Violence and Non-Violence (1986)

0:00 To reflect on the subject that is listed for the day, violence and non-violence. And again I repeat that how I'm approaching these subjects is more or less on the way of reflecting on them rather than trying to tell you what you should do or should not do or convince you or defend anything that I'm doing. Because what we all need to do What is necessary for us to develop as human beings is to be able to come from wisdom itself. Report an error in the passage at 0:00

0:44 Because wisdom is something that we can learn to use, develop in our daily lives. You can take it almost for granted that you already have it. It's just a matter of using it. Being a human being, having the ability to think and reflect on life, To contemplate your own existence, the fact that you're sitting here in this room able to understand the words that I'm speaking, and the ability to think and contemplate means that there is already wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 0:44

1:27 The wisdom is already present. It's a matter of using wisdom rather than trying to gain wisdom. In our way of thinking, we tend to think of wisdom as something we get and gain. By studying things or learning from picking up the wise sayings and words of other people. But wisdom in the Buddhist sense is the ability to learn from life, to Report an error in the passage at 1:27

2:02 contemplate and learn from experience. And this you can do whether you're educated or uneducated, literate, illiterate, blind or deaf or whatever, as long as you can. They think and contemplate, bring up into consciousness the way things are and consider them, look at them and learn from them. Report an error in the passage at 2:02

2:39 Today's subject for reflection is violence and non-violence and of course at this present time there seems to be an enormous amount of violence in the world that is reported to us. Every day, without fail, in the television and newspapers, every kind of violent action is recorded. It seems to, probably not everyone, but all at least the really interesting, sensational ones seem to be recorded in the, communicated to us through all the technology that we have these days. Report an error in the passage at 2:39

3:25 Violence is... A part of nature, isn't it? On one level of nature. We find that not only are human beings violent, but nature itself, the planet itself produces violent upheavals, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, cyclones, hurricanes, floods, all kinds of natural catastrophe is possible. Report an error in the passage at 3:25

3:57 And what nature doesn't provide in a violent way, then human beings try to provide all kinds of variations on that theme, such as modern terrorism. Or just the violence we do to ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 3:57

4:17 We can be quite violent and insensitive to ourselves and to those we live with, those that we even love we can be violent to. Report an error in the passage at 4:17

4:31 So violence is... What we do, how we relate to ourselves and the world we live in, when we don't understand it, when we tend to just follow the attraction and repulsion that we experience through sensory consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 4:31

4:55 There's also a kind of nameless anxiety that pursues humanity. In our ability to reflect and contemplate our existence, Along with that comes the awareness of anxiety that we feel, even when there's nothing to be frightened of in the moment. One can be sitting in the safest place, in a place of utter safety and beauty and peace and still feel threatened or anxious. Report an error in the passage at 4:55

5:30 of course, modern Society tends to take all this very personally. Report an error in the passage at 5:30

5:40 The way that we experience life is taking it all and making it very personal. It's a problem that I have. I have this fear. It's me that has this terrible fear. It's me that suffers from anxiety. I shouldn't suffer from this. I should be brave. I should not have anxieties. I shouldn't feel depressed by anything. Because modern Western Report an error in the passage at 5:40

6:11 Civilization, at least, has developed the ideal form for the individual. But the practical way of life, the way life actually is experienced by, sometimes we never notice. We don't ever come to terms with life as it's happening, because our tendency is to grasp the ideas of how it should be. And of course, a perfectly sane, healthy, A mentally healthy person shouldn't be anxious about anything, shouldn't be frightened of anything, should be courageous, serene, calm. Report an error in the passage at 6:11

6:54 So an ideal person is like a picture in a book, like a fantasy that we can create, like a statue of a perfect human form with perfect features, but the statue itself can't feel can't experience anything can't reflect on itself in any way so we can create perfect images or what we might consider the human form the ideal man the ideal woman with our mind but Report an error in the passage at 6:54

7:34 that ideal has no ability to understand itself where the human the advantage of humanity is that we can understand we can come to terms with our own existence With all the imperfections of it, with all the flaws that we experience in this sensual realm, with all its pain and all its despair, depression, sorrow, all its anxiety, because of this ability to contemplate and reflect on the way things are. Report an error in the passage at 7:34

8:18 Ideally, we think there shouldn't be violence. Things should be peaceful. Things should be safe. Everything should be pleasant. The ideal vision of paradise is there's no violence there. The vision of a utopian paradise where everything is pleasant, warm, friendly, fair and just, where there is no flaw, nothing to be anxious about. Report an error in the passage at 8:18

8:53 Permanent security. But that vision of paradise is like a marble statue, isn't it? It's a pretty picture only that can't reflect on itself because we're very much involved in the experience of pain and violence, irritation and frustration through the sensory consciousness. This is our heritage, you might say, our inheritance from birth, being born. Report an error in the passage at 8:53

9:28 a sensitive form such as the human body, senses, ears, nose, and tongue. The result of being born in such a form, in such a predicament as this, is that we experience pain. Report an error in the passage at 9:28

