do that. Not because the peace movements are wrong, but because our function in the society is something else, something other than that. So that we recognize that this is what Buddhist monasticism has to offer the society. We try to keep it in its pure form as a benefit for the whole society. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:18 Highlight the passage at 1:00:18

1:00:57 But then for lay community, you must take into consideration what kind of position you have, the opportunities that you have, how you can influence in the right way. Even your business or just by being a good honest accountant or a totally trustworthy civil servant is a great gift to the society. And that doesn't need to be called Buddhist. You don't have to say I'm witnessing for Buddhism as such. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:57 Highlight the passage at 1:00:57

1:01:42 But it is just being a decent and Why is human being? And this people need to see as possible. Oftentimes people now have this view that everything's corrupt and you're part of a system that is degenerating, so there's nothing much you can do. And as long as people hold to that view, of course, then that's what's going to happen. There's no way that it could ever, say, change for the better. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:42 Highlight the passage at 1:01:42

1:02:10 of it, it's not... Report an error in the passage at 1:02:10 Highlight the passage at 1:02:10

1:02:18 But in a country like this, this country isn't. There's nothing all that wrong with it. What is lacking in Britain now is wise human beings. They've got educated ones, literate and knowledgeable ones, and many high-minded ones, but true wisdom. It's a great, it's hard to find anywhere in the world really. Now that's a great offering. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:18 Highlight the passage at 1:02:18

1:02:58 We move towards wisdom so that our, say, our connections to peace organizations or to religious groups and all this, then this is an actual offering to them. Something that is going to benefit whatever we're doing. If what we're doing is for the welfare of others. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:58 Highlight the passage at 1:02:58

1:03:26 I Report an error in the passage at 1:03:26 Highlight the passage at 1:03:26

1:03:31 think the image of the Buddhist monk in the minds of Europeans tends to be of someone who leaves the world, sits under a tree and doesn't care about what's happening to anyone else. You have the Buddha images and the kind of symbols of Buddhism convey that to people's minds and to European people. They tend to think that Buddhist monks somehow just go, I'm fed up with this society, fed up with the family, fed up with the whole lot, I'm going to leave it. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:31 Highlight the passage at 1:03:31

1:04:09 Go off to the forest and then you never see them again. All they're doing is watching their breath while the Soviets and Americans are having a nuclear war. And then they say, well, it's just impermanent anyways, that doesn't really matter. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:09 Highlight the passage at 1:04:09

1:04:38 But when you contemplate just the example we have of, say, Gautama the Buddha, who none of us knew since he lived 2,500 years ago, but he is the kind of stereotype of a perfected human being, you know, of a human being. He's not a divine being, he's human, fully human, and so his whole life story is to be contemplated as a life of a human being, where nowadays in Buddhist countries people tend to exalt the Buddha, Gautama the Buddha, the kind of superhuman being with so many advantages that he just is so far above us, so beyond us, that there's no hope that we could ever do anything. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:38 Highlight the passage at 1:04:38

1:05:38 And he come near to his perfection. So that Buddha becomes fully exalted and way beyond our abilities. But I always like to take the story of the Buddha from the birth to the death as an example of a lifetime of a human being who during that span from birth to death was enlightened. Most human beings don't get enlightened between birth and death. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:38 Highlight the passage at 1:05:38

1:06:09 We all are born, we all die. That's something we all do. But this enlightenment, that is something that the Buddha definitely achieved. And then left a teaching that is telling us how we can do the same. So that his life was one where he, you know, the first part was very privileged and pleasurable, All pleasures, all privileges, everything of the best that life had to offer were available to him in every way. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:09 Highlight the passage at 1:06:09

1:06:49 And then six years after he left the palace was the total opposite of that where he denied every possible pleasure, any privilege whatsoever to live just in a state of total denial of desire. And six years of that Report an error in the passage at 1:06:49 Highlight the passage at 1:06:49

1:07:11 And then after that, the enlightenment of the middle way. And then after that, his seeing the truth allowed him to operate for the advantage of all beings. Because after his enlightenment, then he opened himself to the whole world. And the benefits, we're still experiencing the benefits of that. And his teaching is still as clear and... Report an error in the passage at 1:07:11 Highlight the passage at 1:07:11

