2018 09 23 DT by sr Chan Duc

[The bell is awoken.]

[The bell is invited.]

[The bell is invited.]

[The bell is invited.]

Dear Sangha, this autumn the topic that

we will be looking into is the

Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings
of the Order of Interbeing.

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

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

Plum Village tradition, called the
Lieu Quan School.

And so today, we will continue by looking

at some of the foundations of ethics which

lie at the basis of the
Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings,

in Buddhism and in the Plum Village Tradition.

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

wrote a poem, or a gatha, which was what

we call a lineage poem, and each word of

that poem represents one generation of the

continuation of Master Lieu Quan,

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

So the first name is his own name,

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

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

And the third word is the disciples of
his disciples.

So we belong to the ninth generation,

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

If you have received the Five Mindfulness
Trainings,

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

So that is the ninth word of the poem.

And now I would like to look at that line.

The poem has four words to a line.

So we now look at that line of the poem.

And today I have an opportunity to
practice walking meditation.

So the source of mind penetrates everywhere.

From the roots of virtue springs compassion.

Something like that.

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

Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings
and you have the certificate,

I think in English you will see
something like that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

So it means something like a custom.

A custom, or a way, or a tradition.

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

but Thầy translates as compassion,

because the word stands for "từ bi",

which means loving kindness and compassion.

So, from the roots of virtue, we have

the custom of compassion,
of loving kindness,

the tradition of compassion or
loving kindness.

And sometimes we have a movement,

like the movement, the Wake-up movement

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

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

or a custom of compassion.

Nowadays, people use the word compassion

quite a lot. And neuroscientists are very

interested in compassion.

And those neuroscientists who are familiar
with Tibetan Buddhism and have

talked to the Dalai Lama,

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

Whereabouts compassion comes from,
in your brain.

And if the human brain has compassion,

does it mean that animal brain also has
compassion?

Because people used to say that human beings

are capable of ethical behavior,

human beings are capable of compassion,

and that is where they differ from animals.

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

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

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

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

We usually think that as human beings,

we're something quite exclusive.

And, is that better?

We're quite exclusive, and we have
something special

that the animals don't have.

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

rats had compassion.

So they taught the rat how to open the cage.

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

And another rat is in the cage.

And they saw that the rat who was free,

he knew how to open the cage,

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

So it was free.

So the scientist was happy, and he said,

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

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

And then another scientist came along and

said, "How do you know?"

"Maybe he just wanted a friend to play with,

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

So we always can find a way to prove that

human beings are a little bit special.

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

how can we found, how can we establish,

how can we help establish a compassionate
society,

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

And if compassion is something that is

innate in our brain, then we just need to

find ways in order to be able to help that,

that seed as we call it in Buddhism,

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

So if we come back again to neuroscience.

So scientists use the word empathy.

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

All I found was "thấu cảm"(?).

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

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

They've found the place in the brain

where empathy comes from.

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

You can know that another person
is suffering.

And it has an effect on you.

When you see another person suffering,

you also feel uncomfortable.

You don't feel happy.

So that is what is called empathy.

And you see another person happy,

you can also feel happy.

So, if we have empathy,

we have the possibility also to have
compassion.

But empathy itself is not compassion.

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

compassion, which lights up another region
of the brain.

So scientists say that empathy can result

in two different things.

And one is compassion.

And the other they call
empathetic distress.

So when you have compassion,

then your feeling is directed to
the other person.

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

And then, your emotion here,

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

or both.

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

And that is suffering.

And these things lead to health.

And these things lead to ill-health.

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

That when we have a thought of compassion,

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

And without compassion, we cannot have
real happiness.

Compassion brings us a lot of happiness.

And when you feel compassion for
another person,

the first one who benefits from that feeling

of compassion is the person who feels it,

even before they have done something

to help the other person,

they already feel better, because of

the compassion in their heart.

So, another thing they say here is
"approach"

and here is "withdrawal".

So I think that it is easy for us when

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

or any kind of suffering in society,

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

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

That is, we want to withdraw.

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

of the other person.

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

People who are working in the
environmental movement, or

some other movement to help the world.

And they feel that they're not making any

progress, then rather than feel compassion

when looking at the suffering,

they feel distress.

And frustration.