9:51 A marble statue doesn't experience pain, as far as I know. It never says, ouch, at least any marble statues I've seen. Rain, sun, you can kick them and they don't wince. So Report an error in the passage at 9:51

10:15 contemplate this, that all of us are experiencing now the world of pain. Sensory experience is painful, in other words. Now Report an error in the passage at 10:15

10:33 some people might think it shouldn't be. It should be all painless. We'd like to talk about love and safety and bliss. and all the best that we can conceive of and yet the Buddhist always points to the experience of pain and suffering not to make this the ultimate absolute goal and all that is but it is the common human experience isn't it that we all share and it's what we're always involved in there's always some form of discomfort in our life some form of Report an error in the passage at 10:33

11:15 Unpleasant sensation, irritation, frustration, annoyance. And as much as we try to create modern technology to get rid of it, to make things kind of permanently comfortable, permanently safe, efficient, permanently attractive, the idea of making things permanent, modern technology has, say, increased. Report an error in the passage at 11:15

11:44 Our expectations for comfort now, physical comfort. If you've ever lived in third world country, you begin to see that in, say, agrarian communities, they don't expect comfort. That's not an expectation of a rice farmer. Report an error in the passage at 11:44

12:09 A lot of physical comfort, convenience and efficiency is not their expectation. But ours is, very much so. Just here at Amaravati, for example. Report an error in the passage at 12:09

12:23 We were talking about it the other day, that people expect hot water. They expect central heating. They expect a certain degree of comfort that's not always found here. Report an error in the passage at 12:23

12:46 And Report an error in the passage at 12:46

12:51 yet you talk to English people who lived, say, in their 60s, 50s, 60s, 70s, And they all remember having to sleep in cold rooms in the wintertime. They used to heat only one room. And they'd sleep in cold rooms with the windows open and with maybe a well where they had to draw water from a well, not even a cold water faucet. Report an error in the passage at 12:51

13:26 And where there were no kind of toilet facilities in the house, a little house out in back. And that was... And that was what was expected. One didn't expect anything other than that. So then expectations were different in those days. And now that same class of people expect a higher standard of physical comfort. And yet as much as we increase our standard of physical comfort, we seem to suffer even more mentally. Report an error in the passage at 13:26

14:04 At least with physical hardship, there's a certain kind of vitality you have to have. You have to struggle a bit, meaning you can't just sit around in a nice warm room and feel sorry for yourself all day. Report an error in the passage at 14:04

14:17 Just for survival, you have to go out and do something else, make a living or struggle with the elements just to survive. But as life becomes more convenient, more protected, more guaranteed, more assured, For safety and comfort and convenience, the mental illness seems to increase. I'm not suggesting everybody that we all return to outhouses and cold water and get rid of all our hot water, central heating. Report an error in the passage at 14:17

14:53 I'm not suggesting that. But pointing to the potential now for, because we can expect a certain standard of convenience and comfort and security, On the material plane, even though that's not to be grasped, but we can expect a certain degree of that now, maybe it's time to develop something else in another way rather than just thinking that comfort, convenience and safety are the be-all and end-all of our existence. Report an error in the passage at 14:53

15:28 Because now in the safety of a well-governed society, democratic institutions, Social welfare and all that we have in a country like this, people break down, frightened, anxious, depressed. The tendency towards violence seems to increase. There seems to be so much violence now. And violence that is, we can't comprehend because it's coming from something that we can't really understand. Report an error in the passage at 15:28

16:08 It's no longer... The violence of, say, revolution, of somebody, some deprived group striking back at us. But so much of the violence within Britain comes from just frustrated, unhappy, irrational minds. Report an error in the passage at 16:08

16:31 Not that they've been terribly deprived or mistreated or exploited by the society as such, but because the values of our time, the lack of any real moral standard and the and just the of life one begins to just feel frustrated irritated annoyed and averse to life itself Report an error in the passage at 16:31

17:03 Nonviolence, now this one might think is an impossibility, that because of the violence of nature itself, because we could Report an error in the passage at 17:03

17:26 and the communist world the towards that is very much part of our heritage. We're very warlike creatures. We tend to war exciting. So much of War is always an excitement to the mind. To report war is to talk about the violence done in a war. Report an error in the passage at 17:26

17:56 Atrocity, this is the word atrocity, excites the mind, doesn't it? They use it in the newspaper, they put atrocity on it, and your eye goes, atrocity. Report an error in the passage at 17:56

18:07 Violence, terrorism, this is a big word of this time, terrorism. Report an error in the passage at 18:07

18:18 So when one is frustrated by life, One way out of frustration and annoyance is by violent action. Because that is exciting, isn't it? It's absorbing. To be caught up in just some kind of violent action. It can be for a cause or not for any cause. Just from one's own frustrated life. Or one can adopt a cause to justify it. Like getting even with the government. Report an error in the passage at 18:18

18:56 Somebody else who's harmed us or hurt us in some way. And this is a natural reaction. We all can identify this. We've all felt the tendency towards wanting to take revenge. I don't know about you, but I've certainly had those feelings. I felt vengeful at times, wanting to get even with somebody who's hurt my feelings or upset me or humiliated me. Report an error in the passage at 18:56

