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Mindfulness and Kindfulness | Ajahn Brahm | 16 April 2021

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    So anyway for the talk
    just to warm people up.
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    They're one of the good friends,
    disciples, followers from Canada.
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    I'm sure is listening
    and if not listening now
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    will get hold of the talk later on.
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    They're very, very devoted disciples,
    very wonderful people too.
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    But they asked me that they've been
    trying to encourage some of their friends
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    to do some meditation.
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    But then some of the friends equate
    meditation to mindfulness practice.
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    And sometimes you see
    the people who practice mindfulness
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    that sometimes they get
    into difficulties and problems.
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    Sometimes it's just like people who
    have Covid 19 vaccine.
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    Sometimes they have problems
    only it's a tiny, tiny sort of proportion.
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    I think somebody said that
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    you've got more chance of
    having a problem with a Covid vaccine.
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    The chances of that are just more remote
    than winning the Lotto.
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    It's just like people surfing,
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    some people who surf on
    Western Australia get eaten by sharks
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    that doesn't really stop people surfing.
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    But even with mindfulness practice
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    sometimes there's some problems there.
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    You know, it doesn't need to be.
    It's much safer than surfing,
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    but it's also much more healthy.
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    And one of the reasons why
    any problems exist in the first place
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    is that this thing called mindfulness
    has been just almost like titrated
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    and just taken away from its context
    in other forms of Buddhist practice.
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    And when it's by itself it misses out
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    on some of the wonderful safeguards
    which are always there.
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    And to make a point, when I first went
    to teach meditation overseas.
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    I think it was over in Malaysia.
    Malaysia is a Muslim country,
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    there's a lot of Buddhists
    over in Malaysia as well.
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    And over there they were very keen
    on doing all the parts of Buddhism
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    especially meditation practice.
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    when I talked to them
    I was stunned, I was surprised!
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    Because they were complaining
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    that meditation gave you
    "Samadhi headache!"
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    They called samadhi means like,
    well it actually meant over there,
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    concentration.
    It really means stillness.
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    "Meditation headache?"
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    I couldn't understand that. I've been
    meditating for years by that time.
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    How many years of, crikey!
    About 30 years probably.
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    I never had a headache by meditating.
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    Actually I use meditation
    to overcome headaches.
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    I use meditation overcome headaches,
    indigestion, scrub typhus fever.
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    That's a pretty big one.
    And all these other stuff,
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    even injuries, bruises
    and stuff if we fell over.
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    And it's amazing I thought,
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    meditation is there to help your health
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    not to create more headaches
    and problems.
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    What on earth have you been doing?
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    And of course, it was a meditation
    which was being done,
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    which has a lot of problems
    if you compared it with
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    traditional Buddhist meditation.
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    The meditators there were
    struggling and striving
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    and trying to get something.
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    And you find whenever
    you want something,
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    try to get something
    and strive something;
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    I'm going to do this.
    I'm going to make sure it works.
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    I'm going to be ...
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    My own story...
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    I'm still a lay person,
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    we started doing some meditation
    and it was the Vesak time.
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    This was celebrating the birth
    enlightenment, passing away of the Buddha.
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    And when I heard the story
    of the Buddha's enlightenment.
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    What I heard was that
    the Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree
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    and he made a resolution,
    a determination.
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    "I'm gonna get enlightened.
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    Right here, I'm not gonna move.
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    Even if my blood dries up
    and my bones turn to dust.
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    I'm not gonna move from this seat until
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    ... until I get full enlightenment".
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    Being stupid at the time I thought that
    was really cool.
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    So you know what I did?
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    I went back to my room,
    I put a little couple of cushions out,
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    (Laugh)
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    stupid young man,
    I was about 18 at the time (laugh)
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    You know, 18 year old men.
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    Any 18 year old man here?
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    Don't admit it. Don't admit it.
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    Come on, you're not 18
    you're much older than that.
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    I said 18 not 80.
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    So I sat down on that cushion
    I made a resolution.
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    I'm as good as the Buddha.
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    That was in India,
    he didn't have an education.
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    I thought like that, really arrogant.
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    You know my maximum amount of time
    I could meditate for at 18
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    was about 20 minutes
    and that was pushing it,
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    25 sometimes on a good meditation.
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    So I sat down and said forget about
    all of that,
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    I'm not going to move.
    Now I've got to get enlightened,
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    I want to get it out of the way, I've got
    many other things to do in my life.
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    I sat there and made the resolution
    I'm not gonna move
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    until I get perfect enlightenment or
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    you always gotta have
    an alternative or
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    my blood dries up and
    bones turn to dust.
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    I actually made that resolution,
    honestly I did.
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    It was hell. After half an hour
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    I meant to get to half an hour, my bones
    were just ... they were burning in pain,
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    my back was aching,
    every muscle was on fire.
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    No, I'm not enlightened yet, carry on.
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    [Laughter]
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    You know, I got about
    between 35 and 40 minutes.
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    I couldn't stand it any longer
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    and I opened my eyes and
    you know I wasn't enlightened!
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    And my blood hadn’t dried up yet,
    my bones hadn't turned to dust.
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    I was really stupid!
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    But later on, instead of just running
    because of arrogance
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    and meditating just because
    I thought I was so good.
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    I had a marvelous teacher
    like an Ajahn Chah.
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    And he kept on saying
    not just once but
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    many, many, many, many times.
    Probably a thousand times
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    in the nine years
    which I meditated with him.
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    He said you meditate to let go of things
    not to gain things.
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    And I didn't understand a word of it
    when I first heard it.
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    I realized that was some of the most
    wonderful advice he could ever give.
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    You want to get something,
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    something you want to aim for,
    to strive for, you get very tense.
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    But if you want to let go of things
    you get lighter and lighter
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    and the path becomes
    so easy and peaceful.
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    And that becomes another reason why
    many people,
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    if they don't understand
    what meditation or mindfulness is,
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    they want to get something,
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    always be the tension,
    the tightness there.
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    And a lot of times you can't get
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    what you think you want
    or you think you need.
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    You don't need very much.
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    But every time we think we need this
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    and when you're fighting
    you'd always get injuries,
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    or sometimes they call
    collateral damage.
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    And that's actually what happens when
    people are just mindful.
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    So as soldiers they can shoot
    more accurately and kill people.
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    When they're mindful so they can win
    more arguments in debates.
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    When they're mindful
    so they can make more money
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    on the stock market or whatever.
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    If you're trying to get something
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    you'll find that's not really
    Buddhist meditation,
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    it's not mindfulness.
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    When you're trying to let go of things,
    to simplify your life,
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    to make your life more peaceful,
    more at ease.
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    We always know in spiritual life
    you keep on saying
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    how much do you really need
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    to be healthy, to be happy,
    to have a wonderful life?
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    How much do you really need?
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    If you want to know, next time you go to
    Bodhinyana monastery,
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    go and ask to have a visit
    to my home where I live.
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    Hands up now, how many of you
    have actually been into my cave?
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    I've got to put my hand up as well cause
    I've got to be honest I've been in there.
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    Is it big?
    (Laughter)
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    It's big in peace.
    It's big in freedom.
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    It's a tiny little cave and that's all
    I need, I got a toilet around the back
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    but it's about three meters,
    it's like a dome
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    three meters... no, three meters diameter
    and that's semi dome.
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    And in that cave I've got a bed,
    meditation cushion,
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    a blanket and water, a flashlight
    and a clock, a little Buddha statue.
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    And I do have I must admit electricity
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    that's just to light the way and
    a...not bamboo, a cork floor. That's it.
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    You know it's really easy to clean,
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    it doesn't take that long but
    it's also the simplicity of it.
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    What do you need?
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    So a lot of times even in life
    when we simplify things
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    we find that life is much more peaceful.
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    And even in meditation,
    if you want to get things
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    then there's no end
    of getting more things.
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    How many more things do you want?
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    How rich do you want to be?
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    Have you noticed really rich people,
    they always have to keep on working?
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    You know Elon Musk,
    he's got enough money now
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    he should be able to retire.
    He has to work!
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    So how much money would you want?
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    Apparently that somebody
    won the lottery on Friday.
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    Anyone here?
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    If it was you, now being that wealthy
    is just really a burden,
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    it causes you so much suffering.
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    I remember, I don't mind saying,
    meeting this guy
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    he was the CEO of Tropicana resort and
    lots of other businesses over in Malaysia
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    and he invited me to his house. No,
    I can't say houses... mansion, huge thing.
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    But what really I...was really struck me
    that going into his residence
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    there were like two guards
    with machine guns at the gate,
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    it's like going into Buckingham palace
    where they have these household guards.
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    And so, why do you need guards
    with machine guns?
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    I've got no guards with machine guns
    in front of my cave. (laughter)
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    Is because there's a lot of fear
    when you have many things.
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    If you only have a few things or old
    things you don't have to be afraid at all.
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    I learned that from my father,
    strange enough,
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    because where he lived was
    in a very small council flat in London,
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    like government sponsored housing
    for the poor.
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    But it was very...
    we had a very happy time there,
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    but often I just asked him
    "why don't we lock the door when we go out
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    aren't you afraid of burglars?"
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    You know what my father said, he said:
    "No, I'm not afraid of burglars
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    in fact I'm quite hopeful
    a burglar might come in
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    take pity on us and leave us something."
    (Laughter)
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    So at least you didn't have
    to worry about anything.
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    Not worrying about anything,
    great peace and happiness, contentment.
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    So that's also one of the reasons
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    when you're not worrying about
    attaining things or losing...oh no
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    attaining, getting things
    but you're more happy
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    with emptying out your mind.
