Authority and Revelation – Q and A

0:00 If you will please take a seat. Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:32 I'm quite harmless, I don't bite or anything. Report an error in the passage at 0:32 Highlight the passage at 0:32

0:58 Questions or reflections that you'd like to share, commitments? Report an error in the passage at 0:58 Highlight the passage at 0:58

1:15 you say something more about how we graphed when we built up? Report an error in the passage at 1:15 Highlight the passage at 1:15

1:25 That is the problem. If you see grasping and understand that, then you've solved life's problems completely. Because that is the... like with the conditioned realm, mortal realm, the body, the senses, the material world, the relationships with other people, all of it's... If you really reflect, it's the grasping of it that makes it all go wrong. That in itself it's all right. Report an error in the passage at 1:25 Highlight the passage at 1:25

2:06 The material world is all right. Men and women, there's nothing wrong with humanity or with the universe. It's the grasping that makes it go off, that makes us suffer from it. So that if you even grasp Buddhism, Report an error in the passage at 2:06 Highlight the passage at 2:06

2:28 Without ignorance, then you suffer from Buddhism. But Buddhism, you see, is a convention for awakening. It's not a convention just for holding in your hand, putting on your cupboard and admiring it. It's not to have a Buddha Rūpa, an antique Buddha Rūpa as an objet d 'art on a shelf in your house. And then you're going to suffer because if a thief comes and takes you, that marvelous Buddha Rūpa, then you're going to have some very un-Buddha-like thoughts, aren't you? Report an error in the passage at 2:28 Highlight the passage at 2:28

3:06 Why is that? Because of the grasping. Not because of the Buddha Rūpa or Buddhism, but because of grasping. Report an error in the passage at 3:06 Highlight the passage at 3:06

3:19 The Buddha pointed to this grasping, like in the First Noble Truth. He said, there is suffering. He stated the problem that we all have. There is this suffering, this dukkha, that we all experience. Then the second noble truth is that there is this grasping. And that's why we suffer through grasping. And then to let go, then the insight is to let go of things. Report an error in the passage at 3:19 Highlight the passage at 3:19

3:51 And then the realization of non-attachment follows. So if you're... Reflecting on real peacefulness and calm, then you're aware of non-grasping. But the ignorant, unawakened human being only, you see, the self-view, the sense of me and mine, depends on grasping things. When you think back in your life, your memories are, say, what you remember, say, from life that you've lived so far, the memory part is from, Being able to remember moments of grasping. You can't remember the moments you were not grasping something. So that you, and because you identified with memory, you think, you know, the ignorant being identifies and grasps memory itself. Report an error in the passage at 3:51 Highlight the passage at 3:51

4:50 So then you have to, you're always having to do things to remember. That's why excitement, romance, adventure, all these things are, So powerful for us because when we grasp them then we have these memories. We feel alive. Like if you, even with anger and hatred, you feel alive when you're angry and you hate somebody. Report an error in the passage at 4:50 Highlight the passage at 4:50

5:17 Or indignation makes you feel alive that you are somebody. Report an error in the passage at 5:17 Highlight the passage at 5:17

5:26 Greed makes you feel that you're going to get something you want. to Report an error in the passage at 5:26 Highlight the passage at 5:26

5:31 To want something and get it, that is a sense of being alive and being somebody who is alive. Envy and jealousy, to be somebody who other people are jealous of is important, isn't it? To have a better car than the neighbors or to have a beautiful house or lovely clothes or be someone who has status. Report an error in the passage at 5:31 Highlight the passage at 5:31

6:00 In a community, the grasping of that, you see, you suffer, because then you're always in this position of being somebody, and then there's always going to be a reaction from somebody else. You know, if I am a rich and famous person, then that very grasping of that perception means that there's going to be a lot of people. Report an error in the passage at 6:00 Highlight the passage at 6:00

6:30 who want either to challenge me or take away my wealth or criticize me or people are going to try to delude me so they can flatter me and make friends with me because they want the things that I have. So that whole form of grasping leads to this suffering. But actually having status and wealth And a new car, and all these, there's nothing intrinsically bad or wrong with that. But it's the grasping of it that will bring the suffering. Report an error in the passage at 6:30 Highlight the passage at 6:30

7:13 And I reverse that to poverty, grasping the idea that I'm a poor person, I'm poverty stricken, I'm low class, I'm poor, and I'm worthless. And that, grasping that view is suffering. Because then I feel, you know, I'm as a personality as somebody. I'm no good. I'm in the bottom. I'm in the pits. I'm the dregs of the society. Or, to take it to the other, I'm the most important person in this country. Report an error in the passage at 7:13 Highlight the passage at 7:13

7:50 You see, where either one is a form of suffering. At least when you think, well, I'm poor and I'm the lowest. Meanest, most unlovable person in the society, at least nobody's going to envy you for that. Report an error in the passage at 7:50 Highlight the passage at 7:50

8:15 But it's still a position that one's going to suffer from, from attachment. When the attachment is seen, the identity with that, then it doesn't matter. One doesn't, these things aren't important anymore, what your status is, at the top or the bottom or in the middle. These are not really the important issues of our life or spiritual development. Not important to us. Like in the Saṅgha, the monastic order. Report an error in the passage at 8:15 Highlight the passage at 8:15

8:49 The Buddha established it so that you lose all your... If you're from the aristocracy or you're from the working class or whatever, when you come into the Saṅgha, there's no importance. You're just... Sumedho Bhikkhu, Sobhano Bhikkhu, Sujito Bhikkhu, and you're just Bhikkhus. And you don't know whether this was Lord so-and-so or prince or princess or any of these things. Report an error in the passage at 8:49 Highlight the passage at 8:49

9:25 It's just absolutely of no importance in the holy life. We're in, say, But worldly life, they're important, aren't they? To have a PhD, to be someone who's well-educated, who comes from a good family. These are highly valued by people in the society. Or they're criticized, like you can be an egalitarian. I hate the aristocracy. Report an error in the passage at 9:25 Highlight the passage at 9:25

10:02 Lords, ladies, and counts and counties, it's all rubbish. But still, I mean, that means that you still think it's something. To call it rubbish means that you actually believe it is something important. Because as a condition, it's just what it is. You don't have to call it rubbish. It is nothing bad in itself or wrong to be a lord or a lady or a count or a prince. But it's the attachment. Report an error in the passage at 10:02 Highlight the passage at 10:02

10:38 To any view about it, that leads to suffering. And say with Buddhism, it's easy to, with something you really love, then attachments form quite easily. But in my experience, in Thailand, our teacher Ajahn Chah would get us to look always at this attachment. And you always know when you're attached because you're suffering. Report an error in the passage at 10:38 Highlight the passage at 10:38

