Violence and Non-Violence - Q and A (1986)

0:09 Unsatisfaction is only such as you expect to be at all. Report an error in the passage at 0:09 Highlight the passage at 0:09

0:16 sensory Sensory experience is all, it natures to be unsatisfactory. Report an error in the passage at 0:16 Highlight the passage at 0:16

0:28 the, I mean, because it's unsatisfying us. can never find satisfaction in it. And that's the way it actually is. It's changing. it never, you know, to be satisfied with something means that you... You know, the idea out of ignorance of finding satisfaction in something, meaning that you're going to be contented with it, going to satisfy you continuously. Report an error in the passage at 0:28 Highlight the passage at 0:28

0:59 But the sensory world can only maybe momentarily gratify it. And that's the best it can do. But it's beyond its ability to satisfy it. The only satisfaction comes from knowing this. Report an error in the passage at 0:59 Highlight the passage at 0:59

1:16 Because the ignorance is that, I mean, you just make yourself miserable when you're expecting to be satisfied by something that can't do it. Report an error in the passage at 1:16 Highlight the passage at 1:16

1:38 It's like when, say, relating to other people, when you're looking for, say, someone to, say, the perfect mate, someone that you'll love forever, that will love you forever, that will always make you happy, satisfy you. This kind of romantic idea, Cinderella in Prince Charming's view, where you meet the right person and then you live happily ever after. Report an error in the passage at 1:38 Highlight the passage at 1:38

2:07 And that's a fairy tale, isn't it? That's a lovely story of an ideal relationship. So that when we tend to apply that to... To practical experience, we're always going to be disappointed because we never find the foot that fits the glass slipper. Or if it does, eventually we find out that it doesn't after a while or the glass slipper breaks or something goes wrong. Report an error in the passage at 2:07 Highlight the passage at 2:07

2:52 To expect someone else, you know, when you think of it, to think that there's someone else. In the world whose sole purpose in life is to make me happy seems for me to be totally ridiculous. Report an error in the passage at 2:52 Highlight the passage at 2:52

3:09 I can't imagine anything more horrible than somebody's sole duty in life is to do that. Being Report an error in the passage at 3:09 Highlight the passage at 3:09

3:33 attached to them. Yes. Report an error in the passage at 3:33 Highlight the passage at 3:33

3:46 So they, like we have ideas that go through our mind. Ridiculous. Report an error in the passage at 3:46 Highlight the passage at 3:46

· · · silence, 1 minute

3:50 And then we attach to that. We become fixed. Like even the highest ideal can be used as a weapon. You know, like equality or fairness. All these very high-minded ideas can be very oppressive. It can be a tyrant in the name of justice. Report an error in the passage at 3:50 Highlight the passage at 3:50

4:18 Because you're fixed with an opinion. You're not sensitive. Attachment, having opinions, fixed views on things, means you're no longer sensitive to anything. You're like a marble statue. You've already chosen your position and you won't change, no matter what the conditions are around you. That's why the way of enlightenment and liberation is not by having fixed belief or view, but in being very open, very mindful. Report an error in the passage at 4:18 Highlight the passage at 4:18

4:54 The mind full and open to life, sensitive, truly sensitive, truly vulnerable to the things that are around you. And then you know how to relate and adapt to changing conditions. But if you're fixed in your view, then you can be totally oblivious to what's actually happening. You don't notice. That things are not like you believe them to be. And so you impose this high-minded view on everyone and it becomes oppressive to them. Report an error in the passage at 4:54 Highlight the passage at 4:54

5:35 That's where like morality, when taken from a fixed position, then it tends to, even though it says thou shalt not kill, it tends to be oppressive. It wants to kill the killers. It's righteous. And it can be very cruel. Like being attached to goodness, views about what is good, and views about God can make us very cruel in the name of righteousness. Report an error in the passage at 5:35 Highlight the passage at 5:35

6:16 How many evil things have been done in the world in the name of God? And yet, God is on our side. And he's approving. We're going to murder all these people because they're heretics or infidels. It's coming from very righteous positions and yet it's nothing but cruelty and oppression that is the result of it. Report an error in the passage at 6:16 Highlight the passage at 6:16

6:44 So they're not sensitive to be righteous all the time. Have a righteous view. Then you're always right and you're never aware of the relativity of anything. You're always... Imposing yourself onto every situation as being right, so you're not aware of how things actually are. Report an error in the passage at 6:44 Highlight the passage at 6:44

7:09 Like, say, religious persecution. If you believe that, say, a certain religion is wrong and that ours is right, then whenever you see that person that belongs to that religion, you always see them as being wrong, even if they're right. Report an error in the passage at 7:09 Highlight the passage at 7:09

7:32 So Report an error in the passage at 7:32 Highlight the passage at 7:32

7:36 you're really willing to torture them and hurt them because you think you're doing the right thing because they're wrong. But actually they might be right. Report an error in the passage at 7:36 Highlight the passage at 7:36

