"Courage and Authenticity at Work" by Ajahn Brahm

just a quick little introduction to meditation so he put his hand up and he waved his hand up and down like this and he say this represents a leaf on a tree the leaf only moves because of the wind if you stop the wind then the leaf moves less and less and there's a mess until it comes to perfect stillness because that's its natural state what we call the default state and the same with your mind it only moves because of the wind of wanting something so instead of wanting anything we just make peace with this moment just be kind and be gentle and then you find your mind becomes nice and peaceful all by itself it's just what happens when you don't do anything else and I'm sure that many of you can remember some of the most happy times of your life when you were content he didn't want anything he weren't in a in a perfect location in a perfect place you just had these moments when you're just happy to be here not watching anything else and that caused so much peace and happiness in your mind and also in your body so meditation is not about doing something it's like learning how to be content in this moment opening the door of your heart to whatever is happening right now letting it be and then not wanting anything and then you become really peaceful guess what you are fine for coming in late I used to be a school teacher before I was a monk and I know that's one of the reasons why I lost all my hair teaching high school kids will make anyone to their hair out and that's why I also know as a school teacher was always the naughty boys and girls sat in the back heee my eyes about you back is back so having given that very brief introduction to meditation the doors are now closing please fasten your seat belts we're about to take off on Buddha air destination nirvana silence for my decks I'm more comfortable this way so you don't have to do this so now please close your eyes and with your eyes closed I'm going to lead this meditation for most of the times if you've never meditated you know life before no worries no fear at jump armies here to guide you so to shut your eyes and first of all just see how much you can relax your body just sit comfortably this is not work it's the opposite is the art of relaxation and meditation when it's done properly is fun it's joyful it's easy which is why in this afternoon's talk I call this session club med Manchester and know what that means club meditation happy relaxing a holiday from the busyness of your life so when your body is you think it's reasonably relaxed just look again first of all your legs dragging over the chair or 4 meters crossed how do they feel right now be aware just notice the sensations or feelings the tightness the aches attention the pressure anything in your legs and move them to try and find the best position for your legs the posture the right meditation posture is not the same for everybody it's not the same every time you meditate you feel the best position for your legs adjusting them moving them until you find the optimum was comfortable position and even if there's a lake or pain during the meditation it's quite okay to very slowly move your legs if you need to to become comfortable this is not Guantanamo Bay we have prolong stress positions this is just kindness to your body so mindful and then kind and