19:26 I can understand that. Fortunately, I have a standard of nonviolence in my life in which I look to that as my guide rather than the impulse towards violence. But because I have that standard of nonviolence, it doesn't mean that I don't have those same kind of impulses. Report an error in the passage at 19:26

19:52 In fact, if I didn't have those impulses, I wouldn't need a standard of nonviolence. Report an error in the passage at 19:52

19:59 It's because I have that... Potential for being violent is all, as I assume all human beings do. I'm making this assumption. If I'm wrong, I beg your pardon. But I've noticed even amongst the evolved minds of monks and nuns that there are certain violent impulses that they still seem to have and experience at times. Report an error in the passage at 19:59

20:30 Even from the most placid and well-meaning saint-like Now Report an error in the passage at 20:30

20:38 contemplate this, the human condition as we're experiencing it, humanity so far has evolved to this plane. Now I'm talking about humanity as what we regard as humanity worldwide. Now we can very easily perceive humanity rather than race, isn't it? Race isn't really important anymore. Report an error in the passage at 20:38

21:08 It is not of importance to us because we're now perceiving humanity as a whole. Because all races, all classes, all nations have the same problems. It's not that one is more advanced than the other or superior or inferior. We're willing to give up these kind of judgments to recognize the common bond of humanity. Report an error in the passage at 21:08

21:34 In Buddhism, this... Reflection on humanity means that we recognize that we're all born, we get old, we get sick and die. We suffer. All human beings suffer. Report an error in the passage at 21:34

21:48 We suffer from not getting what we want, from getting what we don't want, from having to be separated from those we love and that which we like. We suffer sorrow, grief, despair, anguish. This is common to every human being. Whether it's Asia, in Europe, Africa, the Americas, wherever. All human beings have the ability to reflect on themselves. Report an error in the passage at 21:48

22:21 And then with mass communication, now there's a kind of world culture forming. The world isn't, say, if you went to live in India or Thailand now, you wouldn't find it all that much, that totally strange or foreign, as you might say, have found it a hundred years ago. Report an error in the passage at 22:21

22:44 It's easy to go to Bangkok now and live very much in the same style that you do here in London, in England. There's not that greater discrepancy in culture or in technology or convenience, luxury, standard of living. Report an error in the passage at 22:44

23:09 What is missing now, the great, say, lack that I see, that I've witnessed, is that as this mass media, modern technology, The ideal Report an error in the passage at 23:09

23:27 of freedom has been carried to an extreme position. moral side of humanity. Report an error in the passage at 23:27

23:50 of where it just gives us license to do anything whether it's violent we're free to be violent free to do violence to ourselves free to do violence to others do violence to the planet isn't it the whole question of nuclear war is the ultimate in violence isn't it there's these very advanced superpowers these great advanced countries nations Report an error in the passage at 23:50

24:21 Have not considered the moral position of doing violence to the planet. Whether they're planning to do it to a nation. The French, quite willing to do violence to the planet, aren't they? With their nuclear experiments. The Americans, to drop horrible weapons onto the planet. To pollute the planet we live on. This is violence perpetrated by humanity onto the planet itself. Report an error in the passage at 24:21

24:57 Now, morality, in the Buddhist sense of sīla, means Report an error in the passage at 24:57

25:11 that morality has to come, if it's to be true morality, and skillful morality, it has to come from the wisdom of an individual human being. When you impose morality on people, then it becomes a law that can be very oppressive, isn't it? We can impose a moral law on people and it can be a very oppressive tyranny. That's happened. Report an error in the passage at 25:11

25:44 That's why the word morality is a bit threatening sometimes to us, isn't it? When we think back to Victorian times where morality was more or less imposed on us, on people, where it was imposed on us from above and it became an oppression to us. Report an error in the passage at 25:44

26:06 We were Maybe people were moral out of fear of being punished or being ostracized by the society rather than out of real understanding, wise understanding of the way things are. Because morality in itself, when you fully understand it, it brings us a sense of joy and self-respect. Because what it does do when it's coming from wisdom is we begin to feel Respect for ourselves. We feel respect for the rights of other beings to exist. Report an error in the passage at 26:06

26:49 And that's a mental state that's very pleasant. To have respect in your heart for yourself and others is a mental state that we really enjoy very much. Report an error in the passage at 26:49

27:02 It's a very peaceful, very lovely feeling to have self-respect. And to respect the rights of other beings. To care about the lives of others enough to at least not do things that are going to cause them unnecessary pain and misery. I mean, we look around us and we think, will my actions, will what I do, is it going to cause misery to others? Am I going to be responsible for the suffering of other people by what I do and what I say? Report an error in the passage at 27:02

27:38 So we take that into account. We're no longer feeling, I can do what I want. Say what I want. It's my life. I can live it as I want to because I'm free and nobody can take away my freedom. Report an error in the passage at 27:38

27:56 Or, say, the more mature and wise position of the... How can I use my life, my being, this creature here, this body, with its abilities and talents for the welfare of other beings rather than for the misery of other beings? And this is... This is maturing of a human being, isn't it? When we're, say, selfish, we're involved only with our own needs, our own wants, like a baby that makes endless demands on the mother. Report an error in the passage at 27:56

