What is the Real Problem (1996)

0:00 Questions here? Any more? Report an error in the passage at 0:00 Highlight the passage at 0:00

0:11 So the first one, you spoke about the wisdom of understanding and of acceptance. To what extent can acceptance be taken as a virtue? Report an error in the passage at 0:11 Highlight the passage at 0:11

0:24 Can you speak a bit about the difference between acceptance and complacency? It's a good question because contemplating, and these are words that have, oftentimes we, Report an error in the passage at 0:24 Highlight the passage at 0:24

0:42 We can investigate, you know, like the word acceptance, oftentimes people assume that it even means approval, like you approve of something, or that you're accepting things in a kind of resigned way, in a negative way, like, oh well, that's life, and you're seeing it in a kind of negative resignation to misery. Report an error in the passage at 0:42 Highlight the passage at 0:42

1:09 That's not what I mean. Acceptance, in this way, is an embracing of things, of everything, where it's quite a positive movement toward accepting things the way they are, which does not imply you approve of the way it is. Report an error in the passage at 1:09 Highlight the passage at 1:09

1:33 Before you can understand anything, you have to accept it for what it is. You can't understand something if you can't accept it. You just react to it. It's like, say, evil forces. Report an error in the passage at 1:33 Highlight the passage at 1:33

1:51 If you don't accept evil for what it is, then you just react to it, which means that you're resisting it, you're fighting it, and then evil... Now if you're, know, if you're Report an error in the passage at 1:51 Highlight the passage at 1:51

2:04 You're strengthening the evil forces through resistance, through aversion, through hatred. And so evil has the ability to, it wins when we hate, when it creates hatred in our mind. So if you hate pedophiles, then the evil forces have won. won. Report an error in the passage at 2:04 Highlight the passage at 2:04

2:33 I mean, you're increasing that tendency in humanity, the evil tendency, just through your own hatred of evil forces, which is, let's say, a reaction out of ignorance. Acceptance doesn't mean approval, but it means you're not caught in emotional aversion, you're not following the aversion, you're not... Report an error in the passage at 2:33 Highlight the passage at 2:33

3:02 You're not acting on the hatred and aversion to something. Like with that, you can't help but feel aversion to such a thing. But it's not what you're going to act on. You're not going to go around killing the pedophiles, even though you might feel like it. But you're going to accept even your own reaction. Report an error in the passage at 3:02 Highlight the passage at 3:02

3:30 Until the whole process ceases, then you've got a clarity of mind in which you can. You've got coming from a cool, clear state of awareness in which these problems can be solved not through seeking revenge or through mean-hearted reactions, but through Report an error in the passage at 3:30 Highlight the passage at 3:30

4:05 why acceptance in this way isn't complacency or... resignation to mediocrity or misery or to evil forces those are like resignation to fate it's a negative state oh well what can you do you might as well just That's oftentimes what we feel in the world, isn't it? What can you do about it, you know, in Bosnia? Just, you know, let's go have a party. Report an error in the passage at 4:05 Highlight the passage at 4:05

4:38 Because, you know, what can you do? Just let them kill themselves, their business. They kind of are complacent or resignation to mediocrity or misery or fate. Report an error in the passage at 4:38 Highlight the passage at 4:38

4:56 But that's not the acceptance that The Buddha was encouraging. It's not a religion based on resignation to fate, but on understanding. So I noticed, just try it out with yourself in your own mind, like anger or a black emotion you might have, a bad feeling, resentment or whatever. What happens if you're always trying to resist it? Report an error in the passage at 4:56 Highlight the passage at 4:56

5:33 You know, you're trying to get rid of it. And so you feel, just like, say with anger, if you're always trying to, every time you feel anger, you're trying to get rid of it and resist it, what happens? Report an error in the passage at 5:33 Highlight the passage at 5:33

5:50 Observe what happens through resistance to things, by trying to get rid of them, deny them, suppress them. And then observe, by accepting the anger as it is in the present, Report an error in the passage at 5:50 Highlight the passage at 5:50

