How to Gradually Reduce Sensual Desires | Ajahn Brahmali | 4 May 2018

Sensual pleasures can be difficult to let go. Ajahn Brahmali teaches us how to gradually reduce our craving in a sustainable way by living well, being kind and practicing meditation. Please support the BSWA in making teachings available for free online via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BuddhistSocietyWA

Podcast of this audio is available via BSWAPodcast:
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Okay everyone,
so.. let's start.

And, OK, tonight I'm gonna talk about
the Buddhist attitude to sensuality,

to sensual pleasures, and, as always,
one of the interesting things about

the Buddhist teachings is always has
a slightly different take on things,

than most of the rest of the world,

and so it is also with sensuality
and sensual pleasures.

And it is an important part of
the Buddhist path to understand

these things, and for that reason,
I think it is interesting, at least,

to have kind of a broader understanding
how it fits in on the path,

and how it kind of all is integrated into the
idea that we call Buddhist practice.

But first of all, what do we mean by
sensual pleasures in Buddhism?

And what we mean is of course the idea of
desire, when we talk about desire,

when we talk about desire in Buddhism,
for everything concerned with the five senses,

anything you see, anything you hear,
anything you taste, anything you touch,

even anything you smell in this world,

that is the kind of the world of
the sensual, sensuality.

So you can start to see pretty much
straight away,

if that is the world of sensuality,
that's pretty much all there is almost,

that's kind of our world is bombarded by
the five senses throughout the day,

week after week, year after year,

usually for the whole lifetime,
and only occasionally you escape

that world a little bit, maybe through
meditation practice or whatever,

but basically, that is the life we live,
a sensual life, engulfed in sensual objects,

and of course then the desire and
aversions that arise from that.

So even at night, you dream something
and still in a sense,

you are enmeshed in the world of
sensuality, why is that?

Because your dreams and all these things,
they are also often about such things,

so it's a very vast, very all encompassing
part of our life.

So how do we Buddhists,
how do we think about it,

how does the Buddha think about this,
I always want to come back to

the word of the Buddha, what does
the Buddha say should be our attitude

towards these things,
that is I want to talk about tonight.

And the first thing, the first way
in which the Buddhism is different from

the rest of the world in thinking about
sensuality is that Buddhism doesn't

really have a puritanical kind of strain
to it, Buddhism doesn't say that

sensuality is bad just because it's
bad, Buddhism doesn't say that

enjoying ourselves in the world,
having relationships, entertainment,

eating nice food, all that stuff is not
"bad" from a Buddhist point of view.

So Buddhism lacks some of this puritanical
strain that you can sometimes find elsewhere

in our society. That is already
quite a liberating thing, yeah?

Enjoying oneself is OK.
One interesting passage in the...

I've just thought about this beforehand,

there's an interesting passage
in the Pali canon,

this is the Pali canon,
the word of the Buddha,

and the word of the Buddha says,
to the monks,

some of the monks might not be
practicing properly or

kind of not fully getting into the meditation
or whatever, and he says to them,

"You are missing out! You are missing out
the happiness of the monastic life!"

The happiness of the monastic life,
what is that? That is kind of meditating,

being peaceful inside, getting some of
the joy and happiness that comes from

meditation practice.
If you don't get that happiness,

you are not getting
the happiness of the monastic life,

and you are also missing out on
the happiness of lay life, yeah?

It's almost... I don't think
this is the point,

the point is not that
you guys, you'd better disrobe

and get back into lay life,
I don't think that's the point,

but the point is that, as human beings,
desires, happiness or pleasures

in one way or another, whether that is
the lay kind of pleasures of the senses,

or the pleasures of the mind in
meditation, doesn't really matter,

we always, life without pleasure
is a meaningless life.

So this is the first thing, so Buddhism is
not anti-pleasure, or anti-happiness or

anti-enjoyment, I think this is a very
important point to keep in mind,

because sometimes you can
maybe get that idea from certain ways

in which the Buddha's teachings are taught.
So this is the one side of the coin,

but the other side of the coin is that
the Buddha also said that there can be

certain dangers with sensual pleasures.
So what are those dangers?

If we shouldn't be afraid of them,
how come they are dangerous as well?

Then of course, one of the dangers,

one of the main points of the Buddhist
teachings is to live well,

to live with kindness and compassion.

And of course, the moment that
those sensual pleasures take us

beyond the boundary of morality,
when we start misbehaving,

maybe stealing or committing adultery
or whatever else it is,

once we get down that avenue,

that is when we have taken
sensual indulgence too far.

So we indulge,
maybe I shouldn't say indulge,

we enjoy the sensual pleasures
within the bounds of morality, yeah?

This is kind of the Buddhist attitude.

So we don't hurt other people,
we don't hurt other beings,

and when we don't do that,
then it is an acceptable way

of enjoying the world around us.

That is the first thing,
I think that's pretty obvious,

you probably all know that already,
unless you are your first time here

maybe tonight, because this is
kind of 101 Buddhism, yeah?

But then the other reason
why sensuality is problematic,

now we are getting to the
kind of deeper reasons,

and one of the main reasons is
because sensuality is, to some extent,

opposed to the meditation practice.

If you really want to go
really really deep in meditation,

if you don't just come here on a Friday night,

I mean it's wonderful to come here
on Friday night, relax a little bit,

just enjoy the good company,
and have a good time,

I think that's a wonderful thing already,

but if you want to take meditation
a little bit deeper than that,

say you come out to Jhana Grove
on a 9-day retreat with Ajahn Brahm,

or something else, or you go to some other
retreat centre or whatever it is,

if you want to take it deeper,
the deeper you want to take it,

the more of an obstacle the sensual
desires and the sensual indulgence of

the world actually becomes.
It's like a trade-off in a sense,

the more you let go of the sensual world,
the more profound your meditation becomes,

the more you're attached to the sensual work,

the more kind of shallow
your meditation is.

It's almost like an inversely
proportional relationship,

to just use my old mathematics
from the University days, yeah,

inversely proportional relationship,
sounds very mathematical,

we should have some of these
mathematical concepts

in Buddhist books to kind of make it
really clear what is going on, I reckon.

So this is why it is problematic.
Why does it have to be like that?

Very often, you hear people saying that,
"I want to enjoy the world and I also

"want to enjoy meditation. I don't
want to give up one to have the other one,

"I want to enjoy both, so what's the point
of becoming a monk, for example, or a nun

"because that's really nuts, you can't
enjoy the ordinary life."

But the point is that you cannot
enjoy both fully,

there's always a trade-off between
the two, and this is the thing that

I think a lot of people in
the Buddhist world, perhaps,

especially in the West, because people are
still kind of fairly new to Buddhism,

they don't really grasp
what these concepts are,

so to understand that,
you actually have to, you know,

you have to actually see or read
some of the discourse of the Buddha,

to see that this actually is the case.

And when you think about it,
it is actually very obvious,

I was gonna say blooming obvious,

but that's kind of bad,
but it's very obvious, yeah?

Why is it so obvious?
Because if you...

especially if you indulge in sensual
pleasures, if you enjoy that too much,

what happens is that
you attach to the sensuality.

