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[The bell is awoken.]

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[The bell is invited.]

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[The bell is invited.]

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[The bell is invited.]

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Dear Sangha, this autumn the topic that

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we will be looking into is the

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Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings 
of the Order of Interbeing.

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And last week we heard a Dharma Talk
from Sister Doan Nghiem

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about the origin of,... the founder of
the school to which we belong in the

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Plum Village tradition, called the
Lieu Quan School.

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And so today, we will continue by looking

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at some of the foundations of ethics which

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lie at the basis of the 
Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings,

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in Buddhism and in the Plum Village Tradition.

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So if you were here last week, 
you can remember that Master Lieu Quan

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wrote a poem, or a gatha, which was what

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we call a lineage poem, and each word of

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that poem represents one generation of the

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continuation of Master Lieu Quan,

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his spiritual continuation in the Lieu Quan
School, the Lieu Quan line.

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So the first name is his own name,

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and the second word...
the first word is his own name,

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and the second one is the name he gave 
his own disciples in his lifetime.

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And the third word is the disciples of 
his disciples.

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So we belong to the ninth generation,

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so we are, ...
we have the name "tâm", meaning heart.

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If you have received the Five Mindfulness
Trainings,

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you'll have the name "heart" in it.

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So that is the ninth word of the poem.

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And now I would like to look at that line.

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The poem has four words to a line.

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So we now look at that line of the poem.

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And today I have an opportunity to
practice walking meditation.

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So the source of mind penetrates everywhere.

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From the roots of virtue springs compassion.

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Something like that.

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That is Thầy's translation that you will 
see if you receive the

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Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings
and you have the certificate,

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I think in English you will see 
something like that.

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So, it's like you have a source of water

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on the mountain, and the water goes
everywhere down the mountain,

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and it penetrates into the earth,
in many, many places.

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And, here, it really says 
"the roots of virtue".

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And this word here, "phong", this word
means something like...

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You have it in Vietamese or Chinese in
"phong tục ?", "phong ?".

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So it means something like a custom.

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A custom, or a way, or a tradition.

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And this word here, "từ" is usually
translated as loving kindness,

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but Thầy translates as compassion,

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because the word stands for "từ bi",

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which means loving kindness and compassion.

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So, from the roots of virtue, we have

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the custom of compassion, 
of loving kindness,

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the tradition of compassion or 
loving kindness.

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And sometimes we have a movement,

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like the movement, the Wake-up movement

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is called the young Buddhists and 
non-Buddhists for a compassionate society.

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So here the idea is compassion of a whole 
society, compassion of a tradition,

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or a custom of compassion.

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Nowadays, people use the word compassion

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quite a lot. And neuroscientists are very

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interested in compassion.

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And those neuroscientists who are familiar
with Tibetan Buddhism and have

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talked to the Dalai Lama,

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they also are very interested in where you
can find compassion in your brain.

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Whereabouts compassion comes from,
in your brain.

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And if the human brain has compassion,

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does it mean that animal brain also has
compassion?

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Because people used to say that human beings

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are capable of ethical behavior,

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human beings are capable of compassion,

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and that is where they differ from animals.

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But now we see that the human is really 
just another animal.

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And so the human brain is a continuation
of the animal brain.

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And it's not very different from the
animal brain.

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So that is another thing that we need to 
look into.

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We usually think that as human beings,

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we're something quite exclusive.

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And, is that better?

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We're quite exclusive, and we have 
something special

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that the animals don't have.

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So I remember once, some neuroscientists
were doing an experiment to prove that

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rats had compassion.

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So they taught the rat how to open the cage.

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And they had one rat that's free, 
not in a cage.

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And another rat is in the cage.

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And they saw that the rat who was free,

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he knew how to open the cage,

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and he let the rat out, the other rat out.

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So it was free.

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So the scientist was happy, and he said,

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"Oh, now we know that the animals, they 
also have compassion for each other.

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The rat didn't want the other rat to 
suffer in the cage, so he let him out."

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And then another scientist came along and

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said, "How do you know?"

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"Maybe he just wanted a friend to play with,

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so he was letting it out for his own 
selfish motivation."

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So we always can find a way to prove that

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human beings are a little bit special.

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But it's very important, how, how can we,

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how can we found, how can we establish,

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how can we help establish a compassionate
society,

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where the custom, the culture, is a culture
of compassion.

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And if compassion is something that is

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innate in our brain, then we just need to

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find ways in order to be able to help that,

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that seed as we call it in Buddhism,

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to flourish, to grow into a plant in
human beings.

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So if we come back again to neuroscience.

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So scientists use the word empathy.

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I wanted to find out what that word is
in Vietnamese, and I haven't found it.

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All I found was "thấu cảm"(?).

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,But I think it doesn't mean empathy, 
so I won't write it down.

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But empathy is something that animals have
in their ...

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They've found the place in the brain

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where empathy comes from.

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And empathy means that you can feel the
suffering of another person.

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You can know that another person 
is suffering.

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And it has an effect on you.

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When you see another person suffering,

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you also feel uncomfortable.

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You don't feel happy.

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So that is what is called empathy.

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And you see another person happy,

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you can also feel happy.

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So, if we have empathy,

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we have the possibility also to have
compassion.

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But empathy itself is not compassion.

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So empathy belongs to some region of
the brain, and then it's linked up with

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compassion, which lights up another region
of the brain.

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So scientists say that empathy can result

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in two different things.

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And one is compassion.

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And the other they call 
empathetic distress.

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So when you have compassion,

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then your feeling is directed to 
the other person.

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And in this case, this is called
self-directed.

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And then, your emotion here,

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where there is compassion, the emotion is
one of loving kindness or happiness

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or both.

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So in this case, the emotion is 
one of stress.

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And that is suffering.

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And these things lead to health.

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And these things lead to ill-health.

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I think this is what we've heard Thầy 
say for a long time.

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That when we have a thought of compassion,

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it immediately brings us health,
and it brings more health to the world.

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And without compassion, we cannot have
real happiness.

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Compassion brings us a lot of happiness.

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And when you feel compassion for 
another person,

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the first one who benefits from that feeling

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of compassion is the person who feels it,

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even before they have done something

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to help the other person,

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they already feel better, because of

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the compassion in their heart.

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So, another thing they say here is
"approach"

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and here is "withdrawal".

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So I think that it is easy for us when

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we are in touch with another person who
is suffering, or an animal who is suffering,

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or any kind of suffering in society,

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to be able to tell,
what is arising in us?

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Is compassion arising? Or is what is 
called empathetic distress arising in us?

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That is, we want to withdraw.

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It's too much for us:
the suffering is too much for us,

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of the other person.

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And this is kind of when we have burn-out.

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People who are working in the 
environmental movement, or

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some other movement to help the world.

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And they feel that they're not making any

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progress, then rather than feel compassion

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when looking at the suffering,

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they feel distress.

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And frustration.

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So now, many psychotherapists will teach

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their patients to practise loving kindness

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meditation, compassion meditation.

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Because they see that happiness is possible
when we can feel compassion.

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And they have done, neuroscientists have
done research,

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and even people who only practise 
loving kindness meditation for 7 days,

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they already see a change in their 
neuro-pathways.

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So just like mindfulness has become
something very widespread

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in society now, without being called a
Buddhist practice,

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a practice that anyone can do whether
they have religion or not,

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loving kindness meditation is also
becoming like that.