6:08 It doesn't mean you're proving that or you're going to act on it. It doesn't mean you're going to go and curse somebody if that's what you feel like. But it means that you're accepting what you're feeling. That means you can, once you accept something, then you can, you begin to see it for what it is. Report an error in the passage at 6:08 Highlight the passage at 6:08

6:28 You can examine it. You can look at it from different angles. You know, you have a way of understanding it. That's why with evil, if we don't understand it, then evil has power over us all the time. And this is like in the suttas, even after the Buddha was enlightened, in the suttas, in the scriptures, the Māra, the evil one, tries to tempt the Buddha, even after years of enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 6:28 Highlight the passage at 6:28

7:07 And the Buddha says, I know you, Māra. He doesn't say, get out of here. He says, I know you. So the Buddha knows. He's not judging. Report an error in the passage at 7:07 Highlight the passage at 7:07

7:23 Then the Report an error in the passage at 7:23 Highlight the passage at 7:23

7:43 second one, I feel it is appropriate to point out our desire to annihilate all the negative conditions from our minds, including pedophiles, as it alerts us to that tendency which is very... Report an error in the passage at 7:43 Highlight the passage at 7:43

8:06 I can't read that. You, however, I feel what is presented to us by Vinaya, dimension is highlighted. Report an error in the passage at 8:06 Highlight the passage at 8:06

8:19 We omit a very important aspect which we may give a wrong understanding. We need to separate the very harmful pedophiles from the system to give them a chance to look at themselves. With compassion towards innocent, Report an error in the passage at 8:19 Highlight the passage at 8:19

8:49 right? Report an error in the passage at 8:49 Highlight the passage at 8:49

8:53 Like it's an interesting time now because it, like I've been reading a book about Europe in the 14th century, of the 14th century Europe, and you realize, you know, 600 years ago, here in England, right where we're probably right in this area here. Innocent, right? Report an error in the passage at 8:53 Highlight the passage at 8:53

9:18 There was a lot of horrible things going on. The English and the French were having it out quite regularly in this warfare. And Burke Hampstead was the... It was the castle of the Black Prince, you know. And there was the... He was involved in a lot of these wars in the 14th century. Then the way that... Report an error in the passage at 9:18 Highlight the passage at 9:18

9:48 At that time, soldiers weren't paid salaries, so it was all right to go and just pillage people. You went into France and you just pillaged everybody's house and you took everything, raped the women, and it was all part of the way, you know, it was perfectly acceptable even by the church. Report an error in the passage at 9:48 Highlight the passage at 9:48

10:09 Acceptable behavior, which was, you know, wasn't really considered immoral at that time. The way humans here in Europe actually conducted themselves, from the loyalty and the aristocracy. And people who you just didn't like, you just, you know, all ways of murdering and getting rid of or torturing and persecuting. Report an error in the passage at 10:09 Highlight the passage at 10:09

10:40 Now you have, they didn't have Amnesty International or anything like that. People's rights. Human rights was just not even a consideration at that time. And now, you know, you look around you, even as gloomy as sometimes it seems this time, you realize how much concern there is and how, you know, like even something as emotionally revolting as, say, pedophilia, which is... Report an error in the passage at 10:40 Highlight the passage at 10:40

11:21 You know, is for most people, I imagine, something that is really, really revolting. Yet there is an interest now in trying to understand the problem. And to me, this is really a good sign. It's not just get rid of them, you know, which is what they did in the 14th century. Report an error in the passage at 11:21 Highlight the passage at 11:21

11:40 You just take them up, you know, all the pedophiles and just shoot them down. It's getting rid of them. That's the way to handle it, was how people would tend to view the unwanted. Report an error in the passage at 11:40 Highlight the passage at 11:40

11:59 burn her at the stake or you that's how they they got rid of these bad forces or you know and you could of course Report an error in the passage at 11:59 Highlight the passage at 11:59

12:11 It was a way of getting rid of people you didn't like, even if they weren't witches. You could just say they were. They're heretics or something like that. Now try calling somebody a witch. Witches are now respectable. They have rights. Witches' rights and so forth. Report an error in the passage at 12:11 Highlight the passage at 12:11

