WEBVTT

00:00:00.465 --> 00:00:06.146
So anyway for the talk
just to warm people up.

00:00:06.146 --> 00:00:12.558
They're one of the good friends,
disciples, followers from Canada.

00:00:12.558 --> 00:00:17.223
I'm sure is listening 
and if not listening now

00:00:17.223 --> 00:00:19.599
will get hold of the talk later on.

00:00:19.599 --> 00:00:25.373
They're very, very devoted disciples,
very wonderful people too.

00:00:25.373 --> 00:00:29.110
But they asked me that they've been
trying to encourage some of their friends

00:00:29.110 --> 00:00:32.166
to do some meditation.

00:00:32.166 --> 00:00:37.893
But then some of the friends equate
meditation to mindfulness practice.

00:00:37.893 --> 00:00:42.678
And sometimes you see
the people who practice mindfulness

00:00:42.678 --> 00:00:46.123
that sometimes they get
into difficulties and problems.

00:00:46.123 --> 00:00:53.988
Sometimes it's just like people who
have Covid 19 vaccine.

00:00:53.988 --> 00:00:59.736
Sometimes they have problems
only it's a tiny, tiny sort of proportion.

00:00:59.736 --> 00:01:01.703
I think somebody said that

00:01:01.703 --> 00:01:05.933
you've got more chance of 
having a problem with a Covid vaccine.

00:01:05.933 --> 00:01:09.562
The chances of that are just more remote
than winning the Lotto.

00:01:09.562 --> 00:01:11.908
It's just like people surfing,

00:01:11.908 --> 00:01:16.458
some people who surf on 
Western Australia get eaten by sharks

00:01:16.458 --> 00:01:20.215
that doesn't really stop people surfing.

00:01:20.215 --> 00:01:23.412
But even with mindfulness practice

00:01:23.412 --> 00:01:25.864
sometimes there's some problems there.

00:01:25.864 --> 00:01:32.008
You know, it doesn't need to be.
It's much safer than surfing,

00:01:32.008 --> 00:01:36.417
but it's also much more healthy.

00:01:36.417 --> 00:01:41.147
And one of the reasons why
any problems exist in the first place

00:01:41.147 --> 00:01:48.672
is that this thing called mindfulness
has been just almost like titrated

00:01:48.672 --> 00:01:53.412
and just taken away from its context
in other forms of Buddhist practice.

00:01:53.412 --> 00:01:56.404
And when it's by itself it misses out

00:01:56.404 --> 00:02:01.426
on some of the wonderful safeguards
which are always there.

00:02:01.426 --> 00:02:10.180
And to make a point, when I first went
to teach meditation overseas.

00:02:10.180 --> 00:02:18.769
I think it was over in Malaysia. 
Malaysia is a Muslim country,

00:02:18.769 --> 00:02:22.220
there's a lot of Buddhists
over in Malaysia as well.

00:02:22.220 --> 00:02:27.705
And over there they were very keen
on doing all the parts of Buddhism

00:02:27.705 --> 00:02:30.624
especially meditation practice.

00:02:30.624 --> 00:02:35.768
when I talked to them 
I was stunned, I was surprised!

00:02:35.768 --> 00:02:38.068
Because they were complaining

00:02:38.068 --> 00:02:42.488
that meditation gave you
"Samadhi headache!"

00:02:42.488 --> 00:02:45.762
They called samadhi means like, 
well it actually meant over there,

00:02:45.762 --> 00:02:47.741
concentration. 
It really means stillness.

00:02:47.741 --> 00:02:49.384
"Meditation headache?"

00:02:49.384 --> 00:02:55.725
I couldn't understand that. I've been
meditating for years by that time.

00:02:55.725 --> 00:02:58.859
How many years of, crikey!
About 30 years probably.

00:02:58.859 --> 00:03:01.939
I never had a headache by meditating.

00:03:01.939 --> 00:03:05.843
Actually I use meditation
to overcome headaches.

00:03:05.843 --> 00:03:14.913
I use meditation overcome headaches,
indigestion, scrub typhus fever.

00:03:14.913 --> 00:03:18.265
That's a pretty big one. 
And all these other stuff,

00:03:18.265 --> 00:03:23.691
even injuries, bruises
and stuff if we fell over.

00:03:23.691 --> 00:03:26.490
And it's amazing I thought,

00:03:26.490 --> 00:03:29.711
meditation is there to help your health

00:03:29.711 --> 00:03:32.570
not to create more headaches 
and problems.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:32.570 --> 00:03:36.093
What on earth have you been doing?

00:03:36.203 --> 00:03:40.294
And of course, it was a meditation
which was being done,

00:03:40.444 --> 00:03:44.813
which has a lot of problems 
if you compared it with

00:03:44.813 --> 00:03:48.183
traditional Buddhist meditation.

00:03:48.853 --> 00:03:52.365
The meditators there were 
struggling and striving

00:03:52.365 --> 00:03:54.835
and trying to get something.

00:03:55.445 --> 00:03:57.431
And you find whenever 
you want something,

00:03:57.431 --> 00:03:59.948
try to get something 
and strive something;

00:03:59.948 --> 00:04:03.529
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to make sure it works.

00:04:03.529 --> 00:04:04.901
I'm going to be ...

00:04:04.901 --> 00:04:07.486
My own story...

00:04:09.011 --> 00:04:10.981
I'm still a lay person,

00:04:10.981 --> 00:04:16.336
we started doing some meditation
and it was the Vesak time.

00:04:16.336 --> 00:04:21.684
This was celebrating the birth
enlightenment, passing away of the Buddha.

00:04:21.694 --> 00:04:27.287
And when I heard the story
of the Buddha's enlightenment.

00:04:27.287 --> 00:04:31.917
What I heard was that
the Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree

00:04:31.917 --> 00:04:36.896
and he made a resolution, 
a determination.

00:04:36.896 --> 00:04:40.097
"I'm gonna get enlightened.

00:04:42.077 --> 00:04:45.149
Right here, I'm not gonna move.

00:04:45.149 --> 00:04:51.759
Even if my blood dries up
and my bones turn to dust.

00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:55.845
I'm not gonna move from this seat until

00:04:55.845 --> 00:04:59.775
... until I get full enlightenment".

00:05:00.855 --> 00:05:05.446
Being stupid at the time I thought that
was really cool.

00:05:06.166 --> 00:05:08.473
So you know what I did?

00:05:08.473 --> 00:05:13.183
I went back to my room,
I put a little couple of cushions out,

00:05:14.145 --> 00:05:15.145
(Laugh)

00:05:16.107 --> 00:05:21.539
stupid young man, 
I was about 18 at the time (laugh)

00:05:21.539 --> 00:05:24.159
You know, 18 year old men.

00:05:24.159 --> 00:05:26.305
Any 18 year old man here?

00:05:26.754 --> 00:05:28.456
Don't admit it. Don't admit it.

00:05:28.456 --> 00:05:30.999
Come on, you're not 18 
you're much older than that.

00:05:30.999 --> 00:05:32.579
I said 18 not 80.

00:05:37.634 --> 00:05:44.997
So I sat down on that cushion
I made a resolution.

00:05:45.647 --> 00:05:48.071
I'm as good as the Buddha.

00:05:48.071 --> 00:05:51.251
That was in India,
he didn't have an education.

00:05:51.251 --> 00:05:54.860
I thought like that, really arrogant.

00:05:54.860 --> 00:05:59.407
You know my maximum amount of time
I could meditate for at 18

00:05:59.407 --> 00:06:02.948
was about 20 minutes
and that was pushing it,

00:06:02.948 --> 00:06:06.574
25 sometimes on a good meditation.

00:06:06.664 --> 00:06:09.458
So I sat down and said forget about
all of that,

00:06:09.458 --> 00:06:13.819
I'm not going to move.
Now I've got to get enlightened,

00:06:13.830 --> 00:06:18.846
I want to get it out of the way, I've got
many other things to do in my life.

00:06:18.846 --> 00:06:21.724
I sat there and made the resolution
I'm not gonna move

00:06:21.724 --> 00:06:25.005
until I get perfect enlightenment or

00:06:25.005 --> 00:06:28.455
you always gotta have 
an alternative or

00:06:28.455 --> 00:06:31.695
my blood dries up and 
bones turn to dust.

00:06:31.695 --> 00:06:35.383
I actually made that resolution,
honestly I did.

00:06:35.383 --> 00:06:38.570
It was hell. After half an hour

00:06:38.570 --> 00:06:44.425
I meant to get to half an hour, my bones
were just ... they were burning in pain,

00:06:44.425 --> 00:06:46.839
my back was aching, 
every muscle was on fire.

00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:49.749
No, I'm not enlightened yet, carry on.

00:06:50.179 --> 00:06:52.633
[Laughter]

00:06:52.633 --> 00:06:56.371
You know, I got about
between 35 and 40 minutes.

00:06:56.371 --> 00:06:59.061
I couldn't stand it any longer

00:06:59.061 --> 00:07:03.281
and I opened my eyes and
you know I wasn't enlightened!

00:07:03.281 --> 00:07:09.900
And my blood hadn’t dried up yet,
my bones hadn't turned to dust.

00:07:09.900 --> 00:07:12.827
I was really stupid!

00:07:12.827 --> 00:07:18.977
But later on, instead of just running
because of arrogance

00:07:18.977 --> 00:07:24.229
and meditating just because
I thought I was so good.

00:07:24.229 --> 00:07:29.152
I had a marvelous teacher
like an Ajahn Chah.

00:07:29.152 --> 00:07:32.010
And he kept on saying 
not just once but

00:07:32.010 --> 00:07:35.640
many, many, many, many times.
Probably a thousand times

00:07:35.640 --> 00:07:39.249
in the nine years 
which I meditated with him.

00:07:39.249 --> 00:07:45.349
He said you meditate to let go of things
not to gain things.

00:07:45.539 --> 00:07:51.140
And I didn't understand a word of it
when I first heard it.

00:07:51.140 --> 00:07:55.166
I realized that was some of the most
wonderful advice he could ever give.

00:07:55.166 --> 00:07:57.083
You want to get something,

00:07:57.083 --> 00:08:02.814
something you want to aim for,
to strive for, you get very tense.

00:08:02.814 --> 00:08:07.258
But if you want to let go of things
you get lighter and lighter

00:08:07.258 --> 00:08:11.062
and the path becomes 
so easy and peaceful.

00:08:11.412 --> 00:08:14.445
And that becomes another reason why
many people,

00:08:14.445 --> 00:08:20.687
if they don't understand
what meditation or mindfulness is,

00:08:20.687 --> 00:08:22.880
they want to get something,

00:08:22.880 --> 00:08:25.780
always be the tension,
the tightness there.

00:08:25.780 --> 00:08:27.767
And a lot of times you can't get

00:08:27.767 --> 00:08:32.587
what you think you want
or you think you need.

00:08:32.587 --> 00:08:34.605
You don't need very much.

00:08:34.605 --> 00:08:36.693
But every time we think we need this

00:08:36.693 --> 00:08:42.107
and when you're fighting
you'd always get injuries,

00:08:42.107 --> 00:08:45.198
or sometimes they call
collateral damage.

00:08:45.448 --> 00:08:49.770
And that's actually what happens when
people are just mindful.

00:08:49.770 --> 00:08:57.446
So as soldiers they can shoot
more accurately and kill people.

00:08:57.446 --> 00:09:03.817
When they're mindful so they can win
more arguments in debates.

00:09:03.817 --> 00:09:06.239
When they're mindful 
so they can make more money

00:09:06.239 --> 00:09:09.039
on the stock market or whatever.

00:09:09.039 --> 00:09:11.392
If you're trying to get something

00:09:11.392 --> 00:09:15.502
you'll find that's not really
Buddhist meditation,

00:09:15.952 --> 00:09:17.484
it's not mindfulness.

00:09:17.484 --> 00:09:21.624
When you're trying to let go of things,
to simplify your life,

00:09:21.934 --> 00:09:25.107
to make your life more peaceful, 
more at ease.

