24-11 Learn the Lessons of Samsara(윤회의 교훈을 배우라)

[khemacara]

Excellent. I think as you all know, I've just been away for a couple of weeks. First of all, going over to Hong Kong to teach some teachings and to teach teachings, to give talks and seminars and a little meditation retreat as well. And then from there, flying over to Sydney, from an Australia Sanga Association meeting. One of the lovely things about travelling, seeing other traditions, other monks, other people, is you get a lot of inspiration.

It's, I'm surprised at just how many people are so really hungry for learning the dhamma. How there's no shortage of people coming to the talks, no shortage of people joining those retreats. And afterwards, I just recall the retreat which I gave over in Hong Kong. It's only for four days. But the end of the retreat, just looking at the people beforehand and afterwards, it's amazing to change in them. They really did need to have some strength of meditation. It's a very politically difficult place at the moment in Hong Kong. But just the joy, the happiness, the purity of their minds, I got no doubt that that will protect everybody. It's sometimes that people get upset and angry and that just opens you up to being hurt or being physically damaged.

But when one is really kind and peaceful, it's almost impossible to be damaged or hurt or bruised. There's too many experiences I've had in my monk life and no-no's experiences. Probably the police, excuse me, for telling these stories again. I don't think Van der Bohei-Ann has heard some of these stories. That when we just purchased our city centre in Nolomara, on that time that there was the first big centre we'd ever had.

And so that we decided to celebrate, obviously, the purchase. And Ajahn Jakkwa was the boss at the time and he said, let's do a really big ceremony, as best we possibly can, and invite the governor of Western Australia.

And that was the Gordon Reed, a very lovely man. That's the Reed Highway, which we can drive on these days and named after him. Anyway, so Gordon Reed, to our surprise, he accepted. And that was a really wonderful thing. And so once he accepted, we decided to make sure we got the very best of marquees and tables and everything we wanted to put on a show, and we did our best, but when the chairs, tables, and marquees came, the tents came, they were incredibly bad quality. And these, as well as actually from Peppermint Grove, that's a wealthiest suburb in Perth. I mean, when I ordered them, I did specify that these have to be high quality. Well, the governor and his wife, and I think a couple of consoles and ambassador coming as well, we wanted to put on a good show.

And when those equipment came, I was busy doing something else, and when they came, they was unloaded, and they put them up, and the tents were really filthy. And the chairs were filthy too. Those could be fixed up. It's one of those things you don't complain when somebody can do about it. And even though it was in our four diastrodes, very best, and again, these dirty old tents, marquees, and chairs. But the thing which we could not fix up was the tables for the governor, and not the tables, the chairs for his governor, for the governor and his wife. Now these were important beings in a society. We wanted to try and put on a good show. And when we checked those chairs, they were almost like rejects. Not one of them had the legs the same length.

We had about a dozen VIP chairs. I was really concerned about that even at the term VIP. When I went into a VIP lounge in Colombo, I had to stay there many, many more hours, and I should have done, and miss the fright. So VIP, a very important problem, I think. So anyway, so this is how Australia works. They were delivered on a Friday afternoon, and then I managed to call the office just as they were closing up. And I reminded the person around the office that we wanted the very best, and we can't accept this. And we got the governor coming on Sunday. Please, you must replace these chairs. And they did.

The point was that they came to get the guys who were the workers, had already stopped work, and were in the pub Friday afternoon. That's when the drinking starts. And so that was in those days. Remember, this was when, before we had the main hall in Dhamma Loka, this had just had the community hall. And so anyway, the people came in the truck. I think many of you know the details of the story. You know, Nancy and Wei, just when the truck turned the corner going into Nancy and Wei, he was still traveling quite fast. And halfway down Nancy and Wei, towards our centre, one of the people in the truck jumped out of the cab.

I'll never forget that. He jumped out, and he raised his fist, and he started shouting, who's the broken child? I want the broken child. And I walked up to him and said, I'm the broken child. I was in charge of the the marquees and the chairs. I was a fellow who ordered it. I was the bloke who just, you know, called up their boss to get them to go back to work. And it already started their weekend. And I do recall him coming right up to me, almost like nose to nose. He was trying to intimidate me. And I don't know. Some of you read these suitors, and some of you say, well, maybe they are exaggerated.