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    then actually you're meditating
    in a proper way.
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    And where that comes from
    if anybody wants to check me out,
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    that comes from the second factor
    of the eightfold path,
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    meditation is a whole path
    eightfold path.
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    Meditation ... the deep meditations
    are the last factor.
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    Mindfulness is the seventh factor.
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    The second factor is of the right ways
    of what we call right motivation.
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    Ajahn Brahmali kept calling it intention
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    but I prefer motivation,
    where you're coming from,
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    not what you're trying to achieve.
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    Because the right motivations are
    three right motivations for meditation.
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    If you do your mindfulness practice
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    with these three motivations
    you're really safe.
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    The first motivation
    is called nekkhamma.
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    It's a Pali word it means
    letting go, renunciation,
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    giving up, simplifying.
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    I knew that was... that's really Buddhist,
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    we are supposed to live simple lives.
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    Very few people live
    simple lives these days.
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    But we really try as best we can
    as monks and nuns
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    to live simple as we possibly can.
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    It's really strange isn't it that
    you know, sometimes I go off
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    I used to go overseas..
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    I used to go overseas and sometimes you
    know what would happen?
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    People buy you business class tickets,
    honestly they did.
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    I did this ... what was it called,
    a keynote address at conferences.
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    I used to go to conferences, a keynote
    address at the 2018 I think it was
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    World Computer Conference
    in Dejun, South Korea.
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    That was a really good gig,
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    the World Computer Conference
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    and I'm not just giving a small talk,
    giving the keynote address.
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    That's after all these politicians
    and dignitaries and stuff gave
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    and then I had to set the tone
    of the conference.
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    And I did really well.
    You know that's where they brought...
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    they offered this business class ticket
    on Singapore airlines
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    all the way to South Korea and back,
    nice hotel.
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    And they gave 2000$
    to the Buddhist Society
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    just for a quarter of an hour's talk.
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    So what we call a nice little earner
    for our BSWA. (laugh)
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    But then you know
    you go on business class
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    and they ask how much do you earn?
    Nothing!
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    How much money have you got?
    Zero.
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    What's a poor person doing
    travelling on business class,
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    no money in the bank anywhere.
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    So I like those like
    contradictions in life
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    and what is a person who...
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    I don't know much about computers,
    do I? (laughter)
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    When anything goes wrong
    you have to ask somebody else,
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    what's gone wrong?
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    What are you doing dude?
    Do the keynote address
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    in front of all these computer wizards?
    They asked me that.
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    And I gave the answer
    that in life
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    you don't have to know very much
    to actually to innovate.
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    In fact the more you know,
    the less you see.
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    And you're trained always to see things
    in the same way.
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    A narrow course of mind.
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    And as a monk you can actually
    do all sorts of weird stuff,
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    like meditate and see things
    in a different way.
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    To innovate
    means being still,
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    letting everything go
    and seeing things afresh.
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    And of course,
    we all know in economies,
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    innovation is a key to success.
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    Not doing things in the same old way
    but doing things in a different way.
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    And look at this place I mean
    Buddhist Society Western Australia.
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    As far as I know it's one of the biggest
    Buddhist societies in the world.
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    It's because this is how we practice,
    innovation, doing things differently.
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    But anyway back to mindfulness
    when we learn how to let go of things.
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    The other thing in right motivation
    is letting go
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    and then the second factor of right
    motivation is kindness, compassion.
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    and that was something
    I often say this to people
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    that was something I thought
    was obvious if ever you read
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    the life story of the monks and nuns
    in the time of the Buddha.
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    Compassion was really important,
    being kind to all beings.
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    This is one lady, I think,
    she didn't say where she was from.
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    There's still a lot of people
    who have discriminatory minds
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    and she was a Buddhist but she said
    something happened last week.
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    She said her son came out
    and said he was gay.
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    " Oh! Ajahn Brahm,
    what should I do?"
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    Because there's some societies
    where that's still regarded as terrible
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    and I said look, you probably chant
    this every day as a Buddhist,
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    "may all beings be happy and well."
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    I think you chanted that here
    just before I came in.
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    Gay people, lesbians, transgenders,
    L G B T Q I A plus.
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    Aren't they beings?
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    Do they deserve kindness,
    compassion, empathy
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    just like everybody else?
    What's the problem?
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    And the fact that
    she didn't realize
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    she'd be chanting and part of the chant,
    may all beings be happy and well.
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    Even Donald Trump, Mr. Putin.
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    Who else is in the black books?
    May they all be happy and well, come on.
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    Because there's something powerful
    which I saw in this type of Buddhism
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    when you give happiness to your enemies
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    then your enemies are not
    your enemies anymore.
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    It's weird but they become soft
    and peaceful.
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    And where this comes up,
    Why I wanted to bring this up was
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    you know sometimes when I think
    this BBC article I read a long time ago,
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    so one of the problems with mindfulness
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    they get you to actually just allow
    things to be.
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    That's not good enough.
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    Because sometimes what comes up
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    is some of the past traumas
    which people have.
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    And those past traumas if
    it's just being aware of them,
  • 21:23 - 21:25
    you can't hold them,
    you can't handle them,
  • 21:25 - 21:27
    they're just really painful.
  • 21:27 - 21:30
    And that's where a lot of times people
    just have almost psychosis
  • 21:30 - 21:33
    with this mindfulness practice.
  • 21:33 - 21:35
    But what's the difference between
    how we do things
  • 21:35 - 21:38
    in Buddhist mindfulness practice?
  • 21:38 - 21:42
    If something comes out from the past
    and it's really a bad memory,
  • 21:42 - 21:44
    very awful memory,
    difficult memory,
  • 21:44 - 21:50
    something very hard for you to hold.
    How can we let go of that past?
  • 21:51 - 21:54
    With kindness.
  • 21:54 - 21:59
    It's a strange thing to say but I've
    said this so many times before
  • 21:59 - 22:05
    if you are meditating and you know
    your mind just wanders off to the past
  • 22:05 - 22:08
    where something really hard
    happened to you
  • 22:08 - 22:11
    or a repressed memory comes up
    into your mind
  • 22:11 - 22:16
    and it's a painful memory.
    What do you do with it?
  • 22:17 - 22:22
    And if you try and get rid of it,
    you give it anger, ill will.
  • 22:22 - 22:27
    You don't want to face it,
    it often gets much worse.
  • 22:28 - 22:30
    So there's something else
    you can do with it
  • 22:30 - 22:33
    give it kindness.
  • 22:34 - 22:39
    Give you yourself kindness.
    Give whoever did that to you kindness.
  • 22:39 - 22:45
    And here we go again with this simile,
    it's such a beautiful simile.
  • 22:45 - 22:49
    The last time I gave on the retreat
    which I did after Easter
  • 22:49 - 22:51
    I remember after doing this simile
  • 22:51 - 22:54
    everyone was looking at me,
    just blown away
  • 22:54 - 22:59
    even though they heard before.
    Many actually were teary afterwards.
  • 23:00 - 23:04
    There was that simile of that...
    that group here in Perth
  • 23:04 - 23:11
    called ASSETT - Australian Society
    Survivors of Torture and Trauma.
  • 23:11 - 23:17
    And one day they invited me to go
    and visit their center
  • 23:17 - 23:19
    do a blessing or something.
    I said: "Yes, sure."
  • 23:19 - 23:22
    because many of them actually came here
  • 23:22 - 23:27
    and I didn't know why.
    Why did you invite me?
  • 23:27 - 23:35
    And they said because a couple of
    their key strategies - they learnt here.
  • 23:35 - 23:38
    Which ones?
    And when they told me
  • 23:38 - 23:43
    oh it's just it's an emotional
    deep right inside me, really high,
  • 23:43 - 23:47
    make me incredibly happy.
    That's why I love telling that story.
  • 23:47 - 23:50
    They said the one story
    which worked the best.
  • 23:50 - 23:53
    It was kindness.
  • 23:53 - 23:56
    What do you mean kindness?
  • 23:56 - 24:01
    It's that old story of telling
    what my father told me.
  • 24:01 - 24:06
    My father teaches... pictures a lot
    in this talk this evening.
  • 24:06 - 24:09
    My father used to tell me just
    "Son, wherever you go,
  • 24:09 - 24:12
    whatever you do, however
    you turn out in your life.
  • 24:12 - 24:15
    He said to me when I was
    about 14 year old.
  • 24:15 - 24:19
    And it's so uncertain in life.
    He said "whatever you do,
  • 24:19 - 24:24
    the door of my house will always
    be open to you."
  • 24:24 - 24:28
    And of course his house was a council flat
    with hardly anything in it.
  • 24:29 - 24:34
    But you know that sometimes
    somebody says something
  • 24:34 - 24:38
    maybe here, maybe a friend,
    maybe something you read or hear.
  • 24:38 - 24:40
    It's so you know this is important.
  • 24:40 - 24:43
    And I remember that
    as a 14 year old boy
  • 24:43 - 24:47
    that this is important.
    I don't know why I can't understand it
  • 24:47 - 24:51
    because you know boys emotions
    are not very developed.
  • 24:51 - 24:55
    But I remembered it enough that
    when I became a monk.
  • 24:55 - 24:59
    And one of the nice things about
    being a monk or a nun, you have time,
  • 24:59 - 25:03
    you have time to really figure out your
    emotional world and what it means.
  • 25:03 - 25:06
    And that was one of
    the unfinished business
  • 25:06 - 25:09
    I had from my father - he died
    when I was about 16.
  • 25:09 - 25:12
    What did he really mean by that?
  • 25:12 - 25:15
    And of course, you've heard me
    say this before
  • 25:15 - 25:17
    it became the title of my first book.