00:09:25.107 --> 00:09:27.954
We always know in spiritual life
you keep on saying

00:09:27.954 --> 00:09:30.219
how much do you really need

00:09:30.219 --> 00:09:34.299
to be healthy, to be happy,
to have a wonderful life?

00:09:34.299 --> 00:09:36.251
How much do you really need?

00:09:36.251 --> 00:09:41.055
If you want to know, next time you go to
Bodhinyana monastery,

00:09:41.055 --> 00:09:47.512
go and ask to have a visit
to my home where I live.

00:09:47.512 --> 00:09:51.862
Hands up now, how many of you
have actually been into my cave?

00:09:52.232 --> 00:09:57.846
I've got to put my hand up as well cause
I've got to be honest I've been in there.

00:09:57.846 --> 00:09:59.362
Is it big?
(Laughter)

00:10:04.622 --> 00:10:09.742
It's big in peace. 
It's big in freedom.

00:10:09.742 --> 00:10:15.419
It's a tiny little cave and that's all
I need, I got a toilet around the back

00:10:15.419 --> 00:10:20.448
but it's about three meters,
it's like a dome

00:10:20.448 --> 00:10:26.573
three meters... no, three meters diameter
and that's semi dome.

00:10:26.573 --> 00:10:31.438
And in that cave I've got a bed,
meditation cushion,

00:10:31.438 --> 00:10:38.961
a blanket and water, a flashlight
and a clock, a little Buddha statue.

00:10:38.961 --> 00:10:42.800
And I do have I must admit electricity

00:10:42.800 --> 00:10:51.816
that's just to light the way and
a...not bamboo, a cork floor. That's it.

00:10:51.816 --> 00:10:56.320
You know it's really easy to clean,

00:10:56.880 --> 00:11:01.001
it doesn't take that long but
it's also the simplicity of it.

00:11:01.001 --> 00:11:03.626
What do you need?

00:11:04.056 --> 00:11:09.511
So a lot of times even in life
when we simplify things

00:11:09.511 --> 00:11:14.191
we find that life is much more peaceful.

00:11:14.191 --> 00:11:19.550
And even in meditation,
if you want to get things

00:11:19.550 --> 00:11:23.104
then there's no end 
of getting more things.

00:11:23.104 --> 00:11:25.180
How many more things do you want?

00:11:25.180 --> 00:11:27.431
How rich do you want to be?

00:11:27.431 --> 00:11:32.916
Have you noticed really rich people,
they always have to keep on working?

00:11:33.976 --> 00:11:37.323
You know Elon Musk, 
he's got enough money now

00:11:37.323 --> 00:11:42.571
he should be able to retire.
He has to work!

00:11:42.571 --> 00:11:45.935
So how much money would you want?

00:11:45.935 --> 00:11:50.847
Apparently that somebody
won the lottery on Friday.

00:11:51.447 --> 00:11:53.145
Anyone here?

00:11:55.125 --> 00:11:59.309
If it was you, now being that wealthy
is just really a burden,

00:11:59.309 --> 00:12:01.445
it causes you so much suffering.

00:12:01.445 --> 00:12:06.385
I remember, I don't mind saying,
meeting this guy

00:12:06.385 --> 00:12:12.365
he was the CEO of Tropicana resort and 
lots of other businesses over in Malaysia

00:12:12.365 --> 00:12:18.611
and he invited me to his house. No,
I can't say houses... mansion, huge thing.

00:12:18.611 --> 00:12:25.524
But what really I...was really struck me
that going into his residence

00:12:25.524 --> 00:12:32.263
there were like two guards
with machine guns at the gate,

00:12:32.263 --> 00:12:37.910
it's like going into Buckingham palace
where they have these household guards.

00:12:37.910 --> 00:12:43.890
And so, why do you need guards
with machine guns?

00:12:43.890 --> 00:12:49.100
I've got no guards with machine guns
in front of my cave. (laughter)

00:12:51.240 --> 00:12:57.014
Is because there's a lot of fear 
when you have many things.

00:12:57.014 --> 00:13:01.110
If you only have a few things or old
things you don't have to be afraid at all.

00:13:01.110 --> 00:13:03.979
I learned that from my father,
strange enough,

00:13:03.979 --> 00:13:09.614
because where he lived was 
in a very small council flat in London,

00:13:09.614 --> 00:13:13.954
like government sponsored housing
for the poor.

00:13:13.954 --> 00:13:17.171
But it was very...
we had a very happy time there,

00:13:17.171 --> 00:13:21.624
but often I just asked him
"why don't we lock the door when we go out

00:13:21.624 --> 00:13:24.264
aren't you afraid of burglars?"

00:13:24.264 --> 00:13:27.736
You know what my father said, he said:
"No, I'm not afraid of burglars

00:13:27.736 --> 00:13:31.597
in fact I'm quite hopeful
a burglar might come in

00:13:31.597 --> 00:13:35.829
take pity on us and leave us something."
(Laughter)

00:13:39.684 --> 00:13:43.706
So at least you didn't have 
to worry about anything.

00:13:43.706 --> 00:13:47.966
Not worrying about anything,
great peace and happiness, contentment.

00:13:47.966 --> 00:13:49.560
So that's also one of the reasons

00:13:49.560 --> 00:13:52.770
when you're not worrying about
attaining things or losing...oh no

00:13:52.770 --> 00:13:56.857
attaining, getting things 
but you're more happy

00:13:56.857 --> 00:13:59.300
with emptying out your mind.

00:13:59.300 --> 00:14:03.099
then actually you're meditating
in a proper way.

00:14:03.099 --> 00:14:07.825
And where that comes from
if anybody wants to check me out,

00:14:07.825 --> 00:14:11.664
that comes from the second factor
of the eightfold path,

00:14:11.664 --> 00:14:14.762
meditation is a whole path 
eightfold path.

00:14:14.762 --> 00:14:18.302
Meditation ... the deep meditations 
are the last factor.

00:14:18.302 --> 00:14:19.973
Mindfulness is the seventh factor.

00:14:19.973 --> 00:14:26.357
The second factor is of the right ways 
of what we call right motivation.

00:14:26.357 --> 00:14:28.607
Ajahn Brahmali kept calling it intention

00:14:28.607 --> 00:14:31.644
but I prefer motivation,
where you're coming from,

00:14:31.644 --> 00:14:33.718
not what you're trying to achieve.

00:14:33.718 --> 00:14:37.542
Because the right motivations are
three right motivations for meditation.

00:14:37.542 --> 00:14:40.807
If you do your mindfulness practice

00:14:40.807 --> 00:14:44.547
with these three motivations 
you're really safe.

00:14:44.547 --> 00:14:48.496
The first motivation
is called nekkhamma.

00:14:48.496 --> 00:14:51.846
It's a Pali word it means 
letting go, renunciation,

00:14:51.846 --> 00:14:54.806
giving up, simplifying.

00:14:54.806 --> 00:14:57.798
I knew that was... that's really Buddhist,

00:14:57.798 --> 00:15:00.098
we are supposed to live simple lives.

00:15:00.098 --> 00:15:03.876
Very few people live 
simple lives these days.

00:15:03.876 --> 00:15:08.940
But we really try as best we can 
as monks and nuns

00:15:08.940 --> 00:15:15.075
to live simple as we possibly can.

00:15:16.695 --> 00:15:20.282
It's really strange isn't it that 
you know, sometimes I go off

00:15:20.282 --> 00:15:22.552
I used to go overseas..

00:15:22.552 --> 00:15:26.357
I used to go overseas and sometimes you
know what would happen?

00:15:26.357 --> 00:15:30.878
People buy you business class tickets,
honestly they did.

00:15:30.878 --> 00:15:37.818
I did this ... what was it called,
a keynote address at conferences.

00:15:37.818 --> 00:15:46.560
I used to go to conferences, a keynote
address at the 2018 I think it was

00:15:46.560 --> 00:15:52.470
World Computer Conference
in Dejun, South Korea.

00:15:52.470 --> 00:15:55.988
That was a really good gig,

00:15:55.988 --> 00:15:59.672
the World Computer Conference

00:15:59.672 --> 00:16:05.179
and I'm not just giving a small talk,
giving the keynote address.

00:16:05.179 --> 00:16:08.974
That's after all these politicians
and dignitaries and stuff gave

00:16:08.974 --> 00:16:13.178
and then I had to set the tone
of the conference.

00:16:13.178 --> 00:16:17.405
And I did really well. 
You know that's where they brought...

00:16:17.405 --> 00:16:20.933
they offered this business class ticket
on Singapore airlines

00:16:20.933 --> 00:16:25.158
all the way to South Korea and back,
nice hotel.

00:16:25.158 --> 00:16:29.123
And they gave 2000$
to the Buddhist Society

00:16:29.123 --> 00:16:32.173
just for a quarter of an hour's talk.

00:16:32.173 --> 00:16:38.988
So what we call a nice little earner
for our BSWA. (laugh)

00:16:41.218 --> 00:16:44.184
But then you know 
you go on business class

00:16:44.184 --> 00:16:47.619
and they ask how much do you earn?
Nothing!

00:16:47.619 --> 00:16:53.124
How much money have you got? 
Zero.

00:16:53.124 --> 00:16:57.777
What's a poor person doing
travelling on business class,

00:16:57.777 --> 00:17:00.568
no money in the bank anywhere.

00:17:00.568 --> 00:17:05.002
So I like those like 
contradictions in life

00:17:05.002 --> 00:17:07.598
and what is a person who...

00:17:07.598 --> 00:17:16.368
I don't know much about computers, 
do I? (laughter)

00:17:16.368 --> 00:17:19.229
When anything goes wrong 
you have to ask somebody else,

00:17:19.229 --> 00:17:23.382
what's gone wrong?

00:17:23.642 --> 00:17:28.526
What are you doing dude?
Do the keynote address

00:17:28.766 --> 00:17:35.602
in front of all these computer wizards?
They asked me that.

00:17:35.602 --> 00:17:38.775
And I gave the answer 
that in life

00:17:38.775 --> 00:17:45.030
you don't have to know very much
to actually to innovate.

00:17:45.030 --> 00:17:48.571
In fact the more you know,
the less you see.

00:17:48.571 --> 00:17:53.782
And you're trained always to see things
in the same way.

00:17:53.782 --> 00:17:57.442
A narrow course of mind.

00:17:57.442 --> 00:18:02.033
And as a monk you can actually
do all sorts of weird stuff,

00:18:02.033 --> 00:18:07.343
like meditate and see things
in a different way.

00:18:07.343 --> 00:18:11.397
To innovate 
means being still,

00:18:13.577 --> 00:18:17.197
letting everything go
and seeing things afresh.

00:18:17.887 --> 00:18:21.184
And of course, 
we all know in economies,

00:18:21.184 --> 00:18:24.638
innovation is a key to success.

00:18:24.638 --> 00:18:30.162
Not doing things in the same old way
but doing things in a different way.

00:18:30.162 --> 00:18:34.882
And look at this place I mean
Buddhist Society Western Australia.

00:18:34.882 --> 00:18:39.642
As far as I know it's one of the biggest
Buddhist societies in the world.

00:18:39.872 --> 00:18:46.336
It's because this is how we practice,
innovation, doing things differently.

00:18:46.336 --> 00:18:50.148
But anyway back to mindfulness
when we learn how to let go of things.

00:18:50.148 --> 00:18:54.419
The other thing in right motivation
is letting go

00:18:54.771 --> 00:19:04.042
and then the second factor of right
motivation is kindness, compassion.

00:19:05.302 --> 00:19:08.994
and that was something
I often say this to people

00:19:08.994 --> 00:19:12.891
that was something I thought
was obvious if ever you read

00:19:12.891 --> 00:19:16.265
the life story of the monks and nuns
in the time of the Buddha.

00:19:16.265 --> 00:19:21.802
Compassion was really important,
being kind to all beings.

00:19:22.082 --> 00:19:28.242
This is one lady, I think,
she didn't say where she was from.