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You don't have to be a Buddhist to do it,

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although it began in Buddhism.

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So you know that when you do 
loving kindness meditation,

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the first object of your meditation is
yourself.

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"May I be peaceful, happy and light
in body and spirit."

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You have to really feel that for yourself.

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That is something you really want.

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And when you can have it, you can have
a lot of happiness.

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And if you don't feel it for yourself,

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then it's not easy to feel it for another person.

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And then the next part of the 
loving kindness meditation is

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"May I be safe and free from accident."

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That is something we all want.

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We all want to be able to feel absolutely
safe, where nothing can harm us.

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Whether we can find a place like that
or not is another matter.

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But we have a deep desire to safe and free
from accident.

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So we have to recognize that desire.

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And then we recognize that everyone else
also has that desire.

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And so then we go on to someone who is 
a friend of ours.

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"May he, or may she, be happy, peaceful and
light in body and in spirit."

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"May he or she be safe and free from
accident."

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And that is also quite easy for us to do 
for a friend of ours.

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And then we take as the object someone
who is neutral to us --

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somebody who you don't particularly like

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or somebody you don't have any 
bad feeling about.

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But somebody you meet from time to time.

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And you wish it for them.

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And the interesting thing is that is when

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you wish for a person who is neutral to you,

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"May he or she be happy, peaceful and 
light in body and spirit"

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suddenly that person is no longer neutral.

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That person becomes, through your 
meditation,

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somebody you have friendly feelings to.

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And then we should take, we should take

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someone who causes us difficulties.

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And while we meditate,

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"May he or she be happy, peaceful and 
light"

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we come into contact with the body and
the feelings of that person

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that we are meditating on, and we begin

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to understand them better.

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We understand that just as we have a

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deep need to be safe,

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that person who causes us to suffer, 
has a deep need to be safe also.

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And we will be able through that kind

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of meditation to change our way of thinking

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about the person who makes us suffer.

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And this change, it actually can be noticed

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by neuroscientists who do FMRI on the

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brain of the practionner.

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It is a way of developing happiness.

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It's a way of developing health.

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And when I first came to Buddhism,

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I thought that everything we did,

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every practice we did,

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was to be able to help other people.

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So metta meditation is not for my benefit,

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but for the benefit of other beings.

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And

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then you realize that it is also 
benefitting yourself.

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And now, when metta meditation is becoming

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something widespread, it's really done

247
00:29:00,936 --> 00:29:04,143
with the idea that it is to help yourself.

248
00:29:04,143 --> 00:29:06,409
That is what comes first.

249
00:29:06,409 --> 00:29:09,279
First of all, it will help you, and then,

250
00:29:09,279 --> 00:29:11,049
as a kind of spinoff,

251
00:29:11,049 --> 00:29:13,587
it will help other people as well.

252
00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:19,960
So the motivation is a little bit different.

253
00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:25,261
But however, once you begin to practise,

254
00:29:25,261 --> 00:29:31,028
then your motivation also begins to change.

255
00:29:32,220 --> 00:29:36,884
It's like once you begin to practise
mindfulness, at first you do it

256
00:29:36,884 --> 00:29:40,843
just for yourself. But then you see that

257
00:29:40,843 --> 00:29:44,576
practising mindfulness, you're helping 
others as well,

258
00:29:44,576 --> 00:29:47,531
and your motivation becomes one

259
00:29:47,531 --> 00:29:51,199
to help others too --- it's what you 
want to do, is to help others.

260
00:29:51,199 --> 00:29:55,344
In the beginning, you just wanted to help yourself.

261
00:29:58,215 --> 00:30:04,728
So when I consider these things that are 
happening in our society,

262
00:30:04,728 --> 00:30:09,284
even though we may be doing it for
ourself in the first place,

263
00:30:09,284 --> 00:30:14,111
I also consider that we are going in 
the right direction,

264
00:30:15,221 --> 00:30:22,588
to try and form a compassionate society, 
a compassionate culture.

265
00:30:22,919 --> 00:30:27,401
[The bell is awoken.]

266
00:30:28,731 --> 00:30:43,144
[The bell is invited.]

267
00:30:43,144 --> 00:30:48,767
And people also talk about two kinds of 
compassion.

268
00:30:51,465 --> 00:30:54,488
But I don't know if it's quite correct 
to do that.

269
00:30:54,488 --> 00:31:03,336
On the one hand, compassion that 
is emotional and intuitive.

270
00:31:06,636 --> 00:31:16,170
And on the other hand, compassion that 
is more rational and more explicit.

271
00:31:16,170 --> 00:31:19,866
That is something that you can talk about
more.

272
00:31:22,676 --> 00:31:26,937
As human beings, we have both these sides
to us.

273
00:31:26,937 --> 00:31:28,860
We have both the rational side,

274
00:31:28,860 --> 00:31:31,965
and we have the emotional side.

275
00:31:32,989 --> 00:31:36,106
And as far as I understand it, compassion

276
00:31:36,106 --> 00:31:39,117
should contain both of those elements.

277
00:31:45,958 --> 00:31:48,808
We often have moral dilemmas.

278
00:31:48,808 --> 00:31:51,755
We don't quite know what we should do

279
00:31:51,755 --> 00:31:54,755
in a certain situation.

280
00:31:57,137 --> 00:32:00,481
And sometimes we use our reasoning.

281
00:32:01,314 --> 00:32:04,915
And sometimes we use our emotions more

282
00:32:04,915 --> 00:32:07,247
when we want to decide what to do.

283
00:32:14,834 --> 00:32:20,323
Not long ago, on a retreat,

284
00:32:20,323 --> 00:32:26,325
my younger sister asked me

285
00:32:26,325 --> 00:32:30,856
"Should I go and help this layperson?"

286
00:32:31,073 --> 00:32:34,215
"Should I go on my own and help this
layperson?

287
00:32:34,998 --> 00:32:40,950
"Or should I stay in the retreat and be 
present at the Dharma Sharing?"

288
00:32:42,598 --> 00:32:46,521
So, when I was asked that question,

289
00:32:46,540 --> 00:32:51,398
of course my training immediately came up:

290
00:32:51,398 --> 00:32:54,619
you should stay in the Dharma Sharing,

291
00:32:54,619 --> 00:32:58,798
because in the Dharma Sharing you will
help many people.

292
00:32:58,984 --> 00:33:03,041
But if you just go on your own and help
one layperson,

293
00:33:03,041 --> 00:33:05,487
you will only help one person.

294
00:33:06,585 --> 00:33:11,692
So with my rational mind, it was clear
what we should do.

295
00:33:13,246 --> 00:33:16,901
But as I followed my breathing,

296
00:33:16,901 --> 00:33:21,603
and I looked, just stopped all my thinking,

297
00:33:21,603 --> 00:33:25,055
then I suddenly felt there is something
not right.

298
00:33:27,519 --> 00:33:30,613
And, eh, I didn't know why.

299
00:33:30,613 --> 00:33:36,384
But intuitively and emotionally, I felt

300
00:33:36,384 --> 00:33:39,922
I should let my sister go and help 
that layperson.

301
00:33:41,835 --> 00:33:45,257
And my sister said, 
" I don't mind either way."

302
00:33:46,102 --> 00:33:48,634
"If you tell me to stay, 
I'll be happy to stay."

303
00:33:48,634 --> 00:33:52,057
"If you tell me to go,
I'll be happy to go."