  • 25:17 - 25:22
    What he meant was not his house,
    he meant his heart.
  • 25:22 - 25:25
    He said whatever you do,
    however you turn out,
  • 25:25 - 25:28
    whatever happens to you,
  • 25:28 - 25:33
    the door of my heart
    will always be open to you.
  • 25:33 - 25:38
    When I realized that was just me
    that hit me so deeply.
  • 25:38 - 25:45
    It was the first expression
    of unconditional love
  • 25:45 - 25:52
    that I could really understand.
    And it made so much sense to me
  • 25:52 - 25:56
    and of course, a father to his son
    was, you know, so powerful.
  • 25:56 - 25:59
    I wish I'd understood that
    when he said it to me
  • 25:59 - 26:02
    how powerful it was.
  • 26:02 - 26:06
    And of course that story, which
    I can see you're looking at me,
  • 26:06 - 26:09
    and it's meant something to you already.
  • 26:09 - 26:12
    That meant something
    to a couple of psychologists,
  • 26:12 - 26:14
    psychiatrists who would come here
  • 26:14 - 26:20
    and then work with people who had been
    very badly abused overseas.
  • 26:20 - 26:25
    And people who had survived somehow.
  • 26:25 - 26:28
    When I heard some of their statements
    I don't know how
  • 26:28 - 26:34
    they could survive some of that abuse,
    physical, emotional
  • 26:34 - 26:38
    in some of these regimes overseas.
  • 26:38 - 26:43
    But anyway they'd made it
    to Australia physically safe,
  • 26:43 - 26:47
    emotionally still in the torture chambers,
  • 26:47 - 26:52
    still being raped, beaten
    for no reason.
  • 26:54 - 27:00
    I've had a very simple life
    so I can't really understand
  • 27:00 - 27:06
    how they must have felt and
    how they survived is beyond me.
  • 27:07 - 27:10
    But now they're here, they're still
    carrying that huge burden
  • 27:10 - 27:15
    and how they overcame that burden.
  • 27:15 - 27:20
    And that's because I developed
    that story and taught it
  • 27:20 - 27:24
    that gives me so much joy.
    How they overcame that was
  • 27:24 - 27:30
    they decided to incorporate that
    as one of their strategies.
  • 27:30 - 27:34
    But when a person feels safe,
    you can't force anything,
  • 27:34 - 27:40
    you can't say now do it.
    It has to be when you're ready.
  • 27:40 - 27:43
    And they would sit down
    in a comfortable safe place,
  • 27:43 - 27:45
    the safety was important
  • 27:45 - 27:52
    and then they closed their eyes and
    then they imagine a heart in their chest
  • 27:52 - 27:56
    and it was a Valentine's day heart
    not a real heart.
  • 27:56 - 27:59
    If you've seen real hearts
    in medical books
  • 27:59 - 28:06
    they're not beautiful at all,
    got tubes all over the place.
  • 28:06 - 28:10
    But the Valentine's day heart
    as everyone knows
  • 28:10 - 28:14
    imagine a Valentine's heart
    in the center of your chest
  • 28:14 - 28:19
    with two big doors.
    The two doors open out
  • 28:19 - 28:22
    and the nice part of you,
    the part of you
  • 28:22 - 28:27
    which you can respect and love
    and live with happily,
  • 28:27 - 28:29
    all the nice times you remember,
  • 28:29 - 28:33
    the joyful times that people
    who care for you and love you
  • 28:33 - 28:37
    and the wonderful experiences
    you've had in your life
  • 28:37 - 28:43
    all those little beings which bear your
    name at different ages, that's inside.
  • 28:43 - 28:47
    That's you,
    you can very easily live with.
  • 28:47 - 28:52
    Then what happens next
    is you look outside,
  • 28:52 - 28:57
    outside of your own heart,
    is these little beings,
  • 28:57 - 29:02
    you were in the past,
    young girls, young boys
  • 29:02 - 29:08
    who were treated just so painfully.
    The physical abuse is only
  • 29:08 - 29:13
    a fraction of it, the emotional - Why?
  • 29:13 - 29:16
    That just makes it just so hard to bear.
  • 29:16 - 29:19
    You kept all those beings outside
    of your own heart
  • 29:19 - 29:25
    and they were you.
    So, imagine a ladder
  • 29:25 - 29:32
    coming from your heart
    going down to the ground
  • 29:32 - 29:36
    and seeing all these people
    who were you
  • 29:36 - 29:39
    and you're inviting them up.
  • 29:39 - 29:45
    I don't, I won't judge who you are
    what happened to you,
  • 29:50 - 29:53
    no matter who you are, come in.
  • 29:54 - 29:57
    And to actually to do that,
  • 29:57 - 30:05
    it's just one of the most
    courageous things you could do.
  • 30:05 - 30:08
    Invite those little beings
    you're trying to just forget.
  • 30:08 - 30:10
    Trying to ignore,
    trying to cover up,
  • 30:10 - 30:12
    trying to get out of here, get away,
  • 30:12 - 30:16
    you don't belong with me.
    You're just so painful.
  • 30:16 - 30:20
    You allow them all to come up one by one
  • 30:20 - 30:22
    so little beings who have been alone
  • 30:22 - 30:27
    and separated out of your heart
    for so many years
  • 30:29 - 30:35
    and you embrace them.
    They're in your heart now, not out.
  • 30:36 - 30:42
    That's a huge change and they said
    that worked amazingly.
  • 30:42 - 30:47
    And some of those women
    who've gone through that
  • 30:47 - 30:49
    would come here on a Friday night.
  • 30:49 - 30:54
    I remember speaking to them, seeing them
    and it just blew my mind.
  • 30:54 - 30:57
    They told me what they've been through
    and you look at them now.
  • 30:57 - 31:01
    Wow! they were just
    some of the amazing heroes.
  • 31:01 - 31:06
    So strong, they were like saints.
    They said that's who I am!
  • 31:07 - 31:13
    And they don't traumatize themselves
    with that anymore.
  • 31:14 - 31:18
    That's an extreme, I mean
    you've been through some,
  • 31:18 - 31:21
    we've all been through some pain
    and difficulty in our life.
  • 31:21 - 31:23
    There's things we'd rather forget.
  • 31:23 - 31:26
    Why don't we invite that in instead,
  • 31:26 - 31:30
    you embrace that
    that's who you are, it's your life
  • 31:30 - 31:36
    and something happens,
    what happens,
  • 31:36 - 31:41
    I keep on saying the same old stories
    but they're powerful.
  • 31:41 - 31:45
    What happens is the old story of
    the monster in the emperor's palace.
  • 31:45 - 31:49
    Monster came in the emperor's palace.
    Get out, you don't belong.
  • 31:49 - 31:51
    Who do you think you are,
    coming in here.
  • 31:51 - 31:54
    and the empress,
    she was wise.
  • 31:54 - 32:00
    Because she was also a member of
    the Buddhist Society of Western Australia
  • 32:00 - 32:06
    she'd come every Friday night.
    So when she went back to the palace
  • 32:06 - 32:10
    she saw this big monster in there,
    really ugly, really frightening.
  • 32:10 - 32:15
    What she said to the monster was
    "welcome, thank you for visiting.
  • 32:15 - 32:19
    is there anything, anyone got you
    anything to drink yet? Anything to eat?
  • 32:19 - 32:20
    What can we do for you?"
  • 32:20 - 32:25
    She'd turned such kindness to monsters
  • 32:25 - 32:28
    and what happened? This is
    based on a Buddhist story.
  • 32:28 - 32:33
    Every thought, deed, act of kindness
  • 32:33 - 32:36
    and the monster grew an inch smaller,
  • 32:36 - 32:41
    an inch kinder, a little bit more...
    more civil.
  • 32:41 - 32:44
    And they kept on
    with the kindness so much,
  • 32:44 - 32:47
    - this is the shortened
    version of the story -
  • 32:47 - 32:51
    That soon the monster,
    who was so ugly and big
  • 32:51 - 32:54
    and frightening and violent
    soon became so small
  • 32:54 - 32:58
    that one more act of kindness
  • 32:58 - 33:01
    and the monster
    vanished completely away.
  • 33:01 - 33:05
    And that's in the Buddhist suttas,
  • 33:05 - 33:11
    that the Buddha said we call that
    "anger eating monsters."
  • 33:11 - 33:14
    The more anger you give it,
    the more negativity you give it,
  • 33:14 - 33:16
    the bigger it gets.
    There's so much of that in our world.
  • 33:16 - 33:21
    But here I'm just saying in you,
    get out of here bad memory
  • 33:21 - 33:26
    you don't belong and
    the bad memory gets worse.
  • 33:26 - 33:32
    It takes a lot of guts and training
    but if you do the kindness;
  • 33:32 - 33:40
    "welcome, welcome bad memory.
    Thank you for coming to visit me".
  • 33:40 - 33:44
    Give kindness to it,
    kindness to yourself
  • 33:44 - 33:50
    because so many times when you have
    a memory which is embarrassing;
  • 33:50 - 33:54
    maybe you're ashamed of,
    when you actually feel about it,
  • 33:54 - 33:57
    it's a human being,
    you make mistakes;
  • 33:57 - 34:00
    please be kind to yourself.
  • 34:00 - 34:05
    Forgive yourself, care for yourself.
  • 34:06 - 34:09
    Other people who have hurt you
  • 34:09 - 34:12
    I don't know why they hurt you.
    You don't know why they hurt you.
  • 34:12 - 34:15
    Maybe they thought they were doing
    the best thing for you, I don't know.