So now, many psychotherapists will teach

their patients to practise loving kindness

meditation, compassion meditation.

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

And they have done, neuroscientists have
done research,

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

they already see a change in their
neuro-pathways.

So just like mindfulness has become
something very widespread

in society now, without being called a
Buddhist practice,

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

loving kindness meditation is also
becoming like that.

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

although it began in Buddhism.

So you know that when you do
loving kindness meditation,

the first object of your meditation is
yourself.

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

You have to really feel that for yourself.

That is something you really want.

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

And if you don't feel it for yourself,

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

And then the next part of the
loving kindness meditation is

"May I be safe and free from accident."

That is something we all want.

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

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

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

So we have to recognize that desire.

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

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

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

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

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

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

somebody who you don't particularly like

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

But somebody you meet from time to time.

And you wish it for them.

And the interesting thing is that is when

you wish for a person who is neutral to you,

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

suddenly that person is no longer neutral.

That person becomes, through your
meditation,

somebody you have friendly feelings to.

And then we should take, we should take

someone who causes us difficulties.

And while we meditate,

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

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

that we are meditating on, and we begin

to understand them better.

We understand that just as we have a

deep need to be safe,

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

And we will be able through that kind

of meditation to change our way of thinking

about the person who makes us suffer.

And this change, it actually can be noticed

by neuroscientists who do FMRI on the

brain of the practionner.

It is a way of developing happiness.

It's a way of developing health.

And when I first came to Buddhism,

I thought that everything we did,

every practice we did,

was to be able to help other people.

So metta meditation is not for my benefit,

but for the benefit of other beings.

And

then you realize that it is also
benefitting yourself.

And now, when metta meditation is becoming

something widespread, it's really done

with the idea that it is to help yourself.

That is what comes first.

First of all, it will help you, and then,

as a kind of spinoff,

it will help other people as well.

So the motivation is a little bit different.

But however, once you begin to practise,

then your motivation also begins to change.

It's like once you begin to practise
mindfulness, at first you do it

just for yourself. But then you see that

practising mindfulness, you're helping
others as well,

and your motivation becomes one

to help others too --- it's what you
want to do, is to help others.

In the beginning, you just wanted to help yourself.

So when I consider these things that are
happening in our society,

even though we may be doing it for
ourself in the first place,

I also consider that we are going in
the right direction,

to try and form a compassionate society,
a compassionate culture.

[The bell is awoken.]

[The bell is invited.]

And people also talk about two kinds of
compassion.

But I don't know if it's quite correct
to do that.

On the one hand, compassion that
is emotional and intuitive.

And on the other hand, compassion that
is more rational and more explicit.

That is something that you can talk about
more.

As human beings, we have both these sides
to us.

We have both the rational side,

and we have the emotional side.

And as far as I understand it, compassion

should contain both of those elements.

We often have moral dilemmas.

We don't quite know what we should do

in a certain situation.

And sometimes we use our reasoning.

And sometimes we use our emotions more

when we want to decide what to do.

Not long ago, on a retreat,

my younger sister asked me

"Should I go and help this layperson?"

"Should I go on my own and help this
layperson?

"Or should I stay in the retreat and be
present at the Dharma Sharing?"

So, when I was asked that question,

of course my training immediately came up:

you should stay in the Dharma Sharing,

because in the Dharma Sharing you will
help many people.

But if you just go on your own and help
one layperson,

you will only help one person.

So with my rational mind, it was clear
what we should do.

But as I followed my breathing,

and I looked, just stopped all my thinking,

then I suddenly felt there is something
not right.

And, eh, I didn't know why.

But intuitively and emotionally, I felt

I should let my sister go and help
that layperson.

And my sister said,
" I don't mind either way."

"If you tell me to stay,
I'll be happy to stay."

"If you tell me to go,
I'll be happy to go."

So, sometimes, we have a moral dilemma

like that and we, we don't know whether

to use more of our rational side

or more of our emotional side.

But I have a lot trust in the
Store Consciousness.

That is the more unconscious side
of my mind.

Sometimes, of course, from our
Store Consciousness,

we have an intuition which comes from

habit energy in our Store Consciousness.

Because we've done it like that for so long,

we intuitively want to do that out of our
habit energy.

But if our mind is clear,

if we follow our breathing

and empty our mind of all thinking,

it's an opportunity for an
intuitive insight to come up.