7:48 You can call it anything. The names for it can be various. God or Allah or truth or whatever. These aren't important. The names are symbolic only. If you say, some Christians say, Buddhists don't believe in God, therefore they're wrong. Report an error in the passage at 7:48 Highlight the passage at 7:48

8:18 They're atheists. You say, do you believe in God? Then the Buddhist mind goes kind of blank because we don't talk like that. Buddhists don't talk in that same way. They say we don't believe in God isn't right. They say we believe in God isn't right because You have to define the term. You have to know what you're talking about. And that takes sensitivity. Report an error in the passage at 8:18 Highlight the passage at 8:18

8:48 You have to understand what that really means. What do you mean by God? If you say, do you believe in God? Meaning, do I believe in your opinion about God? Maybe I don't. Report an error in the passage at 8:48 Highlight the passage at 8:48

9:04 But then you might assume, because I don't believe in your definition of God, As being ultimately true, then you assume that I don't believe in God, I'm an atheist. And then, because atheists are bad, according to, if you're a theist, atheism is sinful, then the oppression and persecution can happen. Report an error in the passage at 9:04 Highlight the passage at 9:04

9:27 Done in the name of righteousness. Report an error in the passage at 9:27 Highlight the passage at 9:27

9:32 So that's why when we open the mind, when people talk about God or even... Even people that believe there isn't any God, there's a certain sensitivity that comes from disbelief too. I mean, some people are really searching so that they might not believe in things very easily. So they maybe believe in a negative way that there isn't any God. But then to persecute them for that is evil, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 9:32 Highlight the passage at 9:32

10:07 When you begin to... Open to them, be sensitive to them, you find maybe that they're searching for something, they're looking, their mind is open. Maybe they aren't fixed, but maybe that's what they happen to feel at this point. So that when your mind is open and sensitive, then you can relate to the way things are. Report an error in the passage at 10:07 Highlight the passage at 10:07

10:32 You can really know how people are, rather than having prejudices about them, coming from a bias. Or an opinion, a perception of somebody. Report an error in the passage at 10:32 Highlight the passage at 10:32

10:45 I found this from experience, like living in community with so many people. The habit of having views and opinions about people in the community is a disaster. Report an error in the passage at 10:45 Highlight the passage at 10:45

11:03 Because you're always wrong. As soon as you start thinking about holding a viewpoint about somebody, then you're no longer sensitive to them. You're always looking at them. You've made the decision about what they are and that's how you see them. Always through distortion. I've noticed this. When I feel aversion to somebody, whenever their presence comes into view, I'm seeing them with aversion. Report an error in the passage at 11:03 Highlight the passage at 11:03

11:37 Aversion is a filter covering their visual presence. And if you aren't aware of that, one tends to then react to that and believe that in the appearance that's there in consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 11:37 Highlight the passage at 11:37

11:56 So one can be totally insensitive to them. Maybe at one time they were unpleasant and rude, but maybe this time they're a fully enlightened Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 11:56 Highlight the passage at 11:56

12:11 That because I'm seeing them from a memory, perception, I can't see that. I just start cursing them and Report an error in the passage at 12:11 Highlight the passage at 12:11

12:22 cursing the Buddha. Report an error in the passage at 12:22 Highlight the passage at 12:22

12:36 That's why all these stereotypes that we have, we're mindfully filled with prejudices that we've acquired through our culture, class, family, race, sex, education. We have opinions and views about There are very much condition into the mind. Some good, some not so good. Many conditions can be both good and bad, but they are only conditions. Report an error in the passage at 12:36 Highlight the passage at 12:36

13:12 So that's why the way of wisdom is to see conditions as conditions. So good conditions are still good, but they're conditions rather than something you grasp at and beat people with. Report an error in the passage at 13:12 Highlight the passage at 13:12

13:31 too deep. It's too deep. It's too deep. Report an error in the passage at 13:31 Highlight the passage at 13:31

13:39 Right, because... Well, that's where it takes sensitivity, isn't it? Because good and bad are relative to a situation. And nothing is absolutely good or absolutely bad. It's relative. And that's where sensitivity is the way. Mindfulness. Rather than fixed views of good and bad. Report an error in the passage at 13:39 Highlight the passage at 13:39

14:07 So, like in the moral precepts of a Buddhist, These precepts are for reflection. They're not kind of thou shalt not, but they're good advice. They're standards that you use as guidelines for behavior, not as absolutes for behavior. So it doesn't ever form into a fixed view that you have, like to say, refrain from killing. Report an error in the passage at 14:07 Highlight the passage at 14:07

14:48 is a guideline for moral behavior so that we try to say when we have murderous impulses we recognize those impulses but we don't follow them. But we don't feel guilty about them either. You see, so that you have if sometimes you feel like murdering somebody you have the wisdom to know that that's what you do not do. Report an error in the passage at 14:48 Highlight the passage at 14:48

15:15 You do not follow it with action or speech. But then you can let it go. If you don't do that, then you tend to feel guilty or worry about it, thinking there's some horrible thing in me, a demon. I'm devil possessed. I feel this desire to murder. And then it becomes something that obsesses your mind. Report an error in the passage at 15:15 Highlight the passage at 15:15

