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Just a few days ago at Nolamara Center, I was doing the sutra class on Sunday afternoon, I was reading through the gradual training. And I kind of almost bit my lip metaphorically when I got to that point where it said the person who has faith or confidence in the Buddha's teachings, then they started thinking my nasty life is free and easy, the household life is incumbent and difficult. I think you know what I'm going to say, don't you, that's a good money. And I say, why do I have to work so hard? We work so hard a lot of times because it is unencumbered and just by all of the senses of worry, the senses of this is not right, the senses of negativity, the sense of thought finding.
And that thought finding mind, it's one of those teachings of the Buddha which really stood out when I first read it in the suttas. Why is it that for so many of us we always tend to find fourth. You know, I'm old now, I should be taking it more easy, just sitting out in the afternoon sunshine, when it is sunshine, and just having a nice cup of tea and just talking with other members of the sanger of my age, talking about old times.
You know, when I was a young monk, we didn't have to do so much. When I was a young monk. But instead of complaining, I always feel that there is the opportunity to serve. That idea of service rather than just what you can get out of this.
It's a totally different way of looking at our spiritual practice. And it's not just serving just to make other people happy. It was one of those insights, real insights which came after many, many years of experimenting when I was a young monk in Thailand. I would volunteer to do extra jobs. One of the things which I volunteered for at that time was how to, I learned how to speak and write Thai and read it obviously. And so I would do the visa forms for all the monks. And those visa forms, you had to write it all out in Thai and then take it down to Bangkok to submit it. And then the monks would get their visas for one year. And that was really quite a lot of hard work. But I always thought that some of these monks who were in that time they could actually go after five years as a monk, you can go travelling to other parts to stay in solitude.
Some of those monks were staying in very peaceful monasteries in mountains, in caves.
Well, they didn't have to do any work at all. And because they didn't have to do any work at all, I thought, my goodness, then meditation must be so much better than mine. They have all the freedom to do that. All they needed to do was just to go on arms round in the morning and have a nice meal and then clean up afterwards and spend the next, all the next day just meditating. They don't have to do anything. So I did the visas, which was important for them, and then essential for them. But then what happened afterwards, they had to come in once a year, at least to check in, they were still alive, so I wasn't doing a visa for a dead monk.
And also, just they had to sign the forms. And so they'd always come in once a year, but that's when I would chat to them, and how are you? How are you going? And many of you know this story that I found that even though that I didn't have as much time as they did for solitude and for meditation, my meditation was better than this.
Better in the sense it was deeper, more peaceful, more still, more close to what meditation should be doing for you. And that really surprised me. That was not what I expected at all. I expected that later on in my monastic life, I would have some free time, and I could actually do that solitude practice in caves and in jungles and in mountains. But even beforehand, my meditation was getting much better, and I just couldn't figure it out first, until I realized that service is an important part of our meditation practice.
And it took a while to understand that reason why. It was because when you were giving service to somebody else, I mean, really good service, you weren't thinking about yourself. It wasn't about you. It was like a letting go of sacrifice. You know what I want, but what I can give. And that was that letting go of the sense of control, the sense of self, the sense of me, what I need, what I have to do. It was the important feature there. It was one of the reasons why even here, many of you, you do extra work, you don't need to do that. But well done that you do it. You do it because you see it's a worthwhile opportunity to give something of yourself, and lessen your sense of ego ownership, the sense of me, mine and myself, for something much bigger and greater.
That's also one of the reasons why that we have a couple of our committee members here to see one of them anyway here this evening. And it's wonderful that that sacrifice which you give, the sacrifice to help our Buddhist society to exist. And because you do that, that will actually enhance your meditation in a way you don't expect. Look what you're actually creating, what you're responsible for. It was a brilliant organization, a place where many, many people can come and learn how to develop their samadhi, learn how to inspire others, learn how to keep the precepts. Like, you know, the amazing bikunis right in front of me. He's actually real bikunis. I think the opportunity to start something historic here in Western Australia, a bikuni monastery, and also over in southern Thailand, amazing. But this is happening, and also over in the UK. It's tough work, very tough work, but nevertheless, you keep on doing it day after day, week after week, year after year, but then amazing things happen.