  • 34:15 - 34:19
    Maybe they had other sort of things
    they were thinking about at the time
  • 34:19 - 34:24
    or maybe they were drunk or
    they're in drugs or whatever.
  • 34:24 - 34:29
    Sometimes if you can somehow put
    yourself in their position a little bit.
  • 34:29 - 34:34
    Why do they do that?
    What was their cultural training, why?
  • 34:34 - 34:38
    If you give kindness to people
    who've hurt you,
  • 34:38 - 34:43
    it means you're not so vindictive.
    There's no wanting to
  • 34:43 - 34:46
    sort of harm them back or
    want you to harm yourself.
  • 34:47 - 34:53
    So when you give kindness to the
    negative things of your past.
  • 34:53 - 35:01
    You find all those psychosis,
    traumas, the bad memories,
  • 35:01 - 35:05
    the stuff which you can't get out of
    your head,
  • 35:05 - 35:09
    stop you sleeping,
    stop you enjoying your life
  • 35:09 - 35:13
    because you keep remembering
    all these bad things.
  • 35:13 - 35:18
    You know, after a while
    they gets so soft, so peaceful,
  • 35:18 - 35:22
    you can let them go.
  • 35:22 - 35:29
    It's weird but you overcome
    negativity with kindness.
  • 35:29 - 35:34
    There's an amazing beautiful ability
    in each one of you
  • 35:34 - 35:36
    to be soft and gentle.
  • 35:37 - 35:41
    And if you're soft and gentle
    to your past;
  • 35:41 - 35:45
    The negative to the past can't stand it,
    it vanishes.
  • 35:45 - 35:49
    So when we do mindfulness
    we don't just be aware of the stuff.
  • 35:49 - 35:50
    we know the strategies.
  • 35:50 - 35:53
    If you get a bad feeling from the past
  • 35:53 - 35:55
    you can first of all you say
  • 35:55 - 35:58
    okay, I'll just let that go because
    I'm not ready for it yet.
  • 35:58 - 36:01
    But there comes a time
    when you are ready for it,
  • 36:01 - 36:04
    have all these strategies on
    how to deal with it.
  • 36:04 - 36:08
    Another strategy how you deal with
    some of the negativity of the past.
  • 36:08 - 36:14
    You know, every bad feeling
    you have in your head, in your mind,
  • 36:14 - 36:20
    has a corresponding feeling in your body,
    a physical feeling.
  • 36:21 - 36:23
    I already mentioned that at the beginning
  • 36:23 - 36:26
    when you are mindful of the body
    and relaxing the body
  • 36:26 - 36:29
    I was talking about like the head.
  • 36:29 - 36:34
    If you are negative you can read
    on a person's face.
  • 36:34 - 36:38
    Muscles tighten up, these other
    muscles loosen up
  • 36:38 - 36:41
    and that's actually pretty much universal.
  • 36:41 - 36:44
    You know indigenous tribes in
    the middle of the Amazon somewhere
  • 36:44 - 36:49
    you can still read their emotions
    on their facial features.
  • 36:49 - 36:55
    So, all of those negative emotions
    from the past
  • 36:55 - 36:59
    or fears of the future,
  • 36:59 - 37:02
    that's also written on
    your body somewhere.
  • 37:02 - 37:05
    And that's one of the reasons why
  • 37:05 - 37:09
    if you do have some anxiety
    or fear or whatever,
  • 37:09 - 37:16
    by doing some meditation practice,
    it's not that hard to overcome that.
  • 37:16 - 37:21
    And it just amazes you how easy it is
    and how effective it is.
  • 37:21 - 37:25
    And of course the one I'm going
    to bring up now was...
  • 37:25 - 37:27
    she's not here this evening
    thank goodness,
  • 37:27 - 37:30
    otherwise people get embarrassed.
  • 37:30 - 37:33
    But this was a lady who had
    very bad anxiety.
  • 37:33 - 37:37
    So much anxiety
    she couldn't get out of bed,
  • 37:37 - 37:41
    afraid even to go through the door
    out into the world.
  • 37:41 - 37:44
    And she was in Adelaide,
    a university student
  • 37:45 - 37:51
    and being in university
    she had free medical care.
  • 37:51 - 37:56
    Great psychologists, psychiatrists,
    every possibility and drugs and stuff.
  • 37:56 - 37:59
    Nothing worked.
  • 37:59 - 38:03
    So she was like bedbound; an anxiety
    which no one could cure.
  • 38:03 - 38:14
    But fortunately her father, no,
    not father... uncle.
  • 38:14 - 38:19
    Uncle comes here.
    So uncle said go and ring up Ajahn Brahm.
  • 38:22 - 38:24
    Love it whenever she called me up
  • 38:24 - 38:27
    and she told me what was
    happening with her
  • 38:27 - 38:31
    and that's where mindfulness practice
  • 38:31 - 38:35
    but not just mindfulness.
    I said that's not enough.
  • 38:35 - 38:40
    But first of all I said:
    "When you have an anxiety attack,
  • 38:40 - 38:46
    a panic attack - you're bedridden -
    where on your body do you feel it?"
  • 38:46 - 38:49
    I wasn't asking about
    her mind, her emotions
  • 38:49 - 38:52
    because that was just too strong
    for her to really get to know.
  • 38:52 - 38:55
    "Where do you feel it on your body?"
    she said: " In my chest."
  • 38:55 - 38:58
    I said "It's not good enough,
    I want know exactly where?"
  • 38:58 - 39:03
    She was studying dentistry
    so part of science,
  • 39:03 - 39:06
    I want coordinates
    from your navel, your belly button,
  • 39:06 - 39:09
    I want centimeters,
    millimeters even
  • 39:09 - 39:11
    to the center of the feeling
    in your chest
  • 39:11 - 39:15
    and how far does it extend?
    is it circular?
  • 39:15 - 39:18
    or is it ovular? or is it a square?
  • 39:18 - 39:23
    I want you to describe it to me
    accurately with dimensions.
  • 39:23 - 39:26
    Is it more to the left more to the right
    or really central?
  • 39:26 - 39:29
    And give me a call in three days.
  • 39:29 - 39:32
    I mentioned that because
    I wasn't just,
  • 39:32 - 39:39
    well part of it was I was very busy
    (laugh) I got to be honest
  • 39:39 - 39:43
    but it's also I just
    wanted her to do something.
  • 39:43 - 39:46
    You know, one of the terrible things
    if you're in trouble
  • 39:46 - 39:50
    with either bad feelings in meditation
    or other stuff.
  • 39:50 - 39:53
    When people tell you what to do,
  • 39:53 - 40:00
    they're taking away your...
    almost like your sense of being
  • 40:00 - 40:02
    an owner of your problem
    and your body.
  • 40:02 - 40:08
    You give up ownership of the disease
    or the problem to some experts.
  • 40:08 - 40:11
    I didn't want that to happen.
    So this is your body,
  • 40:11 - 40:18
    it's your emotions. So you tell me,
    I'm not gonna control you.
  • 40:18 - 40:22
    So after three days she called
  • 40:22 - 40:25
    and I was really amazed
    at the descriptions she gave.
  • 40:25 - 40:27
    and I said: "Well, exactly that's
    where it is.
  • 40:27 - 40:28
    How does it feel ?
  • 40:28 - 40:30
    Is it burning or is it aching,
    does it change?
  • 40:30 - 40:32
    is it the same all over, whatever?
  • 40:32 - 40:36
    "Oh, I don't know."
    "Give me a call in three days."
  • 40:37 - 40:40
    Which she did, she gave another
    really amazing explanation
  • 40:40 - 40:43
    of what it feels like,
    sensations in the body
  • 40:43 - 40:46
    when you have a panic attack.
    "Great!" I said now
  • 40:46 - 40:52
    that's making her mindful,
    that's just the awareness part of it.
  • 40:52 - 40:56
    A lot of times that's what people do
    when they practice mindfulness
  • 40:56 - 41:00
    they get to know these things
    but no more.
  • 41:00 - 41:04
    And then the extra part which is
    the important part was,
  • 41:04 - 41:07
    well, now you know,
    when you have a panic attack,
  • 41:07 - 41:09
    where it is, what it feels like.
  • 41:09 - 41:12
    Now I said I want you
    to get your hand when you have...
  • 41:12 - 41:16
    she's in bed
    get your hand and massage that area
  • 41:16 - 41:20
    with your hand
    as kindly as you possibly can
  • 41:20 - 41:25
    with much compassion
    and gentleness as you possibly can.
  • 41:25 - 41:29
    And I said to her
    if you can't do it
  • 41:29 - 41:36
    ask your boyfriend to do it for you.
    I don't think he'd mind
  • 41:36 - 41:40
    and give me a call in three days
    and she did that.
  • 41:40 - 41:44
    It was beautiful, because this is
    one of those times again
  • 41:44 - 41:49
    which really makes me feel wonderful
    how meditation works.
  • 41:49 - 41:52
    And I asked: "Did you follow
    my instructions?" She said: "Yeah."
  • 41:52 - 41:56
    What happened when you massage
    the panic attacks in your chest?
  • 41:56 - 41:59
    So I massage them and massage
    and massage them
  • 41:59 - 42:02
    and then the feeling in the chest
    sort of got loosened and relaxed
  • 42:02 - 42:05
    and eventually the feeling
    in the chest went away.
  • 42:05 - 42:09
    And I said:" Well, when the feeling
    in the chest went away,
  • 42:09 - 42:12
    what happened to the anxiety,
    to the panic?"
  • 42:12 - 42:17
    And that's one of those beautiful moments
    when she paused.