But certainly angry people like him did have big red eyes. He'd been drinking. And he could smell the beer on his breath. I'm sorry, but I could not escape. But just breathing in some alcohol. It was only a tiny bit. But then the amazing thing, these are the experiences I can never forget about the whole life. That he had his fist right in front of my nose. And looking at me with as much anger as he could possibly evoke. He wanted a bloke in charge and said, that was me. But then he didn't know what to do next. I always love these experiences. If you are kind and wise, but not arrogant, then they can't harm you. I always remember that experience because all those people, my helpers, including other monks as well, who were helping out, it's wonderful when you're in a really spot of difficulty.

No, someone's about to punch you. Everybody else doesn't do anything. They just stare.

And I think they just need some entertainment. And they're very boring lives, I'm not sure. But anyway, what happened, as you all know, many of you heard his story not so long ago, was that he could not move at all. The psychology was perfect. He didn't know what to do next. He just was stuck there. His fist in front of my nose glaring and waiting for me to say something like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then a fight mother started. But because I just stared peacefully, but not arrogantly, not looking down on him, he didn't know what to do.

And in that time, the track that Laurie had parked and all the other helpers had got out of that lorry. And the boss just came walking towards both of us, put his hand on his workers' shoulder and said, come on, let's help unload the track. And they said, yes, I'll help you. And I did that. There was no violence at all. I can sometimes see how such violence can actually be overcome so easily if you're not scared and if you are kind but don't go so far as being arrogant. And when you see such things, if you're so safe wherever you go in this world, whether it's no inter nahong kong, it's actually, it is now the People's Republic of China.

It's Chinese territory. Let's see, legal condition of the country. But there's still such a lot of kindness there which I saw. And that's what I wanted to imbue to all the people who came on my retreats. No need to worry too much. Because one of the other things I've noticed that what you're afraid about, you help create. And it's always, I found it useful to look on the good side of people, even at the good side of getting it to rain. I'm a very, very positive man. And even when I did go to the ASA conference in Nantian Temple over in Wollongong, I must admit I was negative. First time I've been negative in months. I had to take a COVID test.

Sorry, I couldn't resist that silly story. And of course, no COVID. So anyhow, that's sort of kind of positive attitude. So you can see all the reasons why things could go wrong.

What about all the reasons why they could go right? And that was one of the things which I taught over in Hong Kong. The old two fabrics in the wall said,

but you've heard millions of times now. You've heard so many times about those two fabrics in the wall more times than there were even number of good bricks in the wall.

But nevertheless, I found it a very useful analogy for just why sometimes people are

negative about the future.

They're just looking at two bad bricks in the future. So there's more than two bad bricks, is it? When I looked at those two bad bricks, of course, I wanted to destroy that wall. I wanted to blow it up, push it over with a bulldozer. I was ashamed of it, afraid of it, afraid of the consequences of being ashamed by my faults. Now instead, you look at the good bricks in the wall, the good bricks in the future. I was telling somebody because even the last day at Hong Kong, they wanted to do a forgiveness ceremony with me. They did it eventually, but I made them work hard for it. Because I said, why do you always want to do forgiveness ceremonies?

Looking at some faults you may have done or I may have done. Why don't you do a gratitude ceremony instead? Thank you for the wonderful, great things we've done over the past, well, eight days, which I was in Hong Kong. They looked after me very well, and I gave some good damage for them. Instead of having a forgiveness ceremony, just focusing on the faults, why don't we just focus on the wonderful things which we've shared and done and sacrificed and made for each other. That's the same even here. It's so easy to think of faults, what's gone wrong, what people have done wrong.

But a lot of times, if we can focus on the gratitude, which each one of us has done, or which each one of us deserve, I would say, then that's a different way of doing the forgiveness. It's the same in the future instead of going through fear about what might happen in the future. We have a much more positive attitude. I must admit, I was very happy to hear about how 10 Appys escapade in Thailand. It was wonderful. Thank you, actually, and happy for the amount over there. You did an excellent job, so I hear it. And that's sort of, instead of actually seeing faults in people, you see they're really good qualities. They're kind qualities.

They're sacrificial qualities. And that means that actually people grow more. One of the things I've always noticed, I think it's basic psychology, if you see the good in other people, that good grows. They sit in themselves, and they become amazing leaders in our community. And my goodness, whenever you go overseas with the exception of South Korea, which is an amazing country, or in other countries, they really do need a lot of Buddhist leaders. They've got heaps over there in South Korea. You're a very great monk from Buhayan. And where we actually see that, especially over in Australia,

to get some really good leaders going, that's a wonderful asset, which we have. Yeah, we all want to have access.