15:40 And even though you may not want to murder anyone, eventually you can murder because of the fear. It becomes an obsession of mine. With wisdom, if such an impulse should go through your mind, you just know it's something you don't do. It's just that moment, it's gone. It's nothing. You don't make it into personal problem. So that this way, you see, in the Western world, we tend to feel guilty about our thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 15:40 Highlight the passage at 15:40

16:15 You know, like if you have unkind or cruel or bad thoughts in your mind, One tends to feel very guilty. We shouldn't have that at all in the mind. And so you find a guilt a tremendous problem in the Western world. And even on the Sermon on the Mount even if a man look at a woman with lust he's committed adultery in his heart. Report an error in the passage at 16:15 Highlight the passage at 16:15

16:43 And that is a very heavy thing to say actually. It means that any thought Any feelings that go through your mind are related to almost doing the actual thing with action and speech. Report an error in the passage at 16:43 Highlight the passage at 16:43

17:02 But in Buddhist morality, morality deals only with action and speech. You have good thoughts, bad thoughts that go through the mind. You know that your standard for action is to do good and refrain from doing evil. So then you have a choice. If bad thoughts go through your mind, say to kill somebody, then you refrain from doing it. If a thought goes through your mind to help somebody, then you do that. Report an error in the passage at 17:02 Highlight the passage at 17:02

17:31 You act on that. You have a choice then of action or speech. And your guide is to do good, refrain from doing evil, purify the mind. So then, by doing that, then the mind is actually purified so that even the tendency towards bad thoughts The mind just becomes more and more pure. But as long as you're guilt-ridden and frightened of bad thoughts, then you're still, you're going to increase the amount of bad thinking. Report an error in the passage at 17:31 Highlight the passage at 17:31

18:09 It becomes obsessive. And it turns on yourself. People have so much self-disparagement in this country. They're so critical because they hate their bad thoughts. Report an error in the passage at 18:09 Highlight the passage at 18:09

18:25 And so that they... I'm no good. I shouldn't have these bad thoughts. There's something wrong with me. Something missing. Something horrible. Something frightening in me. Because if I were good, I wouldn't have these bad thoughts. So then it becomes an obsession. And the more you resist and fight bad thoughts, the stronger they become. But if you just know that bad thoughts come and go in the mind, nothing, is it? Report an error in the passage at 18:25 Highlight the passage at 18:25

18:55 Nothing. It's gone. you haven't made it into a problem you haven't acted on it so there's no karma connected to it it's just you haven't you haven't suppressed it you haven't indulged in it it's just something like a cloud in the sky just passes over and it's gone Report an error in the passage at 18:55 Highlight the passage at 18:55

19:15 Imagine how miserable you'd be. If every time a rain cloud came, you took it personally. Report an error in the passage at 19:15 Highlight the passage at 19:15

19:34 Think how upset you'd be most of the time. Report an error in the passage at 19:34 Highlight the passage at 19:34

19:41 But we don't do that. Why? Because the rain clouds look far away from us, don't they? They're up there and they don't seem like ours and we don't have any control over them anyway. So they just come and go according to conditions we can't control. So when rain clouds are there, they're there. When they're not there, they're not there. Report an error in the passage at 19:41 Highlight the passage at 19:41

19:59 We more or less make a personal problem about it. But about mental conditions we do, because they seem so close, they seem so personal. So that we make probably, this rain cloud in my mind shouldn't be here. I've got to get rid of it. So then there's, even when it's gone, there's the worry that it might come back. Report an error in the passage at 19:59 Highlight the passage at 19:59

20:28 Where the way of the Buddha is noting that these are, that... That good comes and goes, bad comes and goes. Good is what we do. Do good. Be kind, be generous. Report an error in the passage at 20:28 Highlight the passage at 20:28

20:47 Refrain from doing evil things with your body and speech. To try to be considerate with speech, not to insult or lie or gossip or curse others. To use your body for... For kind actions, good actions, rather than using it for killing or stealing or exploitation. Report an error in the passage at 20:47 Highlight the passage at 20:47

21:13 To refrain from corrupting the body with drugs and drink so that you lose your ability to judge good and bad and to be aware when you're heedless, when your mind's in that heedless state of drunkenness and you can steal, lie, commit adultery, do everything. Report an error in the passage at 21:13 Highlight the passage at 21:13

21:36 Out of just heedless delusion. So that we, in Buddhism, you're not trying to, you're developing the consciousness that isn't dependent upon drugs. Report an error in the passage at 21:36 Highlight the passage at 21:36

21:54 I remember back in the early 60s in California, they started, the drug scene was beginning. And they thought that, That all these drugs were going to enlighten people. If you take this LSD and that, you're going to become enlightened to it. Because it had a kind of enlightening effect. You began to see things in a different way. And it seemed like enlightenment was there. So that all you have to do is have five dollars that you pay, you get a pill, take it, and you're enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 21:54 Highlight the passage at 21:54

