Understanding Ourselves - Q and A (1992)

0:01 Understanding ourselves. Report an error in the passage at 0:01 Highlight the passage at 0:01

0:07 Anybody have any questions or anything they'd like to say or have me say or what? Report an error in the passage at 0:07 Highlight the passage at 0:07

0:28 way for people who are living, like us, so not in the monastic form, in the outside world, so to speak, all the distractions are all around us all time, from the spiritual life. Report an error in the passage at 0:28 Highlight the passage at 0:28

0:48 Well, like reflecting on the way it is, you know, you recognize you're living in a society that is this way. The result, say, of materialism and consumerism, these kind of words, empirical science, and a strong sense of individuality, rights. Now, there's always... Good things, there's always advantages in this, as well as disadvantages. One can just see consumerism, materialism, all these things in a totally kind of negative way. Report an error in the passage at 0:48 Highlight the passage at 0:48

1:32 But also they have advantages as well as disadvantages. For one thing, say here in modern Britain, you have a lot of freedom. Report an error in the passage at 1:32 Highlight the passage at 1:32

1:48 You can do what you want. Report an error in the passage at 1:48 Highlight the passage at 1:48

1:53 And so even though that means that people can do a lot of things that aren't very good, it also means you can do things that are very good. And also recognize that most people in the society, the society itself, tends towards pulling you into doing things and keeping busy. And distractions, endless distractions. Like I was thinking today how, you know, like the result of now of whole generations of people who've been brought up watching television or with computer games. Report an error in the passage at 1:53 Highlight the passage at 1:53

2:42 And, you know, you can see that, no, I don't watch television. So it's not, I never really watched television. I'm talking about something I've not really spent much time with myself. But I know that they say that the attention span of children is very limited now because television, they give you a series of excited images, one right after another. Report an error in the passage at 2:42 Highlight the passage at 2:42

3:13 You don't develop the ability to sit down and concentrate for any length of time. So the tension span and concentration is not being developed in modern life. And we're living in a society that always is seeking instant distraction as quickly as possible. Modern technology allows that. You can eat whenever you want. You can watch the television. You have a car. Report an error in the passage at 3:13 Highlight the passage at 3:13

3:43 You can go. You're not stuck in one place. Stuck through a winter time of having to knit socks or embroider samplers and things like that. You know, you can go off to Majorca for the winter. Report an error in the passage at 3:43 Highlight the passage at 3:43

4:06 So this is the modern life. It has advantages but also disadvantages. And then to see it, to recognize both advantages and disadvantages, then try to develop like move towards simplicity is a good suggestion rather than increasing complexity because modern life is very complicated and so you're just caught in a web of so many things happening all at once and so many options so many alternatives possibilities that Report an error in the passage at 4:06 Highlight the passage at 4:06

5:22 begin to not take kind of harsh measures of coming from a high standard of asceticism where you're going to, you know, get rid of everything and live this kind of ideal life on a very kind of rigid standard of poverty that you might find attractive as an ideal, but as a reality you might find unbearable. Report an error in the passage at 5:22 Highlight the passage at 5:22

5:46 It's terrible. So, you know, it's not like the Buddha is saying, it's not like a kind of idealism that he's promoting, but a way of learning and understanding and developing in which you can, you know, cope with your life as you're living it. Report an error in the passage at 5:46 Highlight the passage at 5:46

6:14 You can use it, but you have to accept your life. If you're just always, Thinking, oh, I can't practice, and I can't do this, and life is just, you know, if you're just complaining and thinking of it always in negative terms, then that kind of mental state may make life impossible anyway, whatever you're doing. Report an error in the passage at 6:14 Highlight the passage at 6:14

6:41 But even if you've got many obstacles or difficult, complex situations to deal with, you can still work with that. And more than being patient with it or accepting, non-complaining help. And this way you can, you know, you find you have a tremendous ability to be at peace with things that maybe before you thought you wouldn't ever be able to endure. Report an error in the passage at 6:41 Highlight the passage at 6:41

7:15 Not reacting. And like... and, uh... Report an error in the passage at 7:15 Highlight the passage at 7:15

7:23 I find some people have the, you know, I can't take any more of this, I've had enough, the kind of hysteria, the panic. But you can, you know, if you have to, you can. We're pretty tough, kind of surviving type creatures. And so you, it's amazing what you can stand. But what you think you can't stand is, you know, probably, you know. Report an error in the passage at 7:23 Highlight the passage at 7:23

7:51 Little things, I can't take it, I've had enough in some little thing, you know. You know, some tiny little thing can, like the last straw that breaks the camel's back, you blow up. But then, remind yourself that you can take it. And in that, you begin to find a sense of your own worth, too. That you're not a kind of delicate little flower that just gets... Report an error in the passage at 7:51 Highlight the passage at 7:51

8:20 Totally shattered over this and that. And you find out you really take life. You can go to it. You can embrace it. You can live it and learn from it. Where if you think you're just a very delicate little thing that is just going to be crushed by this or that, then you tend to be that way. You'll tend to become a person that can't take very much and is frightened by life. Report an error in the passage at 8:20 Highlight the passage at 8:20

8:53 I know that like in monastic life, there's a strong tendency to want harmony, tranquility, not have any responsibilities. Report an error in the passage at 8:53 Highlight the passage at 8:53

9:13 So like the idea of the bhikkhu, where you leave the worldly life, you don't have all these responsibilities, you don't have family, you don't have money, and you don't... And all this is in what appeals very much to many of us. And so then also you want harmony in the saṅgha and you want space, a lot of time for yourself and you don't want to be burdened with responsibilities and you want to have a lot of time to develop tranquility. Report an error in the passage at 9:13 Highlight the passage at 9:13

9:56 So it becomes, monasticism then becomes a very selfish, Self-centered. I want this and I want that. And you find yourself getting very upset when these things are not possible. If that's what you want and you're not seeing your desire, you're not really honest with yourself and you're merely thinking, oh, the saṅgha should be in harmony and I shouldn't have to do so much. Report an error in the passage at 9:56 Highlight the passage at 9:56

10:26 I need more space and I need this and that. Then we tend to become people that have very narrow limits for our lives. And we just get blown away by anything. You just have to go off and live alone really. If you can afford to go off and kind of set yourself up in a little place where you can control. But I see that as not being a spiritual. Report an error in the passage at 10:26 Highlight the passage at 10:26

11:12 monastic life the Buddha set up on the refuge in Saṅgha which always means community you're always related to community in the bhikkhu life you're not a hermit it's not aromatic life Report an error in the passage at 11:12 Highlight the passage at 11:12

11:27 You're almost forbidden to be a hermit. You can't grow your own cabbages. You know, there's all these rules. You can't have money. There's no way you can kind of be self-supporting. So you're always in some way dependent and having to relate to either lay people or other monks, nuns, and so forth. And this, I see, was the Buddha's intention because I think... Report an error in the passage at 11:27 Highlight the passage at 11:27

11:57 He saw that tendency in humanity to want to isolate yourself. I find hermetic practice, I really like that. I find living with human beings, it's very agitating, irritating. But then in developing reflection on dharma, then... You find out you can take it, and you even begin to be grateful, appreciative of being able to live in a community with the people you're living with. Report an error in the passage at 11:57 Highlight the passage at 11:57