1:07:40 And useful as it no doubt was then. And this is just an example of one human being who took the time to be enlightened. I mean, and leaving a mark that for 2,530 years we're still talking about it. Still following, still finding that teaching a valid and useful one. So this inspires me to... I think, well, this is what one human being could do. And if I start thinking of Gautama the Buddha as a specially divine creature, then I think, well, he could do it, but I can't, because I don't feel that I'm special. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:40 Highlight the passage at 1:07:40

1:08:27 I don't, you know, I've come from quite an ordinary kind of middle-class American family with no colour in it whatsoever, very drab ancestry. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:27 Highlight the passage at 1:08:27

1:08:40 No kings or queens or anything. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:40 Highlight the passage at 1:08:40

1:08:46 And one doesn't think of oneself as being extraordinarily brilliant or gifted in any way. They think I'm an average person. And yet, this teaching of the Buddha is something that really touches me, that I find, you know, that I've found in the past 20 years has been an enormous uh... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:46 Highlight the passage at 1:08:46

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:09:14 Made enormous change in my life. From a very unhappy, selfish and confused young man to a joyful human being. One that is now can look at life and willing to live life and open to it. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:14 Highlight the passage at 1:09:14

1:09:35 So this is, you know, living in this way is like coming to England nine years ago. My idea of living in it, not to convert, not to make Buddhists out of good British Christians or convert the royal family or do anything on any scale, but to live in a way that would be of value to the society. Because the society benefits from moral beings. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:35 Highlight the passage at 1:09:35

1:10:17 beings who've taken on the responsibility for their life that are here to help the society rather than to complain about it and make endless demands on it now Report an error in the passage at 1:10:17 Highlight the passage at 1:10:17

1:10:36 we need to with Buddhism being coming to the western world we need to look at it as not from such an exalted position of Report an error in the passage at 1:10:36 Highlight the passage at 1:10:36

1:10:50 Often times the traditions of Asia tend to have placed Buddha so high now that nobody even tries anymore. Because they think it's just past. So that you find in traditional Buddhist countries where people feel they can't even do it. So they don't even try. But how we need to look at it is to see that this is about human life. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:50 Highlight the passage at 1:10:50

1:11:20 Your life and my life. The Buddhist teachings are teachings that are common to every human being. They're something we all can relate to. When we talk about suffering, we all suffer. Everyone here suffers, don't they? Anyone doesn't suffer? Raise your hand. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:20 Highlight the passage at 1:11:20

1:11:46 We all age. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:46 Highlight the passage at 1:11:46

1:11:52 Anyone not aging? We all have... Sicknesses, don't we? And then we all die. That hasn't happened yet, but we know that that's going to happen. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:52 Highlight the passage at 1:11:52

1:12:07 So this is common to every one of us. We're looking at the common ground of our humanity. The mind opening to this, to suffering, rather than rejecting it. In the West, we tend to reject suffering, don't we? We're always trying to get rid of disease, get rid of old age. Don't even talk about death. Don't mention the subject. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:07 Highlight the passage at 1:12:07

1:12:33 Don't, try to find happiness all the time. Try to, and get away from any kind of depressing thing, any unwanted, painful, annoying, irritating thing, and just try to be happy and enjoy life completely, is what the West tends to, what we tend to seek now. Capitalism and modern advertising, encourage us all the time to just seek happiness in worldly things and to not even mention the ugly, nasty, painful, unwanted other side of existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:33 Highlight the passage at 1:12:33

1:13:20 But the Buddha pointed to the truth that suffering is... is what we're involved in. We're all involved in suffering, whether we like it or not. And it's not kind of a depressing truth. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:20 Highlight the passage at 1:13:20

1:13:38 It's not that everything's suffering and there's no way out. It's that when we open to suffering, then we find the way out of it. It's only when we reject suffering that we increase the suffering. Because the lifespan of a human being is involved with suffering. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:38 Highlight the passage at 1:13:38

1:13:59 You contemplate from birth, when you're born, to the time you die. All that, there's always suffering involved in that. Having to just deal with physical pain, with age, with discomfort, with hunger, thirst, with heat and cold, with having to be separated from the loved, having to be with the unloved. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:59 Highlight the passage at 1:13:59