Attachment is always just behind
indulgence and enjoyment,

if you enjoy it a lot, you want it again,
that is attachment, you want to be there,

you want to be able to see it, because
"wow, so many beautiful sites,"

you want to be able to hear because the
music you listen to is so beautiful.

And maybe it is, I'm not saying it isn't,
but you attach to that,

or you want to enjoy your relationships,
or your food, or whatever it is,

and all of that, because we indulge in it,
we attach to it,

and when you attach to it, when you
try to meditate, you can't let go.

Letting go is precisely the exact
opposite of indulgence,

you go inwards,
and the more inwards you want to go,

the more you have to let go of
the five senses and the sensual world.

Yeah? If you hold onto the senses,
you can only go so far inside,

the less you hold onto the senses,
the deeper you can go inside.

So this is why there is a problem there,
and that is why, there is like a trade-off

between the sensual world
and the deep meditation.

So sensuality is not immoral,
it is not bad, it is not evil,

as long as you do it in a moral way,

but it can lead to a blockage
in your meditation practice,

and that is why it is problematic.

I'm sure you can see what I'm talking
about here, how, always going outside

is the opposite of going inside.
If you attach to external things,

you cannot let go and go inside as a
consequence, there's a trade-off there.

So once you understand that,
you start to understand

why there is such a thing
as monastic life, yeah?

This is precisely why,
because monastic life is

trying to enhance that process of
letting go of external things,

while moving more inwards,
that is what this whole thing is about,

that is why there is such a thing
as monastic life.

These things are far harder
to do in lay life

than they are in the monastic life,
and that is why we live in this way.

It's not because we are world-denying,
boring kind of people sitting in the forest,

crying by ourselves,
because it's such a terrible thing

to be a monastic,
that's not really the point.

The point is that it's actually...

we are not kind of masochists
or anything like that,

there is another point
to this whole thing.

So, this is the reason, and then there is...
this is actually a very important reason,

I think, if you really want to
enjoy meditation,

some degree of letting go is
actually necessary,

and I'm sure you can see that
already to some extent,

even just by coming here
on Friday nights.

But there is a third reason why
sensuality is problematic,

and now we are coming to the really deep
parts of the Buddhist teachings,

and in a deeper sense the sensuality is
the bond that ties us to saṃsāra.

That is why it is really problematic.
Saṃsāra is this Pali word which means like

the round of existence. You carry on,
you born here, you die there,

rebirth and re-death.
Have you heard the word re-death before?

Re-death is a really good word
because you don't die only once,

you die many times. If you get reborn,
you get have to re-die as well,

I think we should kind of start this,
you know, implement this word "re-death"

in the Buddhist teaching because it really
gets to the point of what this is about.

Rebirth, re-death, re-life, re-everything.

That's kind of part of
the problem here.

So if you don't want all this "re-,"
we can just kind of shorten it down to "re-"

that kind of make it a bit simple,

if there's not all this "re-" stuff
all the time

there comes a point when you start to
realise that actually the bondage to

saṃsāric existence, that is the real
problem, and the most powerful,

the strongest of all those bonds is
the bond of sensuality:

It ties you to saṃsāra, why?
Because sensuality is always about future,

it's about craving,
it's about moving somewhere else,

always moving towards something,

never really being satisfied
in the present moment,

and that moving towards something is like
a projection of yourself into the future,

that is why it ties you eternally,
hopefully not eternally,

but for a long time into the future
again and again and again.

So these are some of the reasons,

you can see here again
the balance of Buddhism.

The balance of seeing the problem
with something,

seeing the gratification and the problem,
and then finding a kind of middle way.

So many things in the Buddhist teachings
are about a middle way,

and so it is also with sensuality.

So it's a natural path,
whereby your meditation deepens,

you naturally let go of things
that actually are less important to you.

Sensuality becomes less important,
meditation becomes more important,

you don't force it, you don't push it
aside, it happens quite naturally,

this is a beautiful part,
the beautiful path that you see right there.

So if there is a problem with sensuality,
if you are really keen on

your spiritual path, I don't know how keen you are,
everyone here probably to various degrees,

but don't leave just because you're not 100% keen,
because still might be interesting

to see what's happening next.
I promise to... for me anyway

it's very interesting,
it's very hard for me to understand

what other people find interesting,
that's my own limitation really,

but I think some of
these things actually are.

It's a big picture view of life and
the world, and this is why it is interesting.

So how can we deal with these things
in such a way to move a little bit away

from sensuality, and a little bit more
towards spiritual happiness

and meditation and
depth of meditation?

How can we actually do that
in a way that is easy, natural,

not kind of forced or anything like that?
And the first thing,

one of the things I that always found
very interesting in the suttas,

when he talks about overcoming

the defilements and
the problems of the mind.

The defilements and the problems usually
you can summarise them in two main

defilements, one being ill-will, including
anger and upset and all that kind of stuff

and the other one being desire.

These are the two kind of main defilements
that we tend to deal with,

and of course dealing with ill-will is
actually the most important one.

If I'm gonna really recommend you to
deal with one thing in your life,

of your mental phenomena that are
problematic, ill-will, is Number 1.

Please, if you are serious
about this path,

see if you can do something about that.
I may give a talk here again about how to

deal with ill-will, because I think it's such
an incredibly important part of the path

and surprisingly you may think
that it's hard to get rid of ill-will,

it isn't that hard actually,

especially if you have the right motivation,
the right kind of perseverance,

everyone can get rid of ill-will,
at least to a large extent,

maybe not 100%, but at least a lot of it.
So that is ill-will, so focus on that,

but sensuality also
is a little bit of a problem,

so that's what I want to focus on now.

So how does the Buddha say
we should deal with these things?

What is kind of the method? And very often,
people think that you deal with

these things through
meditation practice, by sitting here,

and becoming peaceful and calm,
and that is certainly part of it,

but really, one of the remarkable things
I remember reading the suttas,

when the Buddha says that
there is two powers in your meditation,

the two powers on the spiritual path,
and the first power is

the power of reflection. Yeah?
What does the power of reflection do?

And the Buddha says that the power of
reflection, what it does,

it overcomes the misconduct
by body, speech and mind,

and it allows you to have good conduct
by body, speech and mind. In other words,

all your ability to practice morality
by body and speech,

and also your ability to think
in a way that is not destructive

for your meditation, including
getting rid of ill-will and sensuality

it's all about how we reflect
about the world,

how we think about things, it is not just
about sitting back and enjoying the peace,

that is a little bit of it, but mainly
it's about how we think about things.

So it's very interesting: what that means
is that if we learn to think

in the right way, we can actually
overcome these problems.

So this is what I want to do tonight,
I want to look at a bit more

how can we think about these things
in such a way

that these things actually are reduced.

And then, when you have
that power of reflection,

then comes the second power,
which is bhāvanābala.

Do you like Pali words? Yeah?
Sounds pretty cool, good to you, cool?

I like Pali words, I always find it very
nice to come back to the Pali,

because I love reading the suttas,
the word of the Buddha,

bhāvanābala means the power of meditation,
or the power of development.

I think in Sinhalese bhāvanā is actually
used specifically to refer to meditation

practice, and in large part
that's true also of the suttas.