  • 42:17 - 42:22
    it's when the light bulbs went on
    when the eureka moment happened.
  • 42:22 - 42:27
    She said:" Well, when the physical
    feeling vanished so did the anxiety."
  • 42:27 - 42:32
    Now you know
    how to overcome your anxiety.
  • 42:32 - 42:37
    Deal with the physical manifestation,
    the physical counterpart.
  • 42:37 - 42:41
    Once that disappears also the emotional,
  • 42:41 - 42:44
    the inside part also turns off
    and vanishes.
  • 42:44 - 42:48
    That was wonderful lovely lady.
  • 42:49 - 42:53
    I think it was two weeks
    as she was back in classes again,
  • 42:53 - 42:59
    out of bed and graduated with
    first class honours in dentistry.
  • 42:59 - 43:03
    And then just her boyfriend she married.
  • 43:03 - 43:06
    And one of nice things people think
    that Ajahn Brahm's not a romantic
  • 43:08 - 43:13
    but they got married
    in the sunken gardens in UWA.
  • 43:13 - 43:16
    And who do you think
    gave the blessing there?
  • 43:18 - 43:20
    Had to have me go there.
  • 43:20 - 43:24
    I didn't find it out until later on.
    She was so impressed
  • 43:24 - 43:29
    that she actually nominated me
    for Australian of the year.
  • 43:30 - 43:35
    I didn't get it but I could understand.
    She was just wow, this really works.
  • 43:35 - 43:38
    But this is actually just an example
    of how we deal with negativity,
  • 43:38 - 43:40
    not just a mindfulness,
  • 43:40 - 43:43
    not being aware of it,
    she was totally aware of it
  • 43:43 - 43:47
    but also what to do with it
    when it comes up.
  • 43:47 - 43:50
    Give it compassion and kindness.
  • 43:50 - 43:52
    The right motivation in Buddhism is,
  • 43:52 - 43:58
    it is letting go,
    being kind, being gentle.
  • 43:58 - 44:02
    And if you do your mindfulness practice
    with those things in mind.
  • 44:02 - 44:09
    You will find that when something comes up
    which is a bit negative.
  • 44:09 - 44:15
    Ahh, some bad memory
    from the past has come up ahh...
  • 44:15 - 44:18
    and you can actually be soft with it
    and kind with it
  • 44:18 - 44:22
    and it just melts it all away.
  • 44:22 - 44:25
    So that's something which we can do
  • 44:25 - 44:28
    and it's powerful stuff as well.
  • 44:28 - 44:31
    Those little stories which
    I mentioned there,
  • 44:31 - 44:35
    they're real stories
    and it happens.
  • 44:35 - 44:39
    And my own little stories
  • 44:39 - 44:44
    you know every time
    if I have sicknesses and stuff
  • 44:44 - 44:48
    it's not just emotional problems,
    physical problems.
  • 44:49 - 44:52
    I keep telling monks, it's an old joke.
  • 44:52 - 44:54
    I keep telling the monks
    that you know
  • 44:54 - 45:00
    my 70th year on planet earth now,
    in August I'll be 70.
  • 45:00 - 45:04
    So I kept on telling them
    " Monks, I'm getting old."
  • 45:04 - 45:07
    And they said:
    " No, you're not getting old."
  • 45:07 - 45:09
    and I thought they would say that
    because of kindness.
  • 45:09 - 45:13
    They said: "No, no, we're not saying
    that out of kindness to you.
  • 45:13 - 45:18
    We're saying that out of truth.
    You are old, you're not getting old.
  • 45:20 - 45:23
    You've already arrived."
  • 45:29 - 45:34
    But I don't know where I was going
    with this one but anyway...
  • 45:37 - 45:42
    So many times in my life,
    you have sicknesses
  • 45:42 - 45:46
    and some of those sickness
    which I've had
  • 45:46 - 45:49
    you try and take medicines and stuff
  • 45:49 - 45:54
    and quite honestly these days
    I much prefer doing kindness
  • 45:54 - 45:57
    to any sicknesses which I have.
    Awareness and kindness.
  • 45:57 - 46:00
    Looking at my body,
    where's the problem?
  • 46:01 - 46:08
    you may have... like the time
    which I had food poisoning,
  • 46:09 - 46:14
    real food poisoning in my ...
    in my cave.
  • 46:14 - 46:18
    I was screaming,
    no one could hear me
  • 46:18 - 46:22
    because these were like cramps
    which food poisoning gives you
  • 46:22 - 46:27
    Agh! and then it just ... Agh!
  • 46:27 - 46:31
    Totally involuntary I couldn't do
    anything with it.
  • 46:31 - 46:34
    And then I knew no one could hear me
  • 46:34 - 46:37
    because that's the point
    of having a cave
  • 46:37 - 46:38
    two doors, it's underground.
  • 46:38 - 46:40
    Well I can't hear
    what's going on outside
  • 46:40 - 46:43
    which is wonderful,
    but they can't hear what's going on inside
  • 46:43 - 46:47
    which is a difficulty sometimes.
  • 46:47 - 46:52
    So anyway, I did my ...
    same as I teach other people,
  • 46:52 - 46:56
    sit there being mindful and being kind.
  • 46:56 - 47:01
    Those two are very, very, powerful.
  • 47:01 - 47:05
    I think the last talk I gave here about
    opening the lotus, wasn't it?
  • 47:05 - 47:11
    Remember that's the sun
    has light and warmth.
  • 47:11 - 47:15
    That's what opens lotuses up,
    the light and warmth of the sun.
  • 47:15 - 47:19
    The light stands for mindfulness,
    the warmth stands for kindness.
  • 47:19 - 47:25
    Those two go together and
    they're incredibly powerful.
  • 47:25 - 47:32
    I was just kind to the cramps
    in the tummy.
  • 47:32 - 47:36
    So kind to them
    every time they repeat it
  • 47:36 - 47:43
    ah, ah, ah ... maybe 2 or 3 minutes
    before you had a cramp.
  • 47:43 - 47:47
    but every time that the cramp got less.
  • 47:47 - 47:50
    My awareness was sharp enough
    that you could feel it
  • 47:50 - 47:54
    just less painful,
    because I was kind to it.
  • 47:54 - 47:57
    Next one was less painful,
    next time was less painful,
  • 47:57 - 48:00
    next time was less painful.
    Only a tiny bit less painful
  • 48:00 - 48:03
    but I could perceive that
    because I was aware.
  • 48:03 - 48:08
    I wasn't trying to think I'm gonna die
    what should I do.
  • 48:08 - 48:12
    But I was being aware of it
    and then it got so soft
  • 48:12 - 48:15
    and after 30, 40 minutes
    it just vanished completely.
  • 48:15 - 48:20
    That was weird even I was
    really struck by that
  • 48:20 - 48:23
    because usually food poisoning
    you just gotta go to doctor.
  • 48:23 - 48:25
    I don't know what you gonna do
  • 48:25 - 48:28
    but this is much better
    than going to a doctor.
  • 48:28 - 48:30
    And then just after meditating
    nice and peacefully.
  • 48:30 - 48:35
    It never came back again.
    It's weird but it's so true.
  • 48:35 - 48:38
    I'm sure many of you may have
    had examples like that.
  • 48:38 - 48:40
    So the mindfulness with the kindness
  • 48:40 - 48:44
    put those two together and
    it is really powerful.
  • 48:45 - 48:51
    And not just powerful,
    you find your awareness get stronger.
  • 48:51 - 48:55
    That's the part which
    most mindfulness teachings
  • 48:55 - 48:58
    the worldly stuff,
    they don't really mention that.
  • 48:58 - 49:02
    That's where your mindfulness,
    awareness gets really so strong.
  • 49:02 - 49:08
    I have to invent words for
    this because no one else does.
  • 49:08 - 49:11
    Like, powerful mindfulness
    and superpower mindfulness
  • 49:11 - 49:14
    and mega-power mindfulness.
  • 49:14 - 49:19
    That's what it feels like,
    I do not take drugs.
  • 49:19 - 49:23
    But sometimes people asked:
    "What drug are you on Ajahn Brahm today?"
  • 49:23 - 49:26
    Because you're so happy and joyful
    and healthy.
  • 49:26 - 49:28
    "What's going on?"
  • 49:28 - 49:32
    This is natural,
    you're empowering your awareness.
  • 49:32 - 49:36
    And your awareness after a while
    gets incredibly strong.
  • 49:36 - 49:42
    That's when if any of you
    like food, I don't know about you.
  • 49:42 - 49:45
    You're going out for a meal
    after the talk tonight?
  • 49:45 - 49:52
    Maybe you didn't have a meal before?
    or if you really want to enjoy food
  • 49:52 - 49:57
    meditate here first of all
    and then go out
  • 49:57 - 50:03
    and you will find you don't have to spend
    a lot of money on an expensive restaurant.
  • 50:03 - 50:08
    Just go around the corner to,
    what was it, McDonald's
  • 50:08 - 50:12
    and you just bite into that whatever
    you're biting into
  • 50:12 - 50:14
    and it taste out of this world.
  • 50:16 - 50:21
    It's nothing to do with the hamburger
    or whatever else you're eating.
  • 50:21 - 50:26
    But everything to do with your
    mindfulness being so strong, so powerful.
  • 50:26 - 50:30
    That hamburger tastes like
    it's been made at a 5 star,
  • 50:30 - 50:34
    no, not five star,
    six star restaurant.
  • 50:34 - 50:38
    It's not what's in what you're seeing.
  • 50:38 - 50:41
    It's not what's seeing what you're eating.
  • 50:41 - 50:48
    It's everything what's in your mind,
    your mind is clear, sensitive.