11:11 You always go to this suffering. So I noticed, like if somebody, like one time, I'd become very devoted to Ajahn Chah. I'd become very attached to him, actually. And so I realized, and this gave me a lot of happiness, because I hadn't had any kind of anyone that I really felt that love for in my life. Report an error in the passage at 11:11 Highlight the passage at 11:11

11:42 So it all went to Ajahn Chah. And it was very kind of inspiring, wonderful feeling for me. But then I noticed that I was suffering a lot because anybody that criticized Ajahn Chah, I'd get incredibly angry about them. Report an error in the passage at 11:42 Highlight the passage at 11:42

12:01 If anyone said anything negative or implied that there was a better teacher somewhere else, I'd overreact. I'd blow up. And so I would, I'd watch this and, you know, I'd say, this is, this is, you know, at first I believed it. I just, you know, say, you know, somebody said, well, if you, if you think the other teacher is better than Ajahn Chah, go on, go to that other teacher. Report an error in the passage at 12:01 Highlight the passage at 12:01

12:33 That kind of thing, you know. But then, when you're reflecting, you see that's a very, that's not a very nice mental state. You know, it's an ugly way to feel, actually. So you'd watch the suffering that was coming from that. And then I'd realize the attachment. Then the tendency was to think, well, I shouldn't be attached. So then out of your head you'd say, I'm not really attached. Other teachers are just as good as Ajahn Chah. Report an error in the passage at 12:33 Highlight the passage at 12:33

13:01 They're all the same. Blah, blah, blah. Report an error in the passage at 13:01 Highlight the passage at 13:01

13:06 But you still were attached. You know, you're just pretending you were not attached, out of an ideal. And so you still would suffer, even though you were pretending not to be completely tolerant and not attached. Report an error in the passage at 13:06 Highlight the passage at 13:06

13:22 But then you realize the attachment was an emotional one. So you began to go to the feeling of attachment and really study attachment, rather than just try to suppress it and say, oh, I'm not attached, just deny it. You actually, where you're suffering, then there's attachment. You go to that place in yourself and you investigate it. Report an error in the passage at 13:22 Highlight the passage at 13:22

13:49 You watch it. You learn from it. And through that, you let go of it. Because once you see it, then the attachment's gone. The attachment is out of ignorance. You're never attached out of wisdom. So once there's wisdom, then there's no attachment. Report an error in the passage at 13:49 Highlight the passage at 13:49

14:11 But out of ideas of not being attached, you can be attached to the idea of not being attached. Report an error in the passage at 14:11 Highlight the passage at 14:11

14:21 Like with Krishnamurti, he was very good at that, you know, not to be attached to anything. And so then he would say, and I've heard him say this, you know, monks, and this is all wrong, religion, monks, all this is wrong, it's not the way. Report an error in the passage at 14:21 Highlight the passage at 14:21

14:45 So then people listening to that would attach to that view of his. So then you'd get these Krishnamurtiites saying, monks and... And they weren't aware of the attachment they had to Krishnamurti's views. So it's not the view. view Report an error in the passage at 14:45 Highlight the passage at 14:45

15:18 Monks, religion, all of them, their aim, their purpose is a good one. I would give them the benefit of any doubt I have, really. Report an error in the passage at 15:18 Highlight the passage at 15:18

15:37 But it is the attachment to the conventions of religion that are the problem. And this I see, like with Krishnamurti, he never really made that very clear to anyone. He just condemned. He just outright condemned conventions. And then because of that, people would attach to his views, especially if you were against religion yourself, and that supported your own prejudices. Report an error in the passage at 15:37 Highlight the passage at 15:37

16:06 So then you'd say, oh, monasticism isn't any good. Another one is this guru, American guru, Baba Frijan. And he, I was listening to a tape of his and he's talking about celibacy. And the tape was on sex and the holy life. And this was about celibacy. And he makes these statements on this tape that celibacy is wrong because it's just a suppression. Report an error in the passage at 16:06 Highlight the passage at 16:06

16:51 It's based on an old religious pattern of suppression of the sexual drive. And that it's wrong. So then, of course, that is, in one way, according to modern psychology and ways of thinking, that sounds a fairly accurate observation. But if you, now, because I'm celibate, you see, I could react to that, just as a, you know, just take that as a threat. Report an error in the passage at 16:51 Highlight the passage at 16:51

17:24 Or, what is, you know, what is the experience? And you see that celibacy as an attachment tends to suppression, yeah. But celibacy as a reflection is a very helpful tool. So, I mean, it's not celibacy either. It's not that you have to be or that it's not necessary. Any view about it is a view. You know, whether you should be or you shouldn't be, the view is a view. You see that as a view. Report an error in the passage at 17:24 Highlight the passage at 17:24

17:59 An attachment to that view, you can see if you're attached to a view for or against it, and then actual practice of celibacy is not being attached to any view about it, but by living this way for and reflecting on the results of it, you see. So that you're seeing if you're attached to celibacy. You're just doing it out of fear or you're doing it out of idealism or you're suppressing or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 17:59 Highlight the passage at 17:59

18:38 You're very much investigating what's going on, what you're doing with it. So even that I felt was an inaccurate statement because it's... This is where the attachment is. If you really investigate Buddha's teachings, he's pointing to this particular experience of attachment. Report an error in the passage at 18:38 Highlight the passage at 18:38

19:25 And the attachment out of ignorance of the dharma. Like in the Paticca Samuppada, in the Dependent Origination, that teaching. That's brilliant reflection. Because... We've used that for two years during our winter retreats as a reflection and you can really see very clearly in your own mind how things actually are and where the attachment and what ignorance is and attachment from that ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 19:25 Highlight the passage at 19:25

20:04 So even attachment is alright if there's wisdom because then you attach to things, you have to attach to the cup. And you can use things, you know, with wisdom you're free to be a monk or not to be a monk, but you're not attached to it. You have no opinion. To be a bhikkhu for me is, I can see if there's an attachment to being a monk, then I suffer from it, from being a monk. Report an error in the passage at 20:04 Highlight the passage at 20:04

20:38 But when there's no attachment, then one feels... That it's an offering. One presents this monastic form to others as an offering. It's a gift. It's a beautiful form in itself. It's not me. And therefore, it would be still an attachment if I felt, in order to prove that I'm not attached to being a monk, I'll disrobe. Report an error in the passage at 20:38 Highlight the passage at 20:38