So once that meditation,
the power of meditation is

to develop the really deep samādhis
on the path, the four jhanas,

the seven factors of awakening,
and these kind of things.

So a very deep meditation practice
that that is about,

and it's not so much about
overcoming defilements,

but to go really deep in your meditation.

So remember that, learn to think
in the right way.

As you think in the right way,
your life starts to change,

the way you think about people,
the way you reflect on things,

the way you perceive reality around
you is actually different,

because you are reflecting
in the right way.

So, how do we do this?
And what I'm gonna do,

this is my kind of standard way of
talking about sensual pleasures,

and many of you would have
heard about it before,

but please don't leave because of that,

because these are things that are eternally
important and wonderful to hear about

many many times in my opinion.
I have heard it more than any one of you,

and I still get inspired by
some of these teachings.

So... to make the point clear,
what the Buddha does,

he gives a number of similes that refer
directly to sensual pleasures,

and I'm gonna recount
some of these similes for you,

and remember, similes and these little stories
the Buddha uses are tools of reflection,

tools for how to think about the world,

not tools for forcing you
one way or another one,

but for natural reflection and maturing
of the mind as a consequence of

these reflections.
So the first simile that the Buddha uses,

one of the similes that he uses is

what is called the simile of
the grass torch, the burning grass torch.

The Buddha says that,
imagine, someone coming along,

and they have a grass torch, they have
a grass torch which is burning,

and then they go against the wind,
the wind coming in one direction,

the grass torch, coming front of you.
What happens is, the grass torch,

of course, has all the cinders,
and all the burning things coming off

it all the time, that's what a grass torch
is like, so if you go against the wind,

all the things, all the cinders, would kind of
hit you, and soon enough,

you'll be on fire if you're not
very careful, and if you are on fire,

that's usually considered painful
in Buddhism, that's dukkha, suffering.

So you wanna avoid getting on fire,
this is kind of the simile here.

So what does this mean?
How is this a simile for sensual pleasures

of the world? And the way this works is
when you grab onto that grass torch,

you are attaching to the sensual objects
and the sensual pleasures

of the world, yeah?
You start taking up a relationship,

or taking up a certain kind of
entertainment, or whatever it is,

and you grasp onto that,
your life revolve around those things,

and as you attach to those things
of the world,

because you are attaching to them,
it is a little bit of light from

that grass torch, and that light
you get from the grass torch,

that is like the happiness that comes
from the sensual pleasures.

But soon enough, the grass, the happiness
that comes from the light, it turns into suffering,

because you're going against the wind.
What is that suffering?

That suffering is that as soon as we attach
to things in the world,

we are essentially asking for suffering.
Why? Because all the things in the world,

worldly things are inherently
impermanent, always subject to change,

out of our control, unreliable,
fundamentally unreliable,

and if you try to grasp onto and attach to
something that is by nature unreliable,

by nature impermanent,
what's gonna happen? You're gonna suffer.

It's kind of very basic Buddhist idea,
if things are impermanent,

suffering must happen as a consequence.
So think about it.

This really is, really problematic,

and sometimes people say,
"if I'm gonna be a good Buddhist,

"what I should do then is
just to avoid attachments."

Yeah? You can try that and see
how that works in your life,

try to avoid all attachments,
and the answer is it is impossible

to avoid all attachments, maybe if you're
an arahant, and usually at this point,

I'd like to ask how many arahants
in the assembly,

and usually what you find
is not that many, yeah?

Not that many in the assembly,
so that is the problem,

because you're not arahant, yeah,
you are going to attach. Why?

Because all of this comes from
the sense of self.

When there is a perception of a self inside,
that is permanent, that is always there,

that sense of self would take certain
things in the world to belong to it.

"These are my things,
this is my realm of control", if you like.

The sense of self believes
it can control the world,

it forgets about
the impermanence of things,

and kind of projects the sense of self
outwards to all these other things as well,

and because we think we can control,
we try to control, but we can't.

The world always goes according to
its own causes and conditions,

and our ability to control things
is actually supremely limited.

Then things fall apart, we grieve,
yeah? We cry, we feel despair,

because things aren't going according to
plan, how we wanted them go,

and it's because we haven't really
understood the Buddhist idea of

impermanence, of unreliability.
Take that on board! Yeah?

If you take that on board you don't grasp
so strongly on that grass torch any more,

you realise the grass torch is
inherently problematic, you're gonna burn,

and if you burn, if you burn up,
then of course, after while, you're gonna die!

So that's what happens when you burn,
and this is really problematic for you.

So you grasp a little bit more lightly,
you seek for happiness and satisfaction

in the world in slightly different places,
not so much in those places

where you have to grasp
and attach so strongly.

The simile of the grass torch, yeah,

one of the most basic, fundamental similes
for the problem of the sensual world.

If you go inside, it is slightly different
because you don't grasp so strongly onto

the internal states of the mind,
it's a much lighter touch

that you have with those things.

Simile Number 2. This is the simile of
the Buddha where he talks about,

it's about birds, and this bird has
kind of got hold of a piece of meat,

and of course if a bird gets hold of
meat, it's a very happy bird, yeah?

So the bird takes off, holds the piece
of meat in its little claws and flies off.

But of course, there are many other birds
who would also like a piece of meat,

you don't get left alone if you are a bird
holding a piece of meat.

Other birds want it too.
So as soon as it flies off,

the other birds also take off,
follow that bird, grab hold of it,

try to rip out the piece of meat
from its claws, yeah?

And the Buddha says, if that bird doesn't
give up that piece of meat quickly,

what's gonna happen to that bird?
Well, it will either suffer or it will die

because it will have to fight with
these other birds, yeah?

That is the consequence of
grabbing hold of that piece of meat.

And as you kind of understand, the piece
of meat of course is here a simile for

the sensual pleasures, or the sensual
objects of the world, yeah?

Because we grab onto those sensual objects,
the problem is that the world is such

that other people also want
those sensual objects, yeah?

As soon as you find some wonderful
person to share your life with,

and kind of you're thinking about
having a partnership,

you find that other people too
are interested in that person, yeah?

Problematic, and even if you actually
have a nice partnership,

and you find somebody to live with,
then of course you are eternally slightly

worried that that person might leave you,
maybe they will find someone else.

There's always some underlying concern
there because you never know.

This is kind of the fighting over
the piece of meat almost, yeah?

We are fighting over things in the world,
and the world is full of that,

so much of how we live our life,
and how the world works is this fight

over limited resources.
Everybody wants more,

nobody is ever quite satisfied, there is
no kind of end-point in terms of craving,

and because there is no
end-point for all of us,

we fight over limited resources,

always wanting more,
always wanting to go somewhere else.

There's a beautiful story that in the...
this is in the sutta called the

"Raṭṭhapāla Sutta", a very nice sutta
that I would recommend you all to read

if you have the chance, is of a young man
from a very wealthy family,

and he goes forth in the time of
the Buddha, and he has got everything in life,

and then he goes forth,
his parents try to hold him back..

I'm not gonna tell the whole story,
it's a long story,

it's a very kind of nice one, quite funny,
and entertaining as well,

this is a nice thing about
the Buddha's teachings,

it's both a little bit entertaining,
and profound at the same time,

so beautiful combination.