00:19:28.242 --> 00:19:33.242
There's still a lot of people
who have discriminatory minds

00:19:33.242 --> 00:19:38.304
and she was a Buddhist but she said
something happened last week.

00:19:38.874 --> 00:19:43.251
She said her son came out 
and said he was gay.

00:19:43.251 --> 00:19:46.410
" Oh! Ajahn Brahm, 
what should I do?"

00:19:46.410 --> 00:19:50.940
Because there's some societies 
where that's still regarded as terrible

00:19:50.940 --> 00:19:55.914
and I said look, you probably chant
this every day as a Buddhist,

00:19:55.914 --> 00:19:59.184
"may all beings be happy and well."

00:19:59.184 --> 00:20:04.003
I think you chanted that here
just before I came in.

00:20:04.003 --> 00:20:10.713
Gay people, lesbians, transgenders,
L G B T Q I A plus.

00:20:12.373 --> 00:20:14.935
Aren't they beings?

00:20:15.385 --> 00:20:18.355
Do they deserve kindness, 
compassion, empathy

00:20:18.355 --> 00:20:22.693
just like everybody else?
What's the problem?

00:20:22.693 --> 00:20:24.443
And the fact that 
she didn't realize

00:20:24.443 --> 00:20:27.983
she'd be chanting and part of the chant,
may all beings be happy and well.

00:20:27.983 --> 00:20:34.485
Even Donald Trump, Mr. Putin.

00:20:34.485 --> 00:20:38.955
Who else is in the black books?
May they all be happy and well, come on.

00:20:38.955 --> 00:20:44.080
Because there's something powerful
which I saw in this type of Buddhism

00:20:44.080 --> 00:20:47.432
when you give happiness to your enemies

00:20:47.602 --> 00:20:51.448
then your enemies are not
your enemies anymore.

00:20:51.448 --> 00:20:56.295
It's weird but they become soft
and peaceful.

00:20:56.795 --> 00:21:00.087
And where this comes up,
Why I wanted to bring this up was

00:21:00.087 --> 00:21:04.507
you know sometimes when I think
this BBC article I read a long time ago,

00:21:04.507 --> 00:21:07.219
so one of the problems with mindfulness

00:21:07.219 --> 00:21:10.393
they get you to actually just allow
things to be.

00:21:10.973 --> 00:21:14.193
That's not good enough.

00:21:14.193 --> 00:21:16.731
Because sometimes what comes up

00:21:16.731 --> 00:21:19.781
is some of the past traumas
which people have.

00:21:19.781 --> 00:21:22.797
And those past traumas if 
it's just being aware of them,

00:21:22.797 --> 00:21:24.998
you can't hold them,
you can't handle them,

00:21:24.998 --> 00:21:27.088
they're just really painful.

00:21:27.088 --> 00:21:30.182
And that's where a lot of times people
just have almost psychosis

00:21:30.182 --> 00:21:32.512
with this mindfulness practice.

00:21:32.512 --> 00:21:35.042
But what's the difference between
how we do things

00:21:35.042 --> 00:21:38.062
in Buddhist mindfulness practice?

00:21:38.062 --> 00:21:41.658
If something comes out from the past 
and it's really a bad memory,

00:21:41.658 --> 00:21:43.622
very awful memory, 
difficult memory,

00:21:43.622 --> 00:21:50.483
something very hard for you to hold.
How can we let go of that past?

00:21:51.473 --> 00:21:53.935
With kindness.

00:21:54.413 --> 00:21:58.940
It's a strange thing to say but I've
said this so many times before

00:21:58.940 --> 00:22:05.013
if you are meditating and you know
your mind just wanders off to the past

00:22:05.013 --> 00:22:07.752
where something really hard 
happened to you

00:22:07.752 --> 00:22:11.284
or a repressed memory comes up 
into your mind

00:22:11.284 --> 00:22:15.968
and it's a painful memory.
What do you do with it?

00:22:16.808 --> 00:22:22.269
And if you try and get rid of it,
you give it anger, ill will.

00:22:22.269 --> 00:22:26.680
You don't want to face it,
it often gets much worse.

00:22:27.520 --> 00:22:29.679
So there's something else 
you can do with it

00:22:29.679 --> 00:22:33.079
give it kindness.

00:22:33.559 --> 00:22:38.771
Give you yourself kindness.
Give whoever did that to you kindness.

00:22:38.771 --> 00:22:44.535
And here we go again with this simile,
it's such a beautiful simile.

00:22:44.535 --> 00:22:48.755
The last time I gave on the retreat
which I did after Easter

00:22:48.755 --> 00:22:50.856
I remember after doing this simile

00:22:50.856 --> 00:22:53.896
everyone was looking at me, 
just blown away

00:22:53.896 --> 00:22:59.436
even though they heard before.
Many actually were teary afterwards.

00:22:59.566 --> 00:23:04.233
There was that simile of that...
that group here in Perth

00:23:04.233 --> 00:23:11.143
called ASSETT - Australian Society 
Survivors of Torture and Trauma.

00:23:11.143 --> 00:23:16.817
And one day they invited me to go
and visit their center

00:23:16.817 --> 00:23:19.150
do a blessing or something.
I said: "Yes, sure."

00:23:19.150 --> 00:23:21.840
because many of them actually came here

00:23:21.840 --> 00:23:27.358
and I didn't know why.
Why did you invite me?

00:23:27.358 --> 00:23:34.593
And they said because a couple of
their key strategies - they learnt here.

00:23:34.593 --> 00:23:37.654
Which ones? 
And when they told me

00:23:37.654 --> 00:23:42.605
oh it's just it's an emotional
deep right inside me, really high,

00:23:42.605 --> 00:23:46.716
make me incredibly happy. 
That's why I love telling that story.

00:23:46.716 --> 00:23:49.982
They said the one story
which worked the best.

00:23:49.982 --> 00:23:52.720
It was kindness.

00:23:53.125 --> 00:23:55.558
What do you mean kindness?

00:23:55.558 --> 00:24:01.302
It's that old story of telling
what my father told me.

00:24:01.302 --> 00:24:05.852
My father teaches... pictures a lot
in this talk this evening.

00:24:05.852 --> 00:24:09.309
My father used to tell me just
"Son, wherever you go,

00:24:09.309 --> 00:24:12.216
whatever you do, however 
you turn out in your life.

00:24:12.216 --> 00:24:15.015
He said to me when I was 
about 14 year old.

00:24:15.015 --> 00:24:19.335
And it's so uncertain in life.
He said "whatever you do,

00:24:19.335 --> 00:24:24.154
the door of my house will always 
be open to you."

00:24:24.154 --> 00:24:28.124
And of course his house was a council flat
with hardly anything in it.

00:24:28.814 --> 00:24:33.743
But you know that sometimes
somebody says something

00:24:33.743 --> 00:24:37.665
maybe here, maybe a friend,
maybe something you read or hear.

00:24:37.665 --> 00:24:40.289
It's so you know this is important.

00:24:40.289 --> 00:24:43.379
And I remember that 
as a 14 year old boy

00:24:43.379 --> 00:24:46.835
that this is important.
I don't know why I can't understand it

00:24:47.135 --> 00:24:50.715
because you know boys emotions 
are not very developed.

00:24:50.715 --> 00:24:54.787
But I remembered it enough that
when I became a monk.

00:24:54.787 --> 00:24:59.056
And one of the nice things about
being a monk or a nun, you have time,

00:24:59.056 --> 00:25:02.877
you have time to really figure out your
emotional world and what it means.

00:25:02.877 --> 00:25:05.846
And that was one of
the unfinished business

00:25:05.846 --> 00:25:09.216
I had from my father - he died
when I was about 16.

00:25:09.216 --> 00:25:11.975
What did he really mean by that?

00:25:12.235 --> 00:25:14.621
And of course, you've heard me
say this before

00:25:14.621 --> 00:25:17.184
it became the title of my first book.

00:25:17.184 --> 00:25:22.402
What he meant was not his house,
he meant his heart.

00:25:22.402 --> 00:25:25.382
He said whatever you do, 
however you turn out,

00:25:25.382 --> 00:25:28.206
whatever happens to you,

00:25:28.206 --> 00:25:33.406
the door of my heart 
will always be open to you.

00:25:33.406 --> 00:25:38.146
When I realized that was just me
that hit me so deeply.

00:25:38.146 --> 00:25:44.729
It was the first expression 
of unconditional love

00:25:45.249 --> 00:25:51.892
that I could really understand.
And it made so much sense to me

00:25:51.892 --> 00:25:55.732
and of course, a father to his son
was, you know, so powerful.

00:25:55.732 --> 00:25:59.361
I wish I'd understood that 
when he said it to me

00:25:59.361 --> 00:26:01.781
how powerful it was.

00:26:01.781 --> 00:26:05.845
And of course that story, which 
I can see you're looking at me,

00:26:05.845 --> 00:26:09.119
and it's meant something to you already.

00:26:09.119 --> 00:26:11.695
That meant something 
to a couple of psychologists,

00:26:11.695 --> 00:26:14.415
psychiatrists who would come here

00:26:14.415 --> 00:26:20.021
and then work with people who had been
very badly abused overseas.

00:26:20.381 --> 00:26:25.468
And people who had survived somehow.

00:26:25.468 --> 00:26:28.279
When I heard some of their statements
I don't know how

00:26:28.279 --> 00:26:34.084
they could survive some of that abuse, 
physical, emotional

00:26:34.084 --> 00:26:37.664
in some of these regimes overseas.

00:26:38.404 --> 00:26:43.094
But anyway they'd made it
to Australia physically safe,

00:26:43.094 --> 00:26:47.188
emotionally still in the torture chambers,

00:26:47.308 --> 00:26:52.368
still being raped, beaten 
for no reason.

00:26:53.788 --> 00:26:59.963
I've had a very simple life
so I can't really understand

00:26:59.963 --> 00:27:06.462
how they must have felt and
how they survived is beyond me.

00:27:06.652 --> 00:27:10.280
But now they're here, they're still
carrying that huge burden

00:27:10.280 --> 00:27:14.910
and how they overcame that burden.

00:27:14.910 --> 00:27:19.690
And that's because I developed 
that story and taught it

00:27:19.690 --> 00:27:24.421
that gives me so much joy.
How they overcame that was

00:27:24.421 --> 00:27:30.078
they decided to incorporate that
as one of their strategies.

00:27:30.078 --> 00:27:34.231
But when a person feels safe, 
you can't force anything,

00:27:34.231 --> 00:27:39.869
you can't say now do it.
It has to be when you're ready.

00:27:39.869 --> 00:27:42.857
And they would sit down 
in a comfortable safe place,

00:27:42.857 --> 00:27:45.207
the safety was important

00:27:45.207 --> 00:27:51.666
and then they closed their eyes and
then they imagine a heart in their chest

00:27:51.666 --> 00:27:56.425
and it was a Valentine's day heart
not a real heart.

00:27:56.425 --> 00:27:59.405
If you've seen real hearts
in medical books

00:27:59.405 --> 00:28:06.314
they're not beautiful at all,
got tubes all over the place.

00:28:06.314 --> 00:28:09.950
But the Valentine's day heart
as everyone knows

00:28:09.950 --> 00:28:14.120
imagine a Valentine's heart
in the center of your chest

00:28:14.120 --> 00:28:18.969
with two big doors.
The two doors open out

00:28:18.969 --> 00:28:21.973
and the nice part of you, 
the part of you

00:28:21.973 --> 00:28:26.769
which you can respect and love
and live with happily,

00:28:27.379 --> 00:28:29.046
all the nice times you remember,

00:28:29.046 --> 00:28:32.549
the joyful times that people
who care for you and love you

00:28:32.549 --> 00:28:36.544
and the wonderful experiences
you've had in your life

00:28:36.544 --> 00:28:43.186
all those little beings which bear your
name at different ages, that's inside.

00:28:43.186 --> 00:28:47.255
That's you,
you can very easily live with.