22:37 That would be nice, wouldn't it? Other than becoming a monk, being celibate, living on one meal a day, not having any money and all that, it's the hard way. And you can just have five dollars, buy a pill, take it, and sit there and suddenly enlightened. But that didn't enlighten anyone because he was coming from the wrong understanding. Report an error in the passage at 22:37 Highlight the passage at 22:37

23:13 One thing that is... You know, not wanting to suffer, wanting to be happy. These are, say, the goals of human beings, aren't they? We want to be happy. We don't want to suffer. So that, like getting drunk, sometimes we feel happy when we're that way. All the kind of tensions and problems of life kind of fade out in those moments and we can feel kind of elated and happy and we like that feeling. Report an error in the passage at 23:13 Highlight the passage at 23:13

23:46 So then, of course, we tend to seek that more and more in drugs and drink. But by doing that, we create the conditions for more and more suffering. Report an error in the passage at 23:46 Highlight the passage at 23:46

23:59 Because that's not the way out of suffering, is through drugs. And the ordinary consciousness unaffected by drugs is what we most fear, what is boring, what is, you know, tended to resist the most. We want excitement, maybe. We spend a lot of money on riding in fast cars and doing dangerous things and all kinds of exciting sensual experiences and interesting company and interesting intellectual hobbies and so forth to excite the mind because ordinary consciousness without excitement tends to be boring. Report an error in the passage at 23:59 Highlight the passage at 23:59

24:44 We don't know what to do with it. We want to fill it up with something interesting so that you hear people say, I want an interesting life. want to have a kind of glamorous and interesting profession. Report an error in the passage at 24:44 Highlight the passage at 24:44

24:58 want to have meaning and I want life to have some excitement, some verve, vitality. it in this ideal of of having a life where it's just continuously interesting and scintillating for us yet as i was saying so much of our life is Report an error in the passage at 24:58 Highlight the passage at 24:58

25:18 It's uninteresting. It's non-violent. It's ordinary. And until we're willing to accept that and look to that more and more, then our life will be merely a heedless attempt towards this other, constantly distracting ourselves with interesting objects or exciting experiences. Report an error in the passage at 25:18 Highlight the passage at 25:18

25:41 That's why with meditation in Buddhist monasteries, everything is boring, isn't it? Meditation is... You're sitting there. You're not having an interesting conversation with somebody. There's nothing really to look at that's exciting. If the monks do chant, it's monotone. It's not like opera or some kind of exciting music. It doesn't go up and down and it doesn't arouse emotions. Report an error in the passage at 25:41 Highlight the passage at 25:41

26:16 On a meditation retreat, like these ten-day retreats, emotions Report an error in the passage at 26:16 Highlight the passage at 26:16

26:22 People come and they voluntarily come. They're not kind of pushed and forced, I hope anyway. And they keep silent for ten days. And they just sit and walk and stand and lie down. They don't talk to each other. And they watch their breath. And they watch their feet walking. It doesn't be more boring than that for ten days. Report an error in the passage at 26:22 Highlight the passage at 26:22

26:49 That's like asking for to be bored, isn't it? But in that openness, Of heart towards what is truly ordinary and boring, you transcend boredom. And then you don't need excitement after that. When you transcend boredom, then you don't need to be excited. But as long as you hate boredom, then you'll need excitement or interesting things to distract you. Report an error in the passage at 26:49 Highlight the passage at 26:49

27:18 That's why there's such a paradox. The way out of suffering is by embracing it. That's a paradox, isn't it? You think the way out of suffering is by getting rid of it, but the way out of suffering is by opening to it. So that changes the whole perspective where, say, I want to be happy and I don't want to have any suffering or pain. Report an error in the passage at 27:18 Highlight the passage at 27:18

27:41 That philosophy of life will arouse in us always this need to be running about, trying to seek comfort or happiness or excitement or interesting objects. Report an error in the passage at 27:41 Highlight the passage at 27:41

27:58 But when we open to the suffering, to boredom, to misery, it ceases. It's not permanent. All misery is impermanent, so it ceases. Then you're aware of the natural state of mind without suffering in it. Then that's wisdom. You have a perspective and you have a view. You see things and how they relate rather than just choosing one thing after another. Report an error in the passage at 27:58 Highlight the passage at 27:58

28:29 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 28:29 Highlight the passage at 28:29

28:56 I've been involved with is how we in the West know that we have more women in our world. It's easy for me not to be involved with people are very well-respected and have not very good views that we do not know. And yet that's the part of it that I find is really cool. It's one thing that I feel in jeopardy that I haven't got the way to go that I ought to have. you. And then a little bit in the house, have far more of my actual needs, I can get more advice from the people who haven't heard from me. Report an error in the passage at 28:56 Highlight the passage at 28:56

29:38 Well, this is a dilemma, isn't it? At this time, there's this terrible discrepancy between affluent capitalist countries in the third world and then the communist one. Report an error in the passage at 29:38 Highlight the passage at 29:38

30:05 What we tend to do is we, in Report an error in the passage at 30:05 Highlight the passage at 30:05