That other insight which came, these are not insights just through contemplation, not just through thinking and making sort of influences. This has come from your experience of life. You try something out and see if it works. And often it works in ways which you never really thought were possible. And that was that time when the tomorrow four monks are ordaining. The last time that happened, I remember, not the last time, but the time that happened when I was in Thailand, there were three monks ordaining. And for them, if it was the day before their ordination, there wouldn't be a sleep. They wouldn't be listening to a talk. They'd be working, making their own set of robes. And it just really hard hard work. And it wasn't just sewing the robes. They'd just use the white cloth and they'd mark it out. Three sets of, no, triple robe, sangati, a double layer, and they'd Utra Sangō, or Jira, or they used to call it, the usual Robucion now, and the lower of the Antrawasaka.
That was really hard work. And after sewing the robes up, they had to wash them, dry them, and then they'd be making the die out of jackfruit wood, which was again really, really hard work, many days of work. I think many of you know the story, but it stayed with me because it was fascinating. You weren't supposed to be given any help. It was your job to make all the die and to dye the robes, or having washed them and sewed them. And you had to get the water from the well to ship the jackfruit tree yourself and just make a fire and boil the water. It was nothing which was easy. And then eventually, to actually to dye you'd pour this concentrated jackfruit dye, which you just made onto the robe and basically beat the hell out of it. Bang, bang, bang, bang, to get that die to stick. You had to do it two or three times, you know, dry it and then do it again, then dry it and do it again.
And that was a lot of work. And these monks, I always remember them, they were making their own set of robes, and they weren't supposed to get any help, but in the evening, after the evening chanting was finished, the evening meeting, I went to the dying shed, and they looked so tired. So exhausted. And I couldn't help you. I said, you guys, you just don't tell anybody. I look after the dye pot this evening, you just go back and take a rest. They all knew it was against the rules, but not one of them complained. They were off. I couldn't realize how fast they ran off to their huts, because I know what it's like when you haven't slept for a couple of days. No exhausted. So I looked after the dye pot for them, and I knew what I was up doing. I was at the middle monk now. And when I was doing the dye pot, it went really easily. And in the morning, the three o'clock bell went. And they came back about, you know, a quarter past, to carry on, the thanking meters had actually had some sleep.
And I was just so thankful. And I didn't go to sleep. I just, I'll go to my kutti. Instead, I just went for the morning meeting. But what I'd never expected that morning meeting, I was, meditation was just so easy. I wasn't sleepy at all. The hindrance of sloth and topper was just not there. And when he did the chanting, I always remember these times when you have full energy in the morning. You don't just ordinary chanting like namo tasana. Namo tasana was really loud. I remember a couple of times, you know, when you got up early in the morning, did some meditation, got really nice and energized. And you started chanting a few times I was told, told off. I jumped around, please don't chant, so it out. Couldn't help it.
So I knew that was that morning I was energized. And even I hadn't slept all night. I had so much energy. And when I went on arms round, you just, you felt so clear and so bright. And that's when I asked one of the other monks who was, what's going on? I confessed. I said, I helped those monks last night. I couldn't help it because they were just so tired. So I confessed that. I broke the rule there, but they needed it. But why was I so full of energy? And that's when I was told that if you just, you know, don't think about yourself, you know, you give something extra to other people who really need it. That simple act of calm, calm of goodness, of kindness, it brings you so much energy and just happy energy,
joy energy, much better than coffee or tea, uplift you. And of course, when I learned that, every one of you here was benefited from that insight. Every time when I should really be taking a rest, or just, you know, just too many people to talk to. But then I said, okay, yeah, how can I help? How can I serve? What can I do for you? And because of that, it's not just that you can keep on giving and giving and giving. Sometimes people say, you should take a rest, Ajahn Brahm, you're sick, you've got a sore throat. No way. I'm not going to keep those types of rules. If I feel I can give, I will give. Because I know what happens afterwards. You give that bit extra when other people say, no, you shouldn't. When you go back to your cave for me afterwards, you sit down and just woof. You have some really, really good energy, beautiful energy.