12:37 Homosexuals, these used to be considered, you know, just get rid of them. And now they're gay rights. And there's all kinds of, you know, these rights. And even though that people are, you know, they make us look at what... boy. Report an error in the passage at 12:37 Highlight the passage at 12:37

12:55 you know at these issues more try to understand what uh what why people why people do these things what these things really are and why we might feel so much aversion or fear or or threat by all these different forces that we used to just try to destroy and just wipe out get rid of and you notice no matter how much effort was in in trying to get rid of them But it doesn't work that way. They seem to increase. Evil doesn't diminish through hating it, through trying to destroy the evil, but through understanding. Report an error in the passage at 12:55 Highlight the passage at 12:55

13:42 I think this is the lesson of this age, of the next century. With the population of this planet, and we're crowded, getting more and more crowded. And we can't, you know, we're going to exterminate. We can go back to that, which is horrific, you know, really horrific to think of just using those like genocidal tendencies we have, or just destructive tendencies to get rid of the people we don't like or don't want. Report an error in the passage at 13:42 Highlight the passage at 13:42

14:19 But to understand that we're all in this together, like the Thich Nhat Hanh poem about I am the victimizer, I am the victim, and so forth. I am the thief and I am the one whose things were stolen. This ability to reflect on both the suffering involved of being a victim and a victimized, one who's victimized, or a victimizer. Report an error in the passage at 14:19 Highlight the passage at 14:19

15:00 And so just from my own reflection, I'd rather be a victim than one who victimizes others. Report an error in the passage at 15:00 Highlight the passage at 15:00

15:09 I'd rather be beaten up than beat up somebody. Report an error in the passage at 15:09 Highlight the passage at 15:09

15:17 Just knowing the law of karma, I can cope. To beat up somebody, even if I got away with it, nobody ever criticized me for it, nobody ever knew. Report an error in the passage at 15:17 Highlight the passage at 15:17

15:37 I mean, I could, I know, and I know that that would, that sense of fear and that would haunt me. Report an error in the passage at 15:37 Highlight the passage at 15:37

15:53 And so you begin to understand the suffering that comes. Your own sense of shame and guilt about what you do. Even if nobody else knows, you know. You can't get away from it. So when you begin to Observe that. Then you understand what suffering is. And it's not just being a victim, being treated badly by somebody else. Report an error in the passage at 15:53 Highlight the passage at 15:53

16:22 But the people who are treating you badly are suffering. And you're looking at the suffering as experience rather than as theirs or mine. From the reflective mind, you're seeing the universal there. Report an error in the passage at 16:22 Highlight the passage at 16:22

16:42 That is our problem. We're not saying it's your problem. You've got to change yourself and be someone different. But we're recognizing the common problem we all have as human beings. And in that compassion, when there's compassion, then there's hope for change. Report an error in the passage at 16:42 Highlight the passage at 16:42

17:13 We're not demanding it. You're not saying, you've got to change, or I'm, you know, and I'm... But by encouraging, by understanding, then you're appealing, you're giving somebody a chance to rise up to a situation. Report an error in the passage at 17:13 Highlight the passage at 17:13

17:30 And then you get a chance to bring out, for them to develop wisdom in their lives. Report an error in the passage at 17:30 Highlight the passage at 17:30

17:42 So these things are not like murder and... all these things are not obstructions to enlightenment. They're it's the attachment to conditions it's ignorance that is the obstruction to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 17:42 Highlight the passage at 17:42

18:01 see, so I mean these things are, you know, they're immoral and they're bad in terms of they cause harm and division and they're evil But... But, But when they're seen for what they are, but if we don't accept them for what they are, and then we can't see what they are, then we're always operating from ignorance. Report an error in the passage at 18:01 Highlight the passage at 18:01

18:31 Even if we never do those things, we're still attached to views and opinions, which prevent enlightenment. That very attachment to the conditions, no matter what the conditions are, is the... the obstruction to enlightenment. Report an error in the passage at 18:31 Highlight the passage at 18:31

18:49 That's for you to contemplate. Don't believe me. Any more questions? From Report an error in the passage at 18:49 Highlight the passage at 18:49