21:08 That's still an attachment from the self, isn't it? To prove to me that I'm not attached. I'll have to dethrone to see what happens to my mind when I'm not a monk. And that's an attachment. But if you're just with the moment as it is, then being a monk, the form itself, is just a beautiful form, a beautiful convention that one feels is of great use and can be a great offering to the society you're in. Report an error in the passage at 21:08 Highlight the passage at 21:08

21:47 But this avicca in Paticca Samuppada is avicca bhajaya saṅkhāra. Avicca is ignorance or not knowing the Four Noble Truths. Report an error in the passage at 21:47 Highlight the passage at 21:47

22:01 This avicca doesn't mean ignorance in the sense of being illiterate or, you know, because this ignorance, I mean, you can be illiterate and still have avicca. You can be a PhD and still have avicca as so many of them do. Report an error in the passage at 22:01 Highlight the passage at 22:01

22:23 Avicca is not knowing, not having penetrated these Four Noble Truths. Then there's this, then coming from Avicca, always there's this saṅkhāra, this volition onto life. There's this imposition, this going outward, out of fear and desire and ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 22:23 Highlight the passage at 22:23

22:49 So then that is the compounding and the whole process and then the attachments from that. So that one is just building a whole realm of attachments in one's mind. Report an error in the passage at 22:49 Highlight the passage at 22:49

23:05 Now when the end of the world happens, when we say in the ending of ignorance, then the world that is created out of ignorance falls away. Then there's what we call dhamma, the way things are. So then these things are like flowers and fruit juice and monks and nuns and lay people and Buddhist conventions and all these are what they are. Report an error in the passage at 23:05 Highlight the passage at 23:05

23:40 And they're dhammas for us rather than attachments. Report an error in the passage at 23:40 Highlight the passage at 23:40

23:47 And this is where the Western mind also tends to make a part like non-attachment as a kind of getting rid of something. For example, a mother with her child, a woman said to me once, I can never be a Buddhist because I'm attached to my children. Report an error in the passage at 23:47 Highlight the passage at 23:47

24:11 She thought that to be a Buddhist you had to not be attached to your children. I said, well, what do you mean not be attached to your children? Report an error in the passage at 24:11 Highlight the passage at 24:11

24:22 Throw them off the cliff or something to prove you're not attached to them or just desert them so that you won't be attached to them. That's not Buddhism. But the ability to not be attached to your children means that you can love your children. Report an error in the passage at 24:22 Highlight the passage at 24:22

24:44 When you're attached to your children, you can't love them anymore because attachment destroys that. Report an error in the passage at 24:44 Highlight the passage at 24:44

25:16 I said, think about it like that, than thinking that You're too attached to your children so you could never become a Buddhist or an enlightened being. Report an error in the passage at 25:16 Highlight the passage at 25:16

25:30 Yes? Report an error in the passage at 25:30 Highlight the passage at 25:30

25:51 not be attached to any form of teaching. the ways of teaching the silence are just watching the the method watching your mind. Report an error in the passage at 25:51 Highlight the passage at 25:51

26:09 he was trying to prove to the people is that is not something that can be that can be grasped. it's watching of your actions. Report an error in the passage at 26:09 Highlight the passage at 26:09

26:29 That's the whole form of one's whole existence, really, is just that, just being aware of it. That's why, like ceremony, in the West, you see, in the Western world, you get people who are very much against ritual and ceremony. So they have these prejudices against it, because they see it as superstition. Report an error in the passage at 26:29 Highlight the passage at 26:29

27:00 For example, bowing to Buddha, Rūpa, or lighting the candles and incense, or chanting in Pāli. To many European people, that just seems like hocus-pocus or superstition, because that's what ritual tends to have become in the West. For many people, they just see it as like worshipping spirits and performing Rites and rituals as a kind of lower, kind of primitive level of consciousness. But what I predict for the future is that the West will become very ritualistic because it's denied that form for so long. Report an error in the passage at 27:00 Highlight the passage at 27:00

27:56 And there's a great need for it because ritual... And ceremony, like you were saying, speaks for itself. It's a way, it's movement, it's graceful, it's reflective, it's beautiful, it's honorable. You're honoring, you're offering, you're giving. You're expressing that through either chants or hymns or movement. Report an error in the passage at 27:56 Highlight the passage at 27:56

28:32 Or offerings, like offering flowers to the shrine or lighting candles and incense. All of that is, and it's not an explanation, an intellectual explanation. Report an error in the passage at 28:32 Highlight the passage at 28:32

28:49 So what I find is the more, the older I get, the more I appreciate the ceremonies. When I first became a monk, I didn't think they were important. An American that just put up with it, really. Report an error in the passage at 28:49 Highlight the passage at 28:49

29:14 Went through it because you had to, but didn't really offer much to it. Went along with it because that was what was expected. And then as the years go by and there's more appreciation, then one sees that as a... It's a beautiful way to live. Your whole life becomes more of a ritual and a ceremony. And you want it to be. It's not a superstition thinking, if I don't do it this way, I'm going to become heedless and then I'm going to be reborn in a lower realm or something. Report an error in the passage at 29:14 Highlight the passage at 29:14

29:47 But you actually find a joyfulness in the ritualistic side of life. And in the Western world where it's been so hedonistic and where each one is just do anything you want and it's all right and there's no rules anymore, no agreements, just follow your impulses. Well, we've had that experience and to find out that the result of that is not really... Report an error in the passage at 29:47 Highlight the passage at 29:47

30:28 You know, very nice result, really. It's a confusion. The society's confused. The individuals are confused. But the use of ritual and ceremony won't be just a, you know, belief of an attachment to rites and rituals. It's not to be attached to them, but to know how to use them. Because, like, for example, you have a saṅgha here of monks. Report an error in the passage at 30:28 Highlight the passage at 30:28

31:02 And nuns and agarikas and so forth, they have a kind of ritualistic lifestyle. I mean, our whole way of life has a kind of form to it that is prescribed in the scripture. Report an error in the passage at 31:02 Highlight the passage at 31:02

31:19 And therefore, as a community, it has its own, it has its ceremony, its ritualistic form that each member... It gives to it. I mean, we each contribute to the form of it by surrendering to it, by being that form itself. And then the silence, as you move inwardly towards this inner silence, the peacefulness of mind, then the need to go out and to announce your individuality falls away. Report an error in the passage at 31:19 Highlight the passage at 31:19

31:59 You know, to always proclaim your independence and Personality to the world seems silly, childish. Report an error in the passage at 31:59 Highlight the passage at 31:59