28:38 You see sometimes mother feeding her baby. She's worn out, bags under her eyes, been up all night. Totally exhausted, hasn't had a chance to even have a proper meal, and the baby still yells and screams and makes demands. And there's no way you can tell that baby, now, why don't you wait for a few minutes, give your mother a rest? Report an error in the passage at 28:38

29:06 Babies don't do that, I don't think. Report an error in the passage at 29:06

29:12 No matter how worn out, how haggard, how sick the mother is, the demand is made. And sometimes we never outgrow that, do we? We still do that at 50 and 60. Thank Report an error in the passage at 29:12

29:29 you very much. to get our way even when the people around us are totally exhausted and worn out don't have and they say can you wait a minute no I've got to have it now it has to be now Report an error in the passage at 29:29

29:47 normal for a baby to be that way. It's not babies are bad because they do that. It's just their way. They have to be that way. It's all right. It's not immoral for them to do that. Report an error in the passage at 29:47

29:59 normal, it's natural for them as we develop and mature as human beings we rise up beyond that, we outgrow that tendency, we can, we can outgrow that, we can grow up and then we can start, say, around to see how we can help. Report an error in the passage at 29:59

30:23 parents, how we can of use to them, how we can make life more easy, more pleasant for them, feel a sense of gratitude for the care and protection and love. That our parents have given to us. Or, say, on the national level, to think in terms of how to live in this country so that we are giving to it rather than just taking from it. Report an error in the passage at 30:23

30:49 Sometimes I think in socialist democratic systems, it tends to never allow people to grow up. We tend to look at the government as the mother that we can encourage people Report an error in the passage at 30:49

31:20 to grow up. We tend to look at the government as the mother that we can endlessly make demands on and scream at and yell at when it doesn't give us what we want. Condemn and curse. Criticize endlessly when it doesn't do what we want it to do. Doesn't give us what we want. And so, in a country like this, with a democratic institution, we can criticize, find fault and make demands on it. Report an error in the passage at 31:20

31:54 Or now, What can we give to it? This is a more mature position, isn't it? This comes from a sense of moral responsibility, sense of gratitude and willingness to sacrifice personal convenience, impulsive behavior and all that for the welfare of the greater rather than just think of our own personal convenience. Report an error in the passage at 31:54

32:19 As Report an error in the passage at 32:19

32:25 a nation, we need to grow up like that, don't we? This is an important thing to consider. As something that's very much missing in modern society, not only here, but very much in the United States and any other socialist system or democratic country, or practically everywhere, I'm sure, humanity as a whole, even though there are mature and moral individual beings as nations and as societies, sometimes we're very immature, childish and demanding. Report an error in the passage at 32:25

33:06 Violence comes from when you don't give me what I want, and I have no moral standard to go by. If you don't give me what I want, then I just want to hit you, get even with you, frighten you, so that maybe you'll give me what I want. If I keep torturing you, threatening you with violence, then of course, eventually, just out of fear, you might give me what I want. Report an error in the passage at 33:06

33:34 And I think we can understand that, why people do that. That's what modern terrorism is about. It's trying to threaten, make such threatening gestures, bring such fear into the world that these people will get what they want. For even noble causes, some of them, were causes that one can even sympathize with. Sometimes terrorists are aligned with things that we can even sympathize with. Report an error in the passage at 33:34

34:09 The cause that they're terrorizing for. Report an error in the passage at 34:09

34:19 But because it's not coming from wisdom, from any moral, from understanding of morality, then of course it is merely going to cause more problem, more suffering, more misery. Even if they get what they want, they're still going to be miserable because of the way they do it, the means that they use. There's no real winner in such a situation, a Pyrrhic victory, even if they get it all. They're faced with the guilt, the fear, and all that that comes with all their violent means. Report an error in the passage at 34:19

34:59 Because violence leaves an indelible impression in the mind. Just remember, any violent behavior you've ever committed yourself, or that has been committed to you, toward you, you remember. The rest of your life, you'll remember. You'll have that memory. Any kind of extreme violent experience, either that you've committed or has been committed to you, you'll remember. Report an error in the passage at 34:59

35:31 And if you've lived a violent life, doing violent things to others, then you'll have a life of tremendous guilt and fear ahead of you as a result of that. You have to live the rest of your life with fear. Report an error in the passage at 35:31

35:50 Overwhelming fear. Paranoia. If you've ever met like killers. People that are criminals and killers. People that are professional killers. Their minds are just filled with fear. Report an error in the passage at 35:50

36:08 Tremendous fear haunts them wherever they go. Can never get away from it. Even on a holiday. The nicest holiday resort. It follows you, doesn't it? Your memories. Report an error in the passage at 36:08

36:24 Non-violence doesn't do that, does it? Do you remember all the times you were non-violent? Can you remember the non-violent experiences of life? Report an error in the passage at 36:24