304
00:33:53,963 --> 00:33:58,933
So, sometimes, we have a moral dilemma

305
00:33:58,933 --> 00:34:03,291
like that and we, we don't know whether

306
00:34:03,291 --> 00:34:05,497
to use more of our rational side

307
00:34:05,497 --> 00:34:07,983
or more of our emotional side.

308
00:34:09,551 --> 00:34:18,466
But I have a lot trust in the 
Store Consciousness.

309
00:34:18,910 --> 00:34:25,014
That is the more unconscious side 
of my mind.

310
00:34:25,890 --> 00:34:29,313
Sometimes, of course, from our 
Store Consciousness,

311
00:34:29,313 --> 00:34:33,297
we have an intuition which comes from

312
00:34:33,297 --> 00:34:36,619
habit energy in our Store Consciousness.

313
00:34:38,034 --> 00:34:40,846
Because we've done it like that for so long,

314
00:34:41,734 --> 00:34:44,583
we intuitively want to do that out of our 
habit energy.

315
00:34:45,714 --> 00:34:48,398
But if our mind is clear,

316
00:34:48,398 --> 00:34:51,025
if we follow our breathing

317
00:34:51,025 --> 00:34:54,868
and empty our mind of all thinking,

318
00:34:54,868 --> 00:35:01,033
it's an opportunity for an 
intuitive insight to come up.

319
00:35:01,793 --> 00:35:08,253
And we can sometimes use that 
in making a moral decision.

320
00:35:09,589 --> 00:35:15,193
But we have to make sure that we
are very calm, and very clear

321
00:35:15,193 --> 00:35:17,935
when the insight comes up.

322
00:35:18,439 --> 00:35:22,294
And then we feel, "yes, I've done my best.


323
00:35:22,294 --> 00:35:25,517
I've looked into the rational side.

324
00:35:25,517 --> 00:35:29,092
I've also allowed the emotional side.

325
00:35:29,092 --> 00:35:36,724
And then, I've asked both sides to be quiet,
and allowed the intuition to come up.

326
00:35:40,337 --> 00:35:42,511
And that is the wonderful thing about

327
00:35:42,511 --> 00:35:48,980
Buddhist ethics is that every situation 
is a little bit different.

328
00:35:49,534 --> 00:35:51,709
We cannot have a blueprint and say

329
00:35:51,709 --> 00:35:54,509
it's always wrong to do this;

330
00:35:54,509 --> 00:35:58,016
it's always right to do something else.

331
00:35:58,016 --> 00:36:01,881
And it's also the difficulty about 
Buddhist ethics.

332
00:36:02,717 --> 00:36:04,882
Sometimes if you have what is called

333
00:36:04,882 --> 00:36:07,757
a deontological ethic, which says

334
00:36:07,757 --> 00:36:11,448
you have to do this or you can't do this

335
00:36:11,448 --> 00:36:13,354
and you have to do that, it's easy.

336
00:36:13,354 --> 00:36:15,762
You just say, "Oh, I'll do that."

337
00:36:15,762 --> 00:36:18,099
But then you feel it's not quite right.

338
00:36:18,099 --> 00:36:20,363
But in Buddhism, every situation

339
00:36:20,363 --> 00:36:23,215
we have to use our compassion,

340
00:36:23,329 --> 00:36:25,470
our deep looking,

341
00:36:25,470 --> 00:36:29,251
our mindfulness, concentration and insight

342
00:36:29,251 --> 00:36:33,038
in order to be able to make a decision.

343
00:36:33,038 --> 00:36:38,795
And of course, to make a decision on 
your own is not the best thing.

344
00:36:38,991 --> 00:36:42,004
It's far better to do it together,

345
00:36:42,004 --> 00:36:43,761
as a Sangha.

346
00:36:43,761 --> 00:36:47,403
When it's a difficult, moral dilemma,

347
00:36:47,403 --> 00:36:53,596
one pair of eyes, one intuition from 
one Store Consciousness,

348
00:36:53,596 --> 00:36:57,894
is not nearly as sure and as safe

349
00:36:57,894 --> 00:37:01,895
as an intuition that comes from many,
many people.

350
00:37:02,976 --> 00:37:08,618
[The bell is awoken.]

351
00:37:08,618 --> 00:37:27,201
[The bell is invited.]

352
00:37:27,734 --> 00:37:33,933
When I received the 14 Mindfulness 
Trainings in 1988,

353
00:37:33,933 --> 00:37:37,562
they were very different from how 
they are now.

354
00:37:37,562 --> 00:37:40,197
The spirit was not different at all,

355
00:37:40,197 --> 00:37:43,053
but the wording was very different.

356
00:37:43,053 --> 00:37:45,503
So a training would start off with

357
00:37:45,503 --> 00:37:52,130
"không thể", you cannot, you should not.

358
00:37:53,732 --> 00:37:57,756
And then more recently,

359
00:37:57,756 --> 00:38:00,196
the trainings have been revised.

360
00:38:00,196 --> 00:38:05,352
And each one begins with the word "aware".


361
00:38:05,352 --> 00:38:09,241
Very often it's "Aware of the suffering..."

362
00:38:09,241 --> 00:38:16,095
"Aware of the suffering created by 
fanaticism and intolerance,

363
00:38:16,095 --> 00:38:20,334
I am determined to...

364
00:38:20,334 --> 00:38:24,654
I don't know .. to let go of my...
I can't remember, never mind.

365
00:38:24,654 --> 00:38:27,061
And then the second one,

366
00:38:27,061 --> 00:38:35,545
"Aware of the suffering created by
attachment to views and wrong perceptions,

367
00:38:36,298 --> 00:38:40,818
I am determined to listen deeply to
other people."

368
00:38:41,094 --> 00:38:43,862
And the third Mindfulness Training:

369
00:38:43,862 --> 00:38:54,688
"Aware of the suffering created when I 
cannot, no, by forcing others to accept

370
00:38:54,688 --> 00:38:59,843
my viewpoint, something like that.

371
00:39:01,746 --> 00:39:08,196
"Aware of the suffering created when we 
impose our views on others,

372
00:39:08,196 --> 00:39:19,176
and aware that lack of communication 
always brings suffering...

373
00:39:19,176 --> 00:39:20,644
And the Ninth Mindfulness Training:

374
00:39:20,644 --> 00:39:27,433
"Aware that words can create suffering
or happiness...

375
00:39:27,716 --> 00:39:30,259
And the Eleventh Mindfulness Training:

376
00:39:30,259 --> 00:39:37,091
"Aware that great violence and injustice have
been done to our environment and society...

377
00:39:41,355 --> 00:39:46,355
"Aware that much suffering is created 
by war and by conflict...

378
00:39:48,727 --> 00:39:55,262
"Aware that sex motivated by craving
will create more suffering...

379
00:39:55,792 --> 00:40:04,472
So, at the basis of ethics is the 
awareness of suffering,

380
00:40:04,472 --> 00:40:07,739
the first Noble Truth.

381
00:40:08,486 --> 00:40:10,307
And that is something that we can

382
00:40:10,307 --> 00:40:14,695
practise rationally with our intellectual
mind

383
00:40:14,695 --> 00:40:17,734
to look deeply and see the suffering.

384
00:40:17,931 --> 00:40:21,212
But we have to allow our emotional mind,

385
00:40:21,212 --> 00:40:25,639
our emotional part, also to feel the
suffering.