We all have access to the Buddhist teachings, but have access to them being taught in a way which inspires, and gives them the off behind it. Otherwise, it's just like AI. A lot of people talking about AI, artificial intelligence, it seems to have grown so big that people are afraid of it. But every time I must admit, every time that somebody has shown me some little article which AI has written about, Dhamma,

it's hopeless. It misses something. It misses something which makes the Dhamma just real, inspiring. And what is the Dhamma? The Dhamma is like looking back at things that cause the wise, the wise, the origins of things. And all AI is repeating what has been programmed into it, rather than something much more powerful and inspiring and interesting. So I don't think Acha and Acha, you'll never be out of a job. I don't think any artificial intelligence can ever replicate Acha and Acha. Or Acha and Nupasa or Acha and Chandakou. I think we have to get you teaching sooner or later somewhere,

something, anyway, that's my hope.

But many other of you already started to teaching, which is again wonderful. And that is really necessary. It isn't wonderful to be able to go on retreats and have a quiet time by yourself. And sometimes when I go off overseas or interstate, you kind of yearn for a few days of solitude. But nevertheless, every time I do go on these trips overseas or interstate, I always see the value and that ability to let go of things, to put it down and relax and re-energize. That's one of the things I see the most. I don't know why this is, but when I was over in Hong Kong, just the very last day when I was having some lunch, I had an allergic reaction. You've seen me have this before over here in Perth.

This was a very mild one. And I think it must be some pollen in the air. It's part of what I inherited from my father. I inherited a lot of kindness and wisdom. But he was an asthmatic. And that's one of the main reasons why he died when I was only 16. Fortunately, I never had asthma, but I still had many allergies. As many of you know, I cannot eat raw apples. I cannot eat honey. They make me feel sick. And I never knew that. I thought I just did not like them. But it was worse than that. It was just they made you feel sick. That's why I didn't like them. And because of those little allergies,

that sometimes I don't know what triggers it.

But then I was having lunch and couldn't finish it. And so I said, well, I think I should go off now and take a rest. But it's amazing how much people overemphasize these things. And apparently, when I was talking with Cannon Lynn, they went to visit our Jenny on a demo. And even he knows about that. It was crazy. Nevertheless, it was such a small thing. He went into my room and meditated and rested. And it's so amazing to see just the power of that calmness, that peacefulness, that stoneness, the things which you develop when you are on your retreats and the rains retreat, the times when you can go and find a quiet place somewhere and just cross your legs and get very, very still and peaceful and beautiful states of mind come up.

Those skills which you learn on the meditation cushion, oh, they're just lifesavers.

Not just lifesavers. Get your energy back up. You feel so much healthier afterwards.

I was giving a talk that afternoon. And so after half an hour an hour in my room,

then I came down again. I felt great. No problems at all. And that's always been my life. Any time which I felt sick or ill, just please give me a little time. I don't need that much. And then you meditate and you get very peaceful. Basically, you forget your body. And you just go into your mind. And then the body vanishes. You've got lots of mental energy coming up, lots of pitisuka coming up. And that is so powerful. Just any sickness or illness of the body that just can't stand it. It just you come out afterwards and you just really energize. And you can't see any problems at all. Unfortunately, because that was lunchtime, and when you came out of meditation, the lunchtime had passed for a monk.

So I couldn't go back to the restaurant afterwards and it's passed my time for eating.

But nevertheless, you could eat anything the next day. So please, I emphasize that point for you just because there's so many people that's over worry about things. So I gently happy, you're quite safe. I'm not going to die in the next week or two. So you can be quite OK. You don't have to do too much work in the next couple of weeks.

It's OK? Not much.

It's OK.

It's OK.

It's OK.

I still remember I attended Tamala. How's Chittapala doing? It's not here today anyway.

Chittapala's brother, when I was in Pinnang during the tsunami, remember when I came back, I found he'd been calling so many people in Malaysia, concerned about me. He thought it was such a low chance of me dying in the tsunami, but he never know. And so I was told he's calling everybody. When he found somebody who knew where I was,

then I was quite OK. And I found out about that. When I came back, I thanked him. I never really thought you cared or might be so much. And that's when he said, actually, I don't care about you.

I was just making sure you were alive, so I don't have to take on this job. But what we are doing is amazing just how the positive lifestyle of a Buddhist monk and a Buddhist nun's, their positive lifestyle often means that they are safe in situations where other people aren't. And I mentioned that to you. So you can relax. You don't need to be afraid. You don't need to be tense. I don't know if you saw any nice snakes when you were over in Thailand. That's an epi. Did they put someone on? Oh, excellent. Yeah, they put a snake. They're friendly.