36:39 I mean, as easily as the violent ones. Non-violence looks insignificant, doesn't it? It's not exciting. Non-violence is not exciting. It looks weak, in fact. Violence has the appearance of being very strong, doesn't it? Enormously tough, aggressive, strong. Very, very powerful. Violence has that quality, that appearance. But nonviolence looks kind of wimpy and weak, wet, sissy. Report an error in the passage at 36:39

37:18 It's a sissy way, nonviolence. You're just too cowardly to stand up for yourself, so you just kind of huddle in the corner and say, I'm nonviolent. But nonviolence isn't cowardice. Report an error in the passage at 37:18

37:31 To be nonviolent means you have to really be very, very wise and committed to moral, A moral standard, have some moral integrity and self-respect. You have to bear with the condemnation, the criticism of people who still react to life in violent ways. Because people who still attach to violence as the means for their life feel most threatened, most angry and annoyed by the non-violent ones. Report an error in the passage at 37:31

38:03 It's like pacifists during the previous years. Pacifism is not considered so. Horrible anymore, is it so disgraceful? But it used to be. I talked to pacifists from the Second World War and they went through a horrendous time of social ostracism and condemnation and rejection by the society they were in. Report an error in the passage at 38:03

38:29 Because to most people it looked like they didn't care about their country and that they were too cowardly, too weak to take a stand against the evils. Report an error in the passage at 38:29

38:47 But non-violence isn't from cowardice. It's from great strength. It's from wisdom. From seeing clearly. Because we rise up to non-violence. We don't shrink down to it. Because to really be non-violent means that you have to have looked deeply into yourself and admitted the truth in your own mind. It takes tremendous self-honesty to be non-violent. Report an error in the passage at 38:47

39:20 And tremendous trust, faith, in Buddhism. We call this the sada, or the faith in the truth, in the ultimate truth, in dharma. We use the word dharma, the refuge in dharma, the refuge in Buddha, the wisdom. To have that strength that comes from wise reflection and that strength of sada, or faith, willing to bear with ostracism, condemnation, And even violent action towards us because we know, we understand it, and we're not frightened of it. Report an error in the passage at 39:20

40:02 It became apparent to me that even at the point of death, it's better to die than to do something evil. Report an error in the passage at 40:02

40:15 Because we're all going to die anyway, aren't we? Death is going to meet every one of us, so it doesn't really make that much difference when. But evil action is going to haunt us. Report an error in the passage at 40:15

40:53 haunts us in and day out. The more evil we are, the more... We are haunted by that evil specter. I thought one day it became apparent to me that it's better to die than to do evil. Report an error in the passage at 40:53

41:12 I really felt that. It wasn't just being idealistic, but I could see that death is nothing to fear. It's the natural process, something we all will experience anyway. Report an error in the passage at 41:12

41:25 But it's evil action that is to be considered the most dangerous, what is truly dangerous to us. What one should be most wary of, not to get involved in violent actions, violent speech, evil actions, evil speech, that which divides, separates, corrupts, perverts, pollutes Report an error in the passage at 41:25

41:53 nature, our own bodies, the bodies of others, the society we live in, the planet that we live on. As Report an error in the passage at 41:53

42:14 we begin to know ourselves more and more, we begin to Find that which is truly peaceful. At first, we think that's an impossibility, that we tend to be so caught up with our worries and thoughts and fears and mental formations and physical problems that we can't possibly conceive life ever being peaceful for us. Report an error in the passage at 42:14

42:44 But as you look deeper, more carefully at yourself, you begin to realize peacefulness as a kind of continuous presence. Not just a moment that happens by accident, but a continuous presence, a continuity of peace and calm that's always with us, that's never absent, but which we don't notice. Report an error in the passage at 42:44

43:10 We're so involved with the violence, with the irritations, the frustrations of sensory experience, the impulses, reacting to pleasure and pain, to good and bad, that we're so busy caught up in these reactions Violent reactions to the extreme. We don't notice the mean, the norm. And Report an error in the passage at 43:10

43:36 so, looking deeply and honestly at yourself, you become aware of this, this kind of all-pervading level of peace that goes unnoticed in our lives when we're just caught up in reacting to the extremes of sensory experience. Report an error in the passage at 43:36

44:01 But as you realize this more and more, you abide there. You can abide in this peaceful state. It's like being balanced, rather Report an error in the passage at 44:01

44:12 than wobbling, waffling, teetering, going from left to right, having to constantly try to keep from falling over. Just like one who's well balanced can abide in that state. You can abide in the state of balance. Report an error in the passage at 44:12

44:36 But yet until you find that balance, one tends to be wobbly, don't we? We tend to wobble about. So we have to look at this wobbling state we're in until we find the balance from it. Now this is why in Buddha's teaching he pointed always to the extremes. He says there's the extreme of sense pleasure, sense indulgence, and the extreme of denial of sense pleasure and sense indulgence. Report an error in the passage at 44:36

45:07 There's these two extremes. So that when we begin to contemplate and reflect on the extremes of the extremities we're involved in, by withdrawing our blind and heedless reactions to those extremes, we begin to find our balance. Report an error in the passage at 45:07

45:25 We begin to realize that inner calm, that inner peace, peace of mind. The words we have for it, isn't it? Peace of mind. But to know peace of mind means that we're not going to get it by taking drugs. Report an error in the passage at 45:25