386
00:40:25,639 --> 00:40:29,270
before we really can make the determination

387
00:40:29,270 --> 00:40:33,400
to do something in order to help

388
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:36,784
alleviate the suffering that we have seen.

389
00:40:39,388 --> 00:40:45,190
And every two weeks, we read the 
Mindfulness Trainings together,

390
00:40:45,190 --> 00:40:48,471
we recite them or every month.

391
00:40:48,471 --> 00:40:52,551
And every time you can become more aware

392
00:40:52,551 --> 00:40:55,359
of suffering and you can become more

393
00:40:55,359 --> 00:40:58,797
determined to do something to help

394
00:40:58,797 --> 00:41:01,716
alleviate the suffering.

395
00:41:09,157 --> 00:41:13,366
So compassion is an important part

396
00:41:13,366 --> 00:41:17,839
of ethical behavior. And we can develop

397
00:41:17,839 --> 00:41:22,360
compassion by our way of thinking,

398
00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:26,401
our way of speaking, in our daily life.

399
00:41:28,833 --> 00:41:32,751
We should never say that person has no
compassion.

400
00:41:33,251 --> 00:41:35,111
We should never say of ourself

401
00:41:35,111 --> 00:41:37,853
"I have no compassion."

402
00:41:38,645 --> 00:41:41,254
Be sure you do.

403
00:41:44,128 --> 00:41:49,422
Compassion is a little bit linked to
the maternal instinct.

404
00:41:49,709 --> 00:41:52,250
It's the same kind of region of the brain:

405
00:41:52,250 --> 00:41:55,682
maternal love and compassion.

406
00:41:55,682 --> 00:41:58,461
And if you read the Discourse on Love,

407
00:41:58,461 --> 00:42:00,341
we see that the Buddha did not need

408
00:42:00,374 --> 00:42:04,681
to have MRI in order to be able to see that

409
00:42:04,694 --> 00:42:09,513
just as a mother loves and protects 
her own child,

410
00:42:09,573 --> 00:42:12,811
at the risk of her own life, so we should

411
00:42:13,037 --> 00:42:17,668
develop compassion for all living beings.

412
00:42:24,331 --> 00:42:27,025
So we all have compassion.

413
00:42:27,025 --> 00:42:30,051
And what we need to do is we need

414
00:42:30,051 --> 00:42:33,242
to find ways in order for the compassion

415
00:42:33,242 --> 00:42:36,244
in us to be able to manifest.

416
00:42:39,087 --> 00:42:42,719
And if we've given ourselves too many

417
00:42:42,719 --> 00:42:46,596
opportunities to be in touch with too much

418
00:42:46,596 --> 00:42:49,774
suffering, then we may have fallen into

419
00:42:49,774 --> 00:42:56,830
what we saw before is called 
"empathetic distress".

420
00:42:57,794 --> 00:43:00,237
And it doesn't matter if we've fallen

421
00:43:00,237 --> 00:43:02,301
into that way.

422
00:43:02,301 --> 00:43:05,439
But it is very important that we are mindful,

423
00:43:05,439 --> 00:43:09,026
and that we realize that has happened,

424
00:43:09,026 --> 00:43:12,390
and we do our best to take care of

425
00:43:12,390 --> 00:43:16,307
the happiness. And look on the other side.

426
00:43:16,307 --> 00:43:19,309
Look at what is going right, rather than

427
00:43:19,309 --> 00:43:22,291
what is going wrong.

428
00:43:22,319 --> 00:43:24,929
So if you are in a situation with another

429
00:43:24,929 --> 00:43:27,767
person, and you feel that when you listen

430
00:43:27,767 --> 00:43:31,627
to their suffering that you want to withdraw,

431
00:43:31,627 --> 00:43:34,731
you feel the stress in yourself,

432
00:43:34,731 --> 00:43:37,626
then you have the right to withdraw.

433
00:43:37,626 --> 00:43:40,042
Because you know that you cannot help that

434
00:43:40,042 --> 00:43:42,640
person. So you have to withdraw,

435
00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:45,444
in order to take care of yourself.

436
00:43:45,444 --> 00:43:48,005
To feel compassion for yourself.

437
00:43:48,005 --> 00:43:51,532
And if possible, to find someone else

438
00:43:51,532 --> 00:43:54,872
who can help the person who is suffering.

439
00:44:03,158 --> 00:44:07,846
Sometimes people look at babies, and they

440
00:44:07,846 --> 00:44:11,207
see the baby is compassionate.

441
00:44:11,207 --> 00:44:13,199
And another time, the people look and they

442
00:44:13,199 --> 00:44:20,077
see the baby is greedy and demanding.

443
00:44:20,077 --> 00:44:21,984
So it depends who is looking at the baby,

444
00:44:21,984 --> 00:44:24,011
what they see.

445
00:44:25,901 --> 00:44:29,752
And with two-year old children, they do an

446
00:44:29,752 --> 00:44:33,698
experiment, and they give one child..

447
00:44:33,698 --> 00:44:36,887
They have a group of children, and they

448
00:44:36,887 --> 00:44:39,032
give one child something that the other

449
00:44:39,032 --> 00:44:41,542
children don't have, something that can

450
00:44:41,542 --> 00:44:45,095
be shared, and the child, the two-year old,

451
00:44:45,095 --> 00:44:47,125
will naturally take it around

452
00:44:47,125 --> 00:44:49,199
and share it with everyone.

453
00:44:49,199 --> 00:44:51,182
If you have your own grandchildren,

454
00:44:51,182 --> 00:44:54,654
nieces in my case, your own children,

455
00:44:54,654 --> 00:44:57,749
grandchildren, nieces and nephews,

456
00:44:57,749 --> 00:44:59,560
you see that happen very often.

457
00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:01,163
You give one something, and they

458
00:45:01,163 --> 00:45:04,595
go around and share it with others.

459
00:45:04,595 --> 00:45:07,097
So that is the practice of loving kindness,

460
00:45:07,097 --> 00:45:11,853
which seems to be there, already, in us.

461
00:45:16,652 --> 00:45:28,468
In 1993, in Chicago, there was a 
World Parliament of Religions,

462
00:45:28,468 --> 00:45:30,301
a conference.

463
00:45:31,061 --> 00:45:36,709
And our teacher, Thầy, was invited 
to go there.

464
00:45:38,616 --> 00:45:42,874
And there were 200 delegates, I think.

465
00:45:44,367 --> 00:45:47,621
And they stayed in a very fancy hotel.

466
00:45:50,230 --> 00:45:55,576
And it was the 100th anniversary of the

467
00:45:55,576 --> 00:45:57,907
World Parliament of Religions.

468
00:45:58,098 --> 00:46:02,598
In 1893, they had their first session,

469
00:46:02,598 --> 00:46:05,808
and they have it every 3 or 2 years
or something.

470
00:46:07,155 --> 00:46:11,135
And in 1893, those represented were

471
00:46:11,135 --> 00:46:18,819
Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, different 
Christian schools including

472
00:46:18,819 --> 00:46:22,418
the Eastern and the Russian Orthodox.

473
00:46:22,418 --> 00:46:25,451
And that was about... Judaism.

474
00:46:25,451 --> 00:46:27,125
That was about it.

475
00:46:28,407 --> 00:46:31,312
But in 1993 they decided to ask for

476
00:46:31,312 --> 00:46:39,480
representatives of the Native American
spiritual paths and Shamanism.