30:11 the capitalist system, it's very much based on arousing desire in your mind, making you greedy, so that you're never content with last year's model. Report an error in the passage at 30:11 Highlight the passage at 30:11

30:24 Look at modern advertising, it's all, and shop windows and that, they're all displaying the latest, the best for you, that you shouldn't be contented with last year's. If you're somebody going anywhere. So that you, you know, even though you may know this, not fall for it on the conscious plane, subconsciously it has quite an effect on your mind. Report an error in the passage at 30:24 Highlight the passage at 30:24

30:56 The sense of having to have new things, arousing this desire and discontentment for what you do have. Now the capital system would collapse if it said be content with last year's model. Report an error in the passage at 30:56 Highlight the passage at 30:56

31:13 And the way to happiness is through contentment with very little. It says, don't be content with little, get more. Report an error in the passage at 31:13 Highlight the passage at 31:13

31:25 Now, the capitalist system would collapse if it said, be content with last year's model. And the way to happiness is through contentment with very little. It says, don't be content with little, get more. It's your right to have everything. There used to be a program on the television in San Diego on Sunday mornings. This woman said, God wants you to have everything. Ask him. Ask him for more. Report an error in the passage at 31:25 Highlight the passage at 31:25

31:56 In California where they have more than everything. God wants you to have more than that. Report an error in the passage at 31:56 Highlight the passage at 31:56

32:06 But remember the economy and the way people perceive the economic system now in the capitalist West is to keep us constantly Buying things and raising the standard of living. Now the Buddhist monk meditates on the lowest standard of living. Our reflection is a roof over the head for one night, a robe to wear made out of rags, or even for monks it's even lower than a roof over the head. Report an error in the passage at 32:06 Highlight the passage at 32:06

32:48 It's at the foot of a tree. It's a shelter. A robe made out of rags, alms food, the food we eat is to be anything that people offer, and medicine is the most kind of primitive natural medicine. Now, the difference is that we reflect, not that we have to have the lowest standard all the time, like only the most kind of primitive medicine, or we have to live at the root of a tree, or our robes have to be made out of, Report an error in the passage at 32:48 Highlight the passage at 32:48

33:36 like at the end of we're now in involved in a Vasa retreat the three months traditional Buddhist Lenten period where monks stay in one place and they usually a little more strict and practice and so forth so And then at the end of the Vasa retreat, which is in October, then the Katina season starts where lay people offer cloth to the monks to make robes. Report an error in the passage at 33:36 Highlight the passage at 33:36

34:07 Now this originally was a kind intention of the lay people in India so the monks wouldn't have to go around scrounging for rags in the graveyards and the burning grounds and rubbish bins. Report an error in the passage at 34:07 Highlight the passage at 34:07

34:24 Because monks are allowed to pick up rags that nobody else wants and make their own. But the lay people, because they respect the monks and love the monks, they say, well, let's give them nice material. So the lay people go and purchase good material and then they offer it. So any material they offer is always better than just the rags. Report an error in the passage at 34:24 Highlight the passage at 34:24

34:47 But how that affects you psychologically is that you feel gratitude. You don't think, it's not good enough. I don't like this cloth. Why didn't you get me silk? Report an error in the passage at 34:47 Highlight the passage at 34:47

35:05 You don't expect me to wear this, do you? I have very high standards. Report an error in the passage at 35:05 Highlight the passage at 35:05

35:13 I mean, but if I was aiming at the highest standard, then, you know, I expect the very best material at this Katinen next month. I expect the lay people to buy the finest, the best quality material in Britain and present it to me. Then if they give me anything less than that, then I think, how dare you? Report an error in the passage at 35:13 Highlight the passage at 35:13

35:36 You think I'm just cheap and not worthy? Report an error in the passage at 35:36 Highlight the passage at 35:36

35:43 But because I reflect that even if the quality of the material is not very good, it's still better than the rags that I'd have to wear. So then there's gratitude. You see, that's a beautiful mental state to feel gratitude. With food, we have to eat what people give us. So we can't be choosy about what we eat. The idea that you take your alms bowl, in India, the tradition was you take the bowl and then you walk through a village or a town and whoever had the good heart to offer you anything, you'd accept it. Report an error in the passage at 35:43 Highlight the passage at 35:43

36:25 No matter what it was. Report an error in the passage at 36:25 Highlight the passage at 36:25

36:40 and you couldn't choose, just go to rich people's homes that you knew were good cooks. had to just accept whatever anyone who had the goodness of heart to offer you. Report an error in the passage at 36:40 Highlight the passage at 36:40

36:56 then... Then we contemplate that. Here, how we eat here, we go through. It all goes into the alms bowl, and then people put whatever they've prepared into that. And we take that as alms food. Then we feel gratitude, rather than, oh, I don't like this. I wish they'd put more spice in this. Why do we have to have this every day? It's a complaining mind. Report an error in the passage at 36:56 Highlight the passage at 36:56