00:28:47.255 --> 00:28:51.713
Then what happens next 
is you look outside,

00:28:51.713 --> 00:28:57.016
outside of your own heart,
is these little beings,

00:28:57.016 --> 00:29:01.554
you were in the past, 
young girls, young boys

00:29:01.554 --> 00:29:08.358
who were treated just so painfully.
The physical abuse is only

00:29:08.358 --> 00:29:12.648
a fraction of it, the emotional - Why?

00:29:12.648 --> 00:29:16.363
That just makes it just so hard to bear.

00:29:16.383 --> 00:29:19.417
You kept all those beings outside
of your own heart

00:29:19.417 --> 00:29:24.604
and they were you.
So, imagine a ladder

00:29:24.604 --> 00:29:31.601
coming from your heart 
going down to the ground

00:29:31.601 --> 00:29:36.497
and seeing all these people 
who were you

00:29:36.497 --> 00:29:38.837
and you're inviting them up.

00:29:38.837 --> 00:29:45.242
I don't, I won't judge who you are 
what happened to you,

00:29:49.642 --> 00:29:53.468
no matter who you are, come in.

00:29:53.848 --> 00:29:57.392
And to actually to do that,

00:29:57.392 --> 00:30:04.611
it's just one of the most
courageous things you could do.

00:30:04.611 --> 00:30:08.220
Invite those little beings
you're trying to just forget.

00:30:08.220 --> 00:30:10.398
Trying to ignore, 
trying to cover up,

00:30:10.398 --> 00:30:12.398
trying to get out of here, get away,

00:30:12.398 --> 00:30:16.344
you don't belong with me.
You're just so painful.

00:30:16.344 --> 00:30:19.508
You allow them all to come up one by one

00:30:19.508 --> 00:30:22.163
so little beings who have been alone

00:30:22.163 --> 00:30:27.364
and separated out of your heart
for so many years

00:30:29.044 --> 00:30:35.154
and you embrace them.
They're in your heart now, not out.

00:30:36.324 --> 00:30:42.372
That's a huge change and they said
that worked amazingly.

00:30:42.372 --> 00:30:46.595
And some of those women
who've gone through that

00:30:46.595 --> 00:30:49.415
would come here on a Friday night.

00:30:49.415 --> 00:30:53.752
I remember speaking to them, seeing them
and it just blew my mind.

00:30:53.752 --> 00:30:56.757
They told me what they've been through
and you look at them now.

00:30:56.757 --> 00:31:00.812
Wow! they were just
some of the amazing heroes.

00:31:00.812 --> 00:31:05.636
So strong, they were like saints.
They said that's who I am!

00:31:06.996 --> 00:31:12.803
And they don't traumatize themselves
with that anymore.

00:31:13.803 --> 00:31:18.460
That's an extreme, I mean
you've been through some,

00:31:18.460 --> 00:31:21.396
we've all been through some pain
and difficulty in our life.

00:31:21.396 --> 00:31:23.089
There's things we'd rather forget.

00:31:23.089 --> 00:31:26.073
Why don't we invite that in instead,

00:31:26.073 --> 00:31:30.481
you embrace that 
that's who you are, it's your life

00:31:30.481 --> 00:31:36.071
and something happens,
what happens,

00:31:36.071 --> 00:31:40.619
I keep on saying the same old stories 
but they're powerful.

00:31:40.619 --> 00:31:45.264
What happens is the old story of
the monster in the emperor's palace.

00:31:45.264 --> 00:31:48.606
Monster came in the emperor's palace.
Get out, you don't belong.

00:31:48.606 --> 00:31:51.408
Who do you think you are, 
coming in here.

00:31:51.408 --> 00:31:54.183
and the empress, 
she was wise.

00:31:54.183 --> 00:32:00.008
Because she was also a member of
the Buddhist Society of Western Australia

00:32:00.008 --> 00:32:05.522
she'd come every Friday night.
So when she went back to the palace

00:32:05.522 --> 00:32:09.792
she saw this big monster in there,
really ugly, really frightening.

00:32:09.792 --> 00:32:15.032
What she said to the monster was
"welcome, thank you for visiting.

00:32:15.232 --> 00:32:18.756
is there anything, anyone got you
anything to drink yet? Anything to eat?

00:32:18.756 --> 00:32:20.288
What can we do for you?"

00:32:20.288 --> 00:32:24.562
She'd turned such kindness to monsters

00:32:24.562 --> 00:32:28.245
and what happened? This is
based on a Buddhist story.

00:32:28.245 --> 00:32:33.402
Every thought, deed, act of kindness

00:32:33.402 --> 00:32:36.322
and the monster grew an inch smaller,

00:32:36.322 --> 00:32:41.286
an inch kinder, a little bit more...
more civil.

00:32:41.286 --> 00:32:43.607
And they kept on 
with the kindness so much,

00:32:43.607 --> 00:32:46.697
- this is the shortened 
version of the story -

00:32:46.697 --> 00:32:50.855
That soon the monster, 
who was so ugly and big

00:32:50.855 --> 00:32:54.405
and frightening and violent
soon became so small

00:32:54.405 --> 00:32:58.172
that one more act of kindness

00:32:58.172 --> 00:33:01.079
and the monster 
vanished completely away.

00:33:01.079 --> 00:33:05.389
And that's in the Buddhist suttas,

00:33:05.389 --> 00:33:10.569
that the Buddha said we call that
"anger eating monsters."

00:33:10.569 --> 00:33:13.515
The more anger you give it, 
the more negativity you give it,

00:33:13.515 --> 00:33:16.235
the bigger it gets.
There's so much of that in our world.

00:33:16.235 --> 00:33:20.884
But here I'm just saying in you,
get out of here bad memory

00:33:20.884 --> 00:33:25.668
you don't belong and 
the bad memory gets worse.

00:33:25.668 --> 00:33:31.578
It takes a lot of guts and training
but if you do the kindness;

00:33:31.578 --> 00:33:40.169
"welcome, welcome bad memory.
Thank you for coming to visit me".

00:33:40.169 --> 00:33:44.026
Give kindness to it, 
kindness to yourself

00:33:44.026 --> 00:33:49.576
because so many times when you have
a memory which is embarrassing;

00:33:49.576 --> 00:33:53.914
maybe you're ashamed of,
when you actually feel about it,

00:33:53.914 --> 00:33:57.189
it's a human being, 
you make mistakes;

00:33:57.189 --> 00:34:00.446
please be kind to yourself.

00:34:00.446 --> 00:34:04.526
Forgive yourself, care for yourself.

00:34:06.466 --> 00:34:08.747
Other people who have hurt you

00:34:08.747 --> 00:34:12.208
I don't know why they hurt you.
You don't know why they hurt you.

00:34:12.208 --> 00:34:15.368
Maybe they thought they were doing
the best thing for you, I don't know.

00:34:15.368 --> 00:34:19.050
Maybe they had other sort of things
they were thinking about at the time

00:34:19.050 --> 00:34:23.587
or maybe they were drunk or
they're in drugs or whatever.

00:34:23.877 --> 00:34:29.168
Sometimes if you can somehow put
yourself in their position a little bit.

00:34:29.168 --> 00:34:33.856
Why do they do that?
What was their cultural training, why?

00:34:33.856 --> 00:34:37.895
If you give kindness to people
who've hurt you,

00:34:37.895 --> 00:34:43.305
it means you're not so vindictive.
There's no wanting to

00:34:43.305 --> 00:34:46.491
sort of harm them back or 
want you to harm yourself.

00:34:47.111 --> 00:34:52.876
So when you give kindness to the
negative things of your past.

00:34:52.876 --> 00:35:00.854
You find all those psychosis,
traumas, the bad memories,

00:35:00.854 --> 00:35:04.950
the stuff which you can't get out of 
your head,

00:35:04.950 --> 00:35:09.350
stop you sleeping,
stop you enjoying your life

00:35:09.350 --> 00:35:12.787
because you keep remembering
all these bad things.

00:35:12.787 --> 00:35:18.243
You know, after a while 
they gets so soft, so peaceful,

00:35:18.243 --> 00:35:21.775
you can let them go.

00:35:21.957 --> 00:35:28.557
It's weird but you overcome
negativity with kindness.

00:35:28.557 --> 00:35:34.082
There's an amazing beautiful ability 
in each one of you

00:35:34.162 --> 00:35:36.191
to be soft and gentle.

00:35:37.051 --> 00:35:40.671
And if you're soft and gentle 
to your past;

00:35:40.671 --> 00:35:44.688
The negative to the past can't stand it,
it vanishes.

00:35:44.688 --> 00:35:48.595
So when we do mindfulness
we don't just be aware of the stuff.

00:35:48.595 --> 00:35:50.334
we know the strategies.

00:35:50.334 --> 00:35:52.741
If you get a bad feeling from the past

00:35:52.741 --> 00:35:55.165
you can first of all you say

00:35:55.165 --> 00:35:58.042
okay, I'll just let that go because
I'm not ready for it yet.

00:35:58.302 --> 00:36:00.652
But there comes a time
when you are ready for it,

00:36:00.652 --> 00:36:03.965
have all these strategies on
how to deal with it.

00:36:03.965 --> 00:36:08.175
Another strategy how you deal with
some of the negativity of the past.

00:36:08.175 --> 00:36:13.681
You know, every bad feeling
you have in your head, in your mind,

00:36:13.681 --> 00:36:19.956
has a corresponding feeling in your body,
a physical feeling.

00:36:20.515 --> 00:36:22.974
I already mentioned that at the beginning

00:36:22.974 --> 00:36:26.354
when you are mindful of the body 
and relaxing the body

00:36:26.354 --> 00:36:29.435
I was talking about like the head.

00:36:29.435 --> 00:36:33.745
If you are negative you can read
on a person's face.

00:36:33.745 --> 00:36:37.820
Muscles tighten up, these other
muscles loosen up

00:36:37.820 --> 00:36:40.802
and that's actually pretty much universal.

00:36:40.802 --> 00:36:44.354
You know indigenous tribes in
the middle of the Amazon somewhere

00:36:44.354 --> 00:36:48.537
you can still read their emotions
on their facial features.

00:36:48.827 --> 00:36:54.928
So, all of those negative emotions
from the past

00:36:54.928 --> 00:36:58.645
or fears of the future,

00:36:58.645 --> 00:37:02.395
that's also written on
your body somewhere.

00:37:02.395 --> 00:37:04.979
And that's one of the reasons why

00:37:04.979 --> 00:37:08.966
if you do have some anxiety
or fear or whatever,

00:37:08.966 --> 00:37:15.836
by doing some meditation practice,
it's not that hard to overcome that.

00:37:15.836 --> 00:37:21.408
And it just amazes you how easy it is
and how effective it is.

00:37:21.408 --> 00:37:25.300
And of course the one I'm going 
to bring up now was...

00:37:25.300 --> 00:37:27.375
she's not here this evening
thank goodness,

00:37:27.375 --> 00:37:29.575
otherwise people get embarrassed.

00:37:29.575 --> 00:37:33.274
But this was a lady who had
very bad anxiety.

00:37:33.274 --> 00:37:37.334
So much anxiety
she couldn't get out of bed,

00:37:37.334 --> 00:37:40.890
afraid even to go through the door
out into the world.

00:37:40.890 --> 00:37:44.070
And she was in Adelaide,
a university student

00:37:44.950 --> 00:37:50.624
and being in university
she had free medical care.

00:37:50.624 --> 00:37:56.272
Great psychologists, psychiatrists,
every possibility and drugs and stuff.

00:37:56.272 --> 00:37:58.815
Nothing worked.

00:37:58.815 --> 00:38:03.165
So she was like bedbound; an anxiety
which no one could cure.

00:38:03.165 --> 00:38:13.648
But fortunately her father, no,
not father... uncle.

00:38:13.648 --> 00:38:19.485
Uncle comes here. 
So uncle said go and ring up Ajahn Brahm.

00:38:21.705 --> 00:38:24.320
Love it whenever she called me up

00:38:24.320 --> 00:38:27.260
and she told me what was
happening with her

00:38:27.260 --> 00:38:31.157
and that's where mindfulness practice

00:38:31.157 --> 00:38:34.667
but not just mindfulness.
I said that's not enough.