477
00:46:40,533 --> 00:46:43,443
And some of the delegates were very upset.

478
00:46:43,678 --> 00:46:46,489
They said, these religions, they don't 
have any proper "ism",

479
00:46:46,489 --> 00:46:48,520
they don't have any proper name.

480
00:46:48,520 --> 00:46:52,331
And they left. Yes, they left.

481
00:46:53,960 --> 00:46:57,286
So, it wasn't an entirely harmonious thing.

482
00:46:57,968 --> 00:46:59,828
Thầy was there.

483
00:47:00,828 --> 00:47:03,205
I think the person who kind of brought

484
00:47:03,205 --> 00:47:06,605
it all together was a Swiss theologian

485
00:47:06,605 --> 00:47:09,878
called Hans Küng...I think

486
00:47:09,878 --> 00:47:15,105
Kung, Kung, Kung?Kung?Kung?

487
00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:18,057
Not meaning to be disrespectful.

488
00:47:18,468 --> 00:47:22,082
My German pronunciation is not very good.

489
00:47:27,547 --> 00:47:30,530
A Catholic theologian.

490
00:47:32,914 --> 00:47:36,403
This year I think he is 90...

491
00:47:36,403 --> 00:47:39,598
He's about the same age as Thầy is.

492
00:47:39,598 --> 00:47:42,397
90 something, 92 or something.

493
00:47:44,910 --> 00:47:48,176
So really, he's dedicated his life to

494
00:47:48,176 --> 00:47:52,146
reforming, trying to bring about reform 
in the Catholic Church.

495
00:47:52,390 --> 00:47:54,441
And so's he's not...

496
00:47:54,441 --> 00:47:59,376
and also into developing a global ethic.

497
00:48:02,428 --> 00:48:10,003
So he has a lot of, a lot of deep
motivation for a global ethic.

498
00:48:11,940 --> 00:48:13,553
Thầy also.

499
00:48:14,498 --> 00:48:17,203
Thầy once said in a Dharma Talk,

500
00:48:17,203 --> 00:48:22,260
that when practising sitting meditation 
in the Upper Hamlet,

501
00:48:22,260 --> 00:48:25,767
at the end of the sitting meditation session,

502
00:48:25,767 --> 00:48:29,175
everybody touches the Earth three times.

503
00:48:29,175 --> 00:48:31,664
And when Thầy touches the Earth,

504
00:48:31,664 --> 00:48:33,874
Thầy makes the deep aspiration,

505
00:48:33,874 --> 00:48:38,846
"May Thầy and the Sangha be able to 
contribute to a global ethic

506
00:48:40,272 --> 00:48:46,402
so that we can relieve a great deal 
of suffering in the world.

507
00:48:51,938 --> 00:48:56,116
So as I said in 1993, there were present

508
00:48:56,116 --> 00:49:00,282
at the Parliament of Religions, a number

509
00:49:00,282 --> 00:49:04,543
of representatives of the American Indian.

510
00:49:05,435 --> 00:49:10,456
And they don't have something that is 
called a religion as such,

511
00:49:10,456 --> 00:49:13,643
but they care very much about the Earth.

512
00:49:14,250 --> 00:49:21,010
And have a lot of respect and care for
the Earth, for Mother Earth.

513
00:49:25,611 --> 00:49:28,211
And recently in a book,

514
00:49:28,211 --> 00:49:31,662
Love Letters to the Earth,

515
00:49:31,662 --> 00:49:34,844
in the appendix to that book,

516
00:49:34,844 --> 00:49:38,116
Thầy says we need to find a global 
spirituality.

517
00:49:39,247 --> 00:49:42,860
And maybe that spirituality will be based

518
00:49:42,860 --> 00:49:50,103
in our reverence and our awe for 
the natural world, for Mother Earth,

519
00:49:50,103 --> 00:49:52,874
for the galaxies, for the cosmos.

520
00:49:52,874 --> 00:49:59,774
Because all human beings feel a deep
kind of awe when they look at

521
00:49:59,774 --> 00:50:03,004
the cosmos, at the...

522
00:50:05,352 --> 00:50:07,239
So in order to find something that we

523
00:50:07,239 --> 00:50:09,721
all have in common,

524
00:50:13,382 --> 00:50:15,757
and then to agree on how to word it,

525
00:50:15,757 --> 00:50:17,544
is not easy.

526
00:50:18,473 --> 00:50:20,722
I think in that Parliament of Religions,

527
00:50:20,722 --> 00:50:25,033
they all agreed about what the suffering 
is that we're facing.

528
00:50:26,357 --> 00:50:31,892
But they could not agree on how to word,

529
00:50:32,701 --> 00:50:34,606
like the Five Mindfulness Trainings

530
00:50:34,606 --> 00:50:35,992
or something like that,

531
00:50:35,992 --> 00:50:39,679
to help people relieve that suffering.

532
00:50:39,679 --> 00:50:43,047
So that is a work that we still have to do.

533
00:50:44,771 --> 00:50:49,284
And we want, we really want, 
to continue Thầy,

534
00:50:49,350 --> 00:50:53,490
and continue this effort in

535
00:50:53,793 --> 00:50:57,019
sometimes letting go of what we hold to

536
00:50:57,019 --> 00:51:01,907
in order to be able to contribute to a 
global ethic.

537
00:51:04,417 --> 00:51:07,467
And when we contribute to a global ethic,

538
00:51:07,467 --> 00:51:12,086
we also need to look into other forms

539
00:51:12,086 --> 00:51:15,966
of ethics than Buddhist ethics, to try and

540
00:51:15,966 --> 00:51:20,535
find out what is it that the human mind

541
00:51:20,535 --> 00:51:23,198
can agree on, which all humans

542
00:51:23,198 --> 00:51:25,093
can agree on.

543
00:51:34,253 --> 00:51:44,927
So there, in 1993, most people, nearly everybody

544
00:51:44,927 --> 00:51:52,037
but not everybody, they agreed on 4 points,
four commitments that they wanted to make.

545
00:51:55,770 --> 00:52:00,450
And the first commitment was 
to protect life.

546
00:52:09,499 --> 00:52:16,047
"A commitment to a culture of non-violence
and respect for life."

547
00:52:17,704 --> 00:52:24,848
So when we look at the 14 Mindfulness
Trainings of the Order of Interbeing

548
00:52:28,508 --> 00:52:33,002
we see that there are roots to our inability

549
00:52:33,002 --> 00:52:38,521
to protect life, there are roots to our
violence.

550
00:52:38,521 --> 00:52:43,632
And those things like fanaticism, dogmatism.

551
00:52:43,632 --> 00:52:46,325
When we cling to a dogma, when we say that

552
00:52:46,325 --> 00:52:50,128
we are right and you are wrong,

553
00:52:50,128 --> 00:52:54,352
that is contribution to violence.

554
00:52:56,992 --> 00:53:01,180
And so when we commit ourselves to
non-violence,

555
00:53:01,180 --> 00:53:03,971
on the one hand we commit ourselves

556
00:53:03,971 --> 00:53:08,121
to looking deeply into the seeds of

557
00:53:08,121 --> 00:53:11,573
violence we have in ourselves, and how

558
00:53:11,573 --> 00:53:15,271
not to water the violence we have in
ourselves.

559
00:53:16,610 --> 00:53:17,998
But at the same time,

560
00:53:17,998 --> 00:53:21,088
we want to find out, what is it

561
00:53:21,088 --> 00:53:23,961
that makes people violent.