12:45 You feel gratitude to them for being the way they are, because you're learning from them. We all learn from each other, rather than just, you know, you only learn from the very best and the ones that you particularly have affinities with. Even people that we find it difficult to cope with, we learn how to. We learn to expand, how to be flexible. Report an error in the passage at 12:45 Highlight the passage at 12:45

13:13 And I see the human life like now is with a population explosion. I mean there's so many more. Like one time I was invited, before I came to Britain, I was in Thailand, I'd made this vow. Report an error in the passage at 13:13 Highlight the passage at 13:13

13:34 After the fall of Vietnam to the Viet Cong and the Americans fled, and then this is 1975 and then 76, I determined that I would go back and live in the West. Report an error in the passage at 13:34 Highlight the passage at 13:34

13:52 And then the first opportunity was here in Britain. And then after I accepted the invitation from the English Saṅgha Trust, I got another invitation to go and live in Australia, in Queensland. So I thought, then I thought, Queensland is a nice warm climate. Report an error in the passage at 13:52 Highlight the passage at 13:52

14:16 It's like Thailand. And then I thought, and there aren't so many people, you know, in Europe, Britain is supposed to be, you know, overpopulated and all these, you know, and I thought... Report an error in the passage at 14:16 Highlight the passage at 14:16

14:31 You know, you'd be able to have maybe more of a hermetic life in Australia with not so many people there and then you have this nice warm climate to live in. But you see, because I'd already accepted the English Saṅgha Trust, I didn't feel it would be right to kind of back out just on a level of my own desires. Report an error in the passage at 14:31 Highlight the passage at 14:31

14:56 And then I look back and I see, now I see myself in You know, with the European population and with... And I see that this is a... You know, I want to be here. I want to be in the middle of it. I mean, this is my aspiration to be able to live in the middle of all these people to try to practice with that and also to be of some service to them. Report an error in the passage at 14:56 Highlight the passage at 14:56

15:29 You know, because you're... You think of here in Britain or in Europe with the kind of enormous population pressures that Europe has now, you see all these potential enlightened beings, millions of them, where kangaroos and that are impossible, even though they're easier to live with. Report an error in the passage at 15:29 Highlight the passage at 15:29

15:57 Isn't that right? Report an error in the passage at 15:57 Highlight the passage at 15:57

16:08 Yes? will. Report an error in the passage at 16:08 Highlight the passage at 16:08

16:10 to me a lot about the of... Accepting a situation, except for your position, without being judgmental, I'm trying to relate that to an individual or a group of people having some goals, maybe important to them, and where their achievements might necessitate a very objective and possibly judgmental assessment of a position. Report an error in the passage at 16:10 Highlight the passage at 16:10

16:42 These could be individual goals, something I personally want to do. there could be wider, like a commercial goal and... factory to build, to make chairs like this, please, be built in the mold to provide the chair that's going to be built by a set time for so much money. Well, Report an error in the passage at 16:42 Highlight the passage at 16:42

17:18 I mean, this is where your... so on, a community goal like the creation of an education service or a health service. the acceptance that you described earlier easily be related to achievement of whatever goals one might have? Report an error in the passage at 17:18 Highlight the passage at 17:18

17:20 You're looking at the way it is and you can, you know, for business or for things like dealing with particular instances, you have to accept the way it is. You can't, and in that, then you can, once you accept the way it is, then you can respond to the way it is. But if you're always, if you never really accept the way things are, First, then you're merely reacting to emotionally reacting to things or just caught up kind of perfunctorily in doing things. Report an error in the passage at 17:20 Highlight the passage at 17:20

18:03 Like if I have to accept this clock the way it is before I can really see it and appreciate it or see what's wrong with it. If I'm just merely reacting to it then I don't even you know I just have maybe a you know I react to it on just on liking or disliking it or being attached or wanting to get rid of it but I'm not I'm just more of a of a just a habit and not a real you know understanding so in accepting something it's like holding it and being willing to look at it and observe and then you can Then your ability to understand maybe how to deal with this in the right way, your intuition and your ability to see it in perspective is possible then. Report an error in the passage at 18:03 Highlight the passage at 18:03

19:07 See, where so much of life is, is just reactive. You're just caught up in a series of habitual reactions to stimulation. But in mindfulness, Report an error in the passage at 19:07 Highlight the passage at 19:07

19:21 Even like pain or sickness or anger or any of these things, you're willing to look at it for what it is. It's this way. See, if you're reacting to it, then you think, I don't want it to be this way. It's a reaction, say, if you don't like it. But accepting it means that it's still, maybe you don't like it, but you can actually look at it without just... Report an error in the passage at 19:21 Highlight the passage at 19:21

19:51 You know, dismissing it or being, you know, caught in just a blinded reaction to it. Report an error in the passage at 19:51 Highlight the passage at 19:51

20:05 Right. that can get very complex is, in the communities I go. there can be significant conflict of views different people involved and like an education system health system Report an error in the passage at 20:05 Highlight the passage at 20:05

20:15 probably quite example once one can really accept the situation Report an error in the passage at 20:15 Highlight the passage at 20:15

20:26 If I then feel it is appropriate to change it, I will have to work with somebody else who actually thinks it's quite fine as it is and doesn't need any change. Report an error in the passage at 20:26 Highlight the passage at 20:26

20:38 In areas like that, the acceptance of a situation is much harder where there's going to be significant conflict between individuals as to how something should be and how to achieve what it should be. Report an error in the passage at 20:38 Highlight the passage at 20:38

20:56 this is kind of a... Report an error in the passage at 20:56 Highlight the passage at 20:56

21:02 You know, this is the problem of our lives, really, is learning how to, like if one is just caught in, you know, holding to one's viewpoint and then resenting the other, then, of course, it's just misery. Or if you're just going along with the other one because you just don't want to be bothered to fight or stand up for what you think is right, you just go along with the system. Report an error in the passage at 21:02 Highlight the passage at 21:02

21:33 The other kind of extreme. But sometimes we have to accept something bad in order to change it. And we have, we can't just, if we're too, if we have too high standard and too high, you know, ideals that are just so high. That life, we just can't work with life as it is, because we're always coming from a high horse position. Report an error in the passage at 21:33 Highlight the passage at 21:33

22:11 Sometimes we have to accept the corruption and the evil in the system. Doesn't mean we approve, but if we don't, we'd have to maybe leave the place and just let it, you know, nobody would have any ability to influence it. But say, if our Report an error in the passage at 22:11 Highlight the passage at 22:11

22:36 intention is right, like working within a system that may be quite corrupt or something we don't like at all, but we see that we might have a chance to help it out, maybe to make it a little bit better or to guide it in a way, then to do that we need to use wisdom. Which sometimes is not saying anything, and sometimes it's saying something, but that's more, you know, something you have to know in the time and the place rather than have a fixed view about it. Report an error in the passage at 22:36 Highlight the passage at 22:36

23:17 I remember, you know, like a friend of mine was very idealistic and very high standards for what he wanted as a teacher, you know, in his school. And he could never work in any existing school because he just was so critical of them all. And he'd only fight with them because he had very strong views about how children should be educated. Report an error in the passage at 23:17 Highlight the passage at 23:17