00:38:34.667 --> 00:38:40.023
But first of all I said: 
"When you have an anxiety attack,

00:38:40.023 --> 00:38:46.215
a panic attack - you're bedridden -
where on your body do you feel it?"

00:38:46.215 --> 00:38:48.733
I wasn't asking about
her mind, her emotions

00:38:48.733 --> 00:38:51.829
because that was just too strong
for her to really get to know.

00:38:51.829 --> 00:38:55.141
"Where do you feel it on your body?"
she said: " In my chest."

00:38:55.141 --> 00:38:58.460
I said "It's not good enough,
I want know exactly where?"

00:38:58.460 --> 00:39:02.680
She was studying dentistry
so part of science,

00:39:02.680 --> 00:39:06.301
I want coordinates
from your navel, your belly button,

00:39:06.301 --> 00:39:09.191
I want centimeters, 
millimeters even

00:39:09.191 --> 00:39:11.391
to the center of the feeling 
in your chest

00:39:11.391 --> 00:39:14.543
and how far does it extend? 
is it circular?

00:39:14.543 --> 00:39:18.463
or is it ovular? or is it a square?

00:39:18.463 --> 00:39:22.751
I want you to describe it to me
accurately with dimensions.

00:39:22.751 --> 00:39:26.226
Is it more to the left more to the right
or really central?

00:39:26.226 --> 00:39:28.856
And give me a call in three days.

00:39:28.856 --> 00:39:32.373
I mentioned that because 
I wasn't just,

00:39:32.373 --> 00:39:39.161
well part of it was I was very busy 
(laugh) I got to be honest

00:39:39.161 --> 00:39:43.412
but it's also I just
wanted her to do something.

00:39:43.412 --> 00:39:46.158
You know, one of the terrible things
if you're in trouble

00:39:46.158 --> 00:39:50.500
with either bad feelings in meditation
or other stuff.

00:39:50.500 --> 00:39:53.260
When people tell you what to do,

00:39:53.260 --> 00:39:59.771
they're taking away your...
almost like your sense of being

00:39:59.771 --> 00:40:02.391
an owner of your problem 
and your body.

00:40:02.391 --> 00:40:07.592
You give up ownership of the disease
or the problem to some experts.

00:40:07.592 --> 00:40:11.113
I didn't want that to happen. 
So this is your body,

00:40:11.113 --> 00:40:18.181
it's your emotions. So you tell me, 
I'm not gonna control you.

00:40:18.181 --> 00:40:21.845
So after three days she called

00:40:21.845 --> 00:40:24.581
and I was really amazed
at the descriptions she gave.

00:40:24.581 --> 00:40:26.658
and I said: "Well, exactly that's 
where it is.

00:40:26.658 --> 00:40:27.658
How does it feel ?

00:40:27.658 --> 00:40:29.924
Is it burning or is it aching, 
does it change?

00:40:29.924 --> 00:40:32.204
is it the same all over, whatever?

00:40:32.204 --> 00:40:35.899
"Oh, I don't know."
"Give me a call in three days."

00:40:37.049 --> 00:40:40.252
Which she did, she gave another
really amazing explanation

00:40:40.252 --> 00:40:43.191
of what it feels like, 
sensations in the body

00:40:43.191 --> 00:40:46.402
when you have a panic attack.
"Great!" I said now

00:40:46.402 --> 00:40:52.436
that's making her mindful,
that's just the awareness part of it.

00:40:52.436 --> 00:40:55.623
A lot of times that's what people do
when they practice mindfulness

00:40:55.623 --> 00:40:59.928
they get to know these things 
but no more.

00:40:59.928 --> 00:41:04.417
And then the extra part which is
the important part was,

00:41:04.417 --> 00:41:07.271
well, now you know, 
when you have a panic attack,

00:41:07.271 --> 00:41:09.411
where it is, what it feels like.

00:41:09.411 --> 00:41:12.350
Now I said I want you 
to get your hand when you have...

00:41:12.350 --> 00:41:16.233
she's in bed 
get your hand and massage that area

00:41:16.233 --> 00:41:19.773
with your hand
as kindly as you possibly can

00:41:19.773 --> 00:41:25.153
with much compassion 
and gentleness as you possibly can.

00:41:25.153 --> 00:41:29.000
And I said to her 
if you can't do it

00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:35.950
ask your boyfriend to do it for you.
I don't think he'd mind

00:41:35.950 --> 00:41:40.190
and give me a call in three days
and she did that.

00:41:40.190 --> 00:41:44.147
It was beautiful, because this is
one of those times again

00:41:44.147 --> 00:41:48.817
which really makes me feel wonderful 
how meditation works.

00:41:48.817 --> 00:41:52.304
And I asked: "Did you follow 
my instructions?" She said: "Yeah."

00:41:52.304 --> 00:41:56.090
What happened when you massage
the panic attacks in your chest?

00:41:56.090 --> 00:41:58.511
So I massage them and massage
and massage them

00:41:58.511 --> 00:42:02.431
and then the feeling in the chest
sort of got loosened and relaxed

00:42:02.431 --> 00:42:04.980
and eventually the feeling
in the chest went away.

00:42:04.980 --> 00:42:08.570
And I said:" Well, when the feeling
in the chest went away,

00:42:08.570 --> 00:42:12.081
what happened to the anxiety,
to the panic?"

00:42:12.081 --> 00:42:16.761
And that's one of those beautiful moments
when she paused.

00:42:16.761 --> 00:42:21.703
it's when the light bulbs went on
when the eureka moment happened.

00:42:21.703 --> 00:42:26.753
She said:" Well, when the physical
feeling vanished so did the anxiety."

00:42:26.753 --> 00:42:32.143
Now you know 
how to overcome your anxiety.

00:42:32.143 --> 00:42:36.527
Deal with the physical manifestation,
the physical counterpart.

00:42:36.527 --> 00:42:40.510
Once that disappears also the emotional,

00:42:40.510 --> 00:42:44.490
the inside part also turns off 
and vanishes.

00:42:44.490 --> 00:42:48.034
That was wonderful lovely lady.

00:42:48.944 --> 00:42:53.464
I think it was two weeks
as she was back in classes again,

00:42:53.464 --> 00:42:58.608
out of bed and graduated with
first class honours in dentistry.

00:42:58.608 --> 00:43:02.517
And then just her boyfriend she married.

00:43:02.517 --> 00:43:06.500
And one of nice things people think 
that Ajahn Brahm's not a romantic

00:43:08.260 --> 00:43:12.869
but they got married
in the sunken gardens in UWA.

00:43:12.869 --> 00:43:16.425
And who do you think
gave the blessing there?

00:43:17.915 --> 00:43:19.816
Had to have me go there.

00:43:19.816 --> 00:43:24.327
I didn't find it out until later on.
She was so impressed

00:43:24.327 --> 00:43:28.713
that she actually nominated me 
for Australian of the year.

00:43:29.653 --> 00:43:34.813
I didn't get it but I could understand.
She was just wow, this really works.

00:43:34.813 --> 00:43:38.370
But this is actually just an example 
of how we deal with negativity,

00:43:38.370 --> 00:43:39.790
not just a mindfulness,

00:43:39.790 --> 00:43:43.340
not being aware of it, 
she was totally aware of it

00:43:43.340 --> 00:43:46.988
but also what to do with it
when it comes up.

00:43:46.988 --> 00:43:49.513
Give it compassion and kindness.

00:43:49.513 --> 00:43:52.093
The right motivation in Buddhism is,

00:43:52.093 --> 00:43:57.829
it is letting go, 
being kind, being gentle.

00:43:57.829 --> 00:44:02.419
And if you do your mindfulness practice
with those things in mind.

00:44:02.419 --> 00:44:08.555
You will find that when something comes up
which is a bit negative.

00:44:08.555 --> 00:44:14.856
Ahh, some bad memory
from the past has come up ahh...

00:44:14.856 --> 00:44:18.480
and you can actually be soft with it
and kind with it

00:44:18.480 --> 00:44:21.800
and it just melts it all away.

00:44:21.800 --> 00:44:24.827
So that's something which we can do

00:44:24.827 --> 00:44:28.017
and it's powerful stuff as well.

00:44:28.017 --> 00:44:31.371
Those little stories which
I mentioned there,

00:44:31.371 --> 00:44:35.428
they're real stories 
and it happens.

00:44:35.428 --> 00:44:39.292
And my own little stories

00:44:39.292 --> 00:44:44.227
you know every time
if I have sicknesses and stuff

00:44:44.227 --> 00:44:48.117
it's not just emotional problems,
physical problems.

00:44:49.427 --> 00:44:51.781
I keep telling monks, it's an old joke.

00:44:51.781 --> 00:44:54.197
I keep telling the monks 
that you know

00:44:54.197 --> 00:44:59.616
my 70th year on planet earth now,
in August I'll be 70.

00:44:59.616 --> 00:45:04.366
So I kept on telling them
" Monks, I'm getting old."

00:45:04.366 --> 00:45:06.673
And they said:
" No, you're not getting old."

00:45:06.673 --> 00:45:09.467
and I thought they would say that
because of kindness.

00:45:09.467 --> 00:45:13.107
They said: "No, no, we're not saying
that out of kindness to you.

00:45:13.107 --> 00:45:18.379
We're saying that out of truth.
You are old, you're not getting old.

00:45:20.371 --> 00:45:23.052
You've already arrived."

00:45:29.372 --> 00:45:33.742
But I don't know where I was going
with this one but anyway...

00:45:36.672 --> 00:45:42.051
So many times in my life,
you have sicknesses

00:45:42.051 --> 00:45:46.290
and some of those sickness 
which I've had

00:45:46.290 --> 00:45:49.226
you try and take medicines and stuff

00:45:49.226 --> 00:45:53.654
and quite honestly these days
I much prefer doing kindness

00:45:53.654 --> 00:45:56.874
to any sicknesses which I have.
Awareness and kindness.

00:45:56.874 --> 00:46:00.171
Looking at my body, 
where's the problem?

00:46:01.321 --> 00:46:07.571
you may have... like the time
which I had food poisoning,

00:46:08.611 --> 00:46:13.874
real food poisoning in my ... 
in my cave.

00:46:13.874 --> 00:46:17.625
I was screaming, 
no one could hear me

00:46:17.625 --> 00:46:21.736
because these were like cramps 
which food poisoning gives you

00:46:21.736 --> 00:46:27.050
Agh! and then it just ... Agh!

00:46:27.050 --> 00:46:30.670
Totally involuntary I couldn't do
anything with it.

00:46:30.670 --> 00:46:34.471
And then I knew no one could hear me

00:46:34.471 --> 00:46:36.501
because that's the point 
of having a cave

00:46:36.501 --> 00:46:38.081
two doors, it's underground.

00:46:38.081 --> 00:46:40.341
Well I can't hear 
what's going on outside

00:46:40.341 --> 00:46:43.299
which is wonderful,
but they can't hear what's going on inside

00:46:43.299 --> 00:46:46.587
which is a difficulty sometimes.

00:46:46.587 --> 00:46:52.056
So anyway, I did my ...
same as I teach other people,

00:46:52.056 --> 00:46:55.979
sit there being mindful and being kind.

00:46:55.979 --> 00:47:01.089
Those two are very, very, powerful.

00:47:01.089 --> 00:47:05.347
I think the last talk I gave here about
opening the lotus, wasn't it?

00:47:05.347 --> 00:47:11.047
Remember that's the sun
has light and warmth.

00:47:11.047 --> 00:47:15.266
That's what opens lotuses up,
the light and warmth of the sun.

00:47:15.266 --> 00:47:19.188
The light stands for mindfulness,
the warmth stands for kindness.

00:47:19.188 --> 00:47:24.506
Those two go together and 
they're incredibly powerful.

00:47:24.506 --> 00:47:31.536
I was just kind to the cramps 
in the tummy.