1:14:29 Wanting things that we don't have. Being jealous and envious of people who have more than we do. Getting angry. Hating people. All these, just being caught in dull, depressed mental states. This is, these are, we're talking about human experience, not about personal problems anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:29 Highlight the passage at 1:14:29

1:14:53 Well, if you notice in the West, people take all this very personally. They'll say, I suffer from depression. I have terrible depressions. And I have fear of death. And there's something wrong with me, isn't it? There's something wrong with me because I should be happy. The advertisements all say you should be happy. It shows these people, just beautiful people, just jumping for joy. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:53 Highlight the passage at 1:14:53

1:15:27 Television commercials. Lovely women and handsome men just enjoying life to the hilt. You think they don't ever have a pain or a backache or indigestion or anything whatsoever. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:27 Highlight the passage at 1:15:27

1:15:42 And that's what I should be. I should be happy like that. Because we personalize this suffering. But in the mindfulness, then we open to the suffering. We're not saying, I shouldn't suffer. There's something wrong with me because I'm depressed. There's something wrong with me because I'm afraid of death. This is our human condition. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:42 Highlight the passage at 1:15:42

1:16:10 This is what we're experiencing now. This is what we need to come to terms with, what we must understand. This is our teacher. And so this openness, this mindfulness, the Buddha pointed directly at suffering because what, say, ignorant Human beings will not try to avoid, react to with aversion and rejection. And yet it is very much the common experience of every human being. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:10 Highlight the passage at 1:16:10

1:16:54 you know you were talking earlier on about human beings tripping over themselves watching their thoughts and that's the sort of situation I seem to be in quite a lot of the time it doesn't seem to get me anywhere I still seem to I'm aware I think sometimes I'm not but it still goes on I think it's an endless sort of regime if you like I suppose I wonder what thinking is all about I just asked that question I mean thinking is asking that question of course that's right Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:54 Highlight the passage at 1:16:54

1:17:22 I feel as if I suffer because I'm thinking. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:22 Highlight the passage at 1:17:22

1:17:29 Thinking, well this is one, recognize that you're In a society at a time where you have been educated to think and you have acquired so much information I mean the way the kind of information we've received during our lifetime is fantastic and it's increasing you know the ability to have computers now and computerize information makes information even more available to us from every direction. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:29 Highlight the passage at 1:17:29

1:18:07 We We've developed intelligence so that one is, modern education is one where you're thinking all the time. You're educated to think, think, think, to have information, to put in information into your mind and think. And so this becomes an obsession of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:07 Highlight the passage at 1:18:07

1:18:33 In modern universities, they don't teach you how to let go of thoughts, do they? How to empty your mind. Whenever I go and give talks in universities, I point this out, that I don't know, I say, why did you invite me to this university? No, I think you might regret it. Because you might consider me anti-university. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:33 Highlight the passage at 1:18:33

1:19:00 Because where you're trying to study for your examinations and pour more information into your brain, I'm here to... Report an error in the passage at 1:19:00 Highlight the passage at 1:19:00

1:19:33 jumble of thoughts But also, because one has an intelligent mind and has a lot of thoughts, obsessed with thought, then of course we develop, we become very impatient. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:33 Highlight the passage at 1:19:33

1:19:53 Thoughts move very, very fast. So they just want, you know, a thought moment is just that much. So a thought goes through your mind and then another thought, another thought. So there's no way you can catch your thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:53 Highlight the passage at 1:19:53

1:20:08 By thinking about catching them. Because you'll just be caught in more thoughts. So that the, like with meditation, you're beginning to begin to look at thought and you begin to let go of thought. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:08 Highlight the passage at 1:20:08

1:20:30 And that's just through practice, really. As you practice more and more, you'll see how to do that. I mean, when you're starting a course, you still, you have the theory of it, and you like the theory, otherwise you wouldn't want to practice it, but then the theory is a thought. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:30 Highlight the passage at 1:20:30

1:20:50 So that one thing that they see that you have a physical body that isn't a thought, so that much of our attention goes in meditation toward the body, because the body isn't, is a slower changing condition so you can be mindful of the body which stops the which for at least moments the thinking process you'll not be caught up with thinking about you'll be concentrating on maybe the breath or the breath of the body or the sensation of the body sensations in the body so the body itself is a very useful object In the beginning of meditation, when you're learning how to meditate, because it is a slow changing condition, where thoughts, and thinking about thoughts, everything's moving too quickly, you're too caught up in thought itself and the speed that thought has, and so then you just feel impatient, you aren't getting anywhere. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:50 Highlight the passage at 1:20:50