Anyway, so he goes forth, yeah,
against his parents' wishes,

his parents are really opposed to it,
and he goes forth,

and then he becomes an arahant.
When he comes back after being an arahant,

his parents try to lure him
back to lay life,

"oh, come and get all this
gold and stuff."

And he comes, he's an arahant, he's
fully enlightened, he's not interested in

gold and that kind of thing any more,
so he kind of dismisses his parents,

he calls his father "householder",
that's one of the things that I remember

from there.
He says "householder" to his father,

and I have never tried to say
that to my own father,

because I think it may go down
really badly if I said that (laughter).

"Householder"... OK,

but... then he realises that,
so his parents kind of give up on him,

and he goes off into the forest,
he goes into the forest,

and a local king comes out to see him,
and the king comes out, and the king asks,

the king is very old that this point,
and he asks Raṭṭhapāla,

"you have got everything for goodness
sake, you have got a good education,

"you come from a good family,
you are wealthy, you have friends,

"you have everything in life, why on earth
did you go forth? Are you nuts?"

No, he didn't say that, I made that up,
that's not the part of the sutta,

I'm adding a little bit for effects..

Because he's much too respectful
to ask a question like that,

so, but he says,
"why did you go forth? Is because of...

"what is the reason?"
And then Raṭṭhapāla tells him,

"well, because I understood
these four principles of Dhamma,"

and one of these principles is that
the world is a slave to craving,

the world is insatiate,
a slave to craving.

You are not in charge, this is the reason
why we like to desire sometimes,

because we think we are in charge,

the desire is mine, I will use desire
as my tool to get things.

No, it's the exact opposite, again
the Buddha turns the world around 180°.

It's the opposite, you are the slave,
craving is in charge.

You are saying, "yes, master,
lead me wherever you want to go,"

and you follow after your master.
Craving is your master. Can you see that?

The reason you can't see it is
because you have a sense of self,

that tells you you are in charge,
and you are doing these things,

but actually, that is false.
What is true is craving is in charge,

and you are following along like this silly
dog on a leash or something like that,

yeah, going this way, going that way,

"yes, master, where would you
want to go next?" Yeah?

That's craving for you, and it's
terrible if you think about it.

So then, this is what Raṭṭhapāla says to
the king, and the king says,

"I don't understand,
what are you talking about?"

And Raṭṭhapāla says, "well, your majesty,
imagine that there was a man,

"you are already wealthy,
you have this enormous kingdom,

"you have gold and silver piled up
in massive storehouses, you have grain,

"you have everything in this large kingdom
of yours, but imagine the man came from

"the west, and this man in the west said,
'well, to the west of your kingdom,

'there is another kingdom, full of gold,
full of silver, full of treasure,

full of all kinds of elephants and horses
and all this kind of stuff.'"

Elephants and horses and cattle were
kind of very much part of

what was considered wealth
in those days, yeah?

'But even though this kingdom
to the west has all these things,

'its army is weaker than yours. If you
wish, you could conquer that country.'

"What would you do, your majesty?"

And the king replies,
"oh we would conquer it of course.."

And, as if its absolutely obvious
that you conquer countries if you can,

and then he says, "well, if there was
another man coming from the north,

"and said exactly the same thing.
What would you do?"

"Oh, we would conquer
that country as well."

"What if there was another man coming
from the east?" "Conquer that one, too."

"From the south?" "Conquer that one, too."
"Overseas?" "Conquer that one, too."

"Is there any kingdom
you would not conquer?"

Again, that question is not there,
but is kind of implied,

"Of course not! Conquer anything
that is there if it's weaker than mine,

"we will conquer it."
So where does desire end?

It doesn't end, yeah?
It just expands, expands, expands,

and once you get the whole Earth,
you're kind of setting your sights on Mars

and Venus probably,
because you're not satisfied yet.

And then the next solar system and
then the next galaxy.

And I reckon the reason why all of these
physicists had this idea of the multiverse,

have you heard about the multiverse?
This idea in astronomy,

that there's not only one universe,
but there are many universes.

I think they realise that when craving
comes, and the entire universe is yours,

where is craving gonna go?
"Ok, better build, make up a multiverse,

"then there's more chance of
satisfying our craving,"

That's where I think the multiverse idea
came from, kind of some sort of, maybe,

a secret subconscious drive of craving
that kind of brought forth the idea of

the multiverse. That's a very heretical
idea, don't tell that to any astronomers,

they will kind of tell you
that I'm a fool, an idiot.

I don't understand astronomy
or physics, of course.

But it kind of makes sense
though, doesn't it?

Because craving knows no bounds,
there is no limit, it keeps on going,

and going and going. And this is the problem.
So this is the thing here, yeah,

and this is why there is never enough,
never enough to satisfy everyone,

this is why we have craving, the desire,
this is one of the reasons why we have

the Royal Banking Commission in Australia
right now, because people are just greedy,

and there is not enough, and you fight.
You have an office full of politics,

and people fighting in the office,
trying to put down others,

and make themselves look glorious,
and they would kind of get the promotion

or the bonus or whatever it is,
and this is the problem with these things,

fighting over things,
always trying to get ahead,

and then having lots of casualties
of course on the way.

So this is to me a very problematic
part with sensuality,

sensuality is inherently full of conflict,
inherently it leads to violence,

inherently it leads to wars
and all kinds of problems, yeah?

And you can see
why that has to be the case,

because there is never enough for
everyone, because craving knows no limits,

and we want the same kind of things,
and ultimately we will fight over it,

fight over the inheritance,
fight over the promotion at work,

fight over the last piece of cake, if you
are little children, fight over toys.

Whatever it is, there's always the world
of sensuality

tends to lead towards
conflict and violence.

Think about that, and that is very
off-putting in a way, yeah?

You cannot really have a peaceful world
as long as sensuality is involved.

So that is the second simile of
the Buddha,

and I think a very very powerful one.

The third simile of the Buddha,
it's not his third one, but it is a simile

anyway, the third one in this talk,
that is the simile of the dream.

The Buddha says that sensual pleasures
are like a dream.

We talk about the world not being real,
sometimes being like an illusion,

being like a projection of the mind,
illusory, and sensuality,

sensual pleasures are just like that.
And if you think about it again,

it's fairly obvious why this is the case,
these similes are very easy, I think,

to understand. Why is it?
How come it as a dream?

And the reason it is a dream is because
the way we think about things,

the way we think about possessions,
the way we think about,

when I get this new house,
when I get this car,

when I get this relationship
or whatever,

the idea in our mind is
very different from the reality, yeah?

We know that especially from
relationships, when you fall in love,

and you have this kind of idea of
the perfect partner in life,

and you can't even see
any negative aspect on them,

because you are so biased, you are so...
you only see one side of your partner.

But the reality of course
is much broader.

So the reality turns out to be
very very different from the fantasy.

That is also true in smaller things
in life. You get a new car,

you have all these dreams about this car,
for some people, not for everyone,

but some people have these kind of
fantasies, but the reality,

after driving for a few weeks,
it gets pretty ordinary again,

and the fantasy recurs
and builds up again.