32:22 Anattā. That, if Report an error in the passage at 32:22 Highlight the passage at 32:22

32:30 you compare it to like the Hindu metaphysical teaching of Ātman and then the Buddha taught Anatman or Anattā and people get confused because the Report an error in the passage at 32:30 Highlight the passage at 32:30

32:54 The Hindu or the Vedic teaching of Ātman is a metaphysical teaching. And the teaching of Anattā is an existential teaching. It's about existence, so that it's not a metaphysical teaching. The Buddha, it's not a doctrinal position of a Buddhist. It is an existential truth. Report an error in the passage at 32:54 Highlight the passage at 32:54

33:29 That is to be realized. Report an error in the passage at 33:29 Highlight the passage at 33:29

33:35 Well, what actually, how things are, existence is what rises up into consciousness. If something exists, it means that you're conscious of it. And therefore, and if you're conscious of something, then it's changing. You can't be conscious of something all the time. So the actual meaning of existence is to spring forth, to rise up. And so whatever rises up is not self, in other words. Report an error in the passage at 33:35 Highlight the passage at 33:35

34:11 It's a reflection. Anattā is a reflective teaching on existence. And that applies also to metaphysical doctrines. Metaphysical doctrines are not self. What it does is, So that you're... Report an error in the passage at 34:11 Highlight the passage at 34:11

34:30 As a practice, you're actually clearing the mind of any attachment whatsoever, even of metaphysical doctrines, not denying them. You're not saying, taking a stand against any metaphysical teaching, but you're seeing that anything formed arises and ceases, and it's not self. So then the way is through non-attachment. Report an error in the passage at 34:30 Highlight the passage at 34:30

· · · silence, 1 minute

35:31 Well, Report an error in the passage at 35:31 Highlight the passage at 35:31

35:37 it's a matter really of be seen as an entity in itself, so that the concept of self and not-self perhaps are necessarily different. Report an error in the passage at 35:37 Highlight the passage at 35:37

35:32 it's Report an error in the passage at 35:32 Highlight the passage at 35:32

35:42 Mindful, using it mindfully, because just to hold to a view of not-self is another self-view. I mean, it's a paradox. On that level, you see, you just go around with it as an attachment to a view. But the Buddha didn't mean anattā as a view that you're attached to, but as a word to reflect on, not self, in order to free the mind from the assumptions of being kind of permanently somebody or some person. Report an error in the passage at 35:42 Highlight the passage at 35:42

36:28 Because there is personality. We all have personalities. And we all have different, we're all different personalities and characters. So that these are always variable, changing. And the personality is a result of heredity and the karma of what we've done and why we are the way we are, the inclinations we have from birth. Report an error in the passage at 36:28 Highlight the passage at 36:28

37:08 You know, why am I so different from my sister when we were both from the same parents? You know, why, you know, and we're from the same ancestral line, and yet on the personality, as personalities, we're very different. Report an error in the passage at 37:08 Highlight the passage at 37:08

37:27 And then, of course, like in the saṅgha, the monks and the nuns, they may all look alike, the shaven heads enrolled, but they all have very different personalities. Report an error in the passage at 37:27 Highlight the passage at 37:27

37:40 And so the personality, well, one becomes attached to one's, to assume that the personality is a kind of permanent thing that's there. But as you use anattā as a reflection, you begin to see that it's merely something that arises and ceases in the moment. And what that does as an experience of dharma is you realize the empty mind. Report an error in the passage at 37:40 Highlight the passage at 37:40

38:11 The purity of mind, which has nothing to do with one's personality, it's where you and I merge, where the personality is no longer operating or important or an attachment. In that purity, then we are the same. We're not two. As personalities, we're very different. very different, we can... Report an error in the passage at 38:11 Highlight the passage at 38:11

38:41 And endlessly argue and make problems about who's better than who and who's stronger, who's weaker, who's more intelligent and all that. And that's on the personality plane. But when you realize that underlying purity, then personality isn't so important. You can allow for people to have the personalities they have. It's not an important issue anymore for us. Report an error in the passage at 38:41 Highlight the passage at 38:41

39:11 When you're caught in personality cult, then it's very important. This person has a personality I like, and that personality I don't like. I don't want them here. I want this one here. I don't want that one here. This is a good person, that one is a bad one, and it gets all very complicated. Report an error in the passage at 39:11 Highlight the passage at 39:11

39:33 But when you recognize the underlying purity of the mind, then... You can put up with the irritating personalities and the beings around you and you can also not get attached or exaggerate the pleasing personalities around you. Report an error in the passage at 39:33 Highlight the passage at 39:33

40:00 It gives you perspective. You have a way of looking at something as it relates to the whole of life rather than just becoming obsessed with it. Report an error in the passage at 40:00 Highlight the passage at 40:00

40:15 by the particular condition of the moment. Report an error in the passage at 40:15 Highlight the passage at 40:15

40:28 certain views and Report an error in the passage at 40:28 Highlight the passage at 40:28

40:32 the body will not happen. Report an error in the passage at 40:32 Highlight the passage at 40:32

40:43 Right. Report an error in the passage at 40:43 Highlight the passage at 40:43

40:50 I mean, it's not like... If there were more non-attachment... The world would be a lot better place. Because even though they wiped out slavery in America, they didn't wipe out ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 40:50 Highlight the passage at 40:50

41:18 So you still have a lot of suffering in the United States of people who are not slaves. Report an error in the passage at 41:18 Highlight the passage at 41:18

41:31 And this is where slavery itself, I mean, I'm not supporting slavery at all. But actually I'd rather be a wise slave than an ignorant king. Report an error in the passage at 41:31 Highlight the passage at 41:31

41:48 Because ignorance is pain, wisdom one can bear with the vicissitudes of life. Not that I'm supporting slavery, but I do see that idealism or good intentions and all this, I mean to do good, And to practice goodness and all this, it's important to encourage that in people. To respect the rights of other people, to be fair and just and merciful and kind. Report an error in the passage at 41:48 Highlight the passage at 41:48

42:31 All these virtues should be encouraged in our children and in the society. To try to encourage the beings in the society to at least Try to do good and have good values. But that in itself is not, I mean, that will give a lot more happiness to the society. The society will be a happier society if it does that. But it still, people will still suffer even though there's more happiness until there is the wisdom and the enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 42:31 Highlight the passage at 42:31

43:18 And so this is where Buddha was very much, you know, his whole message really is pointing to that enlightenment, that potential in all beings, all human beings are enlightened. Report an error in the passage at 43:18 Highlight the passage at 43:18