You get the payoff. And I sometimes wonder that's the secret of right effort. This is this term which was confused me so much when I was a young monk. You're supposed to be letting go. Not doing things, not controlling, not trying to get things. What motivates you to meditate? Meditation is not something you do. Meditation is what happens when you let go. And that's one of the reasons why I do focus a lot. Maybe my favorite or maybe second favorite, fact of the eightfold path is just the summer sankopar, the right motivation. That's my translation. Because it's where you're coming from when you're doing any practice. You're coming from sometimes I could say make peace, but really it means like renouncing, letting go. Naikama sankopar. In fact, it's not what you want to get and how much you can give up.
And that is something which for those of you who haven't heard this, one of my teacher Ajahn Chah, his favorite saying, he said it so often, he said you meditate not to attain things. You meditate to see how much you can let go of things. It's weird because in my whole life, if I was a student, I was studying to get a degree. If I was doing experiment, it was actually to get some new insight. If it was just eating, it was to get healthy. If it was sleeping, it was to rest. When he was saying, no, you don't do this meditation to get something. You don't ordain as a monk to become enlightened.
It was a nun to become the first bikuni Araha in Australia. If you try that, you'll get nowhere. You'll become a bikuni in order to see how much more you can let go. The more you let go, the more you renounce, the more you vanish, the closer you are to freedom.
It's a weird thing, but it's a different way of looking at life. And of course, from that letting go, the other two factors of Samasang Kapa are just the kindness and the gentleness. And that was so important to me because sometimes some places, my Buddhism was so hard, so harsh. I did tell Dayana's father a lunchtime about that Chinese Marcus Zen master over in mainland China. And because he was a Zen master, he went down the line with a stick, and there was one middle-aged Chinese lady meditating. Because she had a bad posh choice. She was nodding or something. So she got hit by the stick with the stick. And what did she do? It's one of the reasons why she always makes sure that people turn off their mobile phones when they go in a meditation retreat, and they don't even have to be able to do something better, hand them in so they can't make any calls like this. Because she called the police. She had been assaulted. And they arrested the monk. And that was the end of the retreat.
So please be careful. If ever you're doing a retreat, please don't use a Zen stick. It was the end of the retreat. But anyway, it doesn't make any sense. Just that idea of violence or hurting. It's a kindness, a gentleness, and letting go, not controlling, but learning how to be free. It's a different attitude. And that's one of the reasons why that sometimes, yes, we do have meetings, and yes, we do ask people to come to those meetings. But if they don't come to the meeting, there's actually a rule here. I don't know if you have this at Dharmasara monastery, the non-monastery. If you have a rule here that if you get into a Jhana, then you don't have to come to the meeting. So we assume that anybody who's not here this afternoon or this evening, we assume they must be in deep meditation. Is that the case you think? Well, you recognize everybody.
But nevertheless, the whole idea is that kindness and gentleness is part of our practice, an essential part of it.
And where does it come from? It comes from the right view of the idea there's no self in here to do. Any controlling, not me, not mine, not a self. So we try to realize that. Try to realize it by practicing, see if it works. And again, that's my practice. You try and help others as much as you possibly can. And even just, I still got a bit of a horse throat. But nevertheless, it's not impeding me at all. But even at night time, when I was really sick, as I mentioned, many times in those talks, it still baffles me. When you're really sick, you don't sleep so much. But you can just, I just spend your time at night. You can't go to sleep. You cross your legs on your mattress, on the floor, and meditate. What do I mean by meditate? You don't go watching your breathing. The last thing you should do, the breathing is all over the place. You know, watch your breath a little bit and you burst out coughing.
Instead, you just relax your body. Relax your mind. Relaxing the mind. How do you do that? Stay in this moment. Be kind to this moment. Forget about the past or the future. It's wonderful that this moment is already arisen. What should I be aware of?
What's right here in front of you for goodness' sake? You can't miss this. It's here. To be with this. Yeah, but it's not bright and blissful. Oh, it'll be very low. It'll get there.