19:08 what I can tell from my experience is that I don't think it's not like some kind of ongoing permanent force out there, but when you... When you open yourself to evil things, like doing evil acts or opening yourself to forces of evil, then that seems to be like you get taken over by those forces. It's not like something inside you. But if you're good, then you tend to draw that which is good. Report an error in the passage at 19:08 Highlight the passage at 19:08

19:58 And if you do bad things, then you find the bad forces tend to move in through you. That's why these cults that are based on human sacrifice and witchcraft and doing evil acts are... Report an error in the passage at 19:58 Highlight the passage at 19:58

20:29 You know, people might do them just like the teenagers playing games with these things and then they end up being taken over, possessed by these forces. What is it? I don't know. But in terms of... I know that if I... Like morality, basic morality in Buddhism, like the five precepts, is a guarantee to protection against evil. Report an error in the passage at 20:29 Highlight the passage at 20:29

20:56 Because... You're at least, you're determining not to do things that cause, intentionally do things that cause harm to yourself or others. And therefore, and to do good and refrain from doing evil. That's the kind of foundation for spiritual development. Because once you start doing evil things, you find more and more that seems to It's a powerful energy that takes you over. I was reading in one of these supplements about the vampire cults in New York City. Report an error in the passage at 20:56 Highlight the passage at 20:56

21:36 People, young people become interested in drinking human blood. And Report an error in the passage at 21:36 Highlight the passage at 21:36

21:47 I just hate, I would really fear playing around with that one. Report an error in the passage at 21:47 Highlight the passage at 21:47

21:58 But now, you know, Pandora's box is wide open. It's anything, you know, vampirism. And evil cults and so forth, you know, there's no guidance or boundaries anymore in terms of the society. Report an error in the passage at 21:58 Highlight the passage at 21:58

22:18 You're free to more or less do what you want to, no matter how good or bad it might be. And one thing about evil is it does excite the mind. Report an error in the passage at 22:18 Highlight the passage at 22:18

22:41 it all. And we can really feed on that excitement. then like drug addiction also, So you're... Report an error in the passage at 22:41 Highlight the passage at 22:41

22:54 know, you're getting incredibly blissful states or... Anxiety-free experiences through, like heroin, they say, makes you feel completely all right. There's no worry, no anxiety. All that kind of miserable state that underlies a lot of our experience, like worry, anxiety, falls away with the heroin. And you experience this pleasant state where that is gone. Report an error in the passage at 22:54 Highlight the passage at 22:54

23:28 They say it's not even high, you know, kind of floating on the clouds, but you're just free from that gnawing kind of ugly anxiety and worry that oftentimes hangs around us in life. And that becomes so addictive, just to get rid of that gnawing anxiety that we have. In a society like this, which is quite a pleasant society in itself, it's not like you're living in a really miserable place where you'd do anything to get away from your misery, but a lot of it coming from discontentment, anxiety, worry, these kind of negative states that hang around, especially in countries like this or the United States, middle class life. Report an error in the passage at 23:28 Highlight the passage at 23:28

24:26 life or you've got a level of security and take things for granted you can just Report an error in the passage at 24:26 Highlight the passage at 24:26

24:38 rid of this Report an error in the passage at 24:38 Highlight the passage at 24:38

24:56 Unless you develop meditation. Report an error in the passage at 24:56 Highlight the passage at 24:56

25:01 You can get out of it in a skillful way, you know, meditation. The unskillful way is injecting heroin. You Report an error in the passage at 25:01 Highlight the passage at 25:01

25:26 know, it's, well, Report an error in the passage at 25:26 Highlight the passage at 25:26

25:31 existentially we are isolated. Report an error in the passage at 25:31 Highlight the passage at 25:31

25:37 You know, like, when you contemplate just what it is to be human entity, you know, you're, Meditation. Report an error in the passage at 25:37 Highlight the passage at 25:37

· · · silence, 1 minute

25:33 Isolated. Report an error in the passage at 25:33 Highlight the passage at 25:33