23:46 And he did get very contentious. And so even though a lot of his views were very good, he never had any effect on any place because he just ended up being someone who was quarrelsome rather than... Report an error in the passage at 23:46 Highlight the passage at 23:46

24:11 if I come to work for you, then I just, right off, start telling you how you should run your hospital or whatever, and, you know, I might be right, but it's still, I'm being conceited, arrogant, not very sensitive. Report an error in the passage at 24:11 Highlight the passage at 24:11

24:28 Sensitive to you or the rest of people who have been there for a long time. So I, even though my views might be very good and it might be just exactly what you need to do with your place, it's that I've made it impossible for you to agree. It's my fault because I've come in from an arrogant, let me tell you what you should do. Report an error in the passage at 24:28 Highlight the passage at 24:28

24:54 And it makes it impossible for you to accept my good ideas. It would be impossible. And so like arrogant people, sometimes they have very good ideas, but nobody can accept them because of the way they say it and their attitudes. So it's how we say things. And how, you know, the right time and the right place, that takes wisdom, to be able to be patient and to be able to put up with a lot of maybe misery and unhappiness in order to bide our time, to be able to have the effect that will change things for the better. Report an error in the passage at 24:54 Highlight the passage at 24:54

25:51 You know, I keep thinking that Mr. Gorbachev, he must have been kind of... Biting his tongue most of his life. Waiting for his chance. Going along with the system all the way. Report an error in the passage at 25:51 Highlight the passage at 25:51

26:10 Does that Report an error in the passage at 26:10 Highlight the passage at 26:10

26:16 help you? Report an error in the passage at 26:16 Highlight the passage at 26:16

· · · silence, 1 minute

26:49 Well that, you have to really, you have to know what you're doing. Like accepting it is, you know, if there's nothing you can do about it. Report an error in the passage at 26:49 Highlight the passage at 26:49

27:00 But then, then, I mean, Like if one has to do correct things, that's one thing, but I mean this is a very difficult thing to get any perspective on because in the long run, you know, the Buddha established the Saṅgha so people get out of these dilemmas. Report an error in the passage at 27:00 Highlight the passage at 27:00

27:29 Because lay life is always filled with these... These dilemmas, moral dilemmas. One time I remember Ajahn Chah, when he was in England, he went to this community down in West Sussex, a kind of Buddhist community of Western people, and there was one young man who had planted this beautiful garden. And it had all these kind of marvelous vegetables and flowers in it. And so he was, you know, kind of with great pride showing us this garden that he obviously spent a lot of time with. Report an error in the passage at 27:29 Highlight the passage at 27:29

28:19 And then he was asking Ajahn Chah about the morality of like using sprays to kill insects and, you know. you know, destroying Destroying various creatures that also like your garden and want to eat from it. And so Ajahn kept saying, well, you know, because we're trying to grow these vegetables for the community, isn't it morally acceptable to spray and to get rid of these pests that destroy the garden? Report an error in the passage at 28:19 Highlight the passage at 28:19

28:58 And Ajahn Chah never go along with any of this, you know, no matter how convincing the man kept trying to make his case about, you know, to destroy these pasts was morally justifiable in order for the greater good. But Ajahn Chah never give an inch on this issue. And so the man then said in exasperation, well, what can I do? What can I do to solve this problem? Report an error in the passage at 28:58 Highlight the passage at 28:58

29:26 He says, become a monk. Report an error in the passage at 29:26 Highlight the passage at 29:26

29:32 He said, that's what I was afraid you were going to say. Report an error in the passage at 29:32 Highlight the passage at 29:32

29:44 It's like the Jataka story of Demi. I think it's Demi. The one that was the deaf-mute, the stupid one. He was born as the son of a king. sorry. Report an error in the passage at 29:44 Highlight the passage at 29:44

29:43 in the Report an error in the passage at 29:43 Highlight the passage at 29:43

30:01 And when he was born, he suddenly realized, oh no, I'll have to be a king again. And if I'm a king, I'll have to be responsible for public executions and the killing of other people. And so he decided that he would play the part of a kind of idiot and deaf and dumb, mentally retarded being. So he lived. Report an error in the passage at 30:01 Highlight the passage at 30:01

30:31 His life, you know, in this state of where he, because he saw that he didn't want to be king and have that karma of being a king and finally succeeded in avoiding and getting out of the whole thing to develop, I think, patience and endurance with, you know, the... Things that would happen to him in that state. All kinds of dreadful things happened. He was thrown out of that palace and people tried to kill him and he knew what was going on all the time but he still would rather go along with this than take the chance of having to become king following in the footsteps of his father and then be responsible for killing off the enemy. Report an error in the passage at 30:31 Highlight the passage at 30:31

31:21 And we recognize it in the worldly life that the worldly life is that way. One tries to say, encourage people to stay within the five precepts in lay life, to keep that as a standard for the limits of restraint in regards to action and speech. Report an error in the passage at 31:21 Highlight the passage at 31:21

31:51 people to stay within those limits and especially if you're in the old days of say when kings were expected to kill their enemies and there were slaves and in the time of Buddha there was slavery was part of a social system and this wasn't even considered you know there's there's rules about being kind to your slaves in the Vinaya the you know for householders and that. You know, Slainby was... Report an error in the passage at 31:51 Highlight the passage at 31:51

32:18 And the idea of slavery is just, you know, is totally evil as far as we're concerned. But at the time of the Buddha, it was part of a social structure. And so the attitude towards one's slaves was to treat them properly and be kind. But they were still slaves. Slavery had not become a bad thing yet. Now, say, we... Report an error in the passage at 32:18 Highlight the passage at 32:18

32:46 The social consciousness has changed in humanity. And the egalitarian ideals are, you know, everybody wants democracy now. Democracy is, you know, everybody says they're democratic, even when they aren't. And yet, democracy is, to be really democratic, you have to be quite a developed being. You know, you have to... Report an error in the passage at 32:46 Highlight the passage at 32:46

33:19 I'm a very mature kind of person. I mean, children, spoiled children, are not Democrats. They're tyrants. And so... And we learn how to be democratic. The more mature and wise, the more we use wisdom, then that kind of relationship is more attractive, more appealing to us. But to say in so much of the modern world is, I mean, people are basically inner tyrant. Report an error in the passage at 33:19 Highlight the passage at 33:19

33:59 I mean, basically still in the state of tyranny, inner tyranny and outer tyranny, learning to control or dominate. And you can see, you know, I used to talk, you know, I used to give talks about the inner tyrant because the inside one is, is a form of tyranny in your own mind. Like I have this, I used to have this inner tyrant that was always criticizing me. Report an error in the passage at 33:59 Highlight the passage at 33:59

34:30 And I thought, nobody, no other person has been as relentlessly critical and unkind to me as this tyrant inside me. Because it was always, no matter what I did, it would always say it's not good enough. Report an error in the passage at 34:30 Highlight the passage at 34:30

34:47 No matter what I did, it would always pick up on the thing that wasn't quite right. It would always exaggerate the flaw. It would look at the smudge on the wall and see only that and not see the rest. And it was relentless until I really began to see, you know, accept it and recognize it and not feed it anymore. Report an error in the passage at 34:47 Highlight the passage at 34:47

