I just had a quick look around before I close my eyes to begin this talk. One thing I noticed that it's
quite wonderful. There's not that many people here this evening for the talk because there's nothing
going on at John Agrove. Remember the last talks which I gave there was just so many people
here.One thing I've noticed as I've mentioned to you giving talks, it's...
Please excuse me, but when there's committed monks and nuns here and anagurakas, novices, it's...
the feeling is different for me anyway and I usually can give a much more powerful talk. I've often tried
to give powerful deep talks, resolved to do that, but then the audience in front of me basically don't
allow me to do it. It's a weird thing, but of all these years, it's a practice which people are doing,
you know, in their huts, you know, in the monasteries. Those people with a more committed practice,
it's easier to give more talks appropriate to them. So it's nice, it's not that many people here this
evening. It's also one of the reasons why that we don't allow these Wednesday evening talks to be
open to people who are not staying the night here and they have to be staying the night or last night
in order to qualify to come in here or be being in sort of the bikuni, some dhammasara or being in
Vennel Bodhi Dancia from Guissola. But anyhow, that I know that certainly you probably will notice
I've been running around very hard in the last couple of weeks, even just before going over to UK.
I was teaching a meditation retreat for the Singaporeans, as well as doing all the arrangements as
much as I could for the Katinade, even to the point of when the Katinade happened, there was a big
fire and had to argue with the incident controller to let the Katinade actually happen. And fortunately,
the heavenly beings were on our side and that's an important point there.
I know that some of you may just be too scientific and I say that as a theoretical physicist before.
But I also know there's too many things which I've experienced and seen in my life as a monk,
which you cannot say are coincidental. It's not just chance. If people are practicing well, and if they're
practicing well and meditating well and the majority of them, then there are beings, heavenly beings,
just like it says in the sutas, heavenly beings will come to your assistance and make sure that your
practice or whatever you arrange, which is good and noble, can actually bear fruit in this world.
And often I sort of trust in that.Sometimes, even after the Katinade going to UK, a lot of trust in there,
you get to the venues on time, even though there's much public transport there, but all the public
transport seems always late or has to be delayed because some trespasses were reported on the
train line. So you have to wait for a while. It's just these days people run on fear.
And that fear can delay and cause so much problems to us. Yes, you have to be cautious, but you
don't need to follow. This word came into my head when I was in UK and also here. You don't have to
follow the care principle. And what does care mean? I mean, you all know that, you mugs.
But can you say it for me? Care is, cover, ask, retain employment.
And a lot of times, I'm speaking like a normal human being, and a lot of times, that means that
sometimes people overreact. And I can sometimes see that even in myself, sort of overreacting.
Sometimes, you know, because of hard work, sometimes you don't get enough sleep, even though I'm
still suffering from some jet lag.
Nevertheless, instead of just covering my mouth and retaining good health, I would always just do
duties instead, and just trust in the heavy beings to look after me, so that I can give a talk this
evening. Even though I didn't sleep much last night, I'd be working in the afternoon too. Or is that trust
that you do something good and beautiful, then other heavily beings or good forces do come to your
aid, do come and just give you energy, and sometimes that energy, I just don't know where it comes
from.
It is weird, strange. You should really take an extra rest, but you don't. Because it's something
wonderful and noble to do, to give a talk on a Wednesday evening, especially when you know that
when such talks aren't given, I can see this in Bodhi Nyanam on a story. Sometimes the harmony and
the esprit, not the sprit de vi, esprit de meditation starts to disappear, and the feeling that we have
negativity in our speech, in our thoughts.
And how I see things is that there's all negativity. It's just not helpful at all. It's not helpful, it doesn't
solve any problems, it just makes problems even worse. You look at all the people in this monitory, all
the people in Damasara, all of you are totally imperfect. Welcome to the world. Not totally imperfect,
because I also see the beautiful part in you.
And that's one of the wonderful things which you learn when you meditate. One of the questions I was
often asked when I was overseas, is that a question I'm asked because I've got experience in these
things. And people know they've got experience in these things, so I'm the guy who gets the
questions asked to him. And the questions were, how good do your precepts, your seed, and really
need to be, to get into things like nimitus and jhanas.