That's kind of kindness. Letting go of where you think you should be. You're here. Letting go of all this, I said this last week, here it comes again. Letting go of all this comparing and judging. And just right here, right now, this. And if it's really difficult, I always give it the benefit of the doubt. This is teaching me something. Just like if some monk should be here, but they're not here, they must be in China.
Just give it the best possible. You never know. One day they may actually be in China.
Usually if I go and tell them off, that's probably what happens. For once, they surprise me. But nevertheless, the whole idea of having that kind attitude and that not judging is a wonderful way of finding peace. And that's what we're supposed to be here for. Learn how to make peace with things. Be at peace. Do you understand what peace actually feels like? This is one of the problems with our mind. We always have these theories about what peace actually is, what causes it, what it is. A lot of times, as a monk, you do have some time. If you're sick in the middle of the night, you can meditate and have extra time. Or other times of the day, you can go into your cave rocket and just sit cross-legged and see what happens. And it's so often that this is where you find out what the meaning of peace is.
And people say, we know what peace is. You know, peace in the world. You don't. At some point, you take up this as an object which you really explore. And you always use the word explore rather than investigate. Because investigate is usually what I was told to do with too much thought and analysis and measurements and weighing and measuring its length and weight and all sorts of other things. That was just way too theoretical. Instead, you feel, you know, you understand what peace feels like. There's too many things in the world that you can't measure. Measure is just trying to explain in terms of another word, trying to find something and just put a sort of a cage around it and fit it in. So it's a circle and I always feel there's so many things in this world. It's just that's spherical and un-round. It is all over the place.
That's why I used to like as a physicist chaos theory. And one of the sets called, I forget now anyway, not quite matter but what behind that? The idea of fractals, that's right, fractals. Fractals were great because they couldn't really be defined. They're all over the place. And you know, you couldn't actually measure their length of a fractal because it just went all over the place. It was like infinite. And that's when I really got into understanding. It's such amazing proofs. They got, you know, the usual infinity but they called that. I remember. That's what alpha one. And then the number, the set of numbers which were infinitely bigger than infinity. That doesn't make sense. Infinity means the biggest ever, but no, it's easy to prove. It's just our minds don't have the apparatus or don't have the training to realize infinity is quite small. This is infinitely bigger than infinity. And then not alpha, but omega. Omega one, omega two, omega three. It goes all the way to infinity.
Omega infinity. The number infinity bigger than infinity. It just goes on and on. It just really tests, you know, this idea, right measurements. And instead you don't need to do that. Instead of trying to confuse yourself. I apologise for confusing many reasons. I want a simple dama talk, not a talk on physics or maths. But just the whole idea of just what is infinite. What cannot be measured beyond measuring? And that's where it gets really interesting thing to explore. What does it mean that something is beyond measure? Can you measure who you think you are? I know that many times in spirituality that people keep on asking, this is who am I? That's a wrong question. It assumes you are something. Does you want to find out what exactly is it? I used to a long time ago prefer the exploratory's phrase, what do I take myself to be? Even say, who do I take myself to be? What do I take myself to be?
And that's what I got, it was really interesting sort of phallacies from the Ajahn Brahm.
No, I'm not Ajahn Brahm. You know that enough. Now who is Ajahn Brahm? Apparently on the weekend Ajahn Brahm, let me know this, somebody complains to him, that on the weekend I didn't, at the end of the sutta class I didn't bow. Is there something wrong? Oh, I didn't have the space to bow, it squashed where I was sitting. I did a little bow, but not the full one, I didn't want to turn around. Is that something, something meaningful? Not at all. Is that me? Of course not. It's wonderful that sometimes you give us really terrible talk. I didn't give it, I've never given a terrible talk. I've never given a good talk. I've never given a talk, it's not me. I mentioned this to many of you before, there's a few other people here this evening. A lot of times when I give a damn talk, and whatever it was, sometimes you reflect afterwards, who gave that talk?