562
00:53:24,963 --> 00:53:29,193
And when I stick to my dogma,

563
00:53:29,193 --> 00:53:32,728
and you stick to your dogma,

564
00:53:32,728 --> 00:53:36,798
and neither of us can accept the dogma
of the other,

565
00:53:36,798 --> 00:53:40,496
then that will also lead to violence

566
00:53:40,496 --> 00:53:43,079
that we commit together.

567
00:53:45,788 --> 00:53:48,678
And the second commitment they have

568
00:53:48,678 --> 00:53:52,840
is commitment to a culture of solidarity

569
00:53:57,371 --> 00:54:02,302
and just economic order.

570
00:54:03,161 --> 00:54:13,490
So solidarity here means, like "đoàn kết"

571
00:54:13,490 --> 00:54:16,883
it means that we stand together.

572
00:54:16,883 --> 00:54:20,446
East stands together with West.

573
00:54:20,446 --> 00:54:26,934
And if in the West we see that South or
the East is suffering,

574
00:54:26,934 --> 00:54:30,548
we know that that is also our suffering.

575
00:54:30,548 --> 00:54:32,852
So we want to help.

576
00:54:32,852 --> 00:54:36,128
The North wants to help the South,

577
00:54:36,128 --> 00:54:38,423
wants to stand together with the South.

578
00:54:38,423 --> 00:54:42,373
That is a culture of solidarity.

579
00:54:44,258 --> 00:54:52,233
And just economic order, like "?? nền kinh tế".

580
00:54:53,172 --> 00:54:57,072
"?? nền kinh tế công bằng?"

581
00:55:00,912 --> 00:55:04,932
So that also means that we want to

582
00:55:06,518 --> 00:55:10,744
be able to let go of our consumerism.

583
00:55:10,744 --> 00:55:14,999
We want to be able to let go of our
material comforts

584
00:55:14,999 --> 00:55:18,796
in order to be able to share our riches

585
00:55:18,796 --> 00:55:22,123
with the countries that don't have

586
00:55:22,123 --> 00:55:24,413
the riches we have.

587
00:55:28,737 --> 00:55:32,131
And the third commitment that they nearly

588
00:55:32,131 --> 00:55:34,101
came to agree with each other

589
00:55:34,101 --> 00:55:40,661
is commitment to a culture of tolerance 
and truth.

590
00:55:43,406 --> 00:55:47,678
The ability to embrace each other.

591
00:55:48,809 --> 00:55:51,799
Tolerance is "bao dung".

592
00:55:53,542 --> 00:55:59,644
And to be truthful, to be authentic
with each other.

593
00:56:01,569 --> 00:56:03,486
And the fourth is a commitment to

594
00:56:03,486 --> 00:56:11,658
a culture of equal rights and partnership
between men and women.

595
00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:22,228
Equal rights is "bình quyền" and
partnership here is ?"sự hợp tác".

596
00:56:23,128 --> 00:56:25,997
Between men and women.

597
00:56:27,273 --> 00:56:32,308
But in that, in the details of that 
commitment,

598
00:56:32,308 --> 00:56:45,070
it talks a lot about sexuality and not
exploiting sex,

599
00:56:45,070 --> 00:56:48,154
not selling sex, that kind of thing.

600
00:56:57,652 --> 00:57:01,744
So the theologian Hans Küng also

601
00:57:01,744 --> 00:57:08,481
spent much of his life in talking to

602
00:57:08,481 --> 00:57:13,117
business men about global ethics.

603
00:57:14,304 --> 00:57:18,431
[The bell is awoken.]

604
00:57:18,431 --> 00:57:33,579
[The bell is invited.]

605
00:57:33,579 --> 00:57:39,748
When we read the second chapter of the
anguttara nikaya,

606
00:57:39,748 --> 00:57:44,921
the Buddha says, there are two things,

607
00:57:44,921 --> 00:57:50,681
monks, that protect the world, 
that preserve the world.

608
00:57:50,681 --> 00:57:53,581
What are those two things?

609
00:57:53,581 --> 00:57:58,615
They are hiri and ottapa.

610
01:00:04,952 --> 01:00:08,418
So usually when you look in the Pali 
dictionary,

611
01:00:08,418 --> 01:00:13,483
this how these two words are translated.

612
01:00:26,351 --> 01:00:33,191
Maybe moral shame, moral dread, it 
doesn't sound very... um..

613
01:00:36,069 --> 01:00:39,650
To say that these two things protect 
the world, preserve the world,

614
01:00:39,650 --> 01:00:43,714
may not sound so positive to you.

615
01:00:44,760 --> 01:00:53,626
Moral shame: it means that when I do
something I recognize that it

616
01:00:53,626 --> 01:00:55,597
brings about suffering for myself,

617
01:00:55,597 --> 01:00:58,944
and I feel ashamed.

618
01:00:58,944 --> 01:01:01,871
And so I don't do it.

619
01:01:03,414 --> 01:01:10,039
And, moral dread means I'm very afraid
of doing something wrong.

620
01:01:10,039 --> 01:01:16,017
I'm afraid to do that.

621
01:01:16,017 --> 01:01:21,723
I'm afraid to do something that will
make myself suffer and make

622
01:01:21,723 --> 01:01:24,902
other people suffer.

623
01:01:26,826 --> 01:01:33,078
And sometimes, we're afraid to do things

624
01:01:33,078 --> 01:01:36,626
because we think we will go to hell.

625
01:01:36,980 --> 01:01:41,063
Or we think that we will be punished.

626
01:01:42,016 --> 01:01:45,274
So, maybe you'd be afraid to rob a bank

627
01:01:45,274 --> 01:01:48,251
because you think you might be put 
in prison.

628
01:01:52,510 --> 01:02:01,434
And sometimes in Buddhist temples, you 
have fresco or paintings of the

629
01:02:01,434 --> 01:02:05,321
terrible punishments that happen in hell.

630
01:02:05,517 --> 01:02:10,761
Like being thrown in to a cauldron of oil,
boiling oil or something like that.

631
01:02:10,761 --> 01:02:13,795
for some wrong deed that you did.

632
01:02:14,471 --> 01:02:17,840
Well, the idea about that is make you afraid

633
01:02:17,840 --> 01:02:19,692
so you don't do it.

634
01:02:22,688 --> 01:02:27,160
But the thing is that in Plum Village,

635
01:02:27,160 --> 01:02:30,349
we don't really believe in hell,

636
01:02:30,349 --> 01:02:33,197
like place you go after you die,

637
01:02:33,197 --> 01:02:37,140
to be punished for what you've done
while you were alive.

638
01:02:38,276 --> 01:02:42,093
But we believe that hell is more like
a state of mind.

639
01:02:42,093 --> 01:02:47,202
And you can go there very easily while
you are still alive,

640
01:02:47,512 --> 01:02:51,354
if you choose to think in a certain way

641
01:02:51,354 --> 01:02:54,111
or act in a certain way.

642
01:02:54,953 --> 01:03:02,069
Like when you feel angry, it's a kind of
hell -- you feel very hot.

643
01:03:08,810 --> 01:03:14,688
But here, it means like a deep aspiration

644
01:03:14,688 --> 01:03:20,974
"I don't want to suffer and I don't want
to make other suffer."