I remember myself when I was young,
so a while ago now,

but I had been young as well, (laughter)
so, when I was at university,

for example, which is about 30 years
ago now or more,

I remember thinking about
my own future, and I thought,

gee, I'm gonna have a really good job,
I'm gonna make lots of money,

I'm gonna do all these kind of cool things,
I'm gonna have a wife like this and this,

that kind of wife, and I'm gonna do,
live well, I'm gonna have,

everything's going to be nice, and have the right
kinds of friends, and that kind of stuff,

actually, it wasn't exactly like that,
I'm just making something up,

but it was a little bit like that,
the dream about the future,

especially the dream about, you know
girlfriend and wife, that sort of stuff,

and having a nice house, and you can see
what a waste of time that was, yeah?

When you look at this, it was a complete
absolute mistake!

Talking about the dream being wrong,
this is kind of maxing on wrongness.

Absolutely wrong. But the reality is
that for every one of us,

it is a little bit like that,

you dream about something, you have
this idea what something is gonna be like,

and the reality is always different, yeah?

Life is like a dream, moving towards
something that never actually arises,

and then when you get those things,

and realise that
the dream isn't gonna work out,

you think about new things,
you change your dream a little bit,

but it's still a dream,
it will never actually get there.

We live in this life of
one thing to bring something about,

we live in a dream life that never
actually comes out to be quite like that.

So much of life is like that,
and this is one of the reasons

why the mindfulness is so difficult,
because if you live a dream,

if you live craving, if you live desire,
the mind is always onto something else,

never really happy
to be in present moment.

So as you let go of those things,

the mind settles into
the present moment much more.

That is the simile of the dream.

Another of my really favourite similes
from the suttas,

is the simile of the borrowed goods.
This is the Buddha, when he talks about,

he says that, "imagine a rich person",
in those days, rich persons were

pretty humble compared to what are
these days, the rich person, he drives,

oh sorry, not a rich person, what am I talking
about, an ordinary person who borrows

goods of rich people.
So he gets a nice carriage,

and he has some nice jewellery,
like nice earrings or whatever,

and that was considered
a rich person in those days,

a nice carriage and some earrings,

and then he drives around in his carriage,
wearing his nice earrings,

and he drives around in town,
very humble, anyway, he drives around town,

and people look at him,
"wow, check out this rich guy,

"he is really wealthy, this is how
the wealthy enjoy their wealth!"

This is what they say about this man,
and of course when people point to you,

and say, "you are wealthy," you start
inflating your ego straight away, yeah?

"Yeah, I am important, that's right,
I'm rich, you guys you are less than me,

"I am more because I'm more wealthy
than you are."

And this is what happens if you are
wealthy, you start to feel more important,

yeah? It's just part and parcel,
it's nothing, it's unfortunate,

but it's just the reality of human beings,

we are like that, yeah?
That's just the reality of things.

And of course, then, because these things
are borrowed, the owner comes back,

and takes back the carriage, takes back
those earrings, and then how does he feel?

He feels naked, he feels like that
the attachment he has built up to

those things, these things,
his sense of identity,

which now is vested in those goods,
suddenly is taken away.

You feel naked,
you feel something is gone,

"What, I'm not wealthy after all!"
It's like you are shocked, you forgot

that those goods actually were borrowed,
that is the problem.

And the reality of our life is that
our life is full of borrowed goods.

Yeah? What is borrowed in life?
If you think about it

pretty much everything we have
in this life is actually borrowed, yeah?

Everything you own in your life,
your relationships,

your friendships in this world,
you physical body

ultimately is borrowed as well.
Why is it borrowed?

Because very often nature comes,
impermanence comes, unreliability comes,

and snatches it back, and there's nothing
you can do to control it or to hold onto it.

At the very latest, when you die,
it's going to be taken away from you.

Everything in our life, pretty much,
especially everything in the sensual world

are borrowed goods - you can't hold onto
them, it's gonna have to go.

What does this mean?
And this is actually very, I don't know,

it's very powerful, you know,
if you think about in this life,

if you borrow something,
if you rent something,

like you rent an apartment
for a few months,

how much investment are
you gonna put into

an apartment you're renting
from someone else?

Not that much, because you won't be
able to enjoy that investment,

the owner would enjoy it,
rather than you.

So if everything in your life
is borrowed goods,

it means you start investing less
in those borrowed goods in your life,

and you start investing, instead, in those
things that actually go beyond that,

that are more profound, that have a deeper
sense of meaning and fulfilment.

What is that? And the difference of course
is that, the difference here is

between focusing solely
on this little existence,

this little slice of existence
that we have here and now,

and to compare that to the existence that
you have, from a Buddhist point of view,

the vast existence takes into account
past lives and future lives,

it's a panorama, far far wider,
than the little reality we are aware of

right now in this life.
And this is why the idea of rebirth,

the idea of re-existence, of re-death,
of re-everything is so important,

because it changes your calculation of
what is important,

how we should live,
what is important in our lives?

What is the thing that is not borrowed
goods in this sense?

The thing that is not the borrowed goods
is your mind. Why?

Because your mind is what goes beyond this
ordinary life

and you take with you into your future.

If you build up a beautiful mind
in this life, if you build up

a light mind full of good merit and
happiness and good qualities,

that is what you take with you into the
future. And don't be fooled,

it can be done, you can change,
you can become more bright,

you can become more happy.
It's a gradual process,

it takes perseverance and commitment,
but it can be done. How do we do it?

And the way we do it is
not by focusing so much

on the results and the goals of this life,

but focusing more on the process,
focusing more

on how we get to these things,
rather than actually the goals themselves.

And I think this is one of those, again,

critical things and
critical differences in life.

The vast majority of people, because
we are interested in the sensual realm,

the sensual things, we always want
to enhance the sensual pleasures in life,

we focus on those goals, how to get there,
and very often the problem is that

the goal justifies the means, the end
justifies the means, yeah?

It's one of those ancient sayings which
is complete nonsense of course

from the Buddhist point of view,
because we want to get to those goals,

and whatever means we use
to get there is irrelevant.

Of course the problem with that is

that you may be building up
a lot in this life,

you make this life very beautiful and
you have all kinds of things in this life,

but as part and parcel of that
you take all sorts of short-cuts,

you do bad things to other people.
When you come to the end of your life,

imagine how you feel.
You come to the end of your life,

you have built up all of these things,

and all of these things you have built up,
they belong to this world,

they are borrowed goods, now you're
gonna have to let go of all of that,

and in the meantime, you have done
many bad things to drag your mind down,

make the mind a bit darker,
a bit more unpleasant,

a bit heavier place to be. That is all
that you have left when you die.

How do you feel?

You feel like you have wasted an
opportunity. You feel there's nothing left,

you feel kind of this sense of
emptiness and confusion,

"I have wasted the opportunity,
I have lived a life focusing solely on

"things that belong to this world,
and there's nothing I can take with me

"except for the badness
I have done in the meantime,

"and that has let me down, and the future
now, is looking very dismal."

This is the problem
by focusing on these things.