35:18 Believe in it, not nurture it. Report an error in the passage at 35:18 Highlight the passage at 35:18

35:41 Well, there's like in Buddhist terminology, hiryotapa is a good thing, like a sense of shame or having a conscience. So, I mean, that's a virtue where you tell a lie or you do something half-heartedly or something you do is not very good and then your conscience says, well, that's not very good or you shouldn't have said that. Report an error in the passage at 35:41 Highlight the passage at 35:41

36:06 That's healthy. I mean, without that, we'd be psychopaths. But then it goes into... But then it becomes a tyrant through this sense of I am exaggerating it. It's not just at the moment. You say, if you say it, tell a lie, and then you... You feel ashamed. That's a healthy mind. But then the neurosis would come in. Oh, I'm just hopeless case. It goes into an endless kind of nagging criticism and kind of obloquy that goes on and on and always is causing you, even when you're never acknowledging even what you do good as being worthy. It becomes a habit, a negative habit. Report an error in the passage at 36:06 Highlight the passage at 36:06

37:01 This is what so many good people suffer from. Report an error in the passage at 37:01 Highlight the passage at 37:01

37:09 They're good, their intentions are very good, but this tyrant inside them will never allow them to even enjoy it or to acknowledge it. Report an error in the passage at 37:09 Highlight the passage at 37:09

37:29 And also, we have to, I think in the modern People, like I can see just from my own life, there's a side of myself that was never acceptable till I determined to accept it. In psychology they call it the shadow or the dark side of whatever. This sense, you know, one is very much concerned with ideals and high standards. Report an error in the passage at 37:29 Highlight the passage at 37:29

38:04 And you're not aware of, oftentimes, the very kind of primordial, primitive forces that human beings have. And they're rejected. And then because of that rejection, you get a lot of irrational fear and just a lot of tensions and anxieties or neuroses come from that. Because it's like in, as you develop the spiritual path, you're accepting the total of it. Both the kind of primordial, instinctive drives and the whole range of human experience from the hells to the heavens, that's to be seen in terms of dharma. Report an error in the passage at 38:04 Highlight the passage at 38:04

38:56 Then you're... you're... You're developing a spiritual path. But where you're merely trying to become a kind of perfect ideal, and by totally refusing to understand or admit or accept your dark side, then you end up always in a state of, sometimes you can act like that, but you can't sustain it, because it's out of balance, it's extreme. Report an error in the passage at 38:56 Highlight the passage at 38:56

39:27 Because in the human situation, we're... We are made up of so many levels of earth and animality and this is part of our karma also as well as the divinity of it. And it's in the recognition and acceptance of both that there's transcendence. But much of the idealistic western attitude has been to just point to the high point. Report an error in the passage at 39:27 Highlight the passage at 39:27

40:00 That's how life should be. And then in the process, never come to terms with life as you're experiencing it. So you don't understand why you're frightened or why life is so disappointing or things like this because your ideal has never been able, you've never been able to sustain life as an ideal. Report an error in the passage at 40:00 Highlight the passage at 40:00

40:28 I think that's like when I became a monk. I felt this tremendous disappointment because I was very idealistic before that, a young man, and yet trying to make life fit into the ideal, I was a total failure. Couldn't do it. Report an error in the passage at 40:28 Highlight the passage at 40:28

40:51 And so I was very disappointed. Report an error in the passage at 40:51 Highlight the passage at 40:51

40:58 And then one tends to approach monasticism with the same mind, you know. it? Report an error in the passage at 40:58 Highlight the passage at 40:58

41:03 You go to, like in Thailand, you go up to the monastery and then you start criticizing everything. You know, you think, well, they shouldn't do it like that. In mind, you start complaining and, you know, and you feel, another thing that's going to disappoint me. I put so much faith in Buddhist monasticism, but it's another, you know, but at least, you know, our teacher was pretty Report an error in the passage at 41:03 Highlight the passage at 41:03

41:34 at getting us to look at that, see that, you know, in terms of Dhamma rather than to, you know, otherwise, I mean, where can you go? There's no place on this planet that you can live. Report an error in the passage at 41:34 Highlight the passage at 41:34

42:09 Well, I'd like to think of faith as... I mean, faith is a word that... I Report an error in the passage at 42:09 Highlight the passage at 42:09

42:20 mean, we have to define what we mean by it. Well, say in the Pāli, the language of the Pāli canon, they use the word sata, which is a very skillful state. It's not like believing in, it's not just being caught up in sentimental idealism or anything, but it's, if you have no real sata in anything, you can't do it. Report an error in the passage at 42:20 Highlight the passage at 42:20

42:46 You have to have a measure of sata to be able to do anything. Like a trust or an interest, something that, That you feel an interest or a trust that this is worth trying at least. That's, say, a measure of saddha. And like with buddhadhamma, before I practiced it, before I did any meditation, I had this saddha in it. Report an error in the passage at 42:46 Highlight the passage at 42:46

43:10 Something in me trusted it, even just from reading it in books. There was also doubts, you know, because I'd read so many books and I'd been disappointed by so many things. Because, you know, so one could be cynical and suspicious, but there was enough of the saddha to get me to actually become a monk. Report an error in the passage at 43:10 Highlight the passage at 43:10

43:39 And then through the saddha was the meditation and the bhavana, the meditations that they used, helped to develop wisdom. And then wisdom and saddha, paññā and saddha, are like a balance for each other. In Buddhadham, everything is in this state of balance. So if there's too much saddha without wisdom, it's imbalanced. One tends to believe too easily or just follow something without really understanding it, just going along with believing. Report an error in the passage at 43:39 Highlight the passage at 43:39

44:24 A kind of blindness and sentimentality is an extreme that leads to, that cannot take you to enlightenment. And if there's too much paññā without saddha, that means your paññā is more like being able to use, to reflect into, it's partly being able to see the differences of things. To see the, you know, it can become very critical. Say if somebody has a, say, over too much panya, then they tend to see everything in terms of negative, what's wrong or how one thing is worse than another. Report an error in the passage at 44:24 Highlight the passage at 44:24

45:13 And so then it's out of balance too. But the two together, then they kind of go hand in hand. Yes, it would be. Report an error in the passage at 45:13 Highlight the passage at 45:13

45:29 Probably not Report an error in the passage at 45:29 Highlight the passage at 45:29

46:02 enough wisdom. If Report an error in the passage at 46:02 Highlight the passage at 46:02

46:08 you speak about the monk that I've... Report an error in the passage at 46:08 Highlight the passage at 46:08

46:20 Not enough wisdom. Report an error in the passage at 46:20 Highlight the passage at 46:20

46:41 I hope so. Report an error in the passage at 46:41 Highlight the passage at 46:41

47:00 it wisdom to that it Report an error in the passage at 47:00 Highlight the passage at 47:00

47:08 Well, say, I would, I mean, those are, those are, those kind of perceptions do arise, but, but there's, I mean, sometimes one has to disrobe out of necessity, but if one is just choosing to disrobe over, you know, because you, because it may be, because in monastic life you, you, Report an error in the passage at 47:08 Highlight the passage at 47:08