37:25 You can watch that because you think that this is just food that people offer you. They don't have to offer you anything. It's not that they are forced to do it. They don't have to offer you anything. It's just that they're generous. They have some generous feeling, good-heartedness that they offer. So then that food is pure food and one feels gratitude for it rather than complaining. Report an error in the passage at 37:25 Highlight the passage at 37:25

37:51 Or if one does feel complaining, you watch that. It's something you don't follow. But if I had very high standards of diet and nourishment and all this, then if you didn't give me exactly what I think is necessary, then I'd complain. White rice. I like brown rice. This bread isn't whole wheat, stone ground. These carrots are not organically grown. Report an error in the passage at 37:51 Highlight the passage at 37:51

38:25 How dare they offer this stuff to me? Junk pool. Report an error in the passage at 38:25 Highlight the passage at 38:25

38:34 So that one becomes fussy and difficult in one's life. But this allows us to feel gratitude, and that's a very beautiful feeling to have, a sense of gratitude for what is offered. In Thailand, you'd live in, sometimes we'd go and live in very remote places where the people were very, very poor. Report an error in the passage at 38:34 Highlight the passage at 38:34

39:03 And their food was very, very coarse, by my standards anyway. The food very coarse and not delicious at all, you know, in taste to me. And yet, every day they'd give you food and you began to feel gratitude. And that gratitude was much better than delicious food, than having all the things you like. You feel, you appreciate the gratitude more than the flavor of the food. Report an error in the passage at 39:03 Highlight the passage at 39:03

39:34 Then a place to live. Another requisite. You need a place to live. Imagine trying to live at the foot of a tree in this country. That's really asking a lot. So the British are so kind that they've always offered me a roof over my head in ten years. I've never had to sleep at the foot of a tree because the Buddhists in this country are so kind. They make sure that I have a... Report an error in the passage at 39:34 Highlight the passage at 39:34

40:03 Copyright © 2020 Mooji Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced without Mooji Media Ltd.'s express consent. And then when I don't get it, I feel, you don't really respect me, you aren't giving me the best. But because I reflect that at least it's better than a tree, one feels gratitude. Report an error in the passage at 40:03 Highlight the passage at 40:03

40:51 This is how we, the monk, contemplate. In relationship to the lay person, the Kapila system tends to give you the highest standard, the envy. You know, you don't feel grateful for national health, for the services, all the benefits and all that's given to you in this country. One tends to be critical of it. It's not enough, it's not good enough. So one doesn't feel gratitude. Gratitude is not a common feeling here. Report an error in the passage at 40:51 Highlight the passage at 40:51

41:28 And one tends to complain. And then, You're always looking at keeping up with the Joneses. She gets more money than I do when I'm doing just more work than she is. Report an error in the passage at 41:28 Highlight the passage at 41:28

41:44 And so you don't feel gratitude for the salary you do have. You start thinking, I work ten times harder than she does and look, she's much more highly paid. So then that's a miserable state of mind. There's no gratitude there. And that's encouraged to always envy. Report an error in the passage at 41:44 Highlight the passage at 41:44

42:12 encouraged to always and see if somebody has something better and then to try to move up into higher standards. that's misery. Report an error in the passage at 42:12 Highlight the passage at 42:12

42:23 why with all the affluence, people don't have much joy or real happiness. Report an error in the passage at 42:23 Highlight the passage at 42:23

42:33 And I think more people are realizing this. If we just lived on... If we didn't need a high standard, then there's enough for everyone on the planet. I mean, there's an abundance of things. Even though the world population is enormous now, there's still enough to fulfill the basic needs of the world's population. Report an error in the passage at 42:33 Highlight the passage at 42:33

42:58 That's not really the problem. In shelter, the basic needs are like, Clothing, food, shelter, medicine. But that isn't the priority, is it? It's weaponry. All the money goes towards making these horrible weapons. That's sad to see. We could really, if we got the priorities right, provide a basic standard for the world's population. Report an error in the passage at 42:58 Highlight the passage at 42:58

43:31 And we'd feel tremendous joy at that. I mean, I don't think anybody Report an error in the passage at 43:31 Highlight the passage at 43:31

43:40 feel at that opportunity would much rather see the taxes rates being used for that than for these horrible weapons. Report an error in the passage at 43:40 Highlight the passage at 43:40

43:54 horrible things that goes to now. Report an error in the passage at 43:54 Highlight the passage at 43:54

44:01 that's the way the world is now, you see. And this is where, don't make a problem for yourself about it, you know. You can't really do much on the worldwide level, but you can work on yourself. And to begin to know yourself more and more will give you the peace and the strength to know how to deal with such situations as you described. Report an error in the passage at 44:01 Highlight the passage at 44:01

44:24 But if you're just coming from ideas, you'll just waver between one or the other. Because ideas are very undependable. Idealism is not a very stable... Attachment. That's why, get to where it all began. Then there's hope that the rest will change too. Because you can't expect the affluent West to share its wealth with the third world by generosity, by giving, and not by, you know, what we do now is we tend to help the third world, but they're always in debt and kind of like indentured to the affluent Western world. Report an error in the passage at 44:24 Highlight the passage at 44:24