So instead of focusing on the goal,
instead of focusing on the end,

a Buddhist way of thinking is to focus
on the process, to focus on the how,

how we reach those goals,
how we get there,

and then if the goals don't happen,
if we don't achieve those things

that we would like to achieve in life,
it doesn't matter so much,

because by focusing on the process,
we have lifted ourselves up,

made ourselves a brighter mind,

and we feel when we come to
the end of our life,

"OK, I may not have achieved very much
in this life, but who cares?

"It's all going to have to go anyway,
the only thing I have achieved is building up

"a brighter and happier mind for myself."
And lo and behold, at this point,

that is the only thing that matters,
everything else is irrelevant.

So it changes your calculation,
the simile of the borrowed goods,

it makes you look at life
an entirely different way,

and this is such a powerful
and wonderful thing.

All those people, you know,
who we see have taken short-cuts,

perhaps, some of the things
that have been uncovered by

the Royal Banking Commission and all this
kind of stuff, why have they done that?

They focused on the goal,
not focusing on the process,

and by doing so,
they trick themselves,

they've made a mistake
and created badness within themselves,

while at the same time,
going for worldly things

that are inherently
impermanent and problematic.

So there you are,
the simile of the borrowed goods.

The next simile, this is the simile of
the jungle or the forest,

and the Buddha says, imagine
two people living in a village

or living in a town,
and they go down into the forest.

When they go down into the forest,

the first of these people, he walks into
the forest, and he looks around,

the forest is very dark,
the forest is very thick and dense,

and he can't see very far
in any direction at all,

but he's wandering around in this forest,

looking for things that make will him happy,
and then he comes to a mango tree,

"wow!", the mango tree, ripe mangoes
on the tree, he climb up the mango tree,

and he goes up in the mango tree
and sits there and eats mangoes,

and while he eats mangoes,
because the mangoes are so delicious,

is there anyone here who
doesn't like mangoes?

Everybody likes nice ripe mangoes,
when they're nice... maybe not everyone,

maybe there is always someone
who is kind of different,

but most people like ripe mangoes.

He goes up into the tree, indulging in
ripe mangoes, and because he's indulging,

he loses his mindfulness, no idea what's
going on, "oh mango is so nice!"

and sits there, and just kind of
intoxicated by mangos, mango intoxication.

Then, comes another man.
You think alcohol is bad,

maybe mango is even worse,
in some ways.

So then another man comes along,
and he does not know

how to climb a tree, so he thinks

"ah, all those nice mangos, how am I gonna
get hold of them, hmm, OK,"

takes out his axe, and starts
chopping down the tree at the root.

And the Buddha says, "well, if that man
who's already up in that mango tree,

"if he doesn't come down quickly,
what's gonna happen?"

Well, he's gonna fall down,
he's gonna break a leg and an arm,

or he might even die if it's high enough,
that's what's gonna happen, yeah?

So this is the problem,
and what is the point of this?

The point of this is that these two men,
these two people who walk into the jungle,

walk into the forest,
the jungle here, as I read it,

is a simile for the sensual world, yeah?

We are in the sensual world, maybe we are
in the city, when you are in the city,

there are all kinds of sensual pleasures
available for you, there's cafes,

there's entertainment going on, that's
where you, kind of you find your partner

for life and all these kind of things.
Cities are a place of sensuality.

Walking around in the city,
looking at all of these nice potential

sensual pleasures,
walking around in the jungle.

But of course, just like the city,
the jungle is a place where you can't

see very far, yeah? When you are in
the realm of sensual pleasures,

your mind is limited, your mind is not
vast and expansive,

as it can be in meditation practice,
it's limited and contracted.

You can't see very far away, you have no
overview, you have no bird's eye view,

you have no perspective on what is going on,
that is the problem in the jungle,

all you're doing is looking for the next
sensual pleasure, yeah?

Life is a bit like that,
looking for the next pleasure,

looking for the next happiness,
looking for what we can do next.

When are we gonna go on holiday?
Which restaurant are we going to tonight?

What are we gonna do? Always thinking
of some more pleasure down the road,

and as you indulge in those pleasures,
as you indulge in this happiness of

the senses, then because you are indulging
because you are intoxicated,

you're losing your mindfulness,

and before you know it,
it is your turn to die, yeah?

Before you know it you are, I don't know,
75, 80, 85, I don't know when people

die these days, at various ages,
and that's it, you had it,

you're finished, and because you were
intoxicated on the way,

because you were indulging
too much on the way,

you lost your mindfulness,
you lost your ability to think clearly

about what is really important in life,
and then death surprises you,

when it finally happens, and of course,
you're not ready to die when that happens..

You got intoxicated,
because you were intoxicated

you forgot that living well is important,
you forgot that kindness

and compassion, and peace in life,
actually is so significant

to make us really happy
in a deeper sense,

and for practicing the spiritual path.
You forgot all of that,

and then when you die, you die
in a bad way, wondering what you did.

So what is the alternative?
The alternative is this:

and this is another nice little simile
from the suttas,

the simile of two friends walking through
the jungle, walking through this dense

jungle of sensuality, not really seeing
very far ahead in any direction at all,

and they come to a hill, a tall hill,
almost like a mountain,

and then one friend says to the other one,
"lets go to the top of the hill,

"to the top of the mountain."
The other man says, "no, no,

"I'm not interested, I will stay down
here at the bottom."

So his friend says,
"OK, I will go up by myself."

So he goes up to the top of the mountain,

and when he gets up to the top of
the mountain, he says,

"wow, you should see,
when you stand on the top of mountain,

"you can see fields, you can see villages,
you can see roads,

"you can see all of these things,
lakes and gardens and groves,

"all this kind of stuff!"
So he shouts down to his friend,

"Yea! I can see all this stuff from
the top here." And his friend says,

"no way, absolutely no chance you can see
that from the top of the mountain,"

and the friend on the top
gets a bit exasperated

because he can see all these things.
So he goes down to

the bottom of the mountain,
grabs his friend by his arm,

not using too much violence because
he's a good Buddhist, but a little bit,

"OK, come along."
He drags him up to the top of the mountain

he gets super-strength when it's something
important to show other people,

drags him all the way up, and says,
"Look! Ok, what do you see?"

"Oh, yeah, I see fields, gardens, groves,
villages, roads, all these things."

"Well, why did you say at the bottom of
the mountain that you didn't see that?"

And the friend replies, "because when I
was at the bottom, I was obstructed by

"this very mountain,
from being able to see those things."

And the point here is that when you are
in the midst of the sensuality,

when you are in midst of the sensual
objects of the world,

you have no perspective,
you have no overview,

you are like a fish in water,
all you know is water, you have no idea

about anything else, it's impossible for
you to understand sensuality.

When you practice the spiritual path,
you elevate yourself, gradually lifting

yourself out of sensuality, until one day
you reach the state of samādhi,

and when you reach the state of
samādhi for the first time

have you extracted yourself from the world
of sensuality for the very first time,

do you have the eagle's,
the bird's eye view,

and you can actually see
what is going on.

Then you understand sensuality,
then you know the problem of these things.

This is the opposite of being in
the jungle, being in the forest.

Then you know the problem,
then you know what is going on.