And I get asked that question so much, because a lot of people want to attain these amazing things.
But you know, the seedy got defilements, it's not your defilements, the defilements, you don't own
them. They just know the residue of what you've been doing so far in your life. And those defilements,
they kind of come up. So how can you get into deep meditation and see properly through them and
make sure they don't come up ever again?
It's like a vicious circle, because I've got defilements, I can't see the dumb, because I can't see the
dumb. Those defilements keep on coming up. But there is. What I called when I was giving talks
overseas, what I called the lupole. I called it lupole, because that's the best word I can find for it.
It's not totally appropriate for such deep things. It's a lupole because there is a way of looking at your
behaviour, at your life, in a way which still allows you to see the beautiful purity, which is there next to
that lupole.
And I don't know why it is, but still you see many people always know that it's the two bad bricks story.
Always seeing the faults. And I learned that very strongly when that two bad bricks happened. I
wanted to destroy that wall. I really did. I was ashamed of it. I was upset at it. But then after a while
you learnt there's other bricks in the wall.
Every time I see a monk or a nun, a layman lay woman doing something wrong, I think that's only part
of them. There's so many other beautiful things in that human being. You don't just see the faults. You
really put your mind, you make an effort.
And really say that. This should be natural. But don't worry because I brainwashed you into making
that effort. It's not coming from you, so you're not really going against it. I don't do anything teaching.
You make an effort to see the other side. You don't just see weeds. You see flowers. And one of those
stories, I haven't said for a while, a couple of years ago that one of the monks, mothers, I think might
be novice, when he ordained us a novice here, she gave him a gift of some lavender seeds.
At the same time, we had some pest controllers in, spraying the lavenders, which were already here.
So a couple of novices were planting lavenders, while other people were spraying them. That kind of
thing, that's beautiful. It's illogical, irrational. Why are you planting some in one place and spraying
them in another place? Welcome to Samsara. That's what we do in Samsara. It's not as organized as
we would think it should be.
So this is why, instead of finding thought with things, we can actually see something else, this
loophole. You smile at it. Welcome to us to how Samsara works. And at the same time, you look at
yourself, with all the things which you've been doing. If you could have the last week over again,
would you make it better? You know, from your mistakes, things you should avoid, things you
shouldn't do, things which you should have done.
Actually, I remember just, when I grew up, I would always be thinking right then, I want you to have
said something else. I should have done something else. But these days, I don't kind of do that
anymore. When something goes wrong, when it's suffering, I look at even suffering as a boon, as an
example, as an opportunity. That's one of the reasons why when people ask me questions, you know,
how can you just, as this lady was asking in London, that she suffers because she thinks she needs to
be informed about what's happening in the world.
She wasn't a nun or a monk or a monastic. She watches a good boy, as a follower. She wanted to be
aware of what happens in the world. But every time she turns on the news on the internet or on the
TV, there's all these terrible things happening in the world. Why do these things happen?
And I like that question, why? Why do monks sometimes misunderstand? Why do nuns blame?
Well, monks and nuns are interchangeable here, by the way.
I'm not just saying the monks complain and that nuns only blame. We all do the same. Why can't we
just instead look at these experiences as a learning, as an opportunity, as a way that we can
strengthen some of these characteristics in a personal communications life? Why can't we learn from
this, strengthen them? So, if you make a mistake, we can just say, yes, sorry, I made a mistake. It's
beautiful when that sort of happens.
When you see people's honesty, humility, and like truth, even though it can hurt. If you can do that,
you understand the reason, or rather the meaning behind such things as wars and conflagrations. The
meaning is that we haven't learnt our lesson yet. The meaning is we have to go much deeper than
just annihilating our enemies with, what's the call it, shock and awe, as Mr. Bush used to say. That
never does work.
The meaning of the conflicts which follow are we have to learn. And sometimes it's a suffering, the
pain which motivates us to learn, to do better next time. When I was asking, what talk should I give
this evening? People always say the same thing, see, I don't know. But I've given a talk on that
before. But good old was he. He said, what about Yoni Soh Manaseekara? And I think one way, it's
not the only way of interpreting Yoni Soh Manaseekara, but it's one helpful way.