25:48 This loneliness that comes from just being an individual entity where people come and go, you know, but we're, you know, we're basically alone. And the things that happen to us, people come and go and people we love or don't like or whatever, everybody comes and goes in our experience. But we're here all the time. Report an error in the passage at 25:48 Highlight the passage at 25:48

26:17 And even though we try to delude, I think if I have this person, you know, like a relationship with somebody that I can get rid of this loneliness, you know, it does make you feel better to have somebody to relate to. But even in the most perfect relationships, there's an underlying loneliness there because you can't take that away. Report an error in the passage at 26:17 Highlight the passage at 26:17

26:40 That's part of the experience. And... And instead of it being such a, and seeing it as in a negative way, we begin to say through contemplating it more and more, rather than I am alone as a person, we begin to sense more this oneness, the oneness rather than the loneliness. Report an error in the passage at 26:40 Highlight the passage at 26:40

27:09 Because if we're identified with the body and the sense of a self, then we do feel lonely as a person. But as an experience, when we relinquish that, then we have the sense of oneness, wholeness, which is our spiritual experience. Report an error in the passage at 27:09 Highlight the passage at 27:09

27:49 you very book Nina Tundra, which is called The Unbearable Lightness of Being, says there is a presence of the happiness that we seek. Report an error in the passage at 27:49 Highlight the passage at 27:49

28:07 I think people don't really want to be enlightened at all. Report an error in the passage at 28:07 Highlight the passage at 28:07

28:18 Because, not everyone, but there's a resistance to it. Because suffering is interesting for us. Report an error in the passage at 28:18 Highlight the passage at 28:18

28:36 I remember how... You know, when I started meditating and I became aware that I used to like to feel sorry for myself. Report an error in the passage at 28:36 Highlight the passage at 28:36

28:54 And somehow that was this emotion that I quite enjoyed. Report an error in the passage at 28:54 Highlight the passage at 28:54

29:07 Even though, you know, on the level of intellectual objectivity, I would say it was a... I would say, you know, it's not a good state, you know, you could put it down. But in terms of actual experience, I used to quite like to feel that I had been mistreated and misunderstood, people didn't really understand me, and people didn't really love me and know me, and all that kind of thing. Report an error in the passage at 29:07 Highlight the passage at 29:07

29:34 I quite liked feeling those. Or... right. Also to blame others. You can get very indignant over how your father treated you or the fact that your sister was sent to a better school than you were or that you can really justify yourself. Report an error in the passage at 29:34 Highlight the passage at 29:34

30:13 And by really getting full of this, I didn't get, you know, because of these, I wasn't fully accepted and appreciated, then I have a right to be this way. Report an error in the passage at 30:13 Highlight the passage at 30:13

30:29 But even those emotions we accept, you know, like, that's another thing, it's like it's... It's ambiguous because one side of us hates ourselves for self-pity, and yet we like it, we like to do it also. So there's, you know, you can say, I shouldn't feel sorry for myself, and I've got to stop it, and then at the same time really find that self-pity or blaming others is a very important way of relating to life. Report an error in the passage at 30:29 Highlight the passage at 30:29

31:07 And so in this acceptance, Like, I found myself hating a lot of these things in myself, but that very hate and Report an error in the passage at 31:07 Highlight the passage at 31:07

31:33 judgment, you know, that this is bad, I shouldn't be like this, that just reinforced the basic assumption that there's something wrong with me and I shouldn't be this way. So then by recognizing that and by accepting even my... my aversion Self-aversion and accepting, listening to the self-pitying tendencies and accepting those for what they are, actually that allowed them to cease. Report an error in the passage at 31:33 Highlight the passage at 31:33

32:12 And that's where it's quite a wonderful thing when you can see that. It's not through trying to make yourself into some idea of a good person. But in understanding, accepting what you're actually experiencing will allow, will resolve those conditions. And then what's left is a wisdom and a love of the good. Like when you resolve it, then your incarnation is to do good. Report an error in the passage at 32:12 Highlight the passage at 32:12

32:46 It is not to do evil. Report an error in the passage at 32:46 Highlight the passage at 32:46