It's not an Ajahn Brahm. It's all that people have taught me, all that people have taught with me, all the people I've associated with. You know, the Ajahn Appis and Ajahn Brahm's, and all the bikkhunis I've known, and all of each one of you, you just, sometimes you come to my heart, I have a little dumb discussion, private thing. That's what gives the talk. And I'm not exaggerating that, that's what conditions me. That's the cause of these talks. That's where it comes from. So that's one of the niceties, and you give a talk on whatever you want. Whatever comes up, never planned, because you give the talk, honestly, through my mouth, and all the things which I've learnt over those years. I don't take myself to be a great dumber teacher. If I did, I'll be stressing out before every talk. I'd be really disappointed if the talk never worked. I'd be so elated and so proud and so full of myself if the talk did work. So to avoid both of those extremes, you realise that in this scene, which you take to be a self, the person responsible, now for running a monastery, the person responsible for being the workmaster, the person responsible for looking after the ordination tomorrow, or looking after the new monks afterwards, the person responsible as a storm monk, the person responsible for this, that, whatever. That's not who you are.
That's why you can do it, with a sense of freedom. That's why I could be a helper, and somebody needed it. It wasn't my job. It was against the rules, but at what banana chart. It was not expected of me to do all those visas for everybody, but I did it as a sector of service. It took away my sense of self, the sense of who I am, the sense of being somebody, the sense of pride, arrogance, controlling. When you took that away, life became so peaceful and energised. It wasn't that hard, after the visa was approved for someone, to sit down quietly in your heart or wherever, and just bliss out. I say bliss out, what that means is that you just let go, be still, be peaceful, stay in this moment, things stop, and you're really, really peaceful, very, very still, and you're accessing your mind. It always has been the sixth sense, even Aristotle said that, somehow, we know, sometimes Western philosophy and science always says that they got their philosophy from the Greeks, but they abandoned half of it.
The whole idea of a mind and rebirth. For those of you who don't know this, in 543 AD, the Emperor Justinian II put the Pope in jail. The Pope, Virgilius, was in Byzantium.
He put the Pope in jail because Emperor Justinian wanted to make the idea of rebirth
and anathema, in other words, to ban that belief. The Pope refused. Pope Virgilius. So what did they do in those days? It's much easier being a rebel these days as a monk or a nun, but over in, you know, when the Pope, the, what's his name, and the Emperor had all the power, they put the Pope in jail for one year. And after one year, the jails over in Byzantium obviously were much worse. Then any jail you have here, those people have been to Carnot, Piss and Fum. Carnot, Piss and Fum, like a holiday camp, compared to some of those prisons in the time of ancient Rome. And after one year, you know, the Pope gave in and they made it anathema. So rebirth was part of western culture. Five hundred years.
Our 543 AD. Of course, I know that 543, it's just weird. The 543 BC is supposed to be, it's not correct, but it's usually assumed as the time and the Buddha passed away.
But anyway, one go there, that's another sort of debate. It doesn't really matter, it's all measuring again. But nevertheless, that whole idea of, you know, is that really important anyway? What really is important is that the kindness and the gentleness and the peace
and letting go, the ability to have a nice peaceful mind. You don't argue it, you feel it.
You get to know what these feel, feels like. That's one of the other things which I always inspire me when I was young, was like a poem by William Blake. It's only part of a poem. And I was, I keep repeating this, so you know, this stands up, probably better than me, by now all the monks and nuns here, to see a world in a grain of sand. Even that first line, world in a grain of sand. A lot of times we haven't trained our mind, and with it our power of perception, in parts of grain of sand, there's so much sand in front of the kitchen to be at the moment. The whole world's there. It's amazing you can actually do that. Your meditation is really powerful.