What it means is why. Or answering the question, why? Because Yoni Soh Manaseekara is work of
the mind which goes back to the source of things. Why? Why do these things happen?
Instead of trying to solve the symptoms, we look for the cause. Is that cause soluble? You have
arguments. No, because I was in the UK helping out the nuns' monastery over there. And because
they were building, what we're looking for, we just came across, we weren't really looking, just came
across some suitable land which looks beautiful.
Some people asked, why do you buy such a big piece of land, say, for even Damasara? You know the
joke. This is not offensive, please, to you, bikunis. Somebody actually said, we need a big block of
land, almost 600 acres, to be able to put each nun in one corner so they won't argue. Please, I ask
apologies for that because you're very good nuns. You can understand. It'd be great to be able to do
that. That's why we've brought Helmets Hill.
That's not what we did. We did buy Helmets Hill, but not the space monks out. But all of those ideas,
even if that was the truth, that would not be any way to solve arguments. To me, it's much better,
excuse me, to have, if two people are not getting on together, put them in the same hut. All these
really close together. They're not separate. They still need to learn.
Learn just how to be harmonious together, and how to look at the person who's giving you a hard
time, and then say to yourself, that person is still struggling, they're still learning, poor thing. They
have to say those terrible words. That must be really hurting them inside, and it does. I always wish I
would say that. I wish I had to be more cruel. Some don't say things like that. But no, they always
regret when it takes away something which is really important to them in monastic life, the peace, the
friendship, and the harmony.
So it's not judging other people. I've known, I think all of you, ever since you came to this monastery,
I've known you longer than anyone else, almost. But nevertheless, each one of you, you've always
got your quirky characteristics. I've got them quirky, okay? But there's also things inside you I really,
really respect. Your kindness, forgiveness, service, looking after one another. And I deliberately, it's
actually in the old days, I was deliberate, but these days, they just do it quite naturally.
Look at your goodness, your peace, your happiness, your service, your kindness. It really moves me.
And then when I can see that, yeah, I can see you just being a bit unpleasant sometimes to
somebody. But then I always keep in mind the goodness inside of you, and you're still learning.
There's enough there, there's enough flowers in that garden to eventually choke out the weeds. And
that's where you understand, that's even how you meditate.
Now when people ask, you know, I get nimeters, I'll never forget this, attend and over in the Buddhist
Gym Fellowship. They were really honest with me, because they were attending their time to talk to
me. And they said, in one of my talks, I said, your nimeter needs to be really beautiful for you to get
lots of happiness and get into jarners, which is an important part of the process, what we're here for to
enjoy the bliss of a mind freed from the five senses and freed from thoughts for it to be still.
And sometimes people think, you're only a man of secret, why is it dirty? Because some of your
defilements, there's nimeters. You can see that, but that is not the end of the world. A thought-finding
mind will stay on other people's defilements, your own defilements, your mistake, other people's
mistakes, my mistakes, the world's mistakes. But instead of that, the Yoni Samana see come out,
work of the mind which goes back to the source of things, and why?
You see, the reason why people are like this is because they're not enlightened yet. Even if they're
enlightened, still people didn't like the Buddha, some of the things he did. So this is a nature of human
beings. Sometimes the nature is, they will find thought with you. Even if there's no thought there, they
will find it somewhere. And because of that, I keep that in mind so I don't feel so negative about a
person if they find thought with me. But it's also, I don't feel negative at myself if I make a mistake, if I
do something I've forgotten.
Usually very rarely do anything on purpose, which is aimed at hurting anybody. But sometimes you do
something or say something, you say a silly joke, and then sometimes it gets misunderstood. Or
sometimes you forget to do something, you haven't got time to do something.
And all of these things, I make sure I realise why they happened. Yoni Samana see come out. Why?
It's not that you have any ill will towards any being. It's just when you speak. You know that
sometimes it happens, the word comes into my mind, and then I say it. It's not the word I thought
about. It's not taken the wrong way. People misunderstand the meaning. And because of that, I know
how unreliable speech is. Now what I think in my mind I'm going to say, and how I'm going to say it.