32:51 You love the good. You're not doing good because you feel you're going to be punished if you're bad. You're doing good because you love the good. And it's your joy in life to do good. Sometimes you think we have to be good because we'll be punished for being bad. Even our goodness can be a kind of duty and we do good. Report an error in the passage at 32:51 Highlight the passage at 32:51

33:17 We don't really love it. We don't feel the love of it yet. Yes? Report an error in the passage at 33:17 Highlight the passage at 33:17

33:32 I feel a healthy society needs to have moral boundaries so that you're having, not through reward and punishment, but through guiding people and educating them. It's like with... If you have no moral boundaries, then you have, in regards to action and speech, you have no standards to work from. And you don't, you know, it's just ideas or what I feel like doing. Or if you're just working from ideals, like being free and equal in the States, for example. Report an error in the passage at 33:32 Highlight the passage at 33:32

34:31 example, it's an idealistic society based on freedom and equality. So you're coming from ideals that are very high, it doesn't ground you with anything. You're not dealing with the basics of You're coming from high-mindedness, and then you know how to operate from ideals. You're just... Report an error in the passage at 34:31 Highlight the passage at 34:31

35:01 The reality of an experience from an idea of what should be and then you're always complaining about it because it's never free enough or equal enough on the level of experience. Report an error in the passage at 35:01 Highlight the passage at 35:01

35:14 So you get people endlessly complaining about how unfair life is or how unequal or any kind of limitation, any kind of... Limitation placed on behavior is seen as infringement on freedom. And freedom is the ideal. So like pedophilia, to try to stop that is an impingement on somebody's freedom. Because you don't have moral boundaries anymore. You don't have standards for action and speech that we agree to. Report an error in the passage at 35:14 Highlight the passage at 35:14

35:55 And so in Buddhism, Buddhism Morality isn't like imposed on you, like you have to be moral or you'll be punished for immoral behavior. But it's like to take the moral precepts in Buddhism, you have to ask for them. I'm not supposed to go and say, you have to keep these moral precepts. Otherwise, don't you come into this monastery if you aren't keeping these moral precepts. Report an error in the passage at 35:55 Highlight the passage at 35:55

36:28 You're not a real Buddhist until you or if you break them you're excommunicated. But it's like it's encouraging you to like you taking the responsibility for your action and speech. And so you ask for the precepts. And there's precepts are standards to criteria for reflection. They're not commandments from above, you know, they're not in that kind of thou shalt not style, but they're coming from you asking, you using those precepts for reflection and for guidance, for action and speech and how you relate to your own body and to the other people in the society. Report an error in the passage at 36:28 Highlight the passage at 36:28

37:23 So that gives you, you know, then you're training yourself in a way that you've agreed on, say, how we're going to live with each other. Report an error in the passage at 37:23 Highlight the passage at 37:23

37:34 So like here in a monastery, we have moral agreements. How are we going to live with each other? So we have, you know, like celibacy, the celibate community. So it's agreed that if you're part of this community, you're celibate, male or female. And then... Report an error in the passage at 37:34 Highlight the passage at 37:34

38:06 to take addictive drugs and drink then we have agreements about food you know we're not going to eat in the afternoon or we these are not particularly moral positions but they're they're agreements on basics you know how to live with each other in a way that that we're making problems about Report an error in the passage at 38:06 Highlight the passage at 38:06

38:33 external the external side of life about action and speech and then because of that you have helps you to, gives you a sense of trust. You know that basically here it's, you know, the. Report an error in the passage at 38:33 Highlight the passage at 38:33

38:50 is you know even though you may not Agree with everyone or like everyone. There's an incredible trust that you have in a community like this because of the agreements and the commitment to those boundaries. But those boundaries you have to ask for. Once you start imposing morality on people then it becomes a tyranny. Report an error in the passage at 38:50 Highlight the passage at 38:50

39:19 Like you're saying if you... If you, you know, you're going to be punished if you're immoral. Then we tend to, then we find a kind of tyranny where some outer force is putting something onto us, oppressing us with restriction. But, say, the idea of the Buddha was to encourage people, you know, to get them to rise up to life rather than to... Report an error in the passage at 39:19 Highlight the passage at 39:19