645
01:03:20,974 --> 01:03:26,535
So I have a ... I draw back, I draw back 
from doing things

646
01:03:27,091 --> 01:03:33,211
And when I do something that makes me 
suffer and makes others suffer,

647
01:03:33,211 --> 01:03:36,064
I recognize that I made a mistake.

648
01:03:36,064 --> 01:03:38,320
And I feel ashamed.

649
01:03:38,320 --> 01:03:44,233
And I either come and confess to somebody
else or I confess to myself,

650
01:03:44,233 --> 01:03:47,502
and the words I use are something like

651
01:03:47,502 --> 01:03:52,002
I made a mistake; I made you suffer;
I made myself suffer.

652
01:03:52,002 --> 01:03:55,242
And I'm not going to do that again.

653
01:03:55,297 --> 01:03:56,587
I am very sorry.

654
01:03:56,675 --> 01:03:58,627
And then it is finished.

655
01:03:58,627 --> 01:04:02,855
If it doesn't finish there, and I keep 
reminding myself,

656
01:04:02,855 --> 01:04:06,648
"I did that terrible thing. 
I can't forget it"

657
01:04:06,648 --> 01:04:08,348
then it becomes guilt.

658
01:04:08,348 --> 01:04:10,342
And guilt is a complex, and

659
01:04:10,342 --> 01:04:14,854
it's not something positive like shame is.

660
01:04:15,130 --> 01:04:17,860
Shame is positive, because it helps me to

661
01:04:17,860 --> 01:04:24,486
get over what I've done wrong and helps 
me not to make the same mistake again.

662
01:04:32,706 --> 01:04:43,123
The philosopher Mencius,

663
01:04:58,524 --> 01:05:00,014
Mạnh Tử,

664
01:05:00,747 --> 01:05:09,363
said that human beings are innately good.

665
01:05:11,049 --> 01:05:13,526
They have innate compassion.

666
01:05:15,098 --> 01:05:18,151
And he talked about four things,

667
01:05:18,626 --> 01:05:21,271
which he called four beginnings,

668
01:05:22,466 --> 01:05:28,224
which lead to living a moral life.

669
01:06:03,191 --> 01:06:07,529
trắc ẩn tu ô' ???

670
01:06:11,312 --> 01:06:15,022
This is these two, I think.

671
01:06:16,804 --> 01:06:21,486
Tu here means to be shy, to feel ashamed.

672
01:06:22,970 --> 01:06:27,599
So it's like Hiri. This is Mencius.

673
01:06:28,679 --> 01:06:31,802
And ô' means to hate.

674
01:06:32,559 --> 01:06:35,760
So you hate, you hate doing wrong.

675
01:06:36,029 --> 01:06:39,285
It's a little bit like being afraid of 
doing wrong.

676
01:06:39,940 --> 01:06:42,384
You don't like doing wrong.

677
01:06:43,819 --> 01:06:45,957
This means compassion.

678
01:06:45,957 --> 01:06:49,892
These means something you can translate
as compassion.

679
01:06:49,892 --> 01:06:55,242
And Mencius said that if you are inside,

680
01:06:55,242 --> 01:06:59,583
and you see a child climb onto the edge

681
01:06:59,583 --> 01:07:02,946
of a well outside, then you immediately want

682
01:07:02,946 --> 01:07:06,427
to run out and take the child in your arms

683
01:07:06,427 --> 01:07:10,231
so the child doesn't fall into the well.

684
01:07:10,231 --> 01:07:14,119
And if the door is locked, and you can't
get out, you will be very

685
01:07:14,119 --> 01:07:17,680
you will feel very bad, very frustrated.

686
01:07:17,680 --> 01:07:19,538
You won't know what to do.

687
01:07:19,720 --> 01:07:23,530
So that is the natural compassion 
that we have, that we want

688
01:07:23,530 --> 01:07:28,147
to save the life of others.

689
01:07:31,213 --> 01:07:35,900
And this means that we are ashamed to 
do something wrong.

690
01:07:35,900 --> 01:07:41,894
And this means that we don't want,
we don't like to do something wrong.

691
01:08:13,744 --> 01:08:17,791
từ như ??

692
01:08:18,214 --> 01:08:20,954
The last one I remember... Easy.

693
01:08:46,888 --> 01:08:50,376
thị phi ... từ nhượng

694
01:08:50,376 --> 01:08:55,273
So từ nhượng means that you say good-bye
to something.

695
01:08:55,273 --> 01:08:58,542
Like in "từ ?", you say good-bye.

696
01:08:58,542 --> 01:09:04,109
You refrain, you don't do that.

697
01:09:04,109 --> 01:09:08,811
You see that you can let go and not do it.

698
01:09:09,429 --> 01:09:13,395
And "nhượng" means to yield.

699
01:09:14,824 --> 01:09:20,383
You can let go, you don't hold on to...

700
01:09:21,274 --> 01:09:24,032
If something is necessary is to be done,

701
01:09:24,032 --> 01:09:25,997
you will do it.

702
01:09:25,997 --> 01:09:28,562
If it is something you shouldn't do,

703
01:09:28,562 --> 01:09:32,187
you can say good-bye to it and not do it.

704
01:09:32,187 --> 01:09:34,812
You can refrain from doing something.

705
01:09:38,210 --> 01:09:40,753
Like somebody comes to me and they say

706
01:09:40,753 --> 01:09:45,519
"Oh, you know, I love very much somebody

707
01:09:45,519 --> 01:09:54,367
who is my workplace. And she has a husband

708
01:09:54,367 --> 01:09:58,826
and children, I have a wife and children...

709
01:09:58,826 --> 01:10:01,482
But I know that I just have to give up

710
01:10:01,482 --> 01:10:05,974
that love for the person, because I have

711
01:10:05,974 --> 01:10:07,688
to care of my family, I have to take care

712
01:10:07,688 --> 01:10:09,594
of my wife, and she has to take care

713
01:10:09,594 --> 01:10:12,923
of her family and husband."

714
01:10:12,923 --> 01:10:17,247
So that is to give up.

715
01:10:17,247 --> 01:10:18,798
And then when we see something that needs

716
01:10:18,798 --> 01:10:20,844
to be done, we do it.

717
01:10:21,999 --> 01:10:26,150
And this means we have the capacity to

718
01:10:26,150 --> 01:10:30,898
discriminate between what is right, and
what is wrong.

719
01:10:32,068 --> 01:10:38,889
But like we said before, we have to..

720
01:10:38,889 --> 01:10:41,509
In Buddhism, we don't know in advance

721
01:10:41,509 --> 01:10:44,869
what is right and what is wrong.

722
01:10:44,869 --> 01:10:51,005
We have to use our mindfulness, 
concentration and insight in every

723
01:10:51,005 --> 01:10:54,507
situation to know what is right and wrong.

724
01:10:54,507 --> 01:10:57,665
With the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings,

725
01:10:57,665 --> 01:11:00,094
the Five Mindfulness Traingings,

726
01:11:00,094 --> 01:11:04,123
we have basic guidelines to help us go

727
01:11:04,123 --> 01:11:06,286
in that direction.

728
01:11:06,286 --> 01:11:10,739
But finally, we have to use mindfulness,

729
01:11:10,739 --> 01:11:15,285
concentration, insight and the collective
wisdom of the Sangha

730
01:11:15,285 --> 01:11:20,427
in order to know what is right and wrong
in this situation.