Sometimes it's like I've been on that internet for such a long time the last week.
Sometimes I've noticed you type in a word, and they've got this special program in these computers.
They print out another word. It's close to it. Just like when you sign your name and I can't blame.
Sometimes the auto correction makes it Joe Brown. And then I'm not good enough at the computer to
be able to fix this sometimes. So it comes from Joe Brown. So when you can work with them all,
which goes back to the source, you find it's not a mistaken feel. It's sad about. It's a mistake which
can cause some humor, some uplift.
And that I think is beautiful. Okay. I still remember when I think of President George W. Bush went to a
restaurant and saw the menu, and he told the waitress that he will have a quickie. This is quite rude.
And I think his attendant said, Kish. And every time I see a Kish these days, I'll have a bit of that
quickie as well. Less than now people make mistakes. It's nothing wrong. It's just sometimes so you
get forgiving.
But anyway, back to your own meditation. But sometimes you have made mistakes. It's because
you're learning. You're on the path. You're not supposed to be like a great, sportless Buddha yet. So
what you're doing is when you look at your mind, you learn how to not keep all those bad
experiences. You know, a lot of times people go to psychologists for counseling.
They say about the past. Life was not really that terrible. Not all the time. There were some beautiful
moments as well. Why can't we focus more on the beautiful moments of our past? Instead of all the
terrible experiences. You just focus on the wonderful things in a monastery. Even though you have a
lot of work to do sometimes you go outside and find it's raining this morning.
It's beautiful. I just missed it. Well, I didn't miss the rain because I had plenty of it when I was in
England. But it was nice to just go out. I think it's really early in this morning.
Go out and just stand in it and just get a bit damp. I appreciate it. I valued it.
So sometimes we do this and look at the faults which are in our mind or in our meditation.
And instead of just creating negativity towards it, it's learning it around to something peaceful and
beautiful. I kind of love that. And please excuse me at Jambodhi Dajra when I was in the UK teaching
retreat. I did so many people about the story of how you endured your brother's sleep, your snoring
when he came to visit here.
Please, I would not mind me saying this. But I thought it was actually very beautiful. I told us to many
people who say on retreats, sometimes people are so noisy. Now what does Ajahn Charmin by
making sure that it's not the noise disturbing you but you who disturbed the noise? And when you
asked me years ago your brother was visiting, I think it was you. And correct? Sorry? It was partly a
bit of a meetah and partly me. It's a bit of a mixture.
OK. What is it matter? OK. Just never allow the truth to stand in the way of a good story. But a mark in
his brother was coming over. And so the only place they could stay, you know, it's like even in
Damasala. Here is just the same. Sometimes there's no space. I said, well, you'd rather be welcome
to stay here but there's no space for him. He said, no, we grow up together. It's my brother. We could
stay in the same hut.
Really? The hut's over here only 3 metres by 2.4. That's 10 foot by 8 foot. It's pretty small. You can
get two people in there. But what happens if your brother starts snoring first? You won't get any sleep.
And I don't know if there's anybody that's your own venerable chunder. Sorry. I don't know who it was.
But it needs something. Yeah. There won't be venerable chunder. That's really big mucking roast.
Anyway, when it started snoring, I think the brother started snoring first.
So the plan never worked out as it should have done. So they had to endure their brother snoring.
Snoring. Really loud disturbing. So they started contemplating, how can I go to sleep when this really
awful noise is only about a foot for my ear? And that solution, I quote this often because it's very
beautiful. They said they started changing their perception of the snoring. Instead of being something
disturbing. I think it must have been you, if anybody, that's your highly, no, you didn't do the snoring.
You were highly educated. So they always loved music when they were young. And they started to
perceive it as this avant-garde type of music which broke all conventions, which challenged
conformity, which actually did something that was really original. Music which didn't sound nice.
You know there are some composers who actually play music like that on purpose, breaking every
convention there ever was.