39:52 To frighten them into obedience. So it is an invitation for you to take on responsibility for your life. And that, and say in the Buddhist sense, the five precepts of not intentionally killing other human beings, not stealing, not exploiting other people for one's... gratification like promiscuity adultery all these sexual activities that we're no longer going to use our sexuality just for our own selfish desires and exploiting ourselves or others heedlessly we're taking responsibility for our sexuality for speech and we're not going to intentionally lie Or mislead others. We're not going to take addictive substances like alcohol and drug, addictive drugs. Report an error in the passage at 39:52 Highlight the passage at 39:52

41:03 But these are the kind of basis, moral basis and restraint. And in Buddhism, because they aren't commandments, then modern Buddhists here in the West, they'll say, I'm going to take four of those precepts. Report an error in the passage at 41:03 Highlight the passage at 41:03

41:27 Or usually three they'll like. They like the first one, not killing human beings. And oftentimes they're vegetarians. They won't kill animals either. And not stealing, they go along with that. And not telling lies. Around sex and alcohol, that's... So you have Buddhists who have three precepts. Report an error in the passage at 41:27 Highlight the passage at 41:27

42:02 But at least that's better than no precept, isn't it? I mean, not a matter of despising them, but even the first precept, like not to kill human beings, intentionally kill human beings. Report an error in the passage at 42:02 Highlight the passage at 42:02

42:17 Just think of everybody in the world, on the planet, decided to keep the first, just the first precept, you know. That would make an enormous change, wouldn't it? Report an error in the passage at 42:17 Highlight the passage at 42:17

42:29 Not to mention animals, but human beings. Report an error in the passage at 42:29 Highlight the passage at 42:29

42:38 If we could agree to that, like in Africa and Rwanda, Burundi, and in Bosnia, Sri Lanka, and places like this, just that alone would be enormous in Russia. Report an error in the passage at 42:38 Highlight the passage at 42:38

43:00 And this is, notice what I'm saying is that one of our great gifts as a human being is that we can agree. This doesn't mean we never feel like killing or stealing or anything. It doesn't mean that we never have these urges, but we agree not to follow them. And that gives you, because you've made that agreement, that has a tremendous impact on action. So that you might feel like killing somebody, but you don't do it. Report an error in the passage at 43:00 Highlight the passage at 43:00

43:35 Not because you're afraid so much of being punished, but because of your... Commitment to non-violence. And then because of that you can also begin to accept your violent feeling. Report an error in the passage at 43:35 Highlight the passage at 43:35

43:51 Because you've already determined that you're not going to act on it, you can actually accept the feeling of wanting to murder somebody. Report an error in the passage at 43:51 Highlight the passage at 43:51

44:03 Accept it and observe it and reflect on it and its presence and then its absence. You're not just holding it, trying to get rid of that feeling, but you're actually using that feeling as a skillful means and developing wisdom around it, rather than seeing it as a personal problem. Report an error in the passage at 44:03 Highlight the passage at 44:03

44:37 Like in monastic life, the restraint of Buddhist monasticism, it brings up all kinds of urges. I never felt as a lay person. Report an error in the passage at 44:37 Highlight the passage at 44:37

44:58 So Report an error in the passage at 44:58 Highlight the passage at 44:58

45:05 you're really, because of the restraining quality of the life, you're observing. Like I noticed, because we have this restraint, a lot of restraining precepts, at first... When I first became a monk, I had very rebellious reactions to it because I wasn't used to being restrained in my life. And I felt it brought up a lot of rebellion and resentment towards restraint and criticism. Report an error in the passage at 45:05 Highlight the passage at 45:05

45:50 And I went to stay with Ajahn Chah, just having to restrain yourself like that and live within this. This simple way would bring up strong emotions just like anger, resentment, and criticism. But then the aim was to observe that. I began to watch this rebelliousness in me. When somebody, when any kind of restraint or saying, no, you can't do that. Report an error in the passage at 45:50 Highlight the passage at 45:50

46:25 This is a very immature feeling of, I want to do it. You know, I was over 30 when I... I was still a little child. They say, no, you can't do it. I'm going to do it anyway. Report an error in the passage at 46:25 Highlight the passage at 46:25