And we can sometimes use that
in making a moral decision.

But we have to make sure that we
are very calm, and very clear

when the insight comes up.

And then we feel, "yes, I've done my best.

I've looked into the rational side.

I've also allowed the emotional side.

And then, I've asked both sides to be quiet,
and allowed the intuition to come up.

And that is the wonderful thing about

Buddhist ethics is that every situation
is a little bit different.

We cannot have a blueprint and say

it's always wrong to do this;

it's always right to do something else.

And it's also the difficulty about
Buddhist ethics.

Sometimes if you have what is called

a deontological ethic, which says

you have to do this or you can't do this

and you have to do that, it's easy.

You just say, "Oh, I'll do that."

But then you feel it's not quite right.

But in Buddhism, every situation

we have to use our compassion,

our deep looking,

our mindfulness, concentration and insight

in order to be able to make a decision.

And of course, to make a decision on
your own is not the best thing.

It's far better to do it together,

as a Sangha.

When it's a difficult, moral dilemma,

one pair of eyes, one intuition from
one Store Consciousness,

is not nearly as sure and as safe

as an intuition that comes from many,
many people.

[The bell is awoken.]

[The bell is invited.]

When I received the 14 Mindfulness
Trainings in 1988,

they were very different from how
they are now.

The spirit was not different at all,

but the wording was very different.

So a training would start off with

"không thể", you cannot, you should not.

And then more recently,

the trainings have been revised.

And each one begins with the word "aware".

Very often it's "Aware of the suffering..."

"Aware of the suffering created by
fanaticism and intolerance,

I am determined to...

I don't know .. to let go of my...
I can't remember, never mind.

And then the second one,

"Aware of the suffering created by
attachment to views and wrong perceptions,

I am determined to listen deeply to
other people."

And the third Mindfulness Training:

"Aware of the suffering created when I
cannot, no, by forcing others to accept

my viewpoint, something like that.

"Aware of the suffering created when we
impose our views on others,

and aware that lack of communication
always brings suffering...

And the Ninth Mindfulness Training:

"Aware that words can create suffering
or happiness...

And the Eleventh Mindfulness Training:

"Aware that great violence and injustice have
been done to our environment and society...

"Aware that much suffering is created
by war and by conflict...

"Aware that sex motivated by craving
will create more suffering...

So, at the basis of ethics is the
awareness of suffering,

the first Noble Truth.

And that is something that we can

practise rationally with our intellectual
mind

to look deeply and see the suffering.

But we have to allow our emotional mind,

our emotional part, also to feel the
suffering.

before we really can make the determination

to do something in order to help

alleviate the suffering that we have seen.

And every two weeks, we read the
Mindfulness Trainings together,

we recite them or every month.

And every time you can become more aware

of suffering and you can become more

determined to do something to help

alleviate the suffering.

So compassion is an important part

of ethical behavior. And we can develop

compassion by our way of thinking,

our way of speaking, in our daily life.

We should never say that person has no
compassion.

We should never say of ourself

"I have no compassion."

Be sure you do.

Compassion is a little bit linked to
the maternal instinct.

It's the same kind of region of the brain:

maternal love and compassion.

And if you read the Discourse on Love,

we see that the Buddha did not need

to have MRI in order to be able to see that

just as a mother loves and protects
her own child,

at the risk of her own life, so we should

develop compassion for all living beings.

So we all have compassion.

And what we need to do is we need

to find ways in order for the compassion

in us to be able to manifest.

And if we've given ourselves too many

opportunities to be in touch with too much

suffering, then we may have fallen into

what we saw before is called
"empathetic distress".

And it doesn't matter if we've fallen

into that way.

But it is very important that we are mindful,

and that we realize that has happened,

and we do our best to take care of

the happiness. And look on the other side.

Look at what is going right, rather than

what is going wrong.

So if you are in a situation with another

person, and you feel that when you listen

to their suffering that you want to withdraw,

you feel the stress in yourself,

then you have the right to withdraw.

Because you know that you cannot help that

person. So you have to withdraw,

in order to take care of yourself.

To feel compassion for yourself.

And if possible, to find someone else

who can help the person who is suffering.

Sometimes people look at babies, and they

see the baby is compassionate.