00:47:31.536 --> 00:47:35.726
So kind to them 
every time they repeat it

00:47:35.726 --> 00:47:43.336
ah, ah, ah ... maybe 2 or 3 minutes
before you had a cramp.

00:47:43.336 --> 00:47:47.255
but every time that the cramp got less.

00:47:47.255 --> 00:47:50.362
My awareness was sharp enough
that you could feel it

00:47:50.362 --> 00:47:53.922
just less painful,
because I was kind to it.

00:47:53.922 --> 00:47:56.881
Next one was less painful, 
next time was less painful,

00:47:56.881 --> 00:48:00.092
next time was less painful.
Only a tiny bit less painful

00:48:00.092 --> 00:48:03.462
but I could perceive that 
because I was aware.

00:48:03.462 --> 00:48:07.823
I wasn't trying to think I'm gonna die
what should I do.

00:48:07.823 --> 00:48:11.573
But I was being aware of it
and then it got so soft

00:48:11.573 --> 00:48:15.394
and after 30, 40 minutes
it just vanished completely.

00:48:15.394 --> 00:48:20.214
That was weird even I was
really struck by that

00:48:20.214 --> 00:48:23.441
because usually food poisoning
you just gotta go to doctor.

00:48:23.441 --> 00:48:24.915
I don't know what you gonna do

00:48:24.915 --> 00:48:27.525
but this is much better
than going to a doctor.

00:48:27.525 --> 00:48:30.243
And then just after meditating
nice and peacefully.

00:48:30.243 --> 00:48:35.313
It never came back again.
It's weird but it's so true.

00:48:35.313 --> 00:48:38.146
I'm sure many of you may have
had examples like that.

00:48:38.146 --> 00:48:40.336
So the mindfulness with the kindness

00:48:40.336 --> 00:48:44.146
put those two together and
it is really powerful.

00:48:44.626 --> 00:48:50.613
And not just powerful,
you find your awareness get stronger.

00:48:50.613 --> 00:48:54.842
That's the part which 
most mindfulness teachings

00:48:54.842 --> 00:48:58.184
the worldly stuff,
they don't really mention that.

00:48:58.184 --> 00:49:02.342
That's where your mindfulness,
awareness gets really so strong.

00:49:02.357 --> 00:49:07.528
I have to invent words for
this because no one else does.

00:49:07.528 --> 00:49:11.219
Like, powerful mindfulness 
and superpower mindfulness

00:49:11.219 --> 00:49:13.919
and mega-power mindfulness.

00:49:13.919 --> 00:49:18.742
That's what it feels like,
I do not take drugs.

00:49:18.742 --> 00:49:22.832
But sometimes people asked:
"What drug are you on Ajahn Brahm today?"

00:49:22.832 --> 00:49:26.258
Because you're so happy and joyful
and healthy.

00:49:26.258 --> 00:49:28.418
"What's going on?"

00:49:28.418 --> 00:49:32.121
This is natural,
you're empowering your awareness.

00:49:32.121 --> 00:49:36.391
And your awareness after a while
gets incredibly strong.

00:49:36.391 --> 00:49:42.214
That's when if any of you 
like food, I don't know about you.

00:49:42.214 --> 00:49:44.847
You're going out for a meal
after the talk tonight?

00:49:44.847 --> 00:49:51.599
Maybe you didn't have a meal before?
or if you really want to enjoy food

00:49:51.599 --> 00:49:57.132
meditate here first of all 
and then go out

00:49:57.132 --> 00:50:03.037
and you will find you don't have to spend
a lot of money on an expensive restaurant.

00:50:03.037 --> 00:50:08.290
Just go around the corner to,
what was it, McDonald's

00:50:08.290 --> 00:50:11.892
and you just bite into that whatever
you're biting into

00:50:11.892 --> 00:50:14.332
and it taste out of this world.

00:50:16.462 --> 00:50:20.953
It's nothing to do with the hamburger
or whatever else you're eating.

00:50:20.953 --> 00:50:25.801
But everything to do with your
mindfulness being so strong, so powerful.

00:50:25.801 --> 00:50:29.896
That hamburger tastes like
it's been made at a 5 star,

00:50:29.896 --> 00:50:33.856
no, not five star, 
six star restaurant.

00:50:33.856 --> 00:50:37.998
It's not what's in what you're seeing.

00:50:37.998 --> 00:50:41.444
It's not what's seeing what you're eating.

00:50:41.444 --> 00:50:47.598
It's everything what's in your mind,
your mind is clear, sensitive.

00:50:47.598 --> 00:50:54.137
And if you hear any music,
wow! it thrills you

00:50:54.137 --> 00:50:56.640
because you're picking up everything.

00:50:56.640 --> 00:51:02.354
which is being... being there in the sound
and this is what happens.

00:51:02.354 --> 00:51:06.654
This life as a monk.
I love this, you have so much joy.

00:51:06.654 --> 00:51:10.274
At night time, right now, 
in Serpentine

00:51:10.274 --> 00:51:16.208
you look at the stars in the evening.
Absolutely thrilling, they're gorgeous.

00:51:16.208 --> 00:51:20.248
You just look up and you just
can't take your eyes away.

00:51:20.248 --> 00:51:27.380
The dawns it makes...
it just amazing. Who wants a tv?

00:51:27.380 --> 00:51:30.575
Who wants anything?
You want to watch that.

00:51:30.575 --> 00:51:35.047
Who wants to go to a museum 
when that's happening right there

00:51:35.047 --> 00:51:41.756
it's for free. And so, so much 
of the world of life

00:51:41.756 --> 00:51:46.756
becomes so sensitive and so amazing,
it's so beautiful.

00:51:46.756 --> 00:51:49.863
You get a huge amount
of happiness and joy

00:51:49.863 --> 00:51:52.963
when your mindfulness gets really strong.

00:51:52.963 --> 00:51:57.563
And even you, sometimes you meditate,
you look at the carpet.

00:51:57.563 --> 00:52:01.483
Have you ever noticed
how beautiful that carpet is?

00:52:04.373 --> 00:52:06.789
Am I going crazy?

00:52:10.439 --> 00:52:14.679
The point is that when
your mindfulness gets strong.

00:52:14.679 --> 00:52:19.044
Every shade of those light blues 
and dark blues

00:52:19.044 --> 00:52:21.544
and reds and yellows and whites

00:52:21.544 --> 00:52:27.902
and the way that they interact together
and the texture of that carpet.

00:52:27.902 --> 00:52:33.977
It just really comes out 
and blows your mind, becomes beautiful.

00:52:34.837 --> 00:52:38.531
Free happiness in the ordinary.

00:52:38.531 --> 00:52:41.660
And if that carpet looks beautiful.

00:52:41.695 --> 00:52:47.295
You look at your old grandma.
She's gorgeous.

00:52:49.310 --> 00:52:52.728
And I'm not joking. 
That's what happens.

00:52:52.728 --> 00:52:56.565
Superpower mindfulness and you see
beauty in so many things

00:52:56.565 --> 00:52:58.845
in your past, in your future,

00:52:58.845 --> 00:53:02.969
in people you live with,
in your children, in your partners

00:53:02.969 --> 00:53:08.026
in your grandparents,
in your monks and your nuns,

00:53:08.026 --> 00:53:15.018
in your politicians,
in the police who stop you.

00:53:16.868 --> 00:53:20.065
You know sometimes I just wonder,

00:53:20.065 --> 00:53:25.545
you know, people like being around monks

00:53:25.545 --> 00:53:29.074
that's what you do anyway because
you come every Friday night.

00:53:29.074 --> 00:53:30.984
But why?

00:53:30.984 --> 00:53:32.800
I always remember that one politician

00:53:32.800 --> 00:53:36.270
apparently she's still in politics
that's Alannah MacTiernan.

00:53:36.270 --> 00:53:38.996
Years and years, about 20, 30 years ago
or something.

00:53:38.996 --> 00:53:42.452
She was in politics and we went to 
see her for something

00:53:42.782 --> 00:53:47.281
and afterwards you know, 
after we talked to her about something,

00:53:47.281 --> 00:53:49.381
she had some really wonderful advice.

00:53:49.381 --> 00:53:54.076
And as she got off her seat 
instead of letting her secretary

00:53:54.076 --> 00:53:58.151
take us to the door, she escorted us 
to the door with kindness

00:53:58.151 --> 00:54:04.281
and she said "you know I really enjoy
people like you coming to my office."

00:54:04.281 --> 00:54:07.187
and she meant it with sincerity.

00:54:07.797 --> 00:54:10.683
I always wonder why did she say that.

00:54:10.683 --> 00:54:13.371
This is because, the monks and nuns
are kind.

00:54:13.371 --> 00:54:16.562
Well, generally we have something
to complain about but we don't do:

00:54:16.562 --> 00:54:21.939
"Hey! why are you doing this, why are you
doing that? We... Blah, blah, blah..."

00:54:21.939 --> 00:54:28.339
I just could feel the kindness there,
the gentleness, the beauty, the peace.

00:54:28.339 --> 00:54:32.029
So that's what happens
when you're mindful and kind.

00:54:32.029 --> 00:54:36.179
You make friends
in the weirdest of places.

00:54:36.179 --> 00:54:39.642
So anyway that's the talk 
for this evening.

00:54:39.642 --> 00:54:45.671
The mindfulness by itself,
I agree can have some problems.

00:54:45.671 --> 00:54:49.311
But you add the kindness,
you add the rest of the factors like

00:54:49.311 --> 00:54:53.749
we're doing this not to get things
but to let go of things.

00:54:53.749 --> 00:54:56.712
We're doing this out of
kindness and gentleness.

00:54:57.102 --> 00:55:00.037
If that motivates your life, wow!

00:55:00.037 --> 00:55:03.257
Meditation is so beautiful.

00:55:03.257 --> 00:55:05.707
Thank you for listening.

00:55:05.967 --> 00:55:09.757
(Audience) Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu

00:55:09.757 --> 00:55:13.400
I always say when people try and do
something and they don't do it properly

00:55:13.400 --> 00:55:16.131
if you're gonna clap, clap.

00:55:16.131 --> 00:55:21.291
(Audience) clapping

00:55:23.641 --> 00:55:25.603
But anyway, thank you.

00:55:25.663 --> 00:55:29.933
First of all any questions
from the people here?

00:55:30.923 --> 00:55:36.048
(inaudible from audience)

00:55:41.768 --> 00:55:48.325
Q-Ajahn, how do we apply a loving kindness
in a not for profit organization?

00:55:48.325 --> 00:55:54.326
Yeah, again that Buddhism is one
of the few non-profit religions

00:55:54.326 --> 00:55:57.512
because we don't believe in prophets.

00:55:57.512 --> 00:56:01.801
You know, Jesus was a prophet,
other people are prophets

00:56:01.801 --> 00:56:08.339
but we don't have prophet in Buddhism,
we're really non....

00:56:08.339 --> 00:56:12.761
Okay, it's an old bad joke but never mind.

00:56:12.761 --> 00:56:16.919
How to have loving kindness?

00:56:16.919 --> 00:56:23.359
I think because I have met
many millionaires in my life

00:56:23.359 --> 00:56:27.712
and I just... when I once I was... 
okay don't mind saying.

00:56:27.712 --> 00:56:32.562
At a state dinner once over in Canberra
I went to the toilet.

00:56:32.562 --> 00:56:37.986
In male toilets, you know, for urinals,
you just had one next to the other

00:56:37.986 --> 00:56:43.460
and so I went in there and the
fellow was in the next urinal to me

00:56:43.460 --> 00:56:53.476
was uh... sorry, yeah that's right
Lachlan Murdoch,

00:56:53.476 --> 00:56:57.546
he is Rupert Murdoch son,
Dr. Murdock.