  • 50:48 - 50:54
    And if you hear any music,
    wow! it thrills you
  • 50:54 - 50:57
    because you're picking up everything.
  • 50:57 - 51:02
    which is being... being there in the sound
    and this is what happens.
  • 51:02 - 51:07
    This life as a monk.
    I love this, you have so much joy.
  • 51:07 - 51:10
    At night time, right now,
    in Serpentine
  • 51:10 - 51:16
    you look at the stars in the evening.
    Absolutely thrilling, they're gorgeous.
  • 51:16 - 51:20
    You just look up and you just
    can't take your eyes away.
  • 51:20 - 51:27
    The dawns it makes...
    it just amazing. Who wants a tv?
  • 51:27 - 51:31
    Who wants anything?
    You want to watch that.
  • 51:31 - 51:35
    Who wants to go to a museum
    when that's happening right there
  • 51:35 - 51:42
    it's for free. And so, so much
    of the world of life
  • 51:42 - 51:47
    becomes so sensitive and so amazing,
    it's so beautiful.
  • 51:47 - 51:50
    You get a huge amount
    of happiness and joy
  • 51:50 - 51:53
    when your mindfulness gets really strong.
  • 51:53 - 51:58
    And even you, sometimes you meditate,
    you look at the carpet.
  • 51:58 - 52:01
    Have you ever noticed
    how beautiful that carpet is?
  • 52:04 - 52:07
    Am I going crazy?
  • 52:10 - 52:15
    The point is that when
    your mindfulness gets strong.
  • 52:15 - 52:19
    Every shade of those light blues
    and dark blues
  • 52:19 - 52:22
    and reds and yellows and whites
  • 52:22 - 52:28
    and the way that they interact together
    and the texture of that carpet.
  • 52:28 - 52:34
    It just really comes out
    and blows your mind, becomes beautiful.
  • 52:35 - 52:39
    Free happiness in the ordinary.
  • 52:39 - 52:42
    And if that carpet looks beautiful.
  • 52:42 - 52:47
    You look at your old grandma.
    She's gorgeous.
  • 52:49 - 52:53
    And I'm not joking.
    That's what happens.
  • 52:53 - 52:57
    Superpower mindfulness and you see
    beauty in so many things
  • 52:57 - 52:59
    in your past, in your future,
  • 52:59 - 53:03
    in people you live with,
    in your children, in your partners
  • 53:03 - 53:08
    in your grandparents,
    in your monks and your nuns,
  • 53:08 - 53:15
    in your politicians,
    in the police who stop you.
  • 53:17 - 53:20
    You know sometimes I just wonder,
  • 53:20 - 53:26
    you know, people like being around monks
  • 53:26 - 53:29
    that's what you do anyway because
    you come every Friday night.
  • 53:29 - 53:31
    But why?
  • 53:31 - 53:33
    I always remember that one politician
  • 53:33 - 53:36
    apparently she's still in politics
    that's Alannah MacTiernan.
  • 53:36 - 53:39
    Years and years, about 20, 30 years ago
    or something.
  • 53:39 - 53:42
    She was in politics and we went to
    see her for something
  • 53:43 - 53:47
    and afterwards you know,
    after we talked to her about something,
  • 53:47 - 53:49
    she had some really wonderful advice.
  • 53:49 - 53:54
    And as she got off her seat
    instead of letting her secretary
  • 53:54 - 53:58
    take us to the door, she escorted us
    to the door with kindness
  • 53:58 - 54:04
    and she said "you know I really enjoy
    people like you coming to my office."
  • 54:04 - 54:07
    and she meant it with sincerity.
  • 54:08 - 54:11
    I always wonder why did she say that.
  • 54:11 - 54:13
    This is because, the monks and nuns
    are kind.
  • 54:13 - 54:17
    Well, generally we have something
    to complain about but we don't do:
  • 54:17 - 54:22
    "Hey! why are you doing this, why are you
    doing that? We... Blah, blah, blah..."
  • 54:22 - 54:28
    I just could feel the kindness there,
    the gentleness, the beauty, the peace.
  • 54:28 - 54:32
    So that's what happens
    when you're mindful and kind.
  • 54:32 - 54:36
    You make friends
    in the weirdest of places.
  • 54:36 - 54:40
    So anyway that's the talk
    for this evening.
  • 54:40 - 54:46
    The mindfulness by itself,
    I agree can have some problems.
  • 54:46 - 54:49
    But you add the kindness,
    you add the rest of the factors like
  • 54:49 - 54:54
    we're doing this not to get things
    but to let go of things.
  • 54:54 - 54:57
    We're doing this out of
    kindness and gentleness.
  • 54:57 - 55:00
    If that motivates your life, wow!
  • 55:00 - 55:03
    Meditation is so beautiful.
  • 55:03 - 55:06
    Thank you for listening.
  • 55:06 - 55:10
    (Audience) Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu
  • 55:10 - 55:13
    I always say when people try and do
    something and they don't do it properly
  • 55:13 - 55:16
    if you're gonna clap, clap.
  • 55:16 - 55:21
    (Audience) clapping
  • 55:24 - 55:26
    But anyway, thank you.
  • 55:26 - 55:30
    First of all any questions
    from the people here?
  • 55:31 - 55:36
    (inaudible from audience)
  • 55:42 - 55:48
    Q-Ajahn, how do we apply a loving kindness
    in a not for profit organization?
  • 55:48 - 55:54
    Yeah, again that Buddhism is one
    of the few non-profit religions
  • 55:54 - 55:58
    because we don't believe in prophets.
  • 55:58 - 56:02
    You know, Jesus was a prophet,
    other people are prophets
  • 56:02 - 56:08
    but we don't have prophet in Buddhism,
    we're really non....
  • 56:08 - 56:13
    Okay, it's an old bad joke but never mind.
  • 56:13 - 56:17
    How to have loving kindness?
  • 56:17 - 56:23
    I think because I have met
    many millionaires in my life
  • 56:23 - 56:28
    and I just... when I once I was...
    okay don't mind saying.
  • 56:28 - 56:33
    At a state dinner once over in Canberra
    I went to the toilet.
  • 56:33 - 56:38
    In male toilets, you know, for urinals,
    you just had one next to the other
  • 56:38 - 56:43
    and so I went in there and the
    fellow was in the next urinal to me
  • 56:43 - 56:53
    was uh... sorry, yeah that's right
    Lachlan Murdoch,
  • 56:53 - 56:58
    he is Rupert Murdoch son,
    Dr. Murdock.
  • 56:58 - 57:01
    And as soon as I saw his badge
    Lachlan Murdoch I thought
  • 57:01 - 57:05
    if only I had a donation envelope.
    (laugh)
  • 57:09 - 57:15
    But that... like one of the people
    I think I quoted recently
  • 57:15 - 57:21
    which was the head of the Changi airport
    corporation many years ago
  • 57:21 - 57:27
    and it was the day before
    he was opening terminal 3, no 4,
  • 57:27 - 57:31
    terminal 4 in Singapore.
    And he was next to the head of
  • 57:31 - 57:36
    Keppel Shipping who was the
    highest paid CEO in Singapore.
  • 57:36 - 57:39
    So these were... actually Buddhists.
    And he said
  • 57:39 - 57:44
    "how do you do loving kindness
    and put Buddhism into your business?"
  • 57:44 - 57:50
    I remember the head of
    the Changi Airport Corporation,
  • 57:50 - 57:54
    he said "people go to work
    every morning and expect to be happy."
  • 57:54 - 57:58
    But how many go to work
    in the morning
  • 57:58 - 58:03
    with the resolution to make
    someone else happy today?
  • 58:03 - 58:06
    So that's why you don't feel
    any happiness,
  • 58:06 - 58:08
    you expect someone else
    to make you happy,
  • 58:08 - 58:12
    but you don't go to work with
    the main desire of
  • 58:12 - 58:15
    "I'm gonna make someone happy today."
  • 58:15 - 58:19
    So just changing a person's attitude
    a little bit .
  • 58:19 - 58:21
    I don't know where you work,
  • 58:21 - 58:27
    I work in BSWA so I often go
    to work on a Friday night.
  • 58:27 - 58:33
    I'm gonna make somebody happy tonight.
    So you put happiness in there
  • 58:33 - 58:39
    instead of expecting happiness
    to be given to you.
  • 58:39 - 58:43
    You become proactive
    so that's one way
  • 58:43 - 58:48
    in any organization you can actually
    put some joy and happiness in there.
  • 58:48 - 58:50
    It's wonderful when that happens.
  • 58:50 - 58:54
    Human beings are just
    gorgeous people.
  • 58:54 - 58:58
    And they just need to touch that goodness.
  • 58:58 - 59:00
    I just remember just...
  • 59:00 - 59:07
    because I don't know why I got involved
    in Curtin university of all places.
  • 59:07 - 59:09
    But I was given the John Curtin Medal
    there once,
  • 59:09 - 59:13
    and so often I go there
    for one reason or another.
  • 59:13 - 59:19
    But it happened over here.
    There was a Sri Lankan woman and
  • 59:19 - 59:22
    she would come here, not that often
    because she was very busy
  • 59:22 - 59:26
    looking after two children.
    And her husband
  • 59:26 - 59:31
    was actually working two jobs
    to get enough money,
  • 59:31 - 59:38
    because the wife was actually doing a
    training in nursing at Curtin university.
  • 59:38 - 59:43
    And unfortunately that one night,
    double job, not enough sleep,
  • 59:43 - 59:46
    he crashed the car and killed himself.
  • 59:47 - 59:52
    It was a tragedy, you know,
    just trying to work too hard.