Your power of perception just is enhanced enormously. You can actually just look at the grain of sand, even just a tiny thing. You can see just all, I mean, it's a huge amount of the detail there, and the colours, and this is not what shape is a grain of sand. Is it square? Is it oblong? Is it oval? Is it round? Look, see how much you can perceive. The whole world there. So that's what William Blake said. See a world in a grain of sand. See a heaven in a wild flower. We have wild flower season over in Western Australia. I don't know if we have one this year, it's been very dry. There's tiny things. And sometimes you walk through the forest. If you're not in a rush, you can stop and see this incredibly deep blue little flower blooming. Tiny, but gorgeous. And the idea that you can miss so much in life, if you haven't trained your mind,
and with it the other perceptions of seeing, hearing, smelling, taste and touch.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand. That's really like that one too. Infinity, which infinity? Omega 1, 2, 3, 4, or the other. But this is actually where you find out that things lose their sense of size or limitations. Infinity always like not bounded at all. Just with no walls around it. And experience eternity in an hour. An hour is usually the length of time for this talk. So many people, it's eternal. The idea again is this non-measuring again, which is kind of beautiful. And if you can't get your mind around that, and be able to perceive things in a totally different way, then instead of just the usual thought finding, we work too hard. This is for Diarrless Father. I did say I told bad jokes. And I admit they're bad jokes. But this particular joke, I haven't told this for a while yet, and now I've forgotten it. I should have said it straight away. Oh my goodness, it'll come back to me in a moment.
That's why I haven't said it for a long time ago. I keep forgetting it. But if it comes back, I will say it. No, it's not coming back yet. I'll wait a minute. But anyway, to see that world in the Great Asand and Heaven and One for infinity in the palm of your hand, nothing is sort of binding you at all. It has got no barriers around you. This is one of the reasons why one of those other ways attitudes to meditation. This is working on just what Ajahn Jha said about just when you're trying to achieve something, you will always get nothing in the worst way of nothing. But when you don't want anything in the whole world, that's the way to meditate. It's one of the reasons why the old story, this is not a joke, this is a true story. It's when one of the monks from here was teaching in prison, and they liked this monk.
And they liked him very much, and so they asked him to stay a bit longer. They wanted to find out, like, you know, that diode as parents are finding out, what's it like in a Buddhist monastery? How do you guys live? And that's what the prisoners want to find out. And when you actually see, I don't know if you've been into diode as hot, see how he sleeps, and just sometimes it's quite rough. And when this monk said you have to get up early in the morning, I don't know if Diode told you, to his mum and dad, that you're supposed to get up at four o'clock in the morning. But it's optional. You can always get up earlier if you want to. That's the only option. I get up early in the morning. I'm an old monk. Anyway, when they heard that, and they heard, this monastery is far more ascetic than a prison in Australia, and also a prison in the UK.
I've been in a few of those prisons in the UK teaching.
This is quite austere here. And so one of those prisoners, they took one look at the friend, this michael, who's teaching them. And one of them couldn't help himself. He said, that's terrible in Bodhinyana monastery where you live. Why didn't you come in here and stay with us instead? In prisons you get three meals a day, and snacks. In prison you can watch the TV at night. In prison you get a pop of bed, on stilts or something. In prison you don't have to work so hard. So that was like, made everybody laugh and they realized what they said. But what is the difference between a prison and this monastery? And the only difference is, in a prison it's more comfortable, but people don't want to be there. They want to escape or get parole or something. In monastery no one ever asks for parole. But there's one guy did once he came out to, he said, I really want to be a monk.
But as long as I can have every Saturday night off, you like to go partying. So now it's not sort of a six day a week job. Now if you're a monk you're a monk. So dially you can't go partying on Saturday night once you're a dame. Agreed? Thank you. You don't need to party. You know, much more fun. Honestly, some of the city jokes which we share is a fun thing that I took off. I forgot what I did come back. Nevertheless, a lot of laughter. And that's what's supposed to be happening. Even just Ajahn Chah. Some of these monks who I grew up with were so tough. But you know, one who's still alive, Ajahn Lee, he was incredibly tough. He would just sit meditation all night and then just work all day. Sometimes I thought, you know, he was working on top of roofs. He just got new health and safety, work health and safety requirements now from our committee,
which we have to enact. But one of those would be if you haven't, if you'd be meditating all night, you should be allowed to work in the kitchen. You haven't had enough sleep. But anyway, this Ajahn Lee would always just be working incredibly hard and meditating a lot. It was very strict, except this one time when Ajahn Chah cracked a joke. And this monk was sitting right, say, Ajahn Brahmali is sitting in front of me now. And he cracked up so much that he couldn't help it. He was holding his belly, those tears streaming down his eyes and just rolling on the floor. I'd never seen you do that, Ajahn Brahmali. Maybe my jokes are that funny after all. But that's what he was doing. And I remember seeing that. It really sort of made it very clear to me, just like monks have a wonderful time. But it's not just for the sake of laughter, the sake of health, and also for the sake of seeing through things and not holding on to them, as you used to do, being able to let go, to renounce,
and see the funny side of life, the stupidity of life. And there's a lot of stupidity in this monastery. And does that make me very... You might say it makes me tear my hair out.
