Personal Responsibility and The Nuclear Age - Q and A (1986)

0:00 And very receptive. So mindfulness is not something lacking in children. And their minds are very receptive. feel that a choice can be made for people who to be able to see the academic side of the group. They want this because they're there all day, every day, but they need to feel part of that more than anything else. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:31 I feel that very strongly. I do find it difficult to see from the perspective of my son-in-law. Report an error in the passage at 0:31 Highlight the passage at 0:31

0:41 Right. Report an error in the passage at 0:41 Highlight the passage at 0:41

0:46 Right. Well, this is where the reflection on life as it is. What is your life? What do you have to endure? I mean, there's a lot in your life that you may not want or not like, but which you just have to bear with because there's No way you can change it into anything else. And such as, say, many parents suffer from sending their children to schools that they don't like, that the parents don't like. Report an error in the passage at 0:46 Highlight the passage at 0:46

1:18 They wish their children didn't have to go to these schools. But then they get caught in this dilemma of should they take their children out of the school and educate them at home or should they Report an error in the passage at 1:18 Highlight the passage at 1:18

1:40 confusion. this is where you need to, you know, rather than... disparaging the school system too much you can you can acknowledge that schools are like this right now you know this is what this is the way it is on this level in but you can put more Attention to what is really needed in, say, in other ways. You know, you can counterbalance, say, what might be harmful effects in other ways. Report an error in the passage at 1:40 Highlight the passage at 1:40

2:14 Because you can't, if you protect a child too much, you know, then you, it becomes a heavy burden for yourself. And also, you know, it sometimes just makes them, gives them problems later on. Report an error in the passage at 2:14 Highlight the passage at 2:14

2:34 But this is, This is where each one, each person really has to decide how to live their lives. And if you choose to do it in a selfless way, make your decisions in a way that you respect, not just expedient kind of things or just going along with things because you don't know what else to do. Report an error in the passage at 2:34 Highlight the passage at 2:34

3:04 You know, without any real wise consideration of it. But to trust in what you're doing. To develop a sense of confidence and trust in what you're doing. And that, of course, your relationship to your children is the most important. Because that's where children are, you know, the early years are the most important in regards to the... Report an error in the passage at 3:04 Highlight the passage at 3:04

3:35 The loving, caring qualities of the parents. And after that, then, you just have to do the best you can. And oftentimes bear with a lot of things that you can't stand. Report an error in the passage at 3:35 Highlight the passage at 3:35

3:49 I look at some parents, the mothers, you know, I think, oh, the suffering they must experience when they see their children doing things that are, you know, are really horrible, but you can't say anything. Report an error in the passage at 3:49 Highlight the passage at 3:49

4:04 There's a point after which there's nothing you can say, isn't there? you just have to accept it Report an error in the passage at 4:04 Highlight the passage at 4:04

· · · silence, 1 minute

4:42 how I'm divisive of becoming this. Report an error in the passage at 4:42 Highlight the passage at 4:42

4:55 if you'd like to catch yourself, you can go on with it, there being any physical crisis. Report an error in the passage at 4:55 Highlight the passage at 4:55

5:10 Attachment to being a Buddhist is suffering. Report an error in the passage at 5:10 Highlight the passage at 5:10

5:20 It's a convention. It has its limitations, like any convention. But the whole purpose of the Buddhist teaching is for non-attachment. But non-attachment, like one tends to think, is like if you might think, well, maybe Ajahn Sumedho is attached to being a Buddhist monk. To prove that he's not attached, he should disrobe. Report an error in the passage at 5:20 Highlight the passage at 5:20

5:53 But that isn't, that could be an attachment to the view that I'm attached. You see what I mean? It gets complicated. But the non-attachment is when you're mindful. So that being a Buddhist monk, being an abbot of a monastery, these are appropriate conventions. Report an error in the passage at 5:53 Highlight the passage at 5:53

6:30 attached to being an abbot of Amaravati and I have to go say help one of the junior monks in the woods I'm trying to be abbot being a woodsman Report an error in the passage at 6:30 Highlight the passage at 6:30