00:56:57.546 --> 00:57:01.055
And as soon as I saw his badge
Lachlan Murdoch I thought

00:57:01.055 --> 00:57:04.935
if only I had a donation envelope.
(laugh)

00:57:08.590 --> 00:57:14.737
But that... like one of the people 
I think I quoted recently

00:57:14.737 --> 00:57:20.874
which was the head of the Changi airport 
corporation many years ago

00:57:20.874 --> 00:57:26.831
and it was the day before 
he was opening terminal 3, no 4,

00:57:26.831 --> 00:57:31.377
terminal 4 in Singapore. 
And he was next to the head of

00:57:31.377 --> 00:57:35.727
Keppel Shipping who was the 
highest paid CEO in Singapore.

00:57:35.727 --> 00:57:39.067
So these were... actually Buddhists. 
And he said

00:57:39.067 --> 00:57:43.907
"how do you do loving kindness
and put Buddhism into your business?"

00:57:43.907 --> 00:57:49.562
I remember the head of
the Changi Airport Corporation,

00:57:49.562 --> 00:57:54.497
he said "people go to work 
every morning and expect to be happy."

00:57:54.497 --> 00:57:57.651
But how many go to work 
in the morning

00:57:57.651 --> 00:58:03.176
with the resolution to make
someone else happy today?

00:58:03.176 --> 00:58:06.099
So that's why you don't feel 
any happiness,

00:58:06.099 --> 00:58:08.229
you expect someone else
to make you happy,

00:58:08.229 --> 00:58:11.699
but you don't go to work with
the main desire of

00:58:11.699 --> 00:58:14.969
"I'm gonna make someone happy today."

00:58:14.969 --> 00:58:18.522
So just changing a person's attitude 
a little bit .

00:58:18.522 --> 00:58:20.892
I don't know where you work,

00:58:20.892 --> 00:58:26.796
I work in BSWA so I often go
to work on a Friday night.

00:58:26.796 --> 00:58:32.556
I'm gonna make somebody happy tonight.
So you put happiness in there

00:58:32.556 --> 00:58:39.076
instead of expecting happiness
to be given to you.

00:58:39.076 --> 00:58:42.676
You become proactive 
so that's one way

00:58:42.676 --> 00:58:47.536
in any organization you can actually
put some joy and happiness in there.

00:58:47.536 --> 00:58:50.018
It's wonderful when that happens.

00:58:50.018 --> 00:58:54.328
Human beings are just 
gorgeous people.

00:58:54.328 --> 00:58:58.451
And they just need to touch that goodness.

00:58:58.451 --> 00:59:00.384
I just remember just...

00:59:00.384 --> 00:59:06.554
because I don't know why I got involved
in Curtin university of all places.

00:59:06.554 --> 00:59:09.291
But I was given the John Curtin Medal
there once,

00:59:09.291 --> 00:59:13.059
and so often I go there 
for one reason or another.

00:59:13.059 --> 00:59:19.135
But it happened over here.
There was a Sri Lankan woman and

00:59:19.135 --> 00:59:22.175
she would come here, not that often
because she was very busy

00:59:22.175 --> 00:59:26.355
looking after two children.
And her husband

00:59:26.355 --> 00:59:30.970
was actually working two jobs 
to get enough money,

00:59:30.970 --> 00:59:37.687
because the wife was actually doing a
training in nursing at Curtin university.

00:59:37.687 --> 00:59:42.818
And unfortunately that one night, 
double job, not enough sleep,

00:59:42.818 --> 00:59:46.228
he crashed the car and killed himself.

00:59:46.668 --> 00:59:51.825
It was a tragedy, you know,
just trying to work too hard.

00:59:51.825 --> 01:00:00.443
And the wife, the two kids, no way
she could pay the tuition fees at Curtin.

01:00:00.443 --> 01:00:07.618
So, I got on the phone to
the vice chancellor, Jeannette Hackett.

01:00:07.618 --> 01:00:10.338
She became a good friend.

01:00:10.338 --> 01:00:14.718
I confessed this that on one occasion,
she was just retiring

01:00:14.718 --> 01:00:17.574
"Ajahn Brahm, I just loved
my association with you" she said.

01:00:17.574 --> 01:00:20.068
She said "I'm going to give you a hug."

01:00:20.068 --> 01:00:22.956
You're not supposed to do that 
to a Buddhist monk

01:00:22.956 --> 01:00:28.396
but she was too fast for me.
(laughter)

01:00:28.456 --> 01:00:30.808
It's only once.

01:00:30.808 --> 01:00:35.468
But anyway, I called her up I said 
"Look, this is real tragedy."

01:00:35.468 --> 01:00:39.087
She said "What is it?"
And because they know you,

01:00:39.087 --> 01:00:41.269
you can actually get straight
through to them

01:00:41.269 --> 01:00:45.105
and I said "Look, any chance 
of getting a scholarship for her?"

01:00:45.105 --> 01:00:48.195
" Leave it with me." she said.

01:00:48.195 --> 01:00:51.265
And of course, they got
the scholarship for her

01:00:51.265 --> 01:00:55.320
and so everything paid for
in Curtin university.

01:00:55.320 --> 01:00:59.556
And just I think the locals over here
we try to help her.

01:00:59.556 --> 01:01:04.876
Some donations for her costs
of living and stuff.

01:01:04.876 --> 01:01:07.685
And eventually when she graduated 
as a nurse from here,

01:01:07.685 --> 01:01:13.076
she came up, I remember, 
just came up and said thank you

01:01:13.076 --> 01:01:15.556
and that basically saved her life.

01:01:15.556 --> 01:01:19.148
Unfortunately couldn't save her husband's
life but at least could save her.

01:01:19.148 --> 01:01:22.690
So you know, these people you may think
are they just big bosses somewhere.

01:01:22.690 --> 01:01:25.133
They like doing good things as well, 
kind things.

01:01:25.133 --> 01:01:28.151
They don't like being exploited 
you give them an opportunity

01:01:28.151 --> 01:01:33.188
to do something good
and they will just...they will run for it.

01:01:33.188 --> 01:01:37.375
Anyway all the good people
I've seen in life here,

01:01:37.375 --> 01:01:41.395
give them an opportunity and
they love doing great stuff.

01:01:41.395 --> 01:01:47.085
Q - Okay, from Hong Kong,
I'm very sensitive to smell

01:01:47.085 --> 01:01:52.458
halfway through the meditation I smell
cigarette smoke and drain smells.

01:01:52.458 --> 01:01:56.995
Is it desirable for me to deal with them,
ie. to close windows halfway through?

01:01:56.995 --> 01:02:02.071
Sometimes that's why people 
used to light incense in temples

01:02:02.071 --> 01:02:10.129
because when hygiene wasn't that good
you need smelly incense.

01:02:10.129 --> 01:02:13.159
I don't know why in Hong Kong, 
halfway through meditation

01:02:13.159 --> 01:02:14.849
I smell cigarette smoke.

01:02:14.849 --> 01:02:19.485
You know, sometimes you can turn
the sense of smell off.

01:02:19.485 --> 01:02:22.966
In other words you're just going inside
the body

01:02:22.966 --> 01:02:27.499
and the joy of peace is so strong
that you don't hear things,

01:02:27.499 --> 01:02:30.564
you can't be disturbed
by something like smell.

01:02:30.564 --> 01:02:35.886
So if you go deeper quickly then you
won't smell anything at all.

01:02:35.886 --> 01:02:38.533
and I don't know where you're meditating

01:02:38.533 --> 01:02:41.343
if those cigarette smoke and
drain smells are there anyway

01:02:41.343 --> 01:02:45.914
just try and meditate somewhere
else which hasn't got those smells.

01:02:46.694 --> 01:02:51.451
Is it desire for me to deal with them
close windows halfway through?

01:02:51.451 --> 01:02:54.121
No, close the windows before you start

01:02:54.121 --> 01:02:58.959
and then you won't have those cigarette
smoke and drain smells.

01:02:58.959 --> 01:03:04.207
From Poland, "When we meet a person who
is saying or doing awful things to us

01:03:04.207 --> 01:03:06.083
how we can still be kind to that person

01:03:06.083 --> 01:03:09.770
when they continue to be 
in our life and do us harm?"

01:03:09.770 --> 01:03:15.594
If they're saying things and then,
are they really doing you harm?

01:03:15.594 --> 01:03:21.166
This is one of the reasons why,
when I complained

01:03:21.166 --> 01:03:26.086
to my teacher, Ajahn Chah,
about the mosquitoes.

01:03:26.086 --> 01:03:30.410
they were really doing us harm,
you know, biting us all over the place.

01:03:31.020 --> 01:03:34.707
And who knows that, you know,
he said they don't have malaria

01:03:34.707 --> 01:03:38.750
just need one, 
just one and that's it.

01:03:38.750 --> 01:03:43.750
But anyway so when I asked Ajahn Chah
can we have some mosquito repellant

01:03:43.750 --> 01:03:50.461
or some coils or some protection
mosquito nets.

01:03:50.461 --> 01:03:52.921
He said "No!"

01:03:52.921 --> 01:03:56.757
That's how kind he was, I thought.

01:03:56.767 --> 01:04:00.883
But then what he really meant was 
"No, from now on" he said

01:04:00.883 --> 01:04:06.783
"you'd call the mosquitoes your teacher, 
Ajahn Mosquito."

01:04:06.783 --> 01:04:13.387
That was hard but it was beautiful,
you learned so much from that.

01:04:13.387 --> 01:04:20.348
So, you meet a person
who's saying and doing awful things to us

01:04:20.348 --> 01:04:25.396
see if you can protect yourself
however much you can

01:04:25.396 --> 01:04:32.552
and also be kind. If it's still
too difficult to be kind to them.

01:04:32.552 --> 01:04:39.482
There's an old saying in Chinese
"to love the tiger but at a distance."

01:04:39.482 --> 01:04:42.667
So you can move away from it a little bit.

01:04:42.667 --> 01:04:45.050
If they are doing awful things
to you again

01:04:45.050 --> 01:04:50.462
sometimes you have to call the police
if they're really doing your physical harm

01:04:50.462 --> 01:04:55.472
but sometimes if not.
Okay here's another story.

01:04:55.472 --> 01:05:01.066
This is after about being here
nine or ten years.

01:05:01.066 --> 01:05:05.833
I've been here now 37 or 38 years
in Australia, in Perth.

01:05:05.833 --> 01:05:08.724
But anyway, this woman 
came to see me once

01:05:08.724 --> 01:05:11.898
and just after one of the talks,
just before this hall was made,

01:05:11.898 --> 01:05:15.349
we had our talks in the community hall.
And she came and said:

01:05:15.349 --> 01:05:22.289
" I've just come to thank you 
for saving my marriage."

01:05:22.289 --> 01:05:28.061
And I asked her what have we done
and then she told her story.

01:05:28.061 --> 01:05:31.872
This is not an example to be followed

01:05:31.872 --> 01:05:36.646
but this was the days when
there was very little support

01:05:36.646 --> 01:05:41.007
for women suffering domestic violence.

01:05:41.007 --> 01:05:46.323
She said her husband was being
violent to her regularly.

01:05:46.323 --> 01:05:51.133
She said she came to this place
not to learn Buddhism

01:05:51.133 --> 01:05:54.303
but at least when she was here
she felt safe.

01:05:54.303 --> 01:05:58.062
A couple of hours when
she wasn't being hit.

01:05:58.062 --> 01:06:01.612
That was really extreme, 
I never knew anything about that.

01:06:01.612 --> 01:06:03.708
But she said she kept on coming here

01:06:03.708 --> 01:06:09.091
and she learned the kindness
and just focusing on the positive,

01:06:09.091 --> 01:06:14.578
the watering the weeds and not the ...
Sorry, no, I got that wrong didn't I?

01:06:16.728 --> 01:06:20.388
Yeah watering the flowers not the weeds.

01:06:21.669 --> 01:06:25.534
And she said she practiced,
that took her seven years.

01:06:25.534 --> 01:06:31.486
And she got these little meditation stools
you see them in the back over there.

01:06:31.486 --> 01:06:37.208
she said: "you see this meditation stool,
she said he made this for me today.

01:06:37.208 --> 01:06:40.090
that's why I need to come and thank you."