43:38 This doesn't mean that we don't act in the society for the good, because we do. Like we encourage non-violence and honesty, fairness. fairness, justice, mercy, praise it, and support it. Report an error in the passage at 43:38 Highlight the passage at 43:38

44:01 we also point beyond it, too. This is where Buddhism sometimes misleads. I mean, it doesn't mislead, but people see it. Because the emphasis is on enlightenment, then sometimes the worldly conditions are dismissed as irrelevant, not important. important. that's . . That's not how it actually happens to us because as much as one is living as a Buddhist monk in a traditional form, so much of daily life is just learning from, like living in a community, how to be more cooperative and how to share and how to give and the community. Report an error in the passage at 44:01 Highlight the passage at 44:01

44:56 You reflect selfishness and conceit and pride and all this. So that you're in a, you know, as a community, even though your goal is nibbāna, the freedom from all ignorance, on the practical level you're having to face up to a lot of sometimes quite unpleasant things in yourself. Report an error in the passage at 44:56 Highlight the passage at 44:56

45:24 Which, you know, as much as your goal is nibbāna, your way of feeling right now is maybe, you know, very selfish and conceited. And then if you just judge it from your goal, you know, then you feel just terribly guilty and mean about yourself. Like if you have this high goal of being enlightened. enlightened, then you find yourself stuck in some really silly, foolish, Report an error in the passage at 45:24 Highlight the passage at 45:24

46:02 then you're still coming from a personal position, then you judge it as, I'm a terrible person. I'm a horrible person for feeling like But if you could see that selfishness, And can see, and dharma, as that which arises ceases, then you've seen it in a proper perspective, and then you're freeing yourself from the grasping and the identification with it. Report an error in the passage at 46:02 Highlight the passage at 46:02

46:38 So then, by doing that more and more, then you find in a community, like the social system you're part of, you're one who is letting go of things, so that... The actual practical side of survival in the material world seems to operate much more smoothly and beneficially for everyone when that self-view is removed from it. Report an error in the passage at 46:38 Highlight the passage at 46:38

47:13 This is why I can see the potential for humanity is from living here at Amaravati. Even though you might consider this a... one really... Report an error in the passage at 47:13 Highlight the passage at 47:13

47:25 A unique and special situation. It is a form that, say, where you can live a lifetime and many people can live together. And the Report an error in the passage at 47:25 Highlight the passage at 47:25

47:57 health or the sickness of the body, the aging process. Life's experiences are still very much affecting us, but we're seeing it now no longer as disruption or any kind of demand on life, but being able to include all of life within our mind so that we can respond to the needs of the community we're in, to the time. Report an error in the passage at 47:57 Highlight the passage at 47:57

48:36 Time and the place, to the unique situations that arise, or just the ordinariness of our lives. Report an error in the passage at 48:36 Highlight the passage at 48:36

· · · silence, 1 minute

49:24 We know what we can do about it. Just to resist out of aversion and prejudice tends to create more conflict. But that doesn't mean that we just... We can resign ourselves to the evil forces and just let them run over everything. But it means that we can, according to our abilities, respond to life. Report an error in the passage at 49:24 Highlight the passage at 49:24

50:00 And this can be done in different ways. But what we need to commit ourselves to is a moral foundation to not do things, immoral actions or speech. This is very much needed now in the global, solving global problems because modern nations are not really, morality is not a necessary condition for their operation, is it? Report an error in the passage at 50:00 Highlight the passage at 50:00

50:39 And so you don't trust, there's no trust now, you can't have, how can the United States and the Soviet Union trust each other when they both ...are immoral and untrustworthy nations. I mean, they lie, they tell lies about each other, they kill, they're constantly trying to make each other frightened. Report an error in the passage at 50:39 Highlight the passage at 50:39

51:09 They're really evil to each other. So you can't... How can you talk about world peace? You know, you can talk about it, but it's not... You also have this tremendous lack of commitment to moral principles, like the nuclear weapons. Report an error in the passage at 51:09 Highlight the passage at 51:09

51:34 If there had been a moral commitment in the world, scientists would not have made nuclear bombs. Report an error in the passage at 51:34 Highlight the passage at 51:34

51:48 Because science has been given almost... Freedom to invent or make anything they feel like in the name of science. Therefore, they can make weapons. But if science had had a moral base, it wouldn't have made weapons. Report an error in the passage at 51:48 Highlight the passage at 51:48

52:09 Because weapons are for what? For killing. For making you frightened. A weapon, its whole purpose, like even a gun, is either to kill, to annihilate something, or to frighten you. Or if I have a gun, then you're going to be frightened of me. Maybe I won't use it, but as long as I'm sitting there holding it, you're going to be a little more careful about how you... Report an error in the passage at 52:09 Highlight the passage at 52:09

52:36 But my intention is what? To make you frightened by the impression of being strong and powerful. And that's one level. That's the survival in the jungle. That's the law of the jungle. I mean, that's a natural law, actually. For animals and titans, asuras. But for humanity, the Buddha was pointing to humanity and the devas, or virtuous beings. Report an error in the passage at 52:36 Highlight the passage at 52:36

53:14 You see, then you have the deva manuthanam. It's a teaching for gods and men. And men in this means also women. So Report an error in the passage at 53:14 Highlight the passage at 53:14

53:37 it's the teaching for God's men and women. And this means that it's for people who have a moral foundation, have already committed themselves to moral behavior through action and speech. Report an error in the passage at 53:37 Highlight the passage at 53:37

54:07 then if one were to... If one wanted world peace or to stop war, then rather than having Star Wars, it would be much better to have moral agreements. Report an error in the passage at 54:07 Highlight the passage at 54:07

54:23 Because then you're asking humanity to rise up to these moral agreements, rather than just keeping you all in line out of fear and threatening you with a powerful weapon. Report an error in the passage at 54:23 Highlight the passage at 54:23

54:39 And my experience is that When you touch that in human beings, I've seen it in myself and in most human beings that I know, they love to hear that. Report an error in the passage at 54:39 Highlight the passage at 54:39

54:59 If education were aimed more at ethics, not just... Thou shalt not do this and ordering people about from authority positions. But really getting children to examine and look into action and speech, into karma, into the results of their lives and ethical training and virtue. Then the problems of this country would diminish considerably. Report an error in the passage at 54:59 Highlight the passage at 54:59

55:43 I don't think they teach very much of that in the schools here. It's considered maybe an irrelevant, not terribly important thing to teach. Computer science and all these other things are by far more important, it seems. And yet, what you're going to get in the future is frightening. It's frightening now because the sense of moral responsibility is... Report an error in the passage at 55:43 Highlight the passage at 55:43