It's up on its tail. Up on its tail. How far was it? right from the monks, the little kid, one kid, one young kid, two girls. Yes. Yeah, we just died back to the monks and you

would see it for a long time. Did anyone pat it on the head? If they realized, like, you know what Ajangan had did, it was perfectly safe. You know, sometimes those snakes like other animals or other beings, they feel they're in a corner and they overreact out of fear. Just like some humans do. But only not in fear. Of course they will relax. Of course they will just allow people just to pat it on their head. If you really feel that's the appropriate thing to do at that time and place. But if you're doing it out of ego,

of course that will never work. Has to be out of that kindness, real kindness, real meta.

It's the same with all these other incidences which people experience in this monastery.

Whether it's bushfires, whether it's other sicknesses. Have you noticed, I think I mentioned this quite often, this is 41 years, I think, of Bodhi Nyanam monastery.

It's pretty close to 41. How many monks have died in those 41 years? No one has. Some have gone overseas and passed away. But they never died in Bodhi Nyanam monastery. We had the Anagaraka Craig passed away here. But other than that, it's kind of weird. We haven't got the best health care here. You have to go into town to get health care. But so many monastics are in really good health. I don't think that statistically they should be. Nevertheless, we keep surviving. And certainly, personally, it's very much because you know how to meditate. You know how to be peaceful, to be still. And sometimes you can just focus that energy in people in Hong Kong.

I said, it's like you can zap parts of your own body like a knee, which is so zap it. And only after you've had a nice good meditation. But the power of the mind is immense. And because it's immense, you know, why not can't we use that to help our own body? That experiment was done at Cambridge. My university when I was the four-inch nail on the end of a piece of wood, which the hypnotist demonstrated this to the group of us. Hypnotist hypnotized one of my friends and other student. Touched the four-inch nail on the student's skin. He screamed in pangs.

He thought it was red hot. But then a blister came out, which was so weird. You thought you imagined your mind had created a blister of a wound. And of course, you started contemplating, if your mind can create a wound, and I don't know how an earth it could do that, why can't the mind uncreate a sickness? Why can't it just alleviate a tumor? Why can't it sort of take a cut and heal it up? Why not? A lot of times, because people think it's impossible. But when you actually see it, somebody else

should realize, my goodness, maybe this is possible. I want you to realize it is. All these things can actually happen.

We're not doing this just to be a way to do a trick for people. We're doing this, never our own health and benefit and well-being. And I'm very, very convinced of the truth of that, just in my own life. So I just noticed on another event, which I did that somebody actually trod on my toe. They were wearing stilettos. It really hurts. And blood came out. I never told anybody. It just healed by itself. Kind of weird. Never got infected. Never got sore after the first night. And so often, the mind is so powerful. So one of the reasons that all especially your old monks me included, if ever you do get sick, you feel weak, you haven't got much energy, you've got fever or whatever else it is, don't just go.

And I think you're going to die or you need medicine or whatever. Please use your mind. And see if you can alleviate those symptoms with your mind. I'm saying this. Maybe I'll get sued. I don't know. But I think I can alleviate the lawyers, the bit of kindness. Why can't we use the mind remarks anyway? Sometimes I just recall the old days of monks living in a forest, living in a cave, living in a desert where if they would live. And sometimes their health was amazing. They should die two years ago. They should be so sick. But they're not. There's beautiful positive attitude. They don't see the few pains which were in their body.

They see the parts of their body which are not in pain, which are healthy. Just like that's one of the reasons why that guy in Singapore, who was a Catholic and was a professor of schizophrenia in Singapore. And when I asked why he invited me to bless his ward, why? He said, because I really appreciated what you just said. And I asked him, how do you treat schizophrenia in Singapore? He was a boss. And he said, I don't treat the schizophrenia. I treat the other part of the patient. Just as you said, he told me in my talk, in the prisoners, you see a car net.

You don't treat the crime. You treat the person. They're much bigger than that stupid thing which they did. Two bad bricks are small. A million bricks in their life are so much bigger. And that means so much. There's always, every now and again, a few people over in the Chinese university in Hong Kong. First time I went there was because too many of the students there were committing suicide. You went there and told these stories about don't just judge your success or your life on the one or two mistakes in your exams or whatever. Have the full picture of your life. Not just the two bad bricks and they have found one course,

but all the other wonderful things you've done. Reminds. That's why even when I was teaching in Chinese university in Hong Kong, just start telling them about people like Michael Dell, even Albert Einstein, and Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg, who just quit university, as many others as well, and became multimillionaires, billionaires. So if you follow your exams, you may become the next billionaire in Hong Kong. Just put a positive twist on it. And so their families don't get so depressed. Say, I jumped on me just talking about money. I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about people's health and well-being and the ability of them to actually be generous, you'd be kind,

support the society in which they live.