It's called art. Apparently it worked because the last thing they remembered when they woke up in the
morning after a good night's sleep receiving their brother's snoring to be so amazing, so
groundbreaking, so inspiring. They actually liked the sound of their brother's snoring. That's how they
changed it. It's the same as to be able to like it when somebody tells you off. I always liked quoting the
story of this Greek philosopher many, many centuries ago, and actually millennia ago.
And he was in his youth. He went to this other philosopher who taught him everything. He taught
everything from maths to how to make a good cup of tea. I made that one up. And then anyhow, every
time the student did something wrong, the master, the teacher, would shout at them, scold them, and
charge them extra money for that. I can appreciate that because if you're a teacher, if you're an
adjunct, a leader, it's much more effort.
It's much more work when you have to scold somebody. You should be paid for that. Recompense. So
please remember that, Ajahn Brahmali, that when you go to the Santhi for a few days, if anybody
gives you a hard time, charge them. If Ajahn Brahmali and I are away, Ajahn Appi, and they say
something nasty to you or something, you have to scold them and tell them off, please make sure you
charge them.
He's a boss. Whatever. But anyhow, so that was a very good training for him. So when he got a job,
and he was someone, people would say stupid things, they would do stupid things to him. Whenever
they would treat him badly, he would burst out laughing. And his boss couldn't understand that. I scold
other people, and they'd get, you know, they'd try and justify their actions to get angry back at me.
But you, whenever I get angry, you just laugh. Why? They'd say, well, when I was at school, I had to
pay for this, and I'd get it for free. I kind of like that. It was turning it around as something beautiful and
wonderful. So that if you have any memories of something in the past, when you're meditating, if you
can turn it something for free. Something, not for free, but something in a different night, you change
your perception of him.
You change your perception of how it can be of help to you and used to you and used to others as
well. Yeah, I've been working hard and not sleeping as much as I should. But nevertheless, I don't
know what should really mean. But nevertheless, I can make use of that to give, you know, hopefully
inspiring talks, meaningful ones. Finding meaning in it. That's the only semana cicra.
Finding meaning. Why is this happening?
Why, and how can I best deal with this? And a lot of times, if I can see somebody else mistreating me,
it teaches me not to mistreat anybody else. That's the lesson in it. I don't like it, so I'm not going to do
it to anybody else. If I learn that, well enough. And then there's some sort of karmic law that's maybe
just embarrassing to say, but if somebody mistreats me, I can usually trace it back to some karmic
payoff when I didn't treat someone else very nicely.
So anyhow, I'm learning from it rather than getting upset and angry about it. But then, back to what I
was going to say, that when it comes to your meditation, you value the things which happened to you,
which weren't present. You're teaching you suffering. You remember it. You don't blame anybody.
Instead, you thank them. You can learn from it. And what you learn, if you can't learn like causes and
effects, at least you learn that this is what life is like in the human world.
And you're going to face this many, many times. You have to learn things like forgiveness, which is
another word for letting go. And that's one of the reasons why in your meditation is some things you
may be ashamed of, which you hadn't have done, but you have done it. Simple forgiveness to
yourself. The act of kindness. The act of saying, I'm not perfect, but I can see so much good in me.
I am worth forgiving. Same as anybody who's hurt you. Every year we do the forgiveness ceremony.
And I love it when people have had a conflict. I don't care who's senior, who's junior. And I get a tray
and just do a little forgiveness ceremony. It's really wonderful to see that. I still remember the story. I
know the characters, but I never actually saw the event. There was these two monks, both American
monks, both tough as anything, in Chittos when it was just being built.
And they were having an argument. No one knows what the argument was. But one of those men, I
think I wrote about this in Open the Door of Your Heart, one of those men was an ex-real estate
millionaire. You know, this was years ago. A million dollars really meant a lot in those days.
And he wasn't going to move. And he was arguing with Ajahn Anandar, who used to be the Vietnam
vet, shot in the back of their head, another tough guy.
And this Vietnam veteran, he was in the Marines. He was a grunt. Before he was in the Marines, he
was in a gang in Buffalo, in upper New York State. He used to say, he'd play for keeps. He never
confessed he'd murdered anybody, but he joined the US Marines in order to get tougher. That was his
reason. And anyhow, he was facing off this other monk. No other monk was courageous enough to
actually tell him to calm down or be peaceful, because these were two very tough people.