6:48 become a nuisance, I don't know anything about forestry. When I go to the forest, then I become just a worker, even if I'm working for a monk that I have ordained. Because the position of abbot is no longer appropriate at that time and that place. So how we practice with it is to observe this. If you're feeling discomfort about working, As a laborer under a junior monk, then you see that there's attachment. If I feel upset or annoyed or slighted, then I realize there's attachment to being in a position, a superior position. Report an error in the passage at 6:48 Highlight the passage at 6:48

7:40 So then you can work through that. That's why you notice where it hurts all the time. In Buddhist meditation, you always go into where it's painful and where the anguish lies or the despair. That's where the wisdom is, where you can see where there is attachment. Report an error in the passage at 7:40 Highlight the passage at 7:40

8:06 And we use life for another one. I like to be praised and I don't like to be criticized. So then if I'm attached to praise, Then I'm really resentful of being criticized. If I like praise and I'm attached to being praised and I want people to praise me and I expect you to praise me and I demand and then I have criticism then I get I feel very threatened very upset very angry by that. Report an error in the passage at 8:06 Highlight the passage at 8:06

8:42 So then you go to the pain to the anger or the resentment and then you begin to see it's because you're attached to to praise. Report an error in the passage at 8:42 Highlight the passage at 8:42

9:22 see it is it's like working with life as you're living it you're you get enough You get enough misery just when life is at its best. There's enough suffering in it for wisdom to arise. You don't have to go live in a sewer or sleep on a bed of nails or anything. You don't have to increase suffering. There's enough of it just as you're living your life to learn from that. Report an error in the passage at 9:22 Highlight the passage at 9:22

9:50 Attachment, then one can become obsessed with the view of non-attachment so that you're always trying to Get rid of attachments. And this I see with many meditators is that I find this a common problem in Britain with the British people is that they're always trying to, when they start meditating, they're always trying to get rid of their egos. Report an error in the passage at 9:50 Highlight the passage at 9:50

10:22 They're always trying to get rid of attachments. They're always trying to annihilate and cut off and get rid of bad thoughts, Report an error in the passage at 10:22 Highlight the passage at 10:22

10:34 So there's this tremendous suppressing ability in European people. They're always trying to annihilate things. Like if you have a view that you have a terrible ego, you're a terribly conceited egotistical person with a lot of pride, then everything in your experience, when you're meditating, you'll just see pride and conceit all the time and you're trying to get rid of it. Report an error in the passage at 10:34 Highlight the passage at 10:34

11:03 So meditation then becomes an endless kind of struggling thing where you might conquer it for a while, then it comes back and you're always having to struggle and fight with this terrible ego. Report an error in the passage at 11:03 Highlight the passage at 11:03

11:18 But then you begin to see that the idea of having an ego is an attachment. You're attached to the view that you have a terrible ego. Report an error in the passage at 11:18 Highlight the passage at 11:18

11:31 So then you begin to, you're getting to where these things end. Once you see the attachment, the view of having a terrible ego, attachment to that view is suffering. So that's why when you're meditating and you're trying to get rid of this ego, it's a hopeless situation because you're already attached to a view that you have an ego. Report an error in the passage at 11:31 Highlight the passage at 11:31

11:55 And so everything is egotistical from that attachment. Everything you're experiencing is going to be egotistical. Even the desire to get rid of your ego is an egotistical view. So that you, once you see the grasping of that, and then you let go of that view, then you're mindful, and you begin to experience the emptiness of mind, the freedom of mind, of non-attachment. Report an error in the passage at 11:55 Highlight the passage at 11:55

12:27 You become aware of the true peace of non-attachment. But as long as you're busy trying to get rid of your ego or your attachments, you won't do it. You won't be able to. Report an error in the passage at 12:27 Highlight the passage at 12:27

12:58 In the West, because we're conditioned with modern psychological terminology, Report an error in the passage at 12:58 Highlight the passage at 12:58

13:12 we believe so much in scientific terms. Report an error in the passage at 13:12 Highlight the passage at 13:12

13:24 And viewpoints. We also have such, as I was saying before, high standards that Report an error in the passage at 13:24 Highlight the passage at 13:24