01:06:40.090 --> 01:06:45.622
She said if he made something like this
four years ago it'd be to hit me with.

01:06:45.622 --> 01:06:51.194
And it was really gross but then I saw her
she was this really beautiful woman.

01:06:51.194 --> 01:06:56.553
You know, not just like a supermodel 
but just her eyes and her goodness

01:06:56.553 --> 01:06:59.153
she was like a saint

01:06:59.153 --> 01:07:01.535
and she said now my husband's
totally changed

01:07:01.535 --> 01:07:04.376
he's kind to me because what she did,

01:07:04.376 --> 01:07:09.088
every time he said something
abusive or did something abusive,

01:07:09.088 --> 01:07:13.558
she totally ignored that.
How she could do that?

01:07:13.558 --> 01:07:14.888
Immense endurance!

01:07:14.888 --> 01:07:17.942
Every time he did something good
and kind and wonderful.

01:07:17.942 --> 01:07:21.226
She really let him know
he was appreciated.

01:07:21.226 --> 01:07:26.270
The extra hug, the extra kisses,
oh! thank you so much.

01:07:26.270 --> 01:07:30.976
She really reinforced the positive
behavior in her own husband.

01:07:30.976 --> 01:07:33.432
And then she showed me 
"he's in the back here,

01:07:33.432 --> 01:07:38.992
over there that's him."
And two lovely children.

01:07:38.992 --> 01:07:40.870
She earned those.

01:07:40.870 --> 01:07:44.867
You shouldn't have to earn
your happiness in life.

01:07:44.867 --> 01:07:50.619
But I don't know know why she married
that man but she totally changed him.

01:07:50.619 --> 01:07:53.121
He came down to the monastery as well,
wonderful guy.

01:07:53.121 --> 01:07:58.994
So it's possible but that's going
a bit far because of physical abuse.

01:07:58.994 --> 01:08:01.441
But she did it, good on her.

01:08:01.735 --> 01:08:06.445
From Bangalore, "Respected Ajahn,
how does one investigate the I or me

01:08:06.445 --> 01:08:09.471
who is meditating, watch his feelings,
thoughts, breaths, ect...

01:08:09.471 --> 01:08:12.702
It seems to be a perceiver as long
as there's something to perceive?"

01:08:12.702 --> 01:08:16.597
You don't go thinking and trying to
perceive these deep teachings,

01:08:16.597 --> 01:08:19.952
you let these deep teachings come to you.

01:08:19.952 --> 01:08:24.586
So, in other words things start to
disappear, you relax to the max.

01:08:24.586 --> 01:08:28.212
You don't try and contemplate things,
you see things.

01:08:28.714 --> 01:08:31.213
That's how this works and how it works

01:08:31.213 --> 01:08:34.938
many of you've heard this simile before
I'm going way over time again.

01:08:34.938 --> 01:08:39.557
The old tadpole and the frog simile.

01:08:39.557 --> 01:08:42.363
Tadpole can't understand water,

01:08:42.363 --> 01:08:45.476
can contemplate water, 
think about water, investigate water.

01:08:45.476 --> 01:08:47.805
Tadpole will never know what water is,

01:08:47.805 --> 01:08:51.115
no more than a fish
can know what water is.

01:08:51.115 --> 01:08:56.324
The reason I said tadpole instead of fish
because one day tadpole grows into frog

01:08:56.324 --> 01:09:00.096
and frog grows arms and legs
and frog doesn't know what they're doing.

01:09:00.096 --> 01:09:02.699
And they jump out the water one day.

01:09:02.699 --> 01:09:06.296
Now when water has vanished.

01:09:06.296 --> 01:09:10.006
Now the frog can understand 
what water was.

01:09:10.006 --> 01:09:13.244
The same way we go so deep in meditation

01:09:13.244 --> 01:09:19.412
and soon we don't have our body,
don't have our mind, have nothing left.

01:09:19.412 --> 01:09:22.792
Now you understand what you thought
you were.

01:09:22.792 --> 01:09:27.154
You don't do this with philosophy.

01:09:27.154 --> 01:09:32.567
Philosophy gives you, please excuse me,
gives you headaches.

01:09:33.557 --> 01:09:36.989
Seeing gives you truth.

01:09:37.829 --> 01:09:42.632
From Melbourne, "Dear Ajahn, when worldly
pleasures disappear there's sadness

01:09:42.632 --> 01:09:45.543
but when happiness experiences in
deep meditation disappears

01:09:45.543 --> 01:09:48.442
no such sadness can be felt.
Is this correct?"

01:09:48.442 --> 01:09:53.921
The deep meditation disappears
no such sadness can be felt.

01:09:53.921 --> 01:09:58.622
No, because it's a happiness
of contentment.

01:09:58.622 --> 01:10:02.562
Contentment means you're happy,
no matter what.

01:10:04.542 --> 01:10:10.029
It's contentment of having no desires,
the freedom from wanting.

01:10:10.029 --> 01:10:16.390
You don't want anything
then suffering starts to vanish.

01:10:16.720 --> 01:10:21.692
From Indiana, "Ajahn Brahm, I lost
my 15 year old to suicide in December.

01:10:21.692 --> 01:10:25.380
What would the Buddha say
to do to lessen this kind of suffering?"

01:10:25.380 --> 01:10:28.663
Just to understand that your son
will come back again.

01:10:28.663 --> 01:10:32.592
Suffering is not the end of all life.

01:10:32.592 --> 01:10:35.171
Sorry no, that's the wrong answer
as I'm getting tired.

01:10:35.171 --> 01:10:37.862
Suicide is not the end of all life.

01:10:37.862 --> 01:10:41.902
Many times people who commit suicide
they come back again pretty quickly.

01:10:41.902 --> 01:10:48.669
So, the person made a mistake, 
big mistake.

01:10:48.669 --> 01:10:51.550
So next time they can come back,

01:10:51.550 --> 01:10:54.441
if life is more meaningful

01:10:54.441 --> 01:10:58.411
then who would ever want 
to commit suicide?

01:10:58.701 --> 01:11:02.751
And I remember just when
I was in Singapore

01:11:02.751 --> 01:11:06.827
there was one kid just
jumped off the balcony

01:11:06.827 --> 01:11:09.697
of one of this big apartment blocks
killed himself.

01:11:09.697 --> 01:11:12.748
But the suicide note was in the front
page of the Straits Times.

01:11:12.748 --> 01:11:16.878
And it was just whoa!
It made many people wake up.

01:11:16.878 --> 01:11:21.001
He said "All I wanted was more time
with my parents".

01:11:25.641 --> 01:11:28.620
And of course, you can understand 
what that means.

01:11:28.620 --> 01:11:31.362
Many times the parents 
are working so hard

01:11:31.362 --> 01:11:34.278
because they want to get
the best education

01:11:34.278 --> 01:11:37.302
the best this, the best that
for their kids.

01:11:37.302 --> 01:11:39.938
All the kids really wanted was just time.

01:11:39.938 --> 01:11:43.868
If they had a father like my father,

01:11:43.868 --> 01:11:46.540
who just spent so much time with us.

01:11:46.540 --> 01:11:49.530
He wasn't wealthy at all,
he was really poor.

01:11:49.530 --> 01:11:52.186
He gave me so much inspiration.

01:11:52.186 --> 01:11:57.866
That's what children want,
they want time with the people they love.

01:11:58.156 --> 01:12:00.560
Lastly, another one from India

01:12:00.560 --> 01:12:04.495
"Which is better to meditate, a place
with noise and comfort for meditation

01:12:04.495 --> 01:12:07.383
or place of seclusion
with difficult conditions?"

01:12:07.383 --> 01:12:12.941
Ah, the best of those is a place 
with comfort and seclusion.

01:12:14.991 --> 01:12:17.743
In other words it just changes things.

01:12:17.743 --> 01:12:21.366
Noise and comfort for meditation
or place of seclusion with difficult.

01:12:21.366 --> 01:12:23.917
If it's noise it's very easy
to stop noises these day,

01:12:23.917 --> 01:12:28.453
just get noise canceling headphones.

01:12:28.453 --> 01:12:30.893
Can you do that?

01:12:30.893 --> 01:12:33.411
The most important thing with
whatever you experience,

01:12:33.411 --> 01:12:35.829
comfort, noise, difficult conditions.

01:12:35.829 --> 01:12:38.126
I've meditated so much

01:12:38.126 --> 01:12:41.386
really places you should never
be able to meditate in.

01:12:41.386 --> 01:12:44.180
Sometimes I do that to test myself.

01:12:44.180 --> 01:12:49.645
I mentioned I think last time
in Suvarnabhumi Airport.

01:12:49.645 --> 01:12:54.413
Now right in the place where
people are welcoming the visitors.

01:12:54.413 --> 01:12:56.557
"Hi! Hello, nice to see you. 
How've you been?

01:12:56.557 --> 01:12:58.327
Why are you waiting for so long?"

01:12:58.327 --> 01:13:01.522
Right there just sat down close my eyes
and meditate for an hour,

01:13:01.522 --> 01:13:03.422
very beautiful meditation.

01:13:03.422 --> 01:13:06.962
Or uncomfortable, in Hay street mall.

01:13:06.962 --> 01:13:10.877
Years ago, well might as well 
mention this.

01:13:10.877 --> 01:13:16.097
Years ago, the Burmese community
were doing a little...

01:13:16.097 --> 01:13:18.978
bring people's attention to the troubles
in their land.

01:13:18.978 --> 01:13:21.510
It's happening all over again now.

01:13:21.510 --> 01:13:28.351
At that time they invited me just outside
of... that church there ...

01:13:28.351 --> 01:13:33.704
anyway, one of those church,
to meditate for two hours.

01:13:33.704 --> 01:13:36.738
And that was on the hard pavement,

01:13:36.738 --> 01:13:43.792
no cushions and right opposite I think
it was called Time Zone, whatever,

01:13:43.792 --> 01:13:48.041
They made big noise 
like people play video games

01:13:48.041 --> 01:13:53.072
and big noise just blasting out 
and traffic going past.

01:13:53.072 --> 01:13:54.969
This is really cool.

01:13:56.639 --> 01:14:02.205
I like challenging myself and so
yeah, lovely meditation for two hours.

01:14:02.205 --> 01:14:04.353
It can be done

01:14:04.353 --> 01:14:09.822
but it's better to find a nice quiet place
and comfortable place.

01:14:09.822 --> 01:14:15.618
So I wouldn't go trying to meditate
outside of or inside a parliament house.

01:14:15.618 --> 01:14:21.058
Which is sometimes noisy 
or where else is noisy in this world?

01:14:21.058 --> 01:14:23.563
I don't know, anyway 
but yeah it can be done.

01:14:23.563 --> 01:14:25.556
So learn in the easy places

01:14:25.556 --> 01:14:28.576
and then you can progress
to the hard places if you need to.

01:14:30.076 --> 01:14:33.884
Thank you again for listening.
Sorry for going on a bit long.

01:14:33.884 --> 01:14:37.686
So now we can bow three times
to Buddha Dhamma Sangha

01:14:37.686 --> 01:14:41.459
And then those of you
who still want to carry on

01:14:41.459 --> 01:14:45.429
you can ask more questions
in a few moments.

01:14:45.429 --> 01:14:49.549
And again my apology for not being able
to speak to you before the talk.

01:14:49.549 --> 01:14:52.586
We were just having an
important little committee meeting.

01:14:52.586 --> 01:14:56.030
So sometimes we have to look after the...

01:14:56.030 --> 01:15:00.112
the Buddhist Society
of Western Australia's administration

01:15:00.112 --> 01:15:02.879
So sorry about that, 
doesn't usually happen.

01:15:17.310 --> 01:15:31.173
Araham Samma Sambuddho Bhagava
Buddham Bhagavantam Abhivademi

01:15:33.323 --> 01:15:41.545
Svakkhato Bhagavata Dhammo
Dhammam Namasami

01:15:43.067 --> 01:15:54.887
Suppatipanno Bhagavato SavakaSangho
Sangham Namami