731
01:11:20,427 --> 01:11:23,307
And that is why when we do our meditation

732
01:11:23,307 --> 01:11:26,511
in the evening, we say

733
01:11:26,511 --> 01:11:30,571
there is no more thought of right and wrong.

734
01:11:30,592 --> 01:11:31,969
Because in your meditation,

735
01:11:31,969 --> 01:11:33,380
you don't want to be thinking

736
01:11:33,380 --> 01:11:36,280
oh, should I do this or should I do that?

737
01:11:37,106 --> 01:11:41,810
In our meditation, we need to be able to

738
01:11:41,810 --> 01:11:43,465
to come back to our breathing,

739
01:11:43,465 --> 01:11:46,655
to let go of all our thinking

740
01:11:46,655 --> 01:11:48,361
and then refresh our mind and

741
01:11:48,361 --> 01:11:50,629
look deeply.

742
01:11:52,019 --> 01:11:55,725
Yes. So that is a little bit of

743
01:11:55,725 --> 01:11:59,721
talking about meta-ethics in Buddhism.

744
01:12:02,345 --> 01:12:07,672
We have ethics, which is "đạo đức học"

745
01:12:07,902 --> 01:12:09,445
but we also have meta-ethics

746
01:12:09,445 --> 01:12:12,586
which is "siêu đạo đức học".

747
01:12:15,812 --> 01:12:20,509
So what lies at the base of ethics?

748
01:12:21,542 --> 01:12:28,643
And, it may be the no thought of 
right and wrong.

749
01:12:30,925 --> 01:12:37,409
What lies at the base of ethics is 
the awareness of suffering,

750
01:12:37,409 --> 01:12:41,201
the awareness of happiness,

751
01:12:41,201 --> 01:12:50,099
and also the ability to let go of 
all ideas of right and wrong.

752
01:12:50,099 --> 01:12:53,986
In order to be able to discover

753
01:12:53,986 --> 01:12:58,127
what will lead to the greatest happiness

754
01:12:58,127 --> 01:13:05,164
and the least suffering in this particular
circumstance.

755
01:13:15,687 --> 01:13:22,567
I think Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill

756
01:13:22,754 --> 01:13:29,298
in the 19th century, they talk about

757
01:13:29,298 --> 01:13:35,961
the greatest happiness of the greatest
number

758
01:13:35,961 --> 01:13:39,389
as being the basis for ethics.

759
01:13:39,664 --> 01:13:45,201
And in Buddhism we could agree 
also with that.

760
01:13:45,201 --> 01:13:49,209
We want, that is what we feel

761
01:13:49,209 --> 01:13:52,620
we want the least amount of suffering.

762
01:13:54,567 --> 01:13:57,361
But we also know that suffering is

763
01:13:57,361 --> 01:13:59,735
essential for there to be compassion.

764
01:14:00,249 --> 01:14:02,476
And compassion is essential for

765
01:14:02,476 --> 01:14:04,774
there to be happiness.

766
01:14:05,042 --> 01:14:07,002
But there will always be suffering.

767
01:14:07,002 --> 01:14:09,868
We don't know to worry that one day,

768
01:14:09,868 --> 01:14:11,874
there will be no more suffering.

769
01:14:13,564 --> 01:14:16,133
We just don't want to make more suffering

770
01:14:16,133 --> 01:14:22,752
than what is already offering itself to us.

771
01:14:23,552 --> 01:14:28,732
[The bell is awoken.]

772
01:14:28,732 --> 01:14:41,300
[The bell is invited.]

773
01:14:41,300 --> 01:14:44,192
And I think that Jeremy Bentham and

774
01:14:44,192 --> 01:14:46,911
John Stuart Mill, they talked a lot about

775
01:14:46,911 --> 01:14:49,085
material happiness.

776
01:14:49,618 --> 01:14:51,287
There's a lot of poverty.

777
01:14:51,287 --> 01:14:53,492
There still is a lot of poverty.

778
01:14:53,492 --> 01:14:55,657
And obviously to be able to eradicate

779
01:14:55,657 --> 01:15:00,280
poverty would bring material happiness,

780
01:15:00,280 --> 01:15:03,406
which will then lead to spiritual happiness.

781
01:15:03,406 --> 01:15:05,768
Because when people are so poor,

782
01:15:05,768 --> 01:15:07,459
they don't have the time, they don't

783
01:15:07,459 --> 01:15:11,737
have the opportunity to develop their
spiritual life.

784
01:15:12,541 --> 01:15:14,971
And so that is a basic step.

785
01:15:15,162 --> 01:15:19,250
But we also see that spiritual happiness

786
01:15:19,827 --> 01:15:22,080
is very important.

787
01:15:22,212 --> 01:15:29,841
And when I lived in India, in a place that
was very poor,

788
01:15:30,394 --> 01:15:32,977
I used to see the children there.

789
01:15:33,486 --> 01:15:35,053
They had no clothes, really,

790
01:15:35,053 --> 01:15:37,930
a few ragged clothes sometimes.

791
01:15:41,151 --> 01:15:44,080
But they were happy.

792
01:15:44,080 --> 01:15:46,057
They'd play with each other, although

793
01:15:46,057 --> 01:15:48,051
they didn't have any toys,

794
01:15:48,051 --> 01:15:50,910
they didn't have proper clothes to wear.

795
01:15:51,451 --> 01:15:53,326
But they had a kind of happiness that

796
01:15:53,326 --> 01:15:56,557
sometimes in children who have clothes and

797
01:15:56,557 --> 01:16:00,349
have many toys, you don't see.

798
01:16:02,501 --> 01:16:04,385
But that also has something to do with

799
01:16:04,385 --> 01:16:07,664
our sharing our wealth, so that

800
01:16:07,664 --> 01:16:11,931
everybody has enough, but not more

801
01:16:11,931 --> 01:16:13,607
than they need.

802
01:16:14,030 --> 01:16:18,009
One German economist said it is perfectly

803
01:16:18,009 --> 01:16:22,380
possible for everyone to have a wage that

804
01:16:22,380 --> 01:16:28,039
is the same -- everybody earns the same
amount of money.

805
01:16:38,261 --> 01:16:42,157
So during the three months 
of the Autumn Retreat,

806
01:16:42,157 --> 01:16:46,716
we have an opportunity for us to be able

807
01:16:46,716 --> 01:16:53,025
to look into how the Fourteen Mindfulness 
Trainings affect our own life.

808
01:16:55,805 --> 01:16:59,354
And how we can help, how they can help us

809
01:16:59,354 --> 01:17:01,749
to develop our compassion.

810
01:17:03,099 --> 01:17:05,118
And we have plenty of opportunity

811
01:17:05,118 --> 01:17:09,447
in our sitting meditation to practise

812
01:17:09,447 --> 01:17:12,471
loving kindness meditation if we want to

813
01:17:14,278 --> 01:17:19,526
so that we can more easily bring up the

814
01:17:19,526 --> 01:17:24,233
innate compassion that we all have.

815
01:17:25,416 --> 01:17:27,454
[The bell is awoken.]

816
01:17:30,583 --> 01:17:53,107
[The bell is invited.]

817
01:17:58,696 --> 01:18:19,435
[The bell is invited.]

818
01:18:25,140 --> 01:18:50,227
[The bell is invited.]

819
01:18:54,951 --> 01:18:56,544
[The small bell is awoken.]

820
01:18:56,544 --> 01:19:00,850
[The small bell is invited.]