But of course that doesn't happen. I shave it instead.That's one of the reasons why we do shave. It might have thought so we don't have to tear my hair out. Honestly some of the things I've seen would make me tear my hair out if I didn't left. Sometimes it's much better to laugh. Some of the stupid things which people say or do or whatever.
Thank you for entertaining me. I'm sure if I did go and visit the Nads monastery, he always invited me to. I burst out laughing probably. All the stupid things which go on there, is that so? I'm sure that would happen. Instead of taking it serious. When you laugh at it, it's much easier to let it go. Even one of my favorite monks, another favorite monks, he didn't used to meditate so much. But you realize he had a lot of wisdom. And that was Dr. K. Sridharman under.
You remember seeing his doctor develop cancer and eventually died from the cancer.
But I remember seeing the doctor, I had to ask him, he said, was this actually true? He said, yeah it was. But when he was diagnosed with a cancer and there was terminal now, nothing you could do. This monk, K.C. Dhamma Nanda, just burst out laughing. It was so funny. And he was going to die. Who was coughing then? I'm not, it must be. You're very close to dying. Can you laugh as well please? So there's something which is rebellious about this path of insight in meditation. It's not what you expect. You're not doing these things to get something. You're doing these things to let go of things, to abandon things, to be more free. And that's one of the reasons why. You'll see it doesn't matter how wise a person is or how deep their meditation is. Which stills where the same old robe. We don't put medals on our chest. This is a first-jana, a person, a second-jana, third-jana, fourth-jana. All these things are internal. How much of abandon, how much of let go, how much you disappeared. And that's an important part of Buddhism. So much one understands what enlightenment is, what peace is.
And the ability just basically to be happy, to laugh, no matter what's happening to you.
No matter what's happening in the monastery. No matter what, you're free from things.
And I say that in that, the difference between the monastery and the person, do you want to be here? Do you want to be somewhere else? The difference between deep meditation and just thinking, do you really want to be here? Right now in this moment, in this body, it doesn't have to be perfect. It can be sick, it can be tired, it can be old, but you want to be here. If you want to be here, you find peace. You think you have to look for peace somewhere else. You're wasting your time. And that's why if you're happy to be here, even if you're old and you're sick, even if you're in pain, if you want to be here, the pain doesn't hurt much. The emotional side of it is gone, which is the biggest part of it. There's one of the reasons why, and you see this when you go travelling, the aircraft is delayed, or the aircraft is, you can't get the food you want
or the seats you want, and it's delayed.
You're going to miss your connections and stuff.You've got a choice. You can complain.
Remember just one of these flights I was supposed to be on? It was actually a council.
I remember just going to the counter to see what was going on. And there's another guy bumped in front of me and banged his hand on the counter. You can't do this to me. I've got an important appointment. I felt really sorry for the lady in front of the counter. It wasn't her fault. It was a guru de flight. This is a bad joke. I would say this before I forget it. That was guru de flight, and it was cancelled. And I explained to the guy why it was cancelled. Guru de is a bird, and this is bird flu season. He didn't think it was a fuddy either. He glared at me, but nevertheless, I enjoyed it. So this is actually how you learn how to let go. So nothing can really bother you in this world. It's just a world doing its thing. And you're just this passenger on this journey.
And as you're looking through the window, nice things, unpleasant things. You can just be at peace with the whole lot of life. And you learn. No means that nothing affects you. I think that's the hour of eternity. Is that about right? Okay.
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