47:38 Sometimes you aren't coming clean with your own desires. You're assuming too much Report an error in the passage at 47:38 Highlight the passage at 47:38

47:56 and you're pretending too much. And there can be pride in it. And if that's not really addressed, then one can think, well, I can learn just as well as a lay person. That's what I'll do. Which is really, you know, I see... In most cases, it's just a kind of excuse to do what you want. You're not really addressing what's there, the cause. Report an error in the passage at 47:56 Highlight the passage at 47:56

48:26 You're merely justifying your own desire. And that's what... Because, you know, one... Like, you go through disillusionment in this monasticism, like anything is. A level of inspiration then collapses and then you can... And you're just critical of it, or you can... There's a lot of reasons, a lot of good reasons to suspect it of all kinds of things. Report an error in the passage at 48:26 Highlight the passage at 48:26

48:59 And also, you can reach kind of boring, dreary plateaus in it. Nothing much you don't seem to... So these are, say, if used as part of the practice, then one... Then they're very strengthening periods. But if they're just, if those are the excuses to leave it, then I would say that it would, if you determine to believe that, then I'm sure that's going to influence how you live your lay life. Report an error in the passage at 48:59 Highlight the passage at 48:59

49:39 You know, you're not, there's still a basic level of delusion that you operate from that you haven't really penetrated. Report an error in the passage at 49:39 Highlight the passage at 49:39

49:55 Well, it's hard to say, because some people, you Report an error in the passage at 49:55 Highlight the passage at 49:55

50:06 know, it's, one can say all the right things, but in the, and you can, you know, there's a, you can kind of get the feeling for the practice, and you can, you know, teach and be very inspiring and very, you know, have a good effect on many people. But still, There are certain things that in anybody's life, there's very trying periods. And I've found in my own life, just periods that are very, not due to anything particularly external, probably mostly internal things are coming into consciousness. Report an error in the passage at 50:06 Highlight the passage at 50:06

50:54 And a lot of them is like in doubting and in Report an error in the passage at 50:54 Highlight the passage at 50:54

51:03 The doubting tendency of the mind and that is very convincing and it has a very, you know, it's something that easily one can believe in and follow. follow. And one, you know, in... But then through that, if you really penetrate the nature of doubt, then that's the stream entry, the real understanding of the path, is you break through that illusion that doubt perpetuates in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 51:03 Highlight the passage at 51:03

51:47 thing to destroy when we can't eat our wings. rest spiritually in the outside world. as well, in a different way, just well as he would. It might be easier were a monk, but living in the outside world, could he not still progress? Report an error in the passage at 51:47 Highlight the passage at 51:47

52:07 Yeah, well, I mean, disrobing is no obstacle to enlightenment, but Report an error in the passage at 52:07 Highlight the passage at 52:07

52:19 I can't Report an error in the passage at 52:19 Highlight the passage at 52:19

52:29 perceive that ever happening. But Report an error in the passage at 52:29 Highlight the passage at 52:29

52:39 it's not that disrobing is, but it's the attachment to views. That is the problem, you see. Report an error in the passage at 52:39 Highlight the passage at 52:39

52:58 Right. Like, nothing is really an obstacle except ignorance and attachment. You know, if you... I mean, like having cancer or AIDS or, you know, being a slave in a prison or any kind of horrid kind of... Condition is not an obstacle to enlightenment unless you grasp it and identify with it. See, the Buddha's pointing at that alone, at this basic ignorance of not understanding things, and then the desire and attachment that comes from that. Report an error in the passage at 52:58 Highlight the passage at 52:58

53:48 Regards to Buddhism or teachings of the Buddha, even grasping teachings of the Buddha can be an obstacle, you know, if one is attached. Report an error in the passage at 53:48 Highlight the passage at 53:48

54:01 To Buddhism, it's not that Buddhism is the obstacle, it's the attachment that is the problem. Or monasticism can be something that helps, or if you attach to being a monk, then the attachment to it is the problem, is the obstacle, not the monastic side. Report an error in the passage at 54:01 Highlight the passage at 54:01

54:26 Or, say, being a man or a woman, if one is attached. To that perception, the obstacle is not in being a man or a woman, but in being attached to the view about it. There's always that attachment. Report an error in the passage at 54:26 Highlight the passage at 54:26

54:44 If you always go to that, you'll get it right. You can get caught up in trying to figure out the world and sort out how to make a... Report an error in the passage at 54:44 Highlight the passage at 54:44

55:11 aims and goals but the attachment to that if you don't see it you don't see that and you attach to these these noble altruistic goals and and And there's an attachment to them. Then they'll take you and you'll become the world's biggest cynic. Report an error in the passage at 55:11 Highlight the passage at 55:11

55:39 Well, it's learning to understand the nature of your mind. Like ideals and that are something to look toward but not to attach to. It's like high standards and principles and all this are... They're like something you, we need them, we need to have those as kind of guides, keep a direction. But if you attach to them out of ignorance, then you're always criticizing the way the world is or you're criticizing yourself. Report an error in the passage at 55:39 Highlight the passage at 55:39

56:17 Nothing's ever going to fit into these ideals and you just end up being cynical. You know, human nature is hopeless and I'm hopeless and just... Make the best of a bad deal. You become a real embittered cynic. I'm sure the world's biggest cynics were once very altruistic, high-minded beings who were just disillusioned. Report an error in the passage at 56:17 Highlight the passage at 56:17

56:44 But that is a very marvelous function of our mind, to be able to think of, say, perfect honesty. honesty or-love. Selflessness and to be charitable and totally generous. We can think of these superlative ideas and that's quite marvelous that we can do it, that we can actually think that way. We can actually create perceptions around being totally selfless and completely generous and kind to all beings and forgiving. Report an error in the passage at 56:44 Highlight the passage at 56:44

57:28 Completely loving and, I mean, these are very inspiring ideals. But if we grasp that as ideals, then we tend to become disillusioned by them. Where if we see that that function of our mind is something to respect and to use as a guide, as a direction, but not as a fixed position, then we can deal with the things that... Report an error in the passage at 57:28 Highlight the passage at 57:28

57:59 The nitty-gritty of daily life, which is never ideal. It's just the way it is. It's like a guiding star. You need to keep your direction when you're out at sea. You need a star to keep your direction. But you also have to know where you are and how the state of the sea might be, whether a typhoon or... Report an error in the passage at 57:59 Highlight the passage at 57:59

58:26 If you're just keeping your eyes fixed on a star, you're in for it. You'll never be able to survive. But you also need to bring your attention down to the body, to the earth, to the basics of our human state, of just food. You need to eat. You need a shelter. You need clothes to wear. You need... Medicines you need, things like this are kind of basic things that aren't coming from an ideal but just kind of necessities within this human state. Report an error in the passage at 58:26 Highlight the passage at 58:26

59:05 So that you're reflecting upon. Those aren't inspiring ideals but they're practical realities that we begin to use more wisely rather than just habitually. And then say your own humanity. humanity and your Report an error in the passage at 59:05 Highlight the passage at 59:05

59:26 And this sense that the body you have, you need to accept the human body rather than compare it to an ideal, which is ethereal. Report an error in the passage at 59:26 Highlight the passage at 59:26