And another time, the people look and they

see the baby is greedy and demanding.

So it depends who is looking at the baby,

what they see.

And with two-year old children, they do an

experiment, and they give one child..

They have a group of children, and they

give one child something that the other

children don't have, something that can

be shared, and the child, the two-year old,

will naturally take it around

and share it with everyone.

If you have your own grandchildren,

nieces in my case, your own children,

grandchildren, nieces and nephews,

you see that happen very often.

You give one something, and they

go around and share it with others.

So that is the practice of loving kindness,

which seems to be there, already, in us.

In 1993, in Chicago, there was a
World Parliament of Religions,

a conference.

And our teacher, Thầy, was invited
to go there.

And there were 200 delegates, I think.

And they stayed in a very fancy hotel.

And it was the 100th anniversary of the

World Parliament of Religions.

In 1893, they had their first session,

and they have it every 3 or 2 years
or something.

And in 1893, those represented were

Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, different
Christian schools including

the Eastern and the Russian Orthodox.

And that was about... Judaism.

That was about it.

But in 1993 they decided to ask for

representatives of the Native American
spiritual paths and Shamanism.

And some of the delegates were very upset.

They said, these religions, they don't
have any proper "ism",

they don't have any proper name.

And they left. Yes, they left.

So, it wasn't an entirely harmonious thing.

Thầy was there.

I think the person who kind of brought

it all together was a Swiss theologian

called Hans Küng...I think

Kung, Kung, Kung?Kung?Kung?

Not meaning to be disrespectful.

My German pronunciation is not very good.

A Catholic theologian.

This year I think he is 90...

He's about the same age as Thầy is.

90 something, 92 or something.

So really, he's dedicated his life to

reforming, trying to bring about reform
in the Catholic Church.

And so's he's not...

and also into developing a global ethic.

So he has a lot of, a lot of deep
motivation for a global ethic.

Thầy also.

Thầy once said in a Dharma Talk,

that when practising sitting meditation
in the Upper Hamlet,

at the end of the sitting meditation session,

everybody touches the Earth three times.

And when Thầy touches the Earth,

Thầy makes the deep aspiration,

"May Thầy and the Sangha be able to
contribute to a global ethic

so that we can relieve a great deal
of suffering in the world.

So as I said in 1993, there were present

at the Parliament of Religions, a number

of representatives of the American Indian.

And they don't have something that is
called a religion as such,

but they care very much about the Earth.

And have a lot of respect and care for
the Earth, for Mother Earth.

And recently in a book,

Love Letters to the Earth,

in the appendix to that book,

Thầy says we need to find a global
spirituality.

And maybe that spirituality will be based

in our reverence and our awe for
the natural world, for Mother Earth,

for the galaxies, for the cosmos.

Because all human beings feel a deep
kind of awe when they look at

the cosmos, at the...

So in order to find something that we

all have in common,

and then to agree on how to word it,

is not easy.

I think in that Parliament of Religions,

they all agreed about what the suffering
is that we're facing.

But they could not agree on how to word,

like the Five Mindfulness Trainings

or something like that,

to help people relieve that suffering.

So that is a work that we still have to do.

And we want, we really want,
to continue Thầy,

and continue this effort in

sometimes letting go of what we hold to

in order to be able to contribute to a
global ethic.

And when we contribute to a global ethic,

we also need to look into other forms

of ethics than Buddhist ethics, to try and

find out what is it that the human mind

can agree on, which all humans

can agree on.

So there, in 1993, most people, nearly everybody

but not everybody, they agreed on 4 points,
four commitments that they wanted to make.

And the first commitment was
to protect life.

"A commitment to a culture of non-violence
and respect for life."

So when we look at the 14 Mindfulness
Trainings of the Order of Interbeing

we see that there are roots to our inability

to protect life, there are roots to our
violence.

And those things like fanaticism, dogmatism.

When we cling to a dogma, when we say that

we are right and you are wrong,

that is contribution to violence.

And so when we commit ourselves to
non-violence,

on the one hand we commit ourselves

to looking deeply into the seeds of

violence we have in ourselves, and how

not to water the violence we have in
ourselves.

But at the same time,

we want to find out, what is it

that makes people violent.

And when I stick to my dogma,

and you stick to your dogma,

and neither of us can accept the dogma
of the other,

then that will also lead to violence

that we commit together.