56:13 It's definitely diminished. And it's not being encouraged within the youth, within the children of this country. And yet children respond to that beautifully. Children's minds, their minds are such that you can put anything into them is the problem, because they're innocent. So you can... You can put rubbish into their mind and you can put really beautiful things in. And to me, the choice is, well, put the beautiful things in. Report an error in the passage at 56:13 Highlight the passage at 56:13

56:55 Give them that direction, things that arouse self-respect and kindness, virtuous living, rather than just putting any old thing into their mind, rubbish and fears. fears and Report an error in the passage at 56:55 Highlight the passage at 56:55

57:14 Conceited views, competition, like a competitive system, really creates a strong ego. You know, I'm better than you are, or I'm not as good as you are. There's always this feeling of, I noticed this with myself coming from America. We're a very competitive society. And from the time I started school, kindergarten, Report an error in the passage at 57:14 Highlight the passage at 57:14

57:46 There was this, I noticed that there was a continuous, I had a very happy, I remember being very, very happy up till the time I started school. And then I remember becoming very unhappy. And if I look back, I see it's because there was always this, when suddenly you were forced to compare yourself with other boys all the time. Report an error in the passage at 57:46 Highlight the passage at 57:46

58:12 And there's this tremendous anxiety involved with being inferior. Or not as good as, or being looked down on or despised in school. When you went home, it was all right. Your mother said, oh, you're the finest boy. My mother is always very kind to me. So she'd always say, oh, don't be silly. You're better than the rest and all that. Report an error in the passage at 58:12 Highlight the passage at 58:12

58:41 Then you say, well, that's mom, you know, what mothers say. You don't believe them. Because in the real world of the schoolyard, you're in a competitive situation, which has a lot of conflict, and then your ego has to be developed from that. Report an error in the passage at 58:41 Highlight the passage at 58:41

59:02 Not that even competition is wrong. We need to compete also, develop that, but things need to be in perspective, and not just as, you know, if that's all your education is. ...is around, is competition, passing exams and winning prizes, then what you get at the end of it is a mind full of anxieties. Or people that just can't compete drop out, and then they feel, then they have a terrible kind of feeling of being worthless and of no value, because they can't function in a competitive system. Report an error in the passage at 59:02 Highlight the passage at 59:02

59:45 And if that's all the society offers, then you're a dropout. You're worthless in the society. The cooperative levels allows a kind of complementary relationship where even the, you know, you're not saying this is the best and if you can't do it, somehow you're inferior. You're allowing for all the different forces to work together. Report an error in the passage at 59:45 Highlight the passage at 59:45

1:00:14 The fast, the slow, the young, the old, the clever, the not so clever, and so forth. There's room for everyone. There's room for the retarded or for the geniuses, for the healthy and the sickly and the young and old, if it's a dharma society. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:14 Highlight the passage at 1:00:14

1:00:41 If it's a competitive society, then it's like we have old people are... Drain on the economy. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:41 Highlight the passage at 1:00:41

1:00:51 Once you're over 40 or 50, you know, you're redundant. Nowadays, I think it's even getting younger. I hear that over 40 you're considered, you're sent out to pasture. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:51 Highlight the passage at 1:00:51

1:01:12 Because on the competitive level, I mean, your competitive nature is best during your 20s. 20s and 30s, by the time you're 40, you don't have it, you don't have the socket to them type of energy. The young ones, you know, run ahead of you. But in the dharma society, then, you see, like, this is what I liked about Thai village life in Thailand, where you live in the rice... Report an error in the passage at 1:01:12 Highlight the passage at 1:01:12

1:01:53 Rice growing, villages, that you had a sense there of it being a cooperative system very much, where there was the young, the old, they take care of their retarded children or the village idiot. Somehow it all fitted into the whole thing. Very benevolent. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:53 Highlight the passage at 1:01:53

1:02:23 If it had wise monks and wise leaders in the village, then somehow the village itself, one felt a sense of cooperativeness and complementariness. So you'd sometimes, during the rice harvest, you'd go into the village and all the young people would be out, away, and the middle-aged people, men and women, would be out. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:23 Highlight the passage at 1:02:23

1:02:52 Harvesting or planting rice. And then you see old people and small children, babies. And then these two get on very well. The very old and the very young actually get on with each other very well. And that gives the younger parents that you need this bigger to go out and do this hard work. And when you're Doing that, you need everyone. So everybody who has in good health and vigorous goes out and plants or rice or harvests it, leaving the helpless one or the children who can't do anything and the old people who are too old to work to look after each other. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:52 Highlight the passage at 1:02:52

1:03:44 And then so that you have a There's actually economic need for old people in a Thai village, in that old system. They're actually economically important to the social system. And also their experience of life is respect. The fact that as you get older you've learned more from life. So then the attitude of respect for the elderly is there. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:44 Highlight the passage at 1:03:44

1:04:19 You listen to the old ones, because they've been through a lot, and when you're young you haven't, and you listen and try to understand what they're saying, because they oftentimes give helpful hints and advice. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:19 Highlight the passage at 1:04:19

1:04:35 But in a modern materialist society, that's almost, I see that this doesn't operate anymore. Old people, they're economically unproductive, and they're Report an error in the passage at 1:04:35 Highlight the passage at 1:04:35

1:04:53 And they're kind of isolated, separated, and disregarded. And this narrow age range of youth is exalted. And therefore you get this stressful result, this tension in the society. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:53 Highlight the passage at 1:04:53

1:05:19 Because nature is always seeking a balance. And that's one thing I appreciate, that there's room for everyone. It's not like the Nazis when they wanted to have just a kind of get rid of all the weaklings, the sickly, the undesirables, annihilate all that. I'm the judge and I decide who's desirable and who isn't. This whole section, off it goes, off to the extermination camps. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:19 Highlight the passage at 1:05:19

1:05:54 And we're going to breed perfect human beings. We're going to have breeding camps where you're going to get the most beautiful healthy women and the most handsome healthy men. Intelligence and beauty and health will be the standards. And you're going to breed a super race. That's the most conceited thought in the world, isn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:05:54 Highlight the passage at 1:05:54

1:06:24 Because it won't work. It just doesn't, it's an evil, you know, because to do that you have to destroy everything that doesn't fit into this very narrow range of what is approved. And when you do that, then you've set the whole force of evil into action. And then like what happened to Germany, wasn't it? Report an error in the passage at 1:06:24 Highlight the passage at 1:06:24