46:48 And whether you conform because pressure's made on you to conform, or you use conformity for reflection, that's up to you. That's what... Then monasticism is oppressive if you just feel you're being forced into it and you're rewarded and punished how good and how well you keep the rules and that. Then after a while you're not aware of maybe your own anger, resentment, rebelliousness and it comes out in other ways. Report an error in the passage at 46:48 Highlight the passage at 46:48

47:36 But in terms of meditation, the monastic form is for mindfulness, so then you're observing it. And I found it very helpful, especially like I noticed like here in England, being a monk and a nun here in Europe, and people that come into the Saṅgha are from egalitarian societies. Mostly, you know, from countries like Western European countries or these states, Canada, Australia. And they have, they've got a strong resentment towards authority and hierarchy. Report an error in the passage at 47:36 Highlight the passage at 47:36

48:24 And so they, and yet in a community, and in the tradition, it has a certain hierarchical quality to it. And so you have a lot of resentment of authority, and you have a lot of ideas about how it should be. And so here, where in Thailand, the Saṅgha coming from, it's integrated within the culture itself, and Thailand is a unique country in the fact that it is a Buddhist country. Report an error in the passage at 48:24 Highlight the passage at 48:24

49:10 It's 95 % Theravadan Buddhists, Thai people. Even the minorities are within 5 % range. So you've got a tremendous kind of homogeneity in Thailand and a cultural, integrated cultural attitude. And the structure and the hierarchical arrangements are part of a cultural attitude. Report an error in the passage at 49:10 Highlight the passage at 49:10

49:39 And so, like being a monk in Thailand, I had to, that reflected also this very American attitude, you know, of my resistance to hierarchical structures, fear and resentment towards authority, rebelliousness. All these things are very American. Report an error in the passage at 49:39 Highlight the passage at 49:39

49:59 you know so you And eventually through seeing all that and resolving it, I began to enjoy the life of the monk in Thailand because after I let go of those kind of resistances and resentments, I could appreciate just the value of the life there and the goodness of the life there. I wasn't caught in these resistances to it over just the restraint of it. Report an error in the passage at 49:59 Highlight the passage at 49:59

50:31 And then here in England, training a saṅgha is an ongoing challenge because the people come with all their egalitarian ideals and their resentment of authority. So, you know, you're always being criticized for being the abbot of the monastery. Report an error in the passage at 50:31 Highlight the passage at 50:31

51:01 That's why I think I'd like to go back to Thailand. Report an error in the passage at 51:01 Highlight the passage at 51:01

51:12 But when you contemplate it, you know, say in the West, the good part of the Western, you know, the good side is that there is a definite, you know, like people that come to Buddhism, like here in England, there's something really they want to investigate and they're really looking. And there's also a... Report an error in the passage at 51:12 Highlight the passage at 51:12

51:43 A reflective quality, they want to find the truth. They're not just here because they're Buddhist or they believe in it, but because they're really searching, because they realize that in a country like this, where you have, you know, you can take so much for granted, you're still inwardly a very unhappy person and suffer a lot, even when there's... Report an error in the passage at 51:43 Highlight the passage at 51:43

52:13 Everything's all right. You're still suffering. What are you going to do about it? Any Report an error in the passage at 52:13 Highlight the passage at 52:13

52:30 more questions? So I'll let you go for this afternoon. And Thursday I'm going to... I've been invited to the Czech Republic. So Venerable Jutindro and I are going to Prague on Thursday. Guests of the Thai ambassador in Prague. Spend a week in that beautiful city. I've never been there. So I won't be here next Sunday, but Ajahn Viradhamma will give the next Sunday's talk. Report an error in the passage at 52:30 Highlight the passage at 52:30

53:05 And he didn't make up the title. I think it's called, what is it? Drinking Tea and Touching the Earth or something. Mindfulness My Home. Oh, I think he can manage that one. It's the one about touching the earth and drinking tea. Report an error in the passage at 53:05 Highlight the passage at 53:05

53:30 Sounds very Zen, doesn't it? Report an error in the passage at 53:30 Highlight the passage at 53:30