And the second commitment they have

is commitment to a culture of solidarity

and just economic order.

So solidarity here means, like "đoàn kết"

it means that we stand together.

East stands together with West.

And if in the West we see that South or
the East is suffering,

we know that that is also our suffering.

So we want to help.

The North wants to help the South,

wants to stand together with the South.

That is a culture of solidarity.

And just economic order, like "?? nền kinh tế".

"?? nền kinh tế công bằng?"

So that also means that we want to

be able to let go of our consumerism.

We want to be able to let go of our
material comforts

in order to be able to share our riches

with the countries that don't have

the riches we have.

And the third commitment that they nearly

came to agree with each other

is commitment to a culture of tolerance
and truth.

The ability to embrace each other.

Tolerance is "bao dung".

And to be truthful, to be authentic
with each other.

And the fourth is a commitment to

a culture of equal rights and partnership
between men and women.

Equal rights is "bình quyền" and
partnership here is ?"sự hợp tác".

Between men and women.

But in that, in the details of that
commitment,

it talks a lot about sexuality and not
exploiting sex,

not selling sex, that kind of thing.

So the theologian Hans Küng also

spent much of his life in talking to

business men about global ethics.

[The bell is awoken.]

[The bell is invited.]

When we read the second chapter of the
anguttara nikaya,

the Buddha says, there are two things,

monks, that protect the world,
that preserve the world.

What are those two things?

They are hiri and ottapa.

So usually when you look in the Pali
dictionary,

this how these two words are translated.

Maybe moral shame, moral dread, it
doesn't sound very... um..

To say that these two things protect
the world, preserve the world,

may not sound so positive to you.

Moral shame: it means that when I do
something I recognize that it

brings about suffering for myself,

and I feel ashamed.

And so I don't do it.

And, moral dread means I'm very afraid
of doing something wrong.

I'm afraid to do that.

I'm afraid to do something that will
make myself suffer and make

other people suffer.

And sometimes, we're afraid to do things

because we think we will go to hell.

Or we think that we will be punished.

So, maybe you'd be afraid to rob a bank

because you think you might be put
in prison.

And sometimes in Buddhist temples, you
have fresco or paintings of the

terrible punishments that happen in hell.

Like being thrown in to a cauldron of oil,
boiling oil or something like that.

for some wrong deed that you did.

Well, the idea about that is make you afraid

so you don't do it.

But the thing is that in Plum Village,

we don't really believe in hell,

like place you go after you die,

to be punished for what you've done
while you were alive.

But we believe that hell is more like
a state of mind.

And you can go there very easily while
you are still alive,

if you choose to think in a certain way

or act in a certain way.

Like when you feel angry, it's a kind of
hell -- you feel very hot.

But here, it means like a deep aspiration

"I don't want to suffer and I don't want
to make other suffer."

So I have a ... I draw back, I draw back
from doing things

And when I do something that makes me
suffer and makes others suffer,

I recognize that I made a mistake.

And I feel ashamed.

And I either come and confess to somebody
else or I confess to myself,

and the words I use are something like

I made a mistake; I made you suffer;
I made myself suffer.

And I'm not going to do that again.

I am very sorry.

And then it is finished.

If it doesn't finish there, and I keep
reminding myself,

"I did that terrible thing.
I can't forget it"

then it becomes guilt.

And guilt is a complex, and

it's not something positive like shame is.

Shame is positive, because it helps me to

get over what I've done wrong and helps
me not to make the same mistake again.

The philosopher Mencius,

Mạnh Tử,

said that human beings are innately good.

They have innate compassion.

And he talked about four things,

which he called four beginnings,

which lead to living a moral life.

trắc ẩn tu ô' ???

This is these two, I think.

Tu here means to be shy, to feel ashamed.

So it's like Hiri. This is Mencius.

And ô' means to hate.

So you hate, you hate doing wrong.

It's a little bit like being afraid of
doing wrong.

You don't like doing wrong.

This means compassion.

These means something you can translate
as compassion.

And Mencius said that if you are inside,

and you see a child climb onto the edge

of a well outside, then you immediately want

to run out and take the child in your arms

so the child doesn't fall into the well.

And if the door is locked, and you can't
get out, you will be very

you will feel very bad, very frustrated.