1:22:08 And just trying to suppress thought, That's done with aversion. Shut up! Try to stop it and then you can and then that will maybe for a moment you might just stop thinking but then it'll all just backlash on you just come bursting forth and I can't get anywhere nowhere at all. So all of us were great obsessed thinkers at one time that the body and this is why the Report an error in the passage at 1:22:08 Highlight the passage at 1:22:08

1:22:47 contemplating the nature of the body and then thinking becomes reflective thought rather than obsessive thought thinking is a great gift actually. know, at this time, even though some people are tortured by their obsessive thoughts, actually they can transform that. tortured obsession with thought to wisdom very quickly in fact because thinking in such refined ways that we do now and having such developed intelligence this is to be valued not to be despised but it needs to be trained because Report an error in the passage at 1:22:47 Highlight the passage at 1:22:47

1:23:37 we tend to identify with intelligence We identify with thought and so then it becomes, it controls us, we become just our thoughts all the time and they just take us all over the place. We just try to, and when we try to stop them, just out of aversion, we just end up suppressing, like holding something down and it pops back at us. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:37 Highlight the passage at 1:23:37

1:24:04 But as you more wisely reflect, then thought itself, You begin to appreciate the ability to think as a gift and something to treasure and respect rather than something that's torturing you that you want to get rid of. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:04 Highlight the passage at 1:24:04

1:24:25 Would you recommend meditation for a child, an intelligent child who can use her intelligence to manipulate people or anything simply because they're accountable and they know how to be accountable but not responsible, are they? So there must be a way to make this transition from a intelligent child who will respond to care or whatever you call it, to become an aware, responsible, open-minded person without manipulating anything or anybody intentionally. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:25 Highlight the passage at 1:24:25

1:25:00 Children, you see, their minds are open. Like their children are not, you know, from when you're... When a child is born, it's just as it is. It has no personal view. It's just a completely as-is creature. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:00 Highlight the passage at 1:25:00

1:25:25 And its needs are basic, just nourishment and protection. So things can be put into the mind of a child as they grow up. We put things into their minds, self-views and fears and all this. From the family to their peer group society and so forth. So the children are easily conditioned. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:25 Highlight the passage at 1:25:25

1:25:55 They'll believe, they'll emulate, they emulate their parents and others and they copy and you can suggest things to them and then they tend to follow that, to believe in that. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:55 Highlight the passage at 1:25:55

1:26:15 Like if you condition a child to think that she's no good, then she'll believe that. That follows people through their whole lives sometimes. Just from early childhood where the parents angrily said you're no good. And then that can harm their whole life. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:15 Highlight the passage at 1:26:15

1:26:37 So that's why with a child you really need to see that this is a mind that is to be... Report an error in the passage at 1:26:37 Highlight the passage at 1:26:37

1:26:52 try to put into the mind that which is going to help that being to understand his or her life education now is when we send our children off to the schools we send them off to be conditioned into competition and and a lot of Report an error in the passage at 1:26:52 Highlight the passage at 1:26:52

1:27:16 You know, really unpleasant things go into their minds in schools these days because we look at education as a kind of competitive system where getting through the exams is very important and is an identity. If you're a good student, then that helps you to have a more positive view of yourself. If you're not so good, you tend to feel worthless. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:16 Highlight the passage at 1:27:16

1:27:46 But the values that children need are not to be the best in a competitive system, but towards, say, kindness, learning to be kind, to be generous, to take care of things, to be patient with things, to help people. All these kind of very good virtuous qualities can be... Report an error in the passage at 1:27:46 Highlight the passage at 1:27:46

1:28:46 And when they begin to experience it, they take to it. So meditation for children is a very good thing. You can't talk about, say, children's attention span is much less than, say, an adult. You have to take into account their limitations. But children like to meditate if it's done in the right way. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:46 Highlight the passage at 1:28:46

1:29:16 And they can visualize things usually because they're so suggestible. If you put, like use visualizations and methods in that way, they're quite skillfully done. Most children seem to really enjoy doing that. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:16 Highlight the passage at 1:29:16