Most of the time we are just intoxicated,
following along, and for this reason,

sometimes we need to have a little bit of
faith and confidence in the teachings of

the Buddha, in the promise of
what meditation actually can do for us.

So what is the promise?
Well this is the very last simile,

actually, a couple of more similes,
we'll have to see what happens,

I've only got a few more minutes,
otherwise I'm gonna be overtime,

the very last simile
that I want to talk about tonight,

and this is the simile of the dog,

the simile of the dog is
the dog which is hungry.

If you've seen some of
these dogs in India,

they're always hungry,
always looking for food,

they're not like the
pampered dogs in the West.

With dogs we look after them,
they're really kind of happy,

but in India, they are kind of
really scrawny, and kind of terrible,

and terrified of human beings,
for kicking them and all this kind of stuff.

So these dogs in India they are running
around, yeah, from one butcher shop

to the next one, and whenever
they come to a butcher shop,

the butcher is not gonna them give any meat.
You don't give valuable meat

to a kind of strange scrawny dodgy dog
coming around every now and again.

But the butcher,
because he has a little bit of compassion,

when all the meat has been taken
off the bone,

he chucks the bone out to the dog,
and of course this bone,

which has no meat on it,
all it has is a little bit of blood,

the dog kind of ignores this bone,
all he gets is a taste of blood,

all it does is increasing its craving for
some real meat, for real sustenance, yeah?

More craving. So as soon as the dog
has finished licking off the blood

of that bone, it runs off to the next
butcher shop, still craving,

still desiring, try to get something else.
It goes to the next butcher shop,

the same thing happens again,
no meat, no sustenance,

nothing that fulfills you inside,
again the same kind of craving,

by licking the blood and not really getting
anything else. And on and on it goes,

from butcher shop to butcher shop,
from household to household,

life after life, eon after eon.
This is the simile of human beings,

the simile of always running after
sensual pleasures,

never giving any real satisfaction,

never giving any sense of
fulfillment and completion,

never being a real goal,
a real purpose in life,

never actually getting you anywhere.

You always just keep on doing
the same thing again and again and again.

This is the real problem of
craving for sensual pleasures,

there is no finality to it, there is no
goal, there is nowhere we are going,

we're just doing the same thing again
and again and again.

This is the simile of the dog.
So what is the alternative?

This is where the Buddhist path comes in.

The Buddha says,
"there is an alternative happiness."

The happiness that leads to
real fulfilment, real completion,

that actually is a real end
in its own right.

What is that happiness?
It starts off by practicing kindness and

generosity and compassion in this world,
and as you do that,

I would really recommend that each one
of you to think about this very carefully,

when you do an act of kindness,
when you do an act of generosity,

how do you feel about yourself?
And I'm sure you will have noticed

that when you do an act of kindness,
when it really comes from your heart,

you feel good about yourself.
How does that feel?

And you will also notice
it's a very different kind of feeling

from the feeling of satisfaction
that you get from craving.

When you crave, that satisfaction you get
is kind of hollow and empty,

and you crave while you are doing it,
and the craving soon re-arises again,

it's very hollow kind of
satisfaction you get there.

But the happiness that you get through
living well, through doing the right thing

is a satisfaction, a happiness,
that has no craving coming with it.

There is no craving there, it is a
happiness that is in the present moment,

and because of that, it is a peaceful
and beautiful kind of happiness.

This is already just by living well,
just by living with kindness,

by living with care, living with honesty
and doing the right things in the world.

And as you keep on doing this,
you get into meditation, you come here to

the Dhammaloka Centre on Fridays,
maybe you come to the Saturday meditation,

maybe you start coming to Jhana Grove,
doing some retreats or whatever,

as you do that, you are deepening your
meditation gradually gradually over time,

and as your meditation gets deeper,
that happiness that you started getting

just by living in a kind way gets
more and more internalised,

more and more you find this
through your meditation practice,

just by sitting inside of yourself,
being inside of yourself,

finding that true refuge within,
the happiness, the joy, becomes

more and more powerful,
more and more in the present moment,

more and more unified, until one day
you reach a full state of samādhi,

a full state, a deep state of meditation
practice. And when you do that, one day,

you realise that you have found
a complete sense of satisfaction,

a complete sense of fulfillment.

There is no further goal,
there is nowhere else to go.

Before you were always driven by craving,
driven by desires. The craving always

promising you satisfaction, yeah?
If you think about it, whenever you think

about a relationship or think about any
sensual objects in the world,

there is always a promise of
satisfaction there, but it doesn't last.

And even when you have it, it's not all
that interesting. Craving is still there.

But here for the first time in your life,
you find absolute satisfaction.

Craving is completely gone.
There is no desire anymore.

There is no drive to go anywhere else.
So what is that?

Well what that is,
and this is why it is so profound,

what you have found, you have found

the answer to the very meaning,
the question of the meaning of life.

The moment there is no more drive
anymore, there is no more will,

there is no more craving, there is no more
to go. You have found something

where you find complete contentment
and satisfaction.

The whole inside has been filled up,
there is no more itch there,

all that is gone, complete satisfaction,

that is the answer to the question of
the meaning of life.

You have discovered
the very meaning of life itself.

This is what the Buddhist path promises,

this is why it is so extraordinary
exceptional and profound,

it really gives you the answer to
the meaning of life.

And I think if we can just
grasp that and get that,

from that comes that commitment
and perseverance to the Buddhist path,

because you understand there is
nothing else to look for,

this is it, this is what
life actually is all about.

Of course, you may get into
that state of samādhi,

and then you may lose it again afterwards.

That is where the idea of insight comes.
The final analysis,

it is the insight, the understanding,
that kind of breaks this whole process,

and makes craving
stop once and for all.

And that is where you find
the final meaning of life through

the Buddhist practice. And this is what
this all is leading us towards,

towards that very sense of finding the
meaning of life, but to do that,

in the process, you also gradually
abandon all the sensual objects,

all the sensual desires in this world
you gradually abandon,

until one day you actually reach this.

And then you understand
what really life is about,

you understand the purpose of all of this,

and you understand why it was necessary
on that path to abandon these things.

So please don't go back home and think

you're going to abandon
all sensuality in one go,

chuck out all the nice things
in your life, don't do that,

just reflect on these things,
reflect on them,

think about them, see if they make sense
to you, internalise them so that

they become your wisdom rather than
the Buddha's wisdom or someone else's

wisdom, and as you internalise
these things, gradually,

your life will start to go down
a different path, all by itself,

and you will start to feel more satisfied,
you'll start to find more meaning in life,

and everything becomes much more
profound as a consequence.

Okay, that is all for tonight.

(Audience) Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.

OK, would anyone...
Thank you very much.

Would anyone like to ask any questions
or comment or anything like that?

(Questioner) Ajahn, suttas about
stream winners enjoying

sensual pleasures...I just, you know,
I wonder about, our chances.. (laughter)

(Ajhan) Well, it's a long path, and even
though you have full insight into reality,

if you are a stream-enterer,
especially if you are layperson,

the reality is that you don't often have
time to do any meditation practice,

and when you don't have time, you're
gonna seek for happiness somewhere else,

so you seek for that happiness again
in sensuality. So it's natural,

but the mind of a stream-enterer will
incline towards meditation,

you always want to go back to that, and your
indulgence would be very kind of basic,

would be at a very low level compared to
the indulgence of the vast majority of people.