And then, in the middle of this argument, the fists raised, they really thought this was a couple of
months going to have a fist fight. Anandar, the US Marine, he just suddenly stopped, bowed down. I
think he was a senior. Bow down and said, I asked for forgiveness. At this moment of inspiration,
please forgive me. I don't know if he was at fault, but he was decided that's the only way to stop this.
That's what a, a wise spiritual person should do. Ask forgiveness first.
And then, the other real estate millionaire just burst out crying. It's a wonderful thing to see.
Totally unexpected. But a great way to solve sort of difficulties. They learned from that. That was the
reason why that happened. You get meaning from it. I certainly got meaning from it. It inspired me so
much that if anybody, if I hurt anybody, sometimes I'm one of the first people to ask for forgiveness.
So, it's the same way that whatever you've done in life, you can purify it.
That turns, you know, what started out very badly to be a beautiful, dumb experience, which inspired
so many people. I've taught many times sitting in here that inspiration, that beauty, it starts off with
suffering. It starts off with breaking precepts, with arguing, about to fight. And all those bad words,
forgive it. Thank you. I learned so much from that.
And you, you're honest with it. You did actually learn something. You found meaning in it. Meaning in
the suffering which comes from life when you don't get what you want. Meaning when you do get what
you want, that's still suffering. It's wanting causes the problems. And sometimes you get a glimmer of
light and dhamma and good sense. It's not wanting things.
It just happened. Give it meaning. Learn from it. And then it's gone. And your mind is free.
That's just when that Malaysian attendant, he said that he had a nimiter, but it was all dirty and
smudged. Like a white cloth that's been dragged through the mud. And he said, I said, you've been
breaking your precepts and he said he went down. He never told me exactly what he did.
And it must have been something pretty bad. And he said, that's my mind right now. It's really dirty. He
said, never mind. I know the loophole.
Have a look at that dirty smudgy rag of a mind of yours. And you'll find, you always find one part of it.
Any dirty cloth or rag, there's always one part of it which is not dirty. The simile comes up in the
morning when Venerable Rada, one of our monks here, comes up and sits down. His jacket is just so
patched.
There's so full of bits of rag hanging off here and there. But if you look at it, there's always one part
which is perfect. Is that true Venerable Rada? I don't know. Well, I look, I see it every day. So you can
look at that part and think, oh, what a beautiful jacket that is. You always look for the good part in it.
Bambhana-saramana-stree. Is it beautiful and perfect? It's always one part that is.
I don't care how big that part is or how small it is.
You always look at that really beautiful part, focus on that. And then that brings up this beautiful sense
of energy, energy of purity. Even though I'm just really tired again, if I wasn't sitting here, I'd be laying
down in my cave. But you look at just the beautiful parts of energy which I do have in my body.
Especially in the heart area, not the head, the head is really just stuffed up. But the heart area is
gorgeous.
You'll give me the opportunity to share with you, which now brings me so much good energy. I can
always see some good energy in me somewhere. And I don't focus on the tiredness. When I look at
that good energy, it's so easy to turn that into a beautiful limiter. It's just experimenting to make sure
I'm telling the truth, and it's true. And that means you don't have to be perfect, perfectly healthy.
Perfectly.
It's great to keep your precepts. It's not an excuse not to keep your precepts. Not to have sensory
strength, but nevertheless, you can still see in this mind of yours right now something which is
beautiful and energetic. And once you can see that, that's what you focus on. Focus on the good part
of your mind, the good part of your limiter, the good part of friendship with someone who you don't
even get on with, but you can still be friends to them.
And then when you look at that, it's always called, these days we call it zooming in. You zoom into the
clean part of your mind, leave the rest behind. You zoom into the beautiful part of that clean part. You
zoom into the shining part of the clean part. You zoom into the radiant part of that shining part. You
zoom into the blissful part of that radiant part. You keep zooming into the good part of it.