45:42 It's not a drug state, but it's where we find this strength of being in the state of balance, where violent reactions are no longer our inclination, where we can be patient and abide, waiting for the right moment, where we have the strength, the support, the balance to bear with any extreme conditions that are happening to us or around us. Report an error in the passage at 45:42

46:16 Now this Report an error in the passage at 46:16

46:21 is where we keep pointing to this potential for the human being. This is something we need to rise up to. You can't just kind of expect it to happen to you from out of the blue. Just live an indulgent, foolish, heedless, insensitive life and suddenly zap, you're transformed into this peaceful, compassionate being. Report an error in the passage at 46:21

46:54 Dhamma is something we turn to, isn't it? In a Christian, we say, knock on the door and it shall be opened. You have to knock on the door. You have to turn, look to the door. You can't expect the door to knock on you. You're waiting for something from out there to grab us and then compel us into the right way. Report an error in the passage at 46:54

47:20 It's from our own inner aspiration and intuition to rise up. Because all of us have this. All human beings in their own way are seeking to rise up in some way, not always wisely or skillfully, but whatever they're doing, there's that impulse, that need, that tendency. Report an error in the passage at 47:20

47:48 We aren't just, we can't, that's why we can't ever be contented with the material world, with all the material successes, social success, material success, worldly success. leaves us, if we get all of it, we're still discontented because with all that, with all the best that the world can offer, it's not satisfying to us. Report an error in the passage at 47:48

48:15 It tends to maybe pacify us and make us dull and deluded, but it doesn't really content us. Because this isn't what we are here for. We're not here to live a comfortable, safe, sensory life. It's just not that way. The sensory world is... Always changing, unstable, undependable change is not always going to change the way you want it. It will change the way you don't want it most of the time. Report an error in the passage at 48:15

48:49 So that change and impermanence is the nature of the sensory world. It's unsatisfactory and it is not something to identify with, not to be considered one's own, what one really is. I Report an error in the passage at 48:49

49:14 like to think of this transition of Report an error in the passage at 49:14

49:29 the more one is open to it, completely open, to the sensory experience, Report an error in the passage at 49:29

49:41 one is somehow protected more and more. The more you try to protect yourself from being hurt avoiding pain and all that, The more vulnerable you become, the more you are hurt, the more miserable, the more pain you experience. Because pain, ultimate misery, is what we create onto the world we're living in. Report an error in the passage at 49:41

50:05 The violence that we create out of our minds, hatred, hating things, hating others, hating ourselves, this is something we produce out of our minds onto the way the world is. As we're experiencing it. This is the violence that we create out of our minds. And that is the real misery of life. When we stop doing that, then the misery is gone. Then there's only the natural suffering of being sensitive and vulnerable. Report an error in the passage at 50:05

50:39 But that is the kind of suffering that is strengthening to us. That allows us to use wisdom to learn to be wise beings. The suffering that we are experiencing on the natural plane of birth, old age, sickness, death. The suffering we experience of being sensitive to pleasure and pain, heat and cold, beauty and ugliness, the pleasant or painful sounds, the odors, pleasant and unpleasant, tastes, pleasant and unpleasant. Report an error in the passage at 50:39

51:21 All this as we Open our hearts and minds to the sensory experience and we don't create suffering onto it. We don't add to it. It's just as it is and it's completely bearable. And as we bear it and open to it we find strength. We find that we grow in balance and strength rather than become more debilitated, weakened and miserable through this passage. Report an error in the passage at 51:21

51:54 When we Report an error in the passage at 51:54

52:04 make a choice towards being morally responsible and non-violent, we take on the responsibility for our life, don't we? I choose to be responsible for what I do and what I say now. I'm making that my intention, whether I'm always successful or not, something else, but my intention now is to be responsible. Report an error in the passage at 52:04

52:32 I'm not going to blame anyone. I'm not going to blame the government, blame parents, blame the monks and nuns, blame those above me, those below me. Report an error in the passage at 52:32

52:47 I'm not going to say I'm miserable because of you, even if you're persecuting me. I'll say, there is this suffering. It's like Jesus on the cross. He didn't blame anyone, did he? He didn't say, curse you for putting those nails through my feet. Curse you for nailing me to this miserable cross. There was no anger or aversion. Report an error in the passage at 52:47

53:21 That's a very extreme example, isn't it? Symbol of being persecuted by life, by being a sensitive formation, being born into a human form and being humiliated, ostracized, persecuted and tortured all at the same time. That's the ultimate... Report an error in the passage at 53:21

53:44 Misery, as far as one can imagine misery to be, on the natural level of just that which comes to us, which we may not have control over. But the unwillingness to make it miserable was Jesus Christ's choice, wasn't it? There was the natural misery, but then there was no making of misery on his side, at least as the story goes. Report an error in the passage at 53:44

54:14 In Buddhism, there's another... There's a story another extreme example of the Buddha said if the demons capture you take you to hell and torture you unmercifully by applying the most fiery red objects into your orifices pulling out your fingernails doing the most horrible painful things to your body and you feel one Report an error in the passage at 54:14