You won't know what to do.

So that is the natural compassion
that we have, that we want

to save the life of others.

And this means that we are ashamed to
do something wrong.

And this means that we don't want,
we don't like to do something wrong.

từ như ??

The last one I remember... Easy.

thị phi ... từ nhượng

So từ nhượng means that you say good-bye
to something.

Like in "từ ?", you say good-bye.

You refrain, you don't do that.

You see that you can let go and not do it.

And "nhượng" means to yield.

You can let go, you don't hold on to...

If something is necessary is to be done,

you will do it.

If it is something you shouldn't do,

you can say good-bye to it and not do it.

You can refrain from doing something.

Like somebody comes to me and they say

"Oh, you know, I love very much somebody

who is my workplace. And she has a husband

and children, I have a wife and children...

But I know that I just have to give up

that love for the person, because I have

to care of my family, I have to take care

of my wife, and she has to take care

of her family and husband."

So that is to give up.

And then when we see something that needs

to be done, we do it.

And this means we have the capacity to

discriminate between what is right, and
what is wrong.

But like we said before, we have to..

In Buddhism, we don't know in advance

what is right and what is wrong.

We have to use our mindfulness,
concentration and insight in every

situation to know what is right and wrong.

With the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings,

the Five Mindfulness Traingings,

we have basic guidelines to help us go

in that direction.

But finally, we have to use mindfulness,

concentration, insight and the collective
wisdom of the Sangha

in order to know what is right and wrong
in this situation.

And that is why when we do our meditation

in the evening, we say

there is no more thought of right and wrong.

Because in your meditation,

you don't want to be thinking

oh, should I do this or should I do that?

In our meditation, we need to be able to

to come back to our breathing,

to let go of all our thinking

and then refresh our mind and

look deeply.

Yes. So that is a little bit of

talking about meta-ethics in Buddhism.

We have ethics, which is "đạo đức học"

but we also have meta-ethics

which is "siêu đạo đức học".

So what lies at the base of ethics?

And, it may be the no thought of
right and wrong.

What lies at the base of ethics is
the awareness of suffering,

the awareness of happiness,

and also the ability to let go of
all ideas of right and wrong.

In order to be able to discover

what will lead to the greatest happiness

and the least suffering in this particular
circumstance.

I think Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill

in the 19th century, they talk about

the greatest happiness of the greatest
number

as being the basis for ethics.

And in Buddhism we could agree
also with that.

We want, that is what we feel

we want the least amount of suffering.

But we also know that suffering is

essential for there to be compassion.

And compassion is essential for

there to be happiness.

But there will always be suffering.

We don't know to worry that one day,

there will be no more suffering.

We just don't want to make more suffering

than what is already offering itself to us.

[The bell is awoken.]

[The bell is invited.]

And I think that Jeremy Bentham and

John Stuart Mill, they talked a lot about

material happiness.

There's a lot of poverty.

There still is a lot of poverty.

And obviously to be able to eradicate

poverty would bring material happiness,

which will then lead to spiritual happiness.

Because when people are so poor,

they don't have the time, they don't

have the opportunity to develop their
spiritual life.

And so that is a basic step.

But we also see that spiritual happiness

is very important.

And when I lived in India, in a place that
was very poor,

I used to see the children there.

They had no clothes, really,

a few ragged clothes sometimes.

But they were happy.

They'd play with each other, although

they didn't have any toys,

they didn't have proper clothes to wear.

But they had a kind of happiness that

sometimes in children who have clothes and

have many toys, you don't see.

But that also has something to do with

our sharing our wealth, so that

everybody has enough, but not more

than they need.

One German economist said it is perfectly

possible for everyone to have a wage that

is the same -- everybody earns the same
amount of money.

So during the three months
of the Autumn Retreat,

we have an opportunity for us to be able

to look into how the Fourteen Mindfulness
Trainings affect our own life.

And how we can help, how they can help us

to develop our compassion.

And we have plenty of opportunity

in our sitting meditation to practise

loving kindness meditation if we want to

so that we can more easily bring up the

innate compassion that we all have.

[The bell is awoken.]

[The bell is invited.]

[The bell is invited.]

[The bell is invited.]

[The small bell is awoken.]

[The small bell is invited.]