13:38 we think that attachment to high standards is important. That if you aren't attached to high standards, you're just going to sink down into the gutter. It's going to go down the drain. That you've got to hold on to these high standards at all costs, otherwise you'll... You'll be corrupted. The devil will take you over. So that even attachment to high standards, to the best, to the highest, breeds conflict. Report an error in the passage at 13:38 Highlight the passage at 13:38

14:13 But non-attachment doesn't mean that we don't have high standards. It means that we're not attached to them. It means like high standards, ideals, are like lovely things that we have that we can reflect on, we can look to, but we needn't attach to. Attachment to them is the obsession of mind of trying to force everything, to be critical when things aren't the best, to hate ourselves when we're not in the best state of mind, to hate ourselves for making mistakes, for thinking bad thoughts, for being confused, for getting depressed, for speaking out of turn, for getting angry, for being jealous, for being frightened, for being weak. Report an error in the passage at 14:13 Highlight the passage at 14:13

15:02 Being cowardly. Because we shouldn't be, should we? We shouldn't be cowardly. We should be strong. We should be honest. We shouldn't go around telling lies or gossiping. And yet we do these things. So we're terrible. And so we're attached to this very high standard which we torture ourselves with all the time. Report an error in the passage at 15:02 Highlight the passage at 15:02

15:26 People say, I'm no good. I'm such a terrible person. You should see the thoughts that go through my mind. It's so horrible. And people really, really are self-disparaging now. So critical of themselves. And this is because they're attached to these high standards. And then that attachment breeds this conflict. Report an error in the passage at 15:26 Highlight the passage at 15:26

15:53 So that non-attachment doesn't mean that we follow those horrible thoughts and act on every impulse. But it means we... With meditation you're opening your mind to the nature of thought itself and you're beginning to see these as something that's not really yours anymore. So it's not anymore threatening to you. As long as you think those thoughts, those feelings are what you are then you're going to feel like you're a terrible person. Report an error in the passage at 15:53 Highlight the passage at 15:53

16:24 If they're bad or they're horrible thoughts then you're going to feel that you're a horrible person. But when you see it as it is Then that's non-attachment. Even the worst thought you can think arises and ceases in your mind. Not the permanent state of your mind. Report an error in the passage at 16:24 Highlight the passage at 16:24

16:50 And that's a relief. Because sometimes it's really frightening for us. Our conditioning tends to make us believe that all these things are ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 16:50 Highlight the passage at 16:50

17:03 I remember... Being terrified at about the age of 15, when I suddenly had some really kind of maniacal thoughts go through my mind. I was an innocent boy. And I was always a fairly good-natured kind of child. And then I remember having the really maniacal, horrible thoughts go through my mind at the age of 15. Report an error in the passage at 17:03 Highlight the passage at 17:03

17:30 And I was terrified. And I thought, what's wrong with me? I must be horrible. I mean, only horrible people would think these kind of thoughts. I must be horrible. Report an error in the passage at 17:30 Highlight the passage at 17:30

17:46 It was very upsetting. And then, you know, you didn't, I didn't tell anyone, didn't dare tell anyone. You just, it was kept, you know, kind of kept suppressed it, hoping that it wouldn't happen again. Then it does, and you don't, you don't understand what's happening, because you're taking it all as, that good people don't have thoughts like that. Report an error in the passage at 17:46 Highlight the passage at 17:46

18:09 And so, because you do, then you're a bad person. But in the Buddhist perspective, good thoughts, bad thoughts arise and seize the mind. Report an error in the passage at 18:09 Highlight the passage at 18:09

18:22 It's not a person anymore. You're no longer attached to either the good thoughts or the bad ones. On action and speech, Buddhists do good, refrain from doing evil. I mean, we have a choice when it comes to action and speech. You can... If you have an evil thought, you can act or not act. You can speak or not speak on that. On good thoughts, good impulses, you can act or not act, speak or not speak. Report an error in the passage at 18:22 Highlight the passage at 18:22

18:59 That's the choice we have in regard to action and speech. So then, the standard advice to Buddhists is to do good, refrain from doing evil with action and speech. Report an error in the passage at 18:59 Highlight the passage at 18:59