  • 59:52 - 60:00
    And the wife, the two kids, no way
    she could pay the tuition fees at Curtin.
  • 60:00 - 60:08
    So, I got on the phone to
    the vice chancellor, Jeannette Hackett.
  • 60:08 - 60:10
    She became a good friend.
  • 60:10 - 60:15
    I confessed this that on one occasion,
    she was just retiring
  • 60:15 - 60:18
    "Ajahn Brahm, I just loved
    my association with you" she said.
  • 60:18 - 60:20
    She said "I'm going to give you a hug."
  • 60:20 - 60:23
    You're not supposed to do that
    to a Buddhist monk
  • 60:23 - 60:28
    but she was too fast for me.
    (laughter)
  • 60:28 - 60:31
    It's only once.
  • 60:31 - 60:35
    But anyway, I called her up I said
    "Look, this is real tragedy."
  • 60:35 - 60:39
    She said "What is it?"
    And because they know you,
  • 60:39 - 60:41
    you can actually get straight
    through to them
  • 60:41 - 60:45
    and I said "Look, any chance
    of getting a scholarship for her?"
  • 60:45 - 60:48
    " Leave it with me." she said.
  • 60:48 - 60:51
    And of course, they got
    the scholarship for her
  • 60:51 - 60:55
    and so everything paid for
    in Curtin university.
  • 60:55 - 61:00
    And just I think the locals over here
    we try to help her.
  • 61:00 - 61:05
    Some donations for her costs
    of living and stuff.
  • 61:05 - 61:08
    And eventually when she graduated
    as a nurse from here,
  • 61:08 - 61:13
    she came up, I remember,
    just came up and said thank you
  • 61:13 - 61:16
    and that basically saved her life.
  • 61:16 - 61:19
    Unfortunately couldn't save her husband's
    life but at least could save her.
  • 61:19 - 61:23
    So you know, these people you may think
    are they just big bosses somewhere.
  • 61:23 - 61:25
    They like doing good things as well,
    kind things.
  • 61:25 - 61:28
    They don't like being exploited
    you give them an opportunity
  • 61:28 - 61:33
    to do something good
    and they will just...they will run for it.
  • 61:33 - 61:37
    Anyway all the good people
    I've seen in life here,
  • 61:37 - 61:41
    give them an opportunity and
    they love doing great stuff.
  • 61:41 - 61:47
    Q - Okay, from Hong Kong,
    I'm very sensitive to smell
  • 61:47 - 61:52
    halfway through the meditation I smell
    cigarette smoke and drain smells.
  • 61:52 - 61:57
    Is it desirable for me to deal with them,
    ie. to close windows halfway through?
  • 61:57 - 62:02
    Sometimes that's why people
    used to light incense in temples
  • 62:02 - 62:10
    because when hygiene wasn't that good
    you need smelly incense.
  • 62:10 - 62:13
    I don't know why in Hong Kong,
    halfway through meditation
  • 62:13 - 62:15
    I smell cigarette smoke.
  • 62:15 - 62:19
    You know, sometimes you can turn
    the sense of smell off.
  • 62:19 - 62:23
    In other words you're just going inside
    the body
  • 62:23 - 62:27
    and the joy of peace is so strong
    that you don't hear things,
  • 62:27 - 62:31
    you can't be disturbed
    by something like smell.
  • 62:31 - 62:36
    So if you go deeper quickly then you
    won't smell anything at all.
  • 62:36 - 62:39
    and I don't know where you're meditating
  • 62:39 - 62:41
    if those cigarette smoke and
    drain smells are there anyway
  • 62:41 - 62:46
    just try and meditate somewhere
    else which hasn't got those smells.
  • 62:47 - 62:51
    Is it desire for me to deal with them
    close windows halfway through?
  • 62:51 - 62:54
    No, close the windows before you start
  • 62:54 - 62:59
    and then you won't have those cigarette
    smoke and drain smells.
  • 62:59 - 63:04
    From Poland, "When we meet a person who
    is saying or doing awful things to us
  • 63:04 - 63:06
    how we can still be kind to that person
  • 63:06 - 63:10
    when they continue to be
    in our life and do us harm?"
  • 63:10 - 63:16
    If they're saying things and then,
    are they really doing you harm?
  • 63:16 - 63:21
    This is one of the reasons why,
    when I complained
  • 63:21 - 63:26
    to my teacher, Ajahn Chah,
    about the mosquitoes.
  • 63:26 - 63:30
    they were really doing us harm,
    you know, biting us all over the place.
  • 63:31 - 63:35
    And who knows that, you know,
    he said they don't have malaria
  • 63:35 - 63:39
    just need one,
    just one and that's it.
  • 63:39 - 63:44
    But anyway so when I asked Ajahn Chah
    can we have some mosquito repellant
  • 63:44 - 63:50
    or some coils or some protection
    mosquito nets.
  • 63:50 - 63:53
    He said "No!"
  • 63:53 - 63:57
    That's how kind he was, I thought.
  • 63:57 - 64:01
    But then what he really meant was
    "No, from now on" he said
  • 64:01 - 64:07
    "you'd call the mosquitoes your teacher,
    Ajahn Mosquito."
  • 64:07 - 64:13
    That was hard but it was beautiful,
    you learned so much from that.
  • 64:13 - 64:20
    So, you meet a person
    who's saying and doing awful things to us
  • 64:20 - 64:25
    see if you can protect yourself
    however much you can
  • 64:25 - 64:33
    and also be kind. If it's still
    too difficult to be kind to them.
  • 64:33 - 64:39
    There's an old saying in Chinese
    "to love the tiger but at a distance."
  • 64:39 - 64:43
    So you can move away from it a little bit.
  • 64:43 - 64:45
    If they are doing awful things
    to you again
  • 64:45 - 64:50
    sometimes you have to call the police
    if they're really doing your physical harm
  • 64:50 - 64:55
    but sometimes if not.
    Okay here's another story.
  • 64:55 - 65:01
    This is after about being here
    nine or ten years.
  • 65:01 - 65:06
    I've been here now 37 or 38 years
    in Australia, in Perth.
  • 65:06 - 65:09
    But anyway, this woman
    came to see me once
  • 65:09 - 65:12
    and just after one of the talks,
    just before this hall was made,
  • 65:12 - 65:15
    we had our talks in the community hall.
    And she came and said:
  • 65:15 - 65:22
    " I've just come to thank you
    for saving my marriage."
  • 65:22 - 65:28
    And I asked her what have we done
    and then she told her story.
  • 65:28 - 65:32
    This is not an example to be followed
  • 65:32 - 65:37
    but this was the days when
    there was very little support
  • 65:37 - 65:41
    for women suffering domestic violence.
  • 65:41 - 65:46
    She said her husband was being
    violent to her regularly.
  • 65:46 - 65:51
    She said she came to this place
    not to learn Buddhism
  • 65:51 - 65:54
    but at least when she was here
    she felt safe.
  • 65:54 - 65:58
    A couple of hours when
    she wasn't being hit.
  • 65:58 - 66:02
    That was really extreme,
    I never knew anything about that.
  • 66:02 - 66:04
    But she said she kept on coming here
  • 66:04 - 66:09
    and she learned the kindness
    and just focusing on the positive,
  • 66:09 - 66:15
    the watering the weeds and not the ...
    Sorry, no, I got that wrong didn't I?
  • 66:17 - 66:20
    Yeah watering the flowers not the weeds.
  • 66:22 - 66:26
    And she said she practiced,
    that took her seven years.
  • 66:26 - 66:31
    And she got these little meditation stools
    you see them in the back over there.
  • 66:31 - 66:37
    she said: "you see this meditation stool,
    she said he made this for me today.
  • 66:37 - 66:40
    that's why I need to come and thank you."
  • 66:40 - 66:46
    She said if he made something like this
    four years ago it'd be to hit me with.
  • 66:46 - 66:51
    And it was really gross but then I saw her
    she was this really beautiful woman.
  • 66:51 - 66:57
    You know, not just like a supermodel
    but just her eyes and her goodness
  • 66:57 - 66:59
    she was like a saint
  • 66:59 - 67:02
    and she said now my husband's
    totally changed
  • 67:02 - 67:04
    he's kind to me because what she did,
  • 67:04 - 67:09
    every time he said something
    abusive or did something abusive,
  • 67:09 - 67:14
    she totally ignored that.
    How she could do that?
  • 67:14 - 67:15
    Immense endurance!
  • 67:15 - 67:18
    Every time he did something good
    and kind and wonderful.
  • 67:18 - 67:21
    She really let him know
    he was appreciated.
  • 67:21 - 67:26
    The extra hug, the extra kisses,
    oh! thank you so much.
  • 67:26 - 67:31
    She really reinforced the positive
    behavior in her own husband.
  • 67:31 - 67:33
    And then she showed me
    "he's in the back here,
  • 67:33 - 67:39
    over there that's him."
    And two lovely children.
  • 67:39 - 67:41
    She earned those.
  • 67:41 - 67:45
    You shouldn't have to earn
    your happiness in life.
  • 67:45 - 67:51
    But I don't know know why she married
    that man but she totally changed him.
  • 67:51 - 67:53
    He came down to the monastery as well,
    wonderful guy.
  • 67:53 - 67:59
    So it's possible but that's going
    a bit far because of physical abuse.
  • 67:59 - 68:01
    But she did it, good on her.
  • 68:02 - 68:06
    From Bangalore, "Respected Ajahn,
    how does one investigate the I or me
  • 68:06 - 68:09
    who is meditating, watch his feelings,
    thoughts, breaths, ect...