1:06:50 It just destroyed itself, really. The Nazis destroyed the country they were trying to help. Because that's what evil does. If you give it that much power, it turns on you and destroys you. It kills you other than giving you the power that you want. You can get power for a short time, admittedly, through evil. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:50 Highlight the passage at 1:06:50

1:07:18 You can be very strong for a short period of time, but it doesn't last. And then it ends. And it will always end in self-destruction. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:18 Highlight the passage at 1:07:18

1:07:41 Well, in the United Kingdom, you have some good forces. The fact that it's a country that you can be heard. I can talk like this here. You know that the secret service is out there ready to throw me into the prison. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:41 Highlight the passage at 1:07:41

1:08:07 Also, there's a lot of... Philanthropy. Philanthropists and there's wise people in the country. So, I mean, it's a country where I see a potential. I mean, it wants to go in the right direction. But it's tending to still be caught up in its old karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:07 Highlight the passage at 1:08:07

1:08:35 It's confused. It still thinks in terms of world... of Report an error in the passage at 1:08:35 Highlight the passage at 1:08:35

1:08:41 Political struggles and power, because it was a world power, you see, it still tends to feel inclined to be that still, rather than seeing that that isn't even desirable anymore. To be a world power is a pain in the neck, and a pain everywhere else. Say the United States is a world power, but it's... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:41 Highlight the passage at 1:08:41

1:09:15 It's not a pleasant thing to be for a country at this time. And so that kind of power is, to me, is not the kind of power that, that power is through suppression, through intimidation, through strength, using your strength by holding everyone else down. That power is not going to work anymore. You can see it worldwide, globally. Every minority group, everybody's struggling for their rights. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:15 Highlight the passage at 1:09:15

1:09:58 A hundred years ago, the British had their empire and the whole empire was quite docile. I mean, how could this little island off the coast of Europe dominate so much of Asia and Africa and America? How could just this little island, not a very big country, dominate? Report an error in the passage at 1:09:58 Highlight the passage at 1:09:58

1:10:18 And suppress all vast countries and areas of Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and North America, Africa. Because people then were willing to be dominated with guns and power and the presence of power, the appearance of being powerful, and you have these weapons. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:18 Highlight the passage at 1:10:18

1:10:52 And people were quite willing to be dominated. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:52 Highlight the passage at 1:10:52

1:10:59 Pax Britannia. But that can happen now. People aren't willing to be that way. You can see even in the Soviet Union now, the Soviets aren't willing to be just held down anymore and be dominated and told everywhere. In Cambodia, the Vietnamese, Report an error in the passage at 1:10:59 Highlight the passage at 1:10:59

1:11:27 Trying to hold down the Cambodians are giving up. It's too hard to spend all your energy to keep knocking them down every time they rise up. And the Russians in Afghanistan, the Americans in Vietnam, it's just that way of that kind of power is old and useless now. So we have to find a way of ...of developing, say, a cooperative global system just for ecology, for, say, saving the planet from pollution. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:27 Highlight the passage at 1:11:27

1:12:06 Because that's a common interest to every country on the planet. And so there's an opening up, what you can call a global consciousness, or an ability to perceive that one thing affects another. Like what we do here in England is going to affect the rest of the world. If we make pollution, if we pollute the environment, then we're not only polluting our own, but oftentimes it's going over to Sweden or Denmark or Switzerland. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:06 Highlight the passage at 1:12:06

1:12:49 the to nobile Report an error in the passage at 1:12:49 Highlight the passage at 1:12:49

1:12:55 Disaster. That was a strong warning sign. That happened in some place that nobody's ever been. Who's ever been in the Ukraine to that? Never heard of it before. And suddenly it becomes the most famous place in the world because of radiation. It managed to get across the Soviet borders. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:55 Highlight the passage at 1:12:55

1:13:20 Even the guards couldn't stop it. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:20 Highlight the passage at 1:13:20

1:13:34 Interesting. These are just reflections. What I try to do is to put into minds a possibility. Because I see that now it's possible to think in global terms. It's better to think now in terms of global society than in national forms. I can see that... That nationalism now is too small a perception. You can't just think of your nation and its welfare at the expense of every other nation. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:34 Highlight the passage at 1:13:34

1:14:17 You have to consider how your nation relates to the rest of them. Because we're sharing this planet together and what we do is going to affect the rest of the planet. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:17 Highlight the passage at 1:14:17

1:14:31 So that where before... It seemed like what we did here in Britain was our business, nobody else's business, and we could do our own thing here, and what they did in Sri Lanka was their business and nobody else's, and what people did in China was their business and nobody else's, and therefore we are, because the nationalism and the perception of the world was such that It seemed like that. I mean, the idea of going to China or Sri Lanka or any place else if you're living here in England was so remote a possibility that it was just some vague place off way beyond that you'd never see and never would know anybody from there. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:31 Highlight the passage at 1:14:31

1:15:21 But now, I mean, every middle class housewife wants a holiday in Hong Kong or Shanghai and has at least, you know, goes to... Australia or America, it's people just traveling everywhere. So, I mean, there's no kind of remote parts of the planet anymore. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:21 Highlight the passage at 1:15:21

1:15:49 And through that, you're developing a sense of a global society. And I see forms like the United Nations and... These are rather advanced, actually, and that's why they don't seem very effective yet, because they are ahead of their time, you know, as actually being practical and useful at this time. It tends to be a relatively powerless organization. But that is the direction that needs to be looked to, is toward a united nation, cooperative. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:49 Highlight the passage at 1:15:49

1:16:35 Global society. That would... Then the problems on the moral plane, economic and political, we could solve those. This third world problem and the divisions with communism and capitalism and all that, those aren't... The economic, political side, one could find reasonable solutions for. If you decide to cooperate, and then you'd have, but what you also need is the encouragement for the spiritual life, because even a perfectly harmonious and cooperative global society, we're still going to suffer. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:35 Highlight the passage at 1:16:35

1:17:32 We Report an error in the passage at 1:17:32 Highlight the passage at 1:17:32

1:17:36 still suffer. So it's not an end in itself. But it's something to point, because it's a possibility, and it's something worthy of praise, worthy of pointing to, this possibility. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:36 Highlight the passage at 1:17:36

1:17:59 Because if you just regard humanity in its lowest terms, almost like animals, then it is hopeless. I mean, it's just survival in the jungle. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:59 Highlight the passage at 1:17:59

1:18:12 Look out for yourself alone. And that's our instinctual nature. We all have that from the animal side of our karma instinct. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:12 Highlight the passage at 1:18:12

1:18:29 We all have that instinct. But that's not ourself. That's not what we are. We're not instinct. So that we rise above that instinct. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:29 Highlight the passage at 1:18:29