45:11 And so it's not a real giving. That's why there's no joy in it and why it's oftentimes resented. You hear Americans who just complain because they give so much money to people and people still hate them. Report an error in the passage at 45:11 Highlight the passage at 45:11

45:31 After all we've done for you, why don't you love me? That kind of... What generosity I do to you is that you owe me back. You're... That means you have to like me for that. That is coming from maybe I'm being very patronizing and say, you know, demanding of you that you go along with me, you like me, you do everything I say, then you can have this money. Report an error in the passage at 45:31 Highlight the passage at 45:31

45:58 That's not generosity. Report an error in the passage at 45:58 Highlight the passage at 45:58

46:03 That's enslaving somebody, buying them, humiliating them. Report an error in the passage at 46:03 Highlight the passage at 46:03

46:22 to lift it up, know, one, two, three, four. Report an error in the passage at 46:22 Highlight the passage at 46:22

46:31 a vegetarian, I doing vegetarianism and avoiding eating meat, wild vegetables. But even being a vegetarian, you to look at how the farmers grow vegetables using these types of tactics. so important. Report an error in the passage at 46:31 Highlight the passage at 46:31

46:53 blood. can't handle one action or take a doctor to prescribe antibiotics Report an error in the passage at 46:53 Highlight the passage at 46:53

47:03 destroy Report an error in the passage at 47:03 Highlight the passage at 47:03

47:14 Well, this is where the Buddha emphasized intention. Because of the nature of the sensual world, it's like on one level, it's always going to be violent. Like nature itself, there's going to be volcanic eruptions and epidemics. Report an error in the passage at 47:14 Highlight the passage at 47:14

47:39 Big fish eating the little fish. That's a natural violence. And no matter how careful you are, you're going to inevitably, just by breathing in the air and being alive as a human being, you're going to be responsible for the death of certain creatures. You know, like stepping on an ant or breathing in things and just accidents. Report an error in the passage at 47:39 Highlight the passage at 47:39

48:06 But the non-violence is... ...is to make our intention not to do things violently out of anger and ignorance. So that if we see an insect that we don't like, our intention is to leave it alone, not to kill it. But if we accidentally kill it, it's not a moral offence, just the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 48:06 Highlight the passage at 48:06

48:36 So that we can't be responsible for... For all the things in nature, we recognize that nature is like this. Being born in this state and being a creature, we are inevitably involved in the lives and deaths of all other creatures. Report an error in the passage at 48:36 Highlight the passage at 48:36

48:57 But as we raise our consciousness more, our intention is not to act violently out of aversion, hatred and ignorance and greed. Report an error in the passage at 48:57 Highlight the passage at 48:57

49:10 Then this intention is important because that needs to be done quite rationally. Our intention now is not to kill. But then if we accidentally kill and we have to, you know, we use that as a sign to be more careful. But not to become obsessed with non-violence. Not to become a fanatic non-violent enthusiast. Report an error in the passage at 49:10 Highlight the passage at 49:10

49:41 Because then you'll just worry and worry and it'll become burdensome for you. You won't be able to move without feeling you're doing something, you're hurting something. If you carry it too far, it's better to slit your own throat and be violent than this. Because it's gone too far. But recognize that what the farmers do and if one is... Report an error in the passage at 49:41 Highlight the passage at 49:41

50:10 to spray their vegetables kill all the insects do these things and that is the intention is is violent then we can't be responsible for the farmers and then the farmers ask me Report an error in the passage at 50:10 Highlight the passage at 50:10

50:28 say should I then I then I can reflect for them about this and they can they can act according to what they they They feel that It's it's their their choice. choice. But the... Report an error in the passage at 50:28 Highlight the passage at 50:28

50:41 These are the decisions we have to make for ourselves, sometimes even violent. We have to make decisions to commit a violent act that we take responsibility for. And this is our willingness to be responsible rather than to just kill things and annihilate things out of heedlessness and anger and aversion. Report an error in the passage at 50:41 Highlight the passage at 50:41

51:11 So that when we do, say, a violent action, In some, say, situation, if we're mindful, we take the responsibility for it. We don't blame anyone. Report an error in the passage at 51:11 Highlight the passage at 51:11

51:28 I try to encourage people towards ways that are non-violent. Like vegetarianism, I encourage people towards that, to try to move toward vegetarian diet. Not because I want vegetarian food, either. Report an error in the passage at 51:28 Highlight the passage at 51:28

51:51 I don't think that's a good enough reason, you know, that you should be vegetarian so that you give me vegetarian food. But to just encourage people towards more sensitivity and care and respect for the rights of other creatures. And Report an error in the passage at 51:51 Highlight the passage at 51:51

52:15 so the kind of bloodletting that goes on in the slaughterhouses is a lesson, hopefully. I was impressed in, I'm from California, so when I lived there, Americans were the, loved to eat meat, great beef eaters, and they, we used to eat big steaks, thick kind of steaks that were partially cooked, you know, the blood still coming out of it, it's considered very delicious, and big roasts, and that, This was just ordinary American diet. And now I notice in California there's more vegetarianism, more and more vegetarian restaurants that just didn't exist 20 years ago. Report an error in the passage at 52:15 Highlight the passage at 52:15