It's wonderful that some of these people, even you teach them overseas, when they remember what
you taught. And one of them, when I was in Sheffield, was saying, oh, that's a Doncaster simile.
Because when I went to Doncaster to assist that in tomato to teach your retreat, it's only a two day
retreat. But in the morning, we went for a walk, exercise, into a beautiful part of Doncaster. There's
actually some beautiful parts of Doncaster.
There was a coal town. And they said, when we came back, where did you go? Please excuse me,
but I always remember this, that now it's junior month, I don't see me as senior. And this guy going to
work in a briefcase and hat and raincoat. He stopped right in front of Adjunct Sumeto, almost like
nose to nose. He was a businessman. He knocked him up and down. And his comments were, you're
old enough to know better.
I felt so sorry for poor. I did some later. I had a cutting comment. You're old enough to know better.
You never said that to me because I was young. I was once, you know. So anyhow, we always go
over this. That's right. When we got back, we told that story. And he said, when did you go? And he
said, where we went? And the guy who was sponsoring the retreat said, oh, yeah.
You were two positive monks.
And the week before there was another monk, I'd then bombarded those two years. And he went for a
walk down the towpath next to the guess works. That's negativity. Why would then you go to the
gardens instead of the old rundown industrial area of Doncaster? Anyway, that's what we learned to
do. If you have this positive mind, in other words, you can see the beautiful part.
You can see, you know, what the meaning is of these things, how useful they can be, how wonderful
they can be. You don't watch much movies, but I remember, I think, someone showed me a clip from I
think the gods must be crazy. You know, where somebody threw a Coca-Cola bottle out of an aircraft,
and it landed past one of these in detonators, what they call Kalahari bushmen.
is that right ? What do they do with it? The bottle, which almost killed them, they tried to make use of
it. They used it as a wife was using it for a rolling pin to actually make chapatis or whatever. Not
chapatis, I know they don't know chapatis, they're kind of a desperate for light bread. I was kind of
interested in that, something they never seen before, they made use of it.
They gave it some meaning.
And it was only when he got angry or something, I forget what happened, his wife hit him over the
head with the bottle. And then I decided it was just too dangerous, so they threw it away.
But anyway, at least you can see they were using, they were finding meaning in something. When it
has a meaning, it's useful. To me, that's the only thing to see, the meaning of the why.
And when you see the why in all of this, and how you can make use of it, eventually, you find there's
nothing there, nothing to protect, nothing to criticize, nothing no one to blame, no one to be upset
about, no one actually to stop you, seeing putiny on him. No one to stop you glissing out, no one to
stop you getting the jarners. You know that nine years ago here, you got the beautiful nimeters, but
then I couldn't understand at the time why on earth she didn't take that next step into jana.
And then she let on, she said, I don't think I deserve jarners. Please, you do deserve to let go of any
nasty stuff in your mind, any bad memories, any just feelings of inadequacy are not good enough. You
have a right to let that all go, and see the beautiful part of your mind. When you see that beautiful part
of the mind, you'll find they give you so much happiness and joy, so much compassion, kindness,
compassion, the kindness, where does it come from? Why?
You can see things in a totally different way, and that means that there's much more joy and energy
come up, and it means that when you sort of meditate, you close your eyes and you close your ears
and you sit still, that joy comes up and it keeps you still, it makes you even easier to be still, because
you're enjoying it, and that stillness gets really strong.
When it gets really strong, the body vanishes and you bliss out, and when you come out afterwards
you say, this shouldn't have happened, you think? All those causes, you know, getting into a deep
meditation, you have to do this, you have to do that. You just went past those causes, you know the
loophole, that's one of the reasons why, please be kind, be forgiving,
see the beauty in your monastery, the beauty in your lifestyle, maybe it may not be what you expect,
but it still has meaning for you. When you see that meaning, you rejoice in that meaning, then your
mind can become really beautiful, blissed out, still, enjoy the deep meditations,
and get health which you shouldn't have, according to medicine, but you are healthy, excellent, so I
think that's enough for this evening. I'm mind-of-life, and I'm sadhana.
Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu, sadhu, anamodhavini.