1:18:42 Not suppress it or deny it, but recognize it and transcend it. Then on the nationalism tends to be a strongly emotional feeling. You know, my nation, my country, and where people will go out and kill themselves, die on the battlefields out of this tremendous emotional dedication, loyalty and fervor for a national ideal. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:42 Highlight the passage at 1:18:42

1:19:13 But then, That is another level of human realization is the emotional plane. But that needs to be transcended also. Not repressed, but transcended. And then the ability to idealize is the rational faculties to be able to imagine a possibility for a better world or a perfect society. Or for the perfection of humanity and towards a spiritual, deathless realization. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:13 Highlight the passage at 1:19:13

1:19:55 So then we begin to build this harmony between the rational, emotional, instinctual levels of human experience. One's not dominating or suppressing another, but the instinctual... Report an error in the passage at 1:19:55 Highlight the passage at 1:19:55

1:20:17 ...is the energy, the planetary life, the energy from the earth and the forms that come from the earth. So it's birth and it's life and death and that's the instinctual energy rises up and the emotional side expands the sense of rather than just survival for me as a... Report an error in the passage at 1:20:17 Highlight the passage at 1:20:17

1:20:45 As an animal, the emotional side draws into one's experience of others, loving others, the family, the nation. And then that through the ones that one knows or one relates to, say. But then sometimes that just is just for the ones that I relate to. But the next tribe or the next country, I could care less about. What happens to the Soviet Union, I don't care, just as long as we're all right here. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:45 Highlight the passage at 1:20:45

1:21:24 But as we develop from our ability to realize ideas of, say, global unity and cooperation, then that very ability to think of the Russians as our family then changes. So our emotional plane starts widening to include, say, the communists, the Africans, the Asians, the Americans, everyone. The emotional nature can encompass that. But we need the perceptions for it. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:24 Highlight the passage at 1:21:24

1:22:09 Because most language has been very much developed from this more instinctual and and tribal and nationalistic claim, now the tendency is more towards expanding that towards perceptions that are more universal, embracing. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:09 Highlight the passage at 1:22:09

1:22:48 Any Report an error in the passage at 1:22:48 Highlight the passage at 1:22:48

1:22:52 more questions? Or time for tea? Can I say something? I'm asking myself at the end of the talk today, what have I decided? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:52 Highlight the passage at 1:22:52

1:23:14 How do we create a dharma society? We are lay people. We have to go out and do something. So the Report an error in the passage at 1:23:14 Highlight the passage at 1:23:14

1:23:30 question in the meeting today is commitment. And I find my commitment encouraged and strengthened to live the moral life. And I think that's why I come here. Last week I had to sell a car. And it's very tempting to say it's the mileage that's less than the walk. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:30 Highlight the passage at 1:23:30

1:23:55 There are a lot of things in the car that I've covered up. When I reflect on the light that is here, the absolute light, I felt I'm only creating that society. If I'm honest with the guy who's going to buy it, it doesn't mean I'm soft with him. He may be a good bargainer, may be equally unfair, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:23:55 Highlight the passage at 1:23:55

1:24:24 I'm only saying that I'm grateful for being here. I feel the dharma society. saw it, but that is, on our on what you said, everybody is in the morning, the morning. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:24 Highlight the passage at 1:24:24

1:24:40 Thank you. myself to do that in the coming weeks. No doubt I will be tempted many times to fail. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:40 Highlight the passage at 1:24:40

1:24:56 Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:56 Highlight the passage at 1:24:56

1:25:02 ha, Report an error in the passage at 1:25:02 Highlight the passage at 1:25:02

1:25:16 I was thinking, when I was younger, before I was a monk, and I was in university, and this was in the early 50s, and the Americans were involved in this war in Korea. It was called a police action. It had euphemisms for war. And then I was very confused, because I thought, well, Should I fight in the war? Should I become a conscientious objector? And I didn't really know what to do. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:16 Highlight the passage at 1:25:16

1:25:56 And the idealistic side said, you know, well, to be a conscientious objector. And then what was called the practical side said, oh, you know, you just create a lot of problems and you could probably get by and not get involved. So there's this, and you might even get killed if you go over there. And so this kind of wishy-washiness and confusion dominated my early life, actually. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:56 Highlight the passage at 1:25:56

1:26:34 And longing to having a real powerful realization, a powerful insight in realization. But just on idealism alone, I couldn't do it. The idealistic side would easily go off into saying, oh, you've got to be realistic about things and so forth. Then I noticed that, and then I spent four years in the Navy and survived that. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:34 Highlight the passage at 1:26:34

1:27:09 And then when I became a monk, then this fear of death, I used to wonder what would happen to me if... that Report an error in the passage at 1:27:09 Highlight the passage at 1:27:09

1:27:19 If somebody said, you know, if I were to say, being a monk you have this moral discipline, if somebody said, you go rob a bank or I'll kill you, what would I do? Would I keep to the moral discipline and be killed, or go and rob the bank and stay alive? This kind of intellectual dilemma. And idealistically, I say, well, I'd die first rather than break the rules. And then the other side says, well, you know, be practical. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:19 Highlight the passage at 1:27:19

1:27:59 Then through the meditation on dharma, I realized, a very strong realization, I realized one day, I said, it's better, I'd rather die than do evil. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:59 Highlight the passage at 1:27:59

1:28:18 Because I'm going to die anyway. And death is nothing to really be frightened of. It happens to everybody. But evil, you know, doing evil and doing unkind, evil, mean kind of things really frightens me. I know the result is that even if I should live 120 years, Report an error in the passage at 1:28:18 Highlight the passage at 1:28:18

1:28:46 I would be in a very miserable state for that long. I mean, it would be a hell realm of misery for me. Even though I might survive a long lifetime by doing evil, I'd still have to live all these years in this state of anxiety and fear and guilt. So then I suddenly felt really happy. I thought, well, it doesn't matter when you die. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:46 Highlight the passage at 1:28:46

1:29:15 Die now, die 50 years from now, that's not the issue. And then it became really strong in me that to do evil was really something to not do and not get involved in, even if it seems practical at the time. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:15 Highlight the passage at 1:29:15

1:29:34 Or it's expedient. And then it came from this insight that it was no longer just An idea in my head, a real powerful sense of truth and rightness about it, rather than this fuzzy realm of ideas that can easily be compromised. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:34 Highlight the passage at 1:29:34

1:30:04 So I think we have tea now. Mr. Jyotika, invite you all for a cup of tea. compromised. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:04 Highlight the passage at 1:30:04