55:03 is an extreme. That's the most, I mean, when we imagine hellish torture by demons. how are we? How capable and wise are we when anything less than that happens to us? Report an error in the passage at 55:03

55:16 yourself that in your daily life, the irritations, frustrations, annoyances. that come to you from others, from the society, from your family, from yourself. Report an error in the passage at 55:16

55:31 We practice with that, don't we? In practice, in daily life practice, we are practicing with these lesser forms of misery that we experience. Report an error in the passage at 55:31

55:43 Don't wait for the big moment when the demons take you. Don't wait for that, but start working with the lesser things, just the frustrations and irritations, annoyances of Report an error in the passage at 55:43

55:58 Daily life. To not give thought to it. Not to dwell on it. Not to begin to know yourself so you're not adding to the misery. Even if you're living with utter fools and with involved in the most having to work or live in situations where are truly unpleasant. Not because of anything because of you but because it's actually that way. Report an error in the passage at 55:58

56:28 But one can begin to learn to not add anything to it. And this, of course, takes this determination, this resolution in our lives to be non-violent and to be mindful, not to just live, have an ideal of non-violence and subscribe to an idea, but apply that to the frustrations, the violent frustrations, irritations of just daily life routine. Report an error in the passage at 56:28

57:02 So this way, you're working with life as it's happening. You're not asking for help from outside. You're actually learning from life, from the little incidents, the commonness, the ordinariness, the boringness, the routine of daily life living. This is most of what our life is, isn't it? Most of our life is spent in just ordinary getting through a day. Just think, just contemplate, how much of your life is Report an error in the passage at 57:02

57:48 routine chores, getting up in the morning, going to bed at night. Report an error in the passage at 57:48

57:55 dressed, getting undressed. Report an error in the passage at 57:55

58:00 from one room to another so forth of our life in terms of time With that ordinary, uninteresting, non-violent side, and yet we don't notice it. We might remember the violent experience of the day and forget and not notice any of the non-violence of the day. So in Buddhist meditation, we're waking to the non-violence of the day, to ordinariness, to breathing of the body, to neutral sensations of the body, to the silence, To the true peaceful peace of the mind, the unconditioned. And so then, as we are more trusting, more balanced throughout the day, just life itself is enough. Report an error in the passage at 58:00

59:00 We don't expect or demand or seek violent, exciting experiences. We don't need to just go, need to be excited anymore, be fascinated or interested. Report an error in the passage at 59:00

59:15 By the extremities of sensory experience, we find peace in just being, in just sitting, in breathing, in standing, in walking, in lying down. Report an error in the passage at 59:15

59:30 And that is a mind that is truly cool, alert. And we transcend all these personal conditions, this self, this imagery, these symbols, these unsatisfactory conditions. Report an error in the passage at 59:30

59:52 It's like freeing oneself from a disease, from being bound into unsatisfactoriness all the time. Even though these things are as they are, they follow their natural course. Old age birth produces old age sickness death. The body is that way. But it's the way it's supposed to be. It's no longer made into a personal problem. Report an error in the passage at 59:52

1:00:21 And Report an error in the passage at 1:00:21

1:00:25 we... a sense of gratitude, even to misery, the pain. misfortunes of life because we see them always as our pain that strengthens, the suffering that gives us strength, awakens us. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:25

1:00:47 I'll end my talk on this note, and then... I will leave the rest of the time open for questions. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:47

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:01:57 reflect on the subject that is listed for the day, violence and non-violence. again I repeat Report an error in the passage at 1:01:57

1:02:09 I'm approaching these subjects is or less on the way of reflecting on them rather than to tell you. you should do or should not do or convince you or defend anything I'm doing. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:09

1:02:28 Because what we all need to do in our lives, what is necessary for us to develop as human beings is to be able to come from wisdom itself. Because wisdom is something that we can learn to use, develop in our daily lives. You can take it almost for granted that you already have it. It's just a matter of using it. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:28

1:03:04 the ability to think, Think and reflect on life to contemplate your own existence. The fact that you're sitting here in this room able to understand the words that I'm speaking and the ability to think and contemplate means that there is already wisdom. The wisdom is already present. It's a matter of using wisdom rather than trying to gain wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:04

1:03:36 In our way of thinking, we tend to think of wisdom as something we get and gain by studying things or learning from picking up the wise sayings and words of other people. But wisdom, in the Buddhist sense, is the ability to learn from life, to Report an error in the passage at 1:03:36

1:03:59 contemplate and learn from experience. And this you can do whether you're educated or uneducated, literate, illiterate. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:59

1:04:13 blind or deaf or whatever, as long as you Report an error in the passage at 1:04:13

1:04:26 way things are and Report an error in the passage at 1:04:26

1:04:31 at them and learn from them. Today's for reflection is violence and non-violence. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:31

1:04:44 At this present time there seems to be an enormous amount of violence in the world that is reported to us every day without fail. In the television and newspapers every kind of violent action is recorded. It seems to probably not everyone but all at least the really interesting sensational ones seem to be recorded in the communicated to us through all the that we have these days. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:44