53:11 Supermarkets have whole sections of vegetarian food. That's a good sign for such an aggressive country as the United States, that there's that movement in it towards nonviolence, towards respectful life. Report an error in the passage at 53:11 Highlight the passage at 53:11

53:28 That's a good sign. It's becoming so popular that they even have to start supermarkets, which I'm sure are not interested in non-violence. They're interested in making money. Report an error in the passage at 53:28 Highlight the passage at 53:28

53:50 It's like an evolution of the human consciousness we're involved in. We can think of how everything should be and then feel very upset and despair because it seems so far away, so remote. It's like to do away with war now. We all realize that war is something that should be discarded. Report an error in the passage at 53:50 Highlight the passage at 53:50

54:15 It's not a skillful means at all. There's no, you know, it's just too horrendous now for words and it's very obvious that it is. And yet the conditioning process of most human beings is to prepare for war still. They're still involved in all the money. goes, so much money goes towards preparation for war, for defense, for aggression. And this is because humanity still thinks in these old ways. Report an error in the passage at 54:15 Highlight the passage at 54:15

54:44 So then you think, it's hopeless, you know. It's just so hopeless. going to have a terrible nuclear war and that will be the end. I know it. It's just hopeless because it looks hopeless one way of looking at it. underlying all that is this evolution. Report an error in the passage at 54:44 Highlight the passage at 54:44

· · · silence, 1 minute

55:04 That at the same time, with all the nuclear build-up that goes on, there's also this other, which isn't so impressive, and it's like it doesn't have a loud voice, and it doesn't look ferocious, and it tends to look a bit weak, and it doesn't seem to have much shape or form to it. But underlying that is, say, many... Report an error in the passage at 55:04 Highlight the passage at 55:04

55:41 more of themselves than probably ever before. Report an error in the passage at 55:41 Highlight the passage at 55:41

55:49 would be very difficult to... know, there's too many people now that would not allow themselves to be involved in a war. Report an error in the passage at 55:49 Highlight the passage at 55:49

56:02 would be conscientious objectors or pacifists. Report an error in the passage at 56:02 Highlight the passage at 56:02

56:08 Now a way of accommodating that. Even in the United States, the United States now is much more lenient and respectful to conscientious objectors than where it used to have utter contempt for them. Report an error in the passage at 56:08 Highlight the passage at 56:08

56:23 This was one of our monks, Ajahn Prabhakara. He was an army officer, a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. And he saw the terrible things that were happening. He went on a holiday to Thailand. And while he was in Thailand, he met an American Buddhist monk. And he was so impressed with this monk that he started reading about Buddhism. Report an error in the passage at 56:23 Highlight the passage at 56:23

56:57 When he went back to Vietnam, he decided he wanted to be a Buddhist. And then he thought, but if I'm a Buddhist, I can't be an army officer because I can't keep the five precepts. Report an error in the passage at 56:57 Highlight the passage at 56:57

57:13 So then he asked to be discharged as a conscientious objector. Report an error in the passage at 57:13 Highlight the passage at 57:13

57:20 And the American government discharged him as a concierge. I mean, that's almost unheard of. For being a Buddhist, he was given an honorable discharge from the military as a Buddhist who could no longer involve himself in violent action. Report an error in the passage at 57:20 Highlight the passage at 57:20

57:43 Well, I mean, that would have, he would, you know, say, previous times, he would have not been listened to and arguably considered an... Report an error in the passage at 57:43 Highlight the passage at 57:43

57:51 You know, crazy. That speaks well that such a thing is possible now. And during the Vietnam War there were so many Americans that fled the country or refused to participate. Just total refusal to be drawn into these dreadful things that the government before could just expect us to go along with. Report an error in the passage at 57:51 Highlight the passage at 57:51

58:16 Just expect us to do that. We wouldn't. We'd just go along with whatever the government asked us to do. Like what's happening in the Middle East, Iran and Iraq. There's young men, they're just conscripted and they have no choice in the matter. They're just put out into the battlefields. That'd be much more difficult to do with men in this country, wouldn't it? Or the state. Report an error in the passage at 58:16 Highlight the passage at 58:16

58:44 It'd be much more reaction, refusal to do that now. Report an error in the passage at 58:44 Highlight the passage at 58:44

58:55 Just like protesting, and that's increasing. The CMD and all these organizations protesting is drawing people towards, say, making a stand against this violent action. Report an error in the passage at 58:55 Highlight the passage at 58:55

59:11 Saying, you know, we don't want this. People are now beginning to see that they have a voice in the matter. They have to say, we don't want this anymore. We don't want to be like this. Report an error in the passage at 59:11 Highlight the passage at 59:11

59:48 Ten after four. I think there's some tea or something. Report an error in the passage at 59:48 Highlight the passage at 59:48