59:40 But the human body is not ethereal. It's made out of elements, and it has its functions, its physiology. physiology, its needs, and its energy. And also keeping Report an error in the passage at 59:40 Highlight the passage at 59:40

1:00:16 your direction with the ideals, you know, the perfection. Ideal of perfection. In that way, you're bringing things together. You're learning to understand yourself and how to live within the situation you find yourself. Whether it's a monk or nun or a lay person, you use what you have. You can make your religious path In here, rather than say, depend on a lot of ideas that you can't maybe realize in this lifetime. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:16 Highlight the passage at 1:00:16

1:01:05 You can't manifest in this lifetime. But you have what it takes at any moment. There's always the now, the way it is. Even if the way it is is terrible, it's still not an obstacle to enlightenment. It's only... The grasping, not wanting it and hating it and being caught up in this emotional reaction is the obstacle. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:05 Highlight the passage at 1:01:05

1:01:36 You've spoken as a reflection to naturally be sufficient to move us on this path. I'm wondering about meditation, isn't it, which you haven't mentioned today. Well, meditation is, I mean, there's different, like the vipassanā. Meditation is reflective. So the insight meditation in Buddhism is a reflective meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:36 Highlight the passage at 1:01:36

1:02:09 Then there's a samatha, which is a concentrated. That's like a mental exercise where you focus and sustain your attention on an object, which is more a kind of way of developing the ability to concentrate. And refining your concentration. But the real liberation comes through reflection and through insight. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:09 Highlight the passage at 1:02:09

1:02:40 Because then your mind is like, say, the Four Noble Truths or these kind of teachings. If you just kind of intellectually understand them, there's no liberation from intellectually understanding them. But there is through reflecting on them, like suffering, its origin, sensation and path. It's seeing that in your own experience of life, in your mind. So it's... Or if you're just reading it from a book, you know, you think, oh, I understand that, yes. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:40 Highlight the passage at 1:02:40

1:03:12 But then it seems to be, you know, something you've read that's not happening. It seems like out there. But actually, that's about what's going on now. Like any form of suffering is the first noble truth right now. And suffering is a very common human experience. There's opportunities every day for the understanding of the First Noble Truth. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:12 Highlight the passage at 1:03:12

1:03:44 I think we've had awful problems with meditation because we felt that we should be able to use the meditation using the focus on the breath. We find that so difficult. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:44 Highlight the passage at 1:03:44

1:03:56 ...feeling fading all the time, and in fact to hear you say that reflective meditation is more important, it feels very good. Because the meditation on the breath can be, I mean that kind of meditation can be both reflective and concentrated. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:56 Highlight the passage at 1:03:56

1:04:22 But if we're just trying to use willpower to do it, then we fail because... Report an error in the passage at 1:04:22 Highlight the passage at 1:04:22

1:04:30 I mean, you can sustain, you can will yourself to concentrate for so long, you can't sustain it for very long. And then there's always this sense of failure. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:30 Highlight the passage at 1:04:30

1:04:40 But in seeing the, in learning to just watch the breath, witness the breath, mindfulness of the breath, is a good kind of foundation for, because that pattern of the breath is the pattern of all phenomena. You know, rising, ceasing. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:40 Highlight the passage at 1:04:40

1:05:04 So you're establishing this, you're taking one very simple experience that goes on all the time, breathing, and using that as a kind of, to establish an awareness of that pattern of what arises, ceases, like the inhalation, exhalation. Then that is reflective then rather than concentrated. But I used to take things like the second noble truth where you see the arising. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:04 Highlight the passage at 1:05:04

1:05:50 I try to just meditate on arising just to keep aware of that, to keep studying arising of conditions. And then cessation. Just by kind of continuously observing this in breathing or in whatever you're doing, you have insight into it. And it's no longer couched in the terms of self. It's seen more from a term of dharma, of the way things are, rather than the highly kind of personal. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:50 Highlight the passage at 1:05:50

1:06:31 An emotional impact that comes from the self-view. And like birth and beginning. Like the beginning of an inhalation and birth. Anything just to take one particular perception like birth or beginning to see it as that which is the arising state. Beginning is this way, it's just this. And you begin to see it through witnessing it rather than defining it and describing it abstractly. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:31 Highlight the passage at 1:06:31

1:07:17 So like even though, like saying, even though I can't remember being born, I don't remember, I haven't any memories about my birth, physical birth. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:17 Highlight the passage at 1:07:17

1:07:32 I do see that it was the same. That was just another form of beginning. And I can watch the beginnings of things in my own mind. It's to see the birth taking place. And in that way, just taking the subject of birth and watching it by internalizing it, seeing it in mental things that happened inwardly to yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:32 Highlight the passage at 1:07:32

1:07:57 Or even just contemplating... The way things change as you, like the seasonal changes or the summer and winter solstices and reflecting in how, you know, the realm, this sensory realm is this way. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:57 Highlight the passage at 1:07:57

1:08:18 And then consciousness, I remember, you know, I'd studied psychology and all that in university. I never really, you know, I thought I understood what consciousness was. And I tended to always want to find out what it was through some kind of definition. You know, what was Freud's view of consciousness? Report an error in the passage at 1:08:18 Highlight the passage at 1:08:18

1:08:39 What is Jung's view of consciousness? Actually, consciousness is this. You got it. You're conscious and you're trying to find out what it is from really what somebody else says about it. It's ridiculous. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:39 Highlight the passage at 1:08:39

1:08:56 So you begin to just, you know, It's ridiculous. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:56 Highlight the passage at 1:08:56

1:09:00 begin to look at them observe the real thing rather than then form opinions about what the experts say it is Report an error in the passage at 1:09:00 Highlight the passage at 1:09:00

1:09:12 Because there's some, you know, the self-doubt also is a problem where, know, you think, well, Freud probably, you know, much wiser, capable than I am, so I'll trust what he says, rather than, you know, trusting your My mother told me When I was born, you know, in 1934, that in America women had lost their confidence in raising children because they were all reading Dr. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:12 Highlight the passage at 1:09:12

1:09:45 Spock or somebody that was some doctor that was an authority on how to raise children. And so when she had me, she thought, well, I'm going to raise him according to the book. And so she said she tried to raise me according to the book. The first few months, and I was totally miserable, unhappy baby. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:45 Highlight the passage at 1:09:45

1:10:12 And then she threw the book away and just trusted her own intuition, and I was all right. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:12 Highlight the passage at 1:10:12

1:10:40 Natural inclination. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:40 Highlight the passage at 1:10:40

1:10:52 Not quite, what? Could you... I believe that if everyone has natural inclination according to their birth form, the way the character is determined, and it would seem sensible to make sure that the world would try to fulfill that inclination. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:52 Highlight the passage at 1:10:52

1:11:11 without grasping or trying to hold on to it. So it has to be some sort of relationship that attachment and fulfillment of natural information. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:11 Highlight the passage at 1:11:11

1:11:21 carry over into one sort of role in the world? Right, because that is like your karma or your different words. But then you see that's usually what we are attached to as an identity. And then in meditation, you're putting it in terms of dhamma rather than self. So then it's seen in a way that is non-attached, but you're not forming an opinion. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:21 Highlight the passage at 1:11:21