So this is one of the reasons why. That all these things which you learn as a monk, it's not just for your little hut or your cave. You share it with all sorts of people you never thought. It would be interested in this sort of stuff. That's amazing how powerful it is. And so many people, even, I think, one of the restaurants I was in, they were giving me some English food. And so they took me to one of these restaurants in Hong Kong. I was just happily just having my lunch in the right time, before noon. And this lady, she was just walking outside. And she walked through the window and rushed inside. And she had a Western boyfriend. And it's a Western boyfriend, so I've encouraged her to go inside.

You know, I turned wrong. What are you doing in Hong Kong? Again, saved her life because she was really depressed. And nothing else could help her. Use the dumber to help. And it was like the boyfriend was saying, look, she would look like you, like a film star. I don't know who the famous film stars are these days. Now Brad Pitt, makes sense? I don't know. Humphie Bogart. I'm showing my age. Again, I don't know. But nevertheless, you know, just that beautiful somebody coming up and telling me just how this dumber had helped them in their lives. It's a really big time. And that's a beautiful thing. You know, when you go overseas or even interstate, and people come and tell you, is how much a few talks, a few insights which you put out there on a YouTube or on podcast or whatever.

And how that really affects people. And that's why, you know, sometimes when I've been about hey, I'm just a jock jay order. That's supposed to be Mahayana. I'm supposed to be Terravata. I'm not supposed to be looking after my own analytum. And you're trying to look after other people's enlightenment. It's obviously not true. You know, there's no difference. I was actually mentioning that to people in Bodhi Nyana

Monastery, Buddhist Society of West Australia. We welcome anybody who follows the same vinaya, the same understanding of Buddhism, the same practice of meditation.

That's why, you know, that I'm very, very happy to see you here, Venerable Heitann.

And I'm sorry that we can only stay here for short time. We're wonderful if you can come and stay a bit longer next time. I mean that. Because it's nice to have good friends all over the world. And to encourage you, I don't know how many times you're

giving good talks, Venerable Heitann. And people have come up to you afterwards and said, Venerable Sir, you saved my life. Thank you so much. And they mean it. And this dhamma is just fantastic, wherever you practice it. And then eventually, it's not just for saving other beings.

It's also just for giving that insight into what this life is all about. Though sometimes people always ask the meaning of life. And the meaning is kind of another way of saying it. It's like its purpose. Why do we have wars conflict? And it's in a terrible what happens. One of the reasons, what is the meaning of having to have these wars? Because these are like lessons for human beings. Lessons, you know, inters, please don't ever make those mistakes again. They see just how destructive they are, how painful they are. And then some people say, well, we're just same old thing every 20, 30 years.

You know, you can have the in the Middle East. We can have in Ukraine, Ukraine, Russia, Vietnam War, and the Second World War.

It always seems to be wars. Not all the time. One of the reasons of the Korean War, obviously, can all right on. It's as if like sometimes that we have to experience these things to learn. And then the people who experience and learn these truths don't have to get reborn in a part of this world where they have to experience wars and conflicts again. We don't think that human beings never learn. The idea of some sorrow is we learn. If we learn it properly, we never need it to have to experience that again. The lesson has been passed. Other people do, because they haven't learnt yet. Just like in the school. I just like that metaphor of a school. Like my area of expertise in school was maths.

Pythagoras theorems say, many of you know that. And so you're always teaching Pythagoras theorems. In every school, whenever somebody visits, there's always somebody teaching them. Pythagoras, there's not always the same person. We go through samsara. As we go through it, some of us learn. Some of us have to redo the course. Those who learn don't need to go through that anymore. Been there, understood. The anger or gain doesn't create anything but sort of suffering. And the regret of all that one has done was remember that he's so good. When he saw just how many people, he was responsible for taking their lives. And afterwards, he became a very devout Buddhist and made sure he would never, ever do that again.

It's almost like he had to see that first of all before he could let it go. Anyhow, those are just some reflections and thank you again for listening. I'm seriously didn't want it to go on for too long because now I am tired. Many other people are tired. But could you hear that OK? Oh my goodness, can't even hear that question. Did you hear it OK in the back? Yes, very good. Very good. How many of you fell asleep? Just nodding off. Now, honestly, the kindness is so great that many of you may be tired and if you are, doesn't matter at all. Instead of asking forgiveness that you fell asleep, instead I'm very grateful that you listened and heard so much.

Thank you.