  • 68:09 - 68:13
    It seems to be a perceiver as long
    as there's something to perceive?"
  • 68:13 - 68:17
    You don't go thinking and trying to
    perceive these deep teachings,
  • 68:17 - 68:20
    you let these deep teachings come to you.
  • 68:20 - 68:25
    So, in other words things start to
    disappear, you relax to the max.
  • 68:25 - 68:28
    You don't try and contemplate things,
    you see things.
  • 68:29 - 68:31
    That's how this works and how it works
  • 68:31 - 68:35
    many of you've heard this simile before
    I'm going way over time again.
  • 68:35 - 68:40
    The old tadpole and the frog simile.
  • 68:40 - 68:42
    Tadpole can't understand water,
  • 68:42 - 68:45
    can contemplate water,
    think about water, investigate water.
  • 68:45 - 68:48
    Tadpole will never know what water is,
  • 68:48 - 68:51
    no more than a fish
    can know what water is.
  • 68:51 - 68:56
    The reason I said tadpole instead of fish
    because one day tadpole grows into frog
  • 68:56 - 69:00
    and frog grows arms and legs
    and frog doesn't know what they're doing.
  • 69:00 - 69:03
    And they jump out the water one day.
  • 69:03 - 69:06
    Now when water has vanished.
  • 69:06 - 69:10
    Now the frog can understand
    what water was.
  • 69:10 - 69:13
    The same way we go so deep in meditation
  • 69:13 - 69:19
    and soon we don't have our body,
    don't have our mind, have nothing left.
  • 69:19 - 69:23
    Now you understand what you thought
    you were.
  • 69:23 - 69:27
    You don't do this with philosophy.
  • 69:27 - 69:33
    Philosophy gives you, please excuse me,
    gives you headaches.
  • 69:34 - 69:37
    Seeing gives you truth.
  • 69:38 - 69:43
    From Melbourne, "Dear Ajahn, when worldly
    pleasures disappear there's sadness
  • 69:43 - 69:46
    but when happiness experiences in
    deep meditation disappears
  • 69:46 - 69:48
    no such sadness can be felt.
    Is this correct?"
  • 69:48 - 69:54
    The deep meditation disappears
    no such sadness can be felt.
  • 69:54 - 69:59
    No, because it's a happiness
    of contentment.
  • 69:59 - 70:03
    Contentment means you're happy,
    no matter what.
  • 70:05 - 70:10
    It's contentment of having no desires,
    the freedom from wanting.
  • 70:10 - 70:16
    You don't want anything
    then suffering starts to vanish.
  • 70:17 - 70:22
    From Indiana, "Ajahn Brahm, I lost
    my 15 year old to suicide in December.
  • 70:22 - 70:25
    What would the Buddha say
    to do to lessen this kind of suffering?"
  • 70:25 - 70:29
    Just to understand that your son
    will come back again.
  • 70:29 - 70:33
    Suffering is not the end of all life.
  • 70:33 - 70:35
    Sorry no, that's the wrong answer
    as I'm getting tired.
  • 70:35 - 70:38
    Suicide is not the end of all life.
  • 70:38 - 70:42
    Many times people who commit suicide
    they come back again pretty quickly.
  • 70:42 - 70:49
    So, the person made a mistake,
    big mistake.
  • 70:49 - 70:52
    So next time they can come back,
  • 70:52 - 70:54
    if life is more meaningful
  • 70:54 - 70:58
    then who would ever want
    to commit suicide?
  • 70:59 - 71:03
    And I remember just when
    I was in Singapore
  • 71:03 - 71:07
    there was one kid just
    jumped off the balcony
  • 71:07 - 71:10
    of one of this big apartment blocks
    killed himself.
  • 71:10 - 71:13
    But the suicide note was in the front
    page of the Straits Times.
  • 71:13 - 71:17
    And it was just whoa!
    It made many people wake up.
  • 71:17 - 71:21
    He said "All I wanted was more time
    with my parents".
  • 71:26 - 71:29
    And of course, you can understand
    what that means.
  • 71:29 - 71:31
    Many times the parents
    are working so hard
  • 71:31 - 71:34
    because they want to get
    the best education
  • 71:34 - 71:37
    the best this, the best that
    for their kids.
  • 71:37 - 71:40
    All the kids really wanted was just time.
  • 71:40 - 71:44
    If they had a father like my father,
  • 71:44 - 71:47
    who just spent so much time with us.
  • 71:47 - 71:50
    He wasn't wealthy at all,
    he was really poor.
  • 71:50 - 71:52
    He gave me so much inspiration.
  • 71:52 - 71:58
    That's what children want,
    they want time with the people they love.
  • 71:58 - 72:01
    Lastly, another one from India
  • 72:01 - 72:04
    "Which is better to meditate, a place
    with noise and comfort for meditation
  • 72:04 - 72:07
    or place of seclusion
    with difficult conditions?"
  • 72:07 - 72:13
    Ah, the best of those is a place
    with comfort and seclusion.
  • 72:15 - 72:18
    In other words it just changes things.
  • 72:18 - 72:21
    Noise and comfort for meditation
    or place of seclusion with difficult.
  • 72:21 - 72:24
    If it's noise it's very easy
    to stop noises these day,
  • 72:24 - 72:28
    just get noise canceling headphones.
  • 72:28 - 72:31
    Can you do that?
  • 72:31 - 72:33
    The most important thing with
    whatever you experience,
  • 72:33 - 72:36
    comfort, noise, difficult conditions.
  • 72:36 - 72:38
    I've meditated so much
  • 72:38 - 72:41
    really places you should never
    be able to meditate in.
  • 72:41 - 72:44
    Sometimes I do that to test myself.
  • 72:44 - 72:50
    I mentioned I think last time
    in Suvarnabhumi Airport.
  • 72:50 - 72:54
    Now right in the place where
    people are welcoming the visitors.
  • 72:54 - 72:57
    "Hi! Hello, nice to see you.
    How've you been?
  • 72:57 - 72:58
    Why are you waiting for so long?"
  • 72:58 - 73:02
    Right there just sat down close my eyes
    and meditate for an hour,
  • 73:02 - 73:03
    very beautiful meditation.
  • 73:03 - 73:07
    Or uncomfortable, in Hay street mall.
  • 73:07 - 73:11
    Years ago, well might as well
    mention this.
  • 73:11 - 73:16
    Years ago, the Burmese community
    were doing a little...
  • 73:16 - 73:19
    bring people's attention to the troubles
    in their land.
  • 73:19 - 73:22
    It's happening all over again now.
  • 73:22 - 73:28
    At that time they invited me just outside
    of... that church there ...
  • 73:28 - 73:34
    anyway, one of those church,
    to meditate for two hours.
  • 73:34 - 73:37
    And that was on the hard pavement,
  • 73:37 - 73:44
    no cushions and right opposite I think
    it was called Time Zone, whatever,
  • 73:44 - 73:48
    They made big noise
    like people play video games
  • 73:48 - 73:53
    and big noise just blasting out
    and traffic going past.
  • 73:53 - 73:55
    This is really cool.
  • 73:57 - 74:02
    I like challenging myself and so
    yeah, lovely meditation for two hours.
  • 74:02 - 74:04
    It can be done
  • 74:04 - 74:10
    but it's better to find a nice quiet place
    and comfortable place.
  • 74:10 - 74:16
    So I wouldn't go trying to meditate
    outside of or inside a parliament house.
  • 74:16 - 74:21
    Which is sometimes noisy
    or where else is noisy in this world?
  • 74:21 - 74:24
    I don't know, anyway
    but yeah it can be done.
  • 74:24 - 74:26
    So learn in the easy places
  • 74:26 - 74:29
    and then you can progress
    to the hard places if you need to.
  • 74:30 - 74:34
    Thank you again for listening.
    Sorry for going on a bit long.
  • 74:34 - 74:38
    So now we can bow three times
    to Buddha Dhamma Sangha
  • 74:38 - 74:41
    And then those of you
    who still want to carry on
  • 74:41 - 74:45
    you can ask more questions
    in a few moments.
  • 74:45 - 74:50
    And again my apology for not being able
    to speak to you before the talk.
  • 74:50 - 74:53
    We were just having an
    important little committee meeting.
  • 74:53 - 74:56
    So sometimes we have to look after the...
  • 74:56 - 75:00
    the Buddhist Society
    of Western Australia's administration
  • 75:00 - 75:03
    So sorry about that,
    doesn't usually happen.
  • 75:17 - 75:31
    Araham Samma Sambuddho Bhagava
    Buddham Bhagavantam Abhivademi
  • 75:33 - 75:42
    Svakkhato Bhagavata Dhammo
    Dhammam Namasami
  • 75:43 - 75:55
    Suppatipanno Bhagavato SavakaSangho
    Sangham Namami
Title:
Mindfulness and Kindfulness | Ajahn Brahm | 16 April 2021
Description:

Ajahn Brahm teaches us about the importance of having kindness in our meditation. Ajahn explains why it takes both mindfulness and kindness to overcome the many obstacles we face in meditation. (Kindfulness is a slang word created by Ajahn Bram).

Please support the BSWA in making teachings available for free online via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BuddhistSocietyWA

Recorded at Dhammaloka Buddhist Centre, Perth, Western Australia.

Buddhist Society of Western Australia’s teaching's page: https://bswa.org/teachings/

To find the full playlist visit: https://www.youtube.com/user/BuddhistSocietyWA/playlists, or click on 'Playlists' in the top menu bar.

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Buddhist Society of Western Australia
Project:
Friday Night Dhamma Talks
Duration:
01:16:15

English subtitles

Revisions