1:12:04 If the inclination is wholesome and good, then we do it. If we have inclinations towards crime, then we refrain from doing it. But that's where all these things, like each one of us have our own characters. There's no two people ever have the same character or, you know, infinite variety in humanity. And even like identical twins are usually very different. They might look alike, but emotionally in other ways, it's going to be total opposites. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:04 Highlight the passage at 1:12:04

1:12:46 It's not a matter of just being born at the same moment and from the same womb. Each one of us has our own unique qualities. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:46 Highlight the passage at 1:12:46

1:13:04 And of course the uniqueness lies in the fact, the ultimate uniqueness is the fact that you're the subject of your life. It's your life, you're living. and that makes us Report an error in the passage at 1:13:04 Highlight the passage at 1:13:04

1:13:01 qualities. those things Report an error in the passage at 1:13:01 Highlight the passage at 1:13:01

1:13:17 I'm just an object, really, in your life. It's you. It's from the point of being the subject and being the consciousness itself that you're experiencing life, whatever hits you or contacts you or impinges on you. And that's true for all of us. Each one of us is, I call it, being the center of the universe. Not as a kind of megalomania. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:17 Highlight the passage at 1:13:17

1:13:47 know But as a kind of observation that for all of us, each one of us is the center. Wherever you are, you're the one that's feeling it and experiencing it. And the pleasure, the pain, the light, the dark, whatever is happening. And even though many of us, we share a lot of those experiences, and we Through mindfulness we transcend this individualness, but we also have to accept the individualness and see it in terms of dharma, rather than just be caught in an ideal of oneness and at the expense of suppressing or ignoring the individual conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:47 Highlight the passage at 1:13:47

1:14:47 You know, like if you compare yourself to someone else. This happens a lot in a monastery where monks or nuns, they start comparing themselves with another monk or nun. A monk will see one monk sitting very straight in full lotus posture and this monk will look so good and be so impressive. This other monk that's watching thinks, oh, you know, my mind's a mess. I'm just, you know, I'm so restless and I can't sit still for five minutes. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:47 Highlight the passage at 1:14:47

1:15:32 And look at him, you know, he's really good. And it's easy to look at somebody else and then compare yourself with them. And, you know, a monk that's looking so good is going through a whole variety of despair and... Misery. Doesn't mean anything. You can look good and then still, you know, your inscrutable face, you can still, you know, you're not showing it. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:32 Highlight the passage at 1:15:32

1:16:04 Some people have no inscrutability. They show everything. One monk, I know every flicker of his mind tends to be registered in his physiognomy. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:04 Highlight the passage at 1:16:04

1:16:16 I get it wrong sometimes. You know, any doubt, any... me. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:16 Highlight the passage at 1:16:16

1:16:23 Any aversion and suddenly, you know, the faith and the body, everything goes in, kind of is affected by it. And I used to feel upset by this monk's presence because, you know, he'd go through so many transformations. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:23 Highlight the passage at 1:16:23

1:16:38 I used to think he was crazy. And then others just don't, they seem to have, they seem to be totally inscrutable. Nothing ever shows. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:38 Highlight the passage at 1:16:38

1:16:53 So that's why you can't, it's not a matter of looking and seeing, you know, making time to copy somebody else, but to work with the material you have, whatever it is. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:53 Highlight the passage at 1:16:53

1:17:10 It's restless and all over the place or whatever, it's scrutable, it doesn't matter. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:10 Highlight the passage at 1:17:10

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:17:47 Also in death, doesn't matter. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:47 Highlight the passage at 1:17:47

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:17:51 is a... Report an error in the passage at 1:17:51 Highlight the passage at 1:17:51

1:17:54 Contemplating that, because that's something we all will experience sometime in the future. And that's a subject that tends to, people, you know, have tried to dismiss or ignore. And yet, to me, that's an important, to live your life so you're prepared for your death. Seems to me a very good philosophy. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:54 Highlight the passage at 1:17:54

1:18:28 And with modern science and modern medicine, you know, it can prolong life and they can, you know, all these moral dilemmas arise. Should you, you know, pull out the plug and let them, so the machine stops and the person dies, is that murder or is that, you know, is abortion a criminal act or is, you know, you can... Report an error in the passage at 1:18:28 Highlight the passage at 1:18:28

1:18:58 Is birth control, like in the Roman Catholic Church, is that immoral? Is preventing birth taking place immoral? The endless moral dilemmas that we make around these kind of issues, especially around birth and death. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:58 Highlight the passage at 1:18:58

1:19:24 We're frightened of death, so there's, I think, a tremendous fear I remember one horrendous case where I heard this. I didn't witness this. I heard this. A woman had made an agreement with her father. Her father had a terminal illness. He was really in a lot of pain. And he made her promise that she would see that he ended his life. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:24 Highlight the passage at 1:19:24

1:20:21 So, loyalty to her father. Her father asked her to do this, so she helped him to die. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:21 Highlight the passage at 1:20:21

1:20:35 Then she went on a meditation retreat. And so this came up as a doubt in her mind. And the teacher wasn't very wise. So he went to the teacher and told the teacher this story. And the teacher said, that is the worst thing you can do is kill your father. That is one of the biggest crimes that you'll never be ever enlightened for aeons. And you know, build it up into this. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:35 Highlight the passage at 1:20:35

1:21:00 Horrendous, you know, killing your father is one of your parents, killing your parents is one of the worst, killing the Buddha, killing your parents is absolutely the worst thing a human being could ever do. A woman was, you know, after that, I don't know what probably, what happened to her, but I mean this was, this was taking something like, you know, the perception, you know, if you read in the sutras, killing your mother and father. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:00 Highlight the passage at 1:21:00

1:21:28 Killing the Buddha, killing an Arahant is the worst crime. That's in the suttas. But can you equate what this woman did with murder in the most kind of stark... I mean, there's levels, isn't there? I mean, there's this, you know, kind of evil, malicious desire to seek revenge or to get the old man's money or, you know, evil kind of things that one could kill somebody for. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:28 Highlight the passage at 1:21:28

1:21:56 Or... Was she just doing what her father said and trying to help him? There's intention. If you put the worst connotation on it, then this poor creature is going to go around with this idea she's a murderess, the worst kind of murderess who did the absolutely horrendous act, if you equate such a thing in its most extreme way. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:56 Highlight the passage at 1:21:56

1:22:25 way. um... This is where one has to, you know, where your reflective mind will help you and see what you're doing, not just coming from moral judgment, fixed moral judgments or the most extreme kind of interpretations of any act, but in trying to understand your motives and that, and to have confidence and to... Report an error in the passage at 1:22:25 Highlight the passage at 1:22:25

1:22:57 To be able to, maybe it would have been better if she hadn't done that, but I certainly wouldn't put it in terms of being a murderess. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:57 Highlight the passage at 1:22:57

1:23:11 Right, that's what she did. She did it out of, well, a promise and no doubt love for her father and seeing the kind of pain and misery he was in. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:11 Highlight the passage at 1:23:11

1:23:26 But then I think her father was pretty rotten for making her promise that. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:26 Highlight the passage at 1:23:26