So don't worry about the chances you have,
it's not really about the chances,

what it's about is whether you're
going in the right direction.

As long as you're
going to the right direction,

as long as you see a change in your life,
if you keep on going,

eventually you have to get there, as long
as the change kind of keeps on going,

eventually you're gonna have to reach
whatever goal that is that you aspire for.

Okay, anyone else?
Yeah, please don't be shy.

If you have never asked a question before,
this is the chance, yeah, first time,

is always good, is everybody happy,
yeah? Nobody wants to ask questions?

Okay, good, so I don't know if that
means you are entirely convinced,

or you are utterly sceptical,
but it doesn't really matter,

so lets just take a few questions
from overseas then,

there's three questions from overseas.
The first one is from Wolfram,

from Germany, and he asks,
"are you free to enjoy everything,

"as long as you are not attached to it?
Just letting go of desires be

"a natural and gradual loss of interest,
and not by denial or suppression of joy?"

I would say that you should enjoy life,
this is I think an important thing,

the idea that it is possible to live
life without enjoyment and just kind of,

you know, live, have no joy, kind of
enter all the happiness of the path,

I think that is impossible, so make sure that
you enjoy the ordinary happinesses of life,

and let it be a gradual movement,
a gradual reduction of the happiness

coming from sensuality, and a gradual
increase in the happiness coming from

practice in the path.
That is really the ideal way,

so you don't feel that you are deprived
of happiness and joy in your life.

At the same time, the idea that you are
going to enjoy it without being

attached to it,
that's really impossible, yeah?

You are going to attach to it,
you have no choice,

attachment is a natural expression
of the ego. If you have an ego,

unless if you are a stream-enterer,
arahant, again,

you are going to attach to things,
that's what the ego does,

that's one of the aspects of ego.
So don't worry about it so much

if you are attached, a little bit of
attachment is gonna be there,

move your attachment towards things
that are more worthy of attachment.

Attach a little bit to your precepts,
to your kindness, to compassion,

to all of these positive things, and if
you attach more to the positive things,

you can let go of attachment
a little bit to the bad things. Yeah?

I'm saying "bad" to things that are
not as lofty and so noble.

And gradually as you do that,
you are kind of moving,

kind of climbing up the ladder,
if you like, reaching for a higher rung,

attaching to a higher rung, letting go
of the lower rungs,

attaching to higher things.
And as you do that,

your attachment actually becomes
lighter as you move up the ladder.

Attachments to sensual pleasures
are very hard and sticky,

the higher up you go,
the lighter it becomes,

until eventually all attachment is gone.
So that's okay. So don't worry too much

if there is a bit of attachment there,
rather try to move to higher kinds

of attachment, and let go of the lower
ones, and don't force the path,

I think one of the things that is so
important on the Buddhist path is

to enjoy it, to make sure that it is
delightful and enjoyable,

and if you do that, you're gonna end up
on this Buddhist path for a long long time.

But if you make it miserable, if you make
it too hard, too difficult for yourself,

there's no way you are going to be able
to sustain it in the long run.

So please do that, and then you hopefully
will be around for a long time.

Anyway, nice to hear from you Wolfram.

Number 2, this is from Hadeel from Israel,
"how can we overcome the physical craving

"to someone we are
romantically in love with?"

Umm, probably cannot, yeah?
This is the problem, probably, probably

can't do that, so don't worry too much
about it, practice the path to the best of

your ability without trying to overcome
those things, it's... you know,

if you are in a romantic relationship,
well that's the reason why you

are there is partly because of that,
otherwise you wouldn't be

in that romantic relationship probably.

So that's kind of part of the deal
when you are there,

so just think about these similes,
practice the path and see what it leads you.

Who knows where it's gonna lead you
in the future,

but you cannot really overcome that craving
while you are in a romantic relationship.

So just practice, see what happens,
maybe down the track,

something will happen,
and maybe things will change,

but in the meantime, just, you know,
take that as the part of the deal

when you are into
that kind of relationship.

Number 3, is Evy from USA,
"can attachment to wholesome things

"such as a spiritual practice also have
the potential to become a form of

"sensual pleasure, if approached
in the wrong way?"

Um.. it can never be a sensual pleasure

because attachment to spiritual
practice is not sensual,

it's a different kind of attachment, and
as I just said, I think a little bit of

attachment to your spiritual practice
actually is very good thing,

because if you have no
attachments to your precepts,

what's gonna happen?
You're not gonna keep them, basically

that's what is that it is, because there's
always gonna be some desire that wants

to override the precepts, so if you have no
attachment, you shrug your shoulders,

"oh yeah, whatever," and do whatever you
want to do. So a little bit of attachment,

a little bit of commitment, maybe is
a better word of putting it,

a bit of commitment to these precepts
is actually quite important,

otherwise you'll never
really gonna get there.

So generally speaking, I would say
a little bit of attachment to the Buddhist

path is good, yeah? Okay, I mean, I am
proud of being a Buddhist myself,

and I certainly have some attachment to
that path, otherwise I wouldn't be

a monk anymore, I would be doing
all kinds of other stuff instead.

So a little bit of attachment is good,
but not too much attachment,

not wrong kind of attachment,
not attachment that leads you to arguing,

for example, a lot with a lot of other people.
"I believe in rebirth"

"What? You fool! Believing in rebirth.."
"No, rebirth is true!" ... yeah?

That kind of stuff. And when you get into
that sort of thing,

it becomes problematic. And also be
careful where your attachment is:

don't attach too much to individuals,

this is one, I think, of the
great dangers on the spiritual path,

you see that everywhere around the world
in spiritual matters,

people are attaching to gurus,
people are attaching to teachers,

and that can lead to lots of problems,
it can lead to abuse,

it can also lead to a lot of
distress if that person

decides to disrobe,
for example, yeah?

You're attached to someone,
you think, "yeah, they're an arahant"

I've seen this so many times.

It is so hard as a layperson to know
who's an arahant, yeah?

You project onto people,

you think, "yeah, this person they
are definitely an arahant."

And the next day they are married,
yeah? "Wait a minute, what happened??"

So be very careful with that,
it's very very difficult sometimes,

some people can be very charismatic,
they can be good speakers,

they can have all this kind of
magnetic personality or whatever,

and you are drawn to them,

and then just as you're
drawn to them - bang!

They're kind of doing all kind of
dodgy stuff, and that's always a bad thing.

So, attach in the right way,
attach with a sense of care,

always investigate, and as you do that,
there's nothing wrong with attachment,

in fact, attachment is part and parcel
of having a sense of self,

you can't really avoid it,
unless you are fully enlightened

or awakened yourself.
Okay, so those are my answers.

Anyone else want to say anything?
Everyone, happy or...

I'm not sure what you are,
but you are not asking questions anyway...

So let's pay respect to
the Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha.

(Ajahn faces to the Buddha statue.)

Arahaṃ sammā...
(rest of chanting inaudible)

(rest of chanting inaudible)