1:05:19 Violence is a part of nature, isn't it? On one level of nature. We find that not only are human beings violent, but nature itself, the planet itself produces violent upheavals, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, cyclones, hurricanes, floods, all kinds of natural catastrophe. Ajahn Report an error in the passage at 1:05:19

1:05:54 what nature doesn't provide Report an error in the passage at 1:05:54

1:06:21 that we even love, we can be violent to. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:21

1:06:28 What we do, how we relate to ourselves and the world we live in, when we don't understand it, when we tend to just follow the attraction and repulsion that we experience through sensory consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:28

1:06:51 There's also a kind of nameless anxiety that pursues humanity. In our ability to reflect and contemplate our existence, Along with that comes the awareness of anxiety that we feel, even when there's nothing to be frightened of in the moment. One can be sitting in the safest place, in a place of utter safety and beauty and peace, and still feel threatened or anxious. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:51

1:07:25 And of course, modern society tends to take all this very personally. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:25

1:07:36 The way that we experience life is taking it all and making it very personal. It's a problem that I have. I have this fear. It's me that has this terrible fear. It's me that suffers from anxiety. I shouldn't suffer from this. I should be brave. I should not have anxieties. I shouldn't feel depressed by anything. Because modern Western... Report an error in the passage at 1:07:36

1:08:06 civilization at least has developed the ideal form for the individual but the practical way of life the way life actually is experienced by sometimes we never notice we don't ever come to terms with life as it's happening because our tendency is to grasp the ideas of how it should be and of course a perfectly sane healthy A mentally healthy person shouldn't be anxious about anything, shouldn't be frightened of anything, should be courageous, serene, calm. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:06

1:08:49 So an ideal person is like a picture in a book, like a fantasy that we can create, like a statue of a perfect human form with perfect features. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:49

1:09:05 But the statue itself can't feel Can't experience anything, can't reflect on itself in any way. So we can create perfect images of what we might consider the human form, the ideal man, the ideal woman with our mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:05

1:09:28 But that ideal has no ability to understand itself. Where the human, the advantage of humanity is that we can understand. We can come to terms with our own existence. With all the imperfections of it, with all the flaws that we experience in this sensual realm, with all its pain and all its despair, depression, sorrow, all its anxiety, because of this ability to contemplate and reflect on the way things are. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:28

1:10:12 Ideally, we think there shouldn't be violence. Things should be peaceful. Things should be safe. Everything should be pleasant. The ideal vision of paradise is there's no violence there. The vision of a utopian paradise where everything is pleasant, warm, friendly, fair and just, where there is no flaw, nothing to be anxious about, permanent security. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:12

1:10:51 But that vision of paradise is like a marble statue, isn't it? It's a pretty picture only that can't reflect on itself because we're very much involved in the experience of pain and violence, irritation and frustration through the sensory consciousness. This is our heritage, you might say, our inheritance from birth, being born into A sensitive form such as the human body. Having senses, eyes, ears, nose and tongue. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:51

1:11:31 Having a brain. The result of being born in such a form, in such a predicament as this, is that we experience pain. A marble statue doesn't experience pain as far as I know. It never says ouch. At least any marble statues I've seen. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:31

1:11:56 Rain, sun. You can kick them and they don't wince. So Report an error in the passage at 1:11:56

1:12:09 contemplate this, that all of us are experiencing now the world of pain. Sensory experience is painful, in other words. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:09

1:12:27 Now some people might think it shouldn't be. It should be all painless. We'd like to talk about love and safety and bliss and all the best that we can conceive of. And yet the Buddhist always points to the experience of pain and suffering. Not to make this the ultimate, absolute goal and all that is, but it is the common human experience, isn't it, that we all share. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:27

1:13:00 And it's what we're always involved in. There's always some form of discomfort in our life, some form of unpleasant sensation. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:00

1:13:11 Irritation, frustration, annoyance. And as much as we try to create modern technology to get rid of it, to make things kind of permanently comfortable, permanently safe, efficient, permanently attractive, and the idea of making things permanent, modern technology has, say, increased our expectations for comfort now, physical comfort. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:11

1:13:44 If you've ever lived in third world country, you begin to see that in, say, agrarian communities, they don't expect comfort. That's not an expectation of a rice farmer. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:44

1:14:02 A lot of physical comfort, convenience and efficiency is not their expectation. But ours is, very much so. Just here at Amaravati, for example. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:02

1:14:18 We were talking about it the other day, that people expect hot water, they expect central heating, they expect a certain degree of comfort that's not always found here. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:18

1:14:40 And Report an error in the passage at 1:14:40

1:14:44 yet you talk to English people who lived, say, in their 60s, 50s, 60s, 70s, And they all remember having to sleep in cold rooms in the wintertime. They used to heat only one room. And they'd sleep in cold rooms with the windows open and with maybe a well, where they had to draw water from a well, not even a cold water faucet. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:44

1:15:19 And where there were no kind of toilet facilities in the house, a little house out in back. And that was... And that was what was expected. One didn't expect anything other than that. So then expectations were different in those days. And now that same class of people expect a higher standard. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:19