1:23:35 I thought, I'll never do that to anyone. Never put them in a position where they will do something like that. It's better to stick out, to endure the pain and take it, than to put somebody in a position that might cause them incredible anguish in the future. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:35 Highlight the passage at 1:23:35

1:24:02 Because also we have to take responsibility for our own lives. Like if I'm fed up with life and I ask you to do me in, and you do that, that is a rotten thing for me to do to you. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:02 Highlight the passage at 1:24:02

1:24:22 You might, of course, even if you got away with it, nobody would have found out. But still, there would still be that, in your own mind, sense of having... somebody. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:22 Highlight the passage at 1:24:22

1:24:38 Which, to me, I wouldn't want to be responsible for that, you know, for causing that kind of misery to anyone. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:38 Highlight the passage at 1:24:38

1:24:59 Right, yeah. Because we are so, this is such a sensitive state, and we affect each other so much. It's not like we're just totally independent creatures, and I just live, you know, and how my life has no effect on you. But we realize we affect each other. It's like the monk disrobing affects everyone. It's not just his life, but also many others are affected by it. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:59 Highlight the passage at 1:24:59

1:25:31 And this is, you know, when we see that our lives aren't just, you know, what I want for me, but also how to live my life so that it's of benefit to others and to at least try to Put it in terms of where its effect is. My intention is to make my life something that has a good effect on people rather than a bad one. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:31 Highlight the passage at 1:25:31

1:25:59 That's my intention. Sometimes not always successful at it. The intention is there. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:59 Highlight the passage at 1:25:59

1:26:09 of a woman who killed her husband because tortured by one day he just... him and not being accused be doing that live soon. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:09 Highlight the passage at 1:26:09

1:26:27 there is a lot of vegetation going on. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:27 Highlight the passage at 1:26:27

1:26:34 Well, those are the, you know, one can, I mean, I can understand how you can kill your husband or wife. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:34 Highlight the passage at 1:26:34

1:26:56 But I can't condone actually doing it. I can understand the emotion there that, you know, and somebody drives you, and you get really angry. Somebody kind of deliberately tortures or abuses you. But you still can't, that's no justification for murder to me. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:56 Highlight the passage at 1:26:56

1:27:23 But I understand how one might want to do that, but I would not do it. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:23 Highlight the passage at 1:27:23

1:27:36 I wouldn't, I mean, there's different levels, aren't there, like manslaughter and... Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:27:36 Highlight the passage at 1:27:36

1:27:52 that's where you have to, you need a judge to, a wise judge to... To, you know, consider the condition. Because every, the thing with laws is that, you know, nobody, very few people fit exactly into the, precisely into any law system. And that's why you need to be able to take each case into account and the circumstances that cause such actions. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:52 Highlight the passage at 1:27:52

1:28:22 And because, you know. and... You know, the intention behind it, if it was a... You know, one can sympathize, say, if a husband is brutalizing his wife, and she does him in, I think we all would sympathize with the wife more than the husband. But then the... It has to be put also not just on the level of mercy, but also of justice. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:22 Highlight the passage at 1:28:22

1:28:57 You need both. both know in of example human being was with Report an error in the passage at 1:28:57 Highlight the passage at 1:28:57

1:29:19 Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:29:19 Highlight the passage at 1:29:19

1:29:28 that would be just self-preservation, really. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:28 Highlight the passage at 1:29:28

1:29:35 Those things are always, you know, like those are kind of examples, but in any situation there's all kinds of other cooperating causes that you can't... You can't think of in this situation right now. So like if, you know, there's miracles that take place and all kinds of like, you know, the Report an error in the passage at 1:29:35 Highlight the passage at 1:29:35

1:30:06 posse coming at the right time or the sheriff or the, you know, as the girl is about ready to be strangled by the villain. Suddenly the hero arrives on the scene and there's all kinds of possibilities. The chandelier falls on his head or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:06 Highlight the passage at 1:30:06

1:30:32 Recognize that in any possible situation there are all kinds of... We're taking maybe just two perceptions like lion and a human being and self-preservation. But who knows? There might be other... you know, and so that any, the Report an error in the passage at 1:30:32 Highlight the passage at 1:30:32

1:30:50 Existing possibilities there also, or circumstance, cooperating causes that are influencing it. And I trust that more. That's why I see mindfulness as the way, rather than a kind of fixed, like pacifism or non-violence. These kind of ideals are very noble, but if you attach to them, then you end up oftentimes... Report an error in the passage at 1:30:50 Highlight the passage at 1:30:50

1:31:18 Taking them to absurdity so that you can't function. You can't do anything because you're so attached to a view about non-violence that anything that seems violent is automatically wrong or bad. And yet, sometimes violence is compassionate. It can be by stopping somebody from murdering. Me, that is more compassionate than letting them do it. Even if I have to knock them out. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:18 Highlight the passage at 1:31:18

1:31:55 It would be better in the long run if I used a violent act to stop them than to just, you know, well, okay. Or maybe, maybe that time, maybe just giving in would stop them. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:55 Highlight the passage at 1:31:55

1:32:09 Maybe just say, okay, you know, cut my throat. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:09 Highlight the passage at 1:32:09

1:32:28 preservation, self-preservation is so strong in all of us. Well, Report an error in the passage at 1:32:28 Highlight the passage at 1:32:28

1:32:36 that's because the self is from the thinking process. It's the identity with it, like identity with the instinctual drives or with the ideas. And as that... As that identity is relinquished, then one can, you know, with mindfulness, then the instinctual drives are not just operating on an animal level, but are, you know, are used wisely. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:36 Highlight the passage at 1:32:36

1:33:12 That energy is used with wisdom other than just from a blind instinct. Or, say, the... When there's right understanding, then the energies that we have, our humanity and our instinct for self-preservation or our emotional nature and all this, then that is seen in terms of dharma rather than of self. But in the ignorant state, then we tend to, and especially modern human beings, Report an error in the passage at 1:33:12 Highlight the passage at 1:33:12

1:33:55 We've lost all sense of perspective on life by identifying very personally with everything, like self-preservation and sexuality. All these are couched in the most personal terms that you can create. And so you're seeing these things always from such an evocative, personal position. Rather than saying that these are natural conditions that one is being affected by, if taken on the personality level, then they're always judged and regarded and empowered through these deluded emotional states around them. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:55 Highlight the passage at 1:33:55

1:34:45 I mean, you get people frightened of their own sexual drive. You know, they feel, oh, I'm terrible. Dirty old man. Rather than saying this is quite natural energy, that being born in the human being, a man or a woman is like this, you can put it in a perspective of as is, where then it's, you know, nothing wrong with it, but one is taking on the responsibility. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:45 Highlight the passage at 1:34:45

1:35:17 So, say, celibate life, one doesn't act on those kind of impulses. Because of the commitment to celibate life. And also like in precepts, one can feel sexual attraction, but then if it leads to promiscuity and adultery, we refrain from those impulses rather than follow them. But if we don't understand, if we take it on a personal level, then we think we make... Report an error in the passage at 1:35:17 Highlight the passage at 1:35:17

1:36:09 it, but seeing it in terms of Dhamma then, and as a of it to... Report an error in the passage at 1:36:09 Highlight the passage at 1:36:09