19:13 But in regards to... Things that go through your mind. It's like the English weather. Sun, rain, hail, snow, all in one day sometimes. Report an error in the passage at 19:13 Highlight the passage at 19:13

19:28 There's no way you can make the English weather into what you want, is it? It's only as it is. Sometimes it's absolutely exquisite, perfect. Some of my days here in Britain, some of the weather here, is it perfect? time. Report an error in the passage at 19:28 Highlight the passage at 19:28

19:47 just the perfect temperature. Everything is so beautiful in this country. Report an error in the passage at 19:47 Highlight the passage at 19:47

19:57 then some days are absolutely miserable, you know, and rain and and snow and bleakness. yet the mind is open to both. soon as I start grasping the sun, then I hate the rain. Report an error in the passage at 19:57 Highlight the passage at 19:57

20:19 It can enjoy the beauty of sunshine. It can bear with the discomfort of rain. It's all accepted rather than chosen or rejected. Report an error in the passage at 20:19 Highlight the passage at 20:19

20:33 Apply that to your mind in regards to peace movements and protesting. This is something that you must decide for yourself. There's no Buddhist position on it for or against. Report an error in the passage at 20:33 Highlight the passage at 20:33

20:54 These are issues that you must take responsibility for, for doing them or not doing them. People want to say, do Buddhists believe in peace marches? Should Buddhists go on peace marches? This is something that you must decide for yourself. It's not something that we're going to kind of organize and take a position on. Report an error in the passage at 20:54 Highlight the passage at 20:54

21:25 And Report an error in the passage at 21:25 Highlight the passage at 21:25

21:31 then, Then acting or not acting is done from wisdom rather than from intimidation or guilt or laziness that's been caught up into things. With the peace movements now, there's so many, so much a cry for peace worldwide. Report an error in the passage at 21:31 Highlight the passage at 21:31

22:00 And it's really quite inspiring to see That peace now is what people long for rather than high standard of living and more pleasures and more rights and more of everything. There seems to be this world, the whole world wants peace. Report an error in the passage at 22:00 Highlight the passage at 22:00

22:30 And that's a very good sign actually. But now we contemplate how can that peace be possible? Because peace is... Report an error in the passage at 22:30 Highlight the passage at 22:30

22:49 these bodies and minds, of this world we're living in, then that's true peace. That's not corrupted peace. Report an error in the passage at 22:49 Highlight the passage at 22:49

22:59 stopping the nuclear arms race isn't going to bring peace. Even though that would be very nice. peace can only come from wisdom from and this is This is what I encourage you all to contemplate. What is truly peaceful? I think you find peace within yourself. You're not going to find it, even though people come here and say how peaceful it is in Amaravati. Oh, it's so peaceful here. Report an error in the passage at 22:59 Highlight the passage at 22:59

23:34 But then after a while something upsets them and then they don't find peace anymore here. Report an error in the passage at 23:34 Highlight the passage at 23:34

23:42 Because they're just looking for a kind of lack of conflict is peace, isn't it? Where there is less conflict then you feel more peaceful. Report an error in the passage at 23:42 Highlight the passage at 23:42

23:52 But that kind of peace, as you well know, doesn't last long. There's always going to be some conflict coming, even in the most peaceful places on the planet. So the internal peace is incorruptible peace. And that's always present, whether you're here or in the middle of London. Report an error in the passage at 23:52 Highlight the passage at 23:52

24:23 In Moscow, in Washington, D.C., in the ocean, or the mountain, or whatever. That goes with you wherever you are. Report an error in the passage at 24:23 Highlight the passage at 24:23

24:41 That's like returning to your real home. You feel most at ease there in peacefulness. That's where your true abiding is. That's where you'll find true peace, true ease. And that you won't find externally. Report an error in the passage at 24:41 Highlight the passage at 24:41

25:02 We've tried to create conditions in our societies where we feel peaceful and at ease, like in having a house, owning a house, having nicely decorated, comfortable furniture, all forms of convenience and luxury, but they don't bring peace, do they? They're not really peaceful. They're all terribly disappointed, even when you get the best. Report an error in the passage at 25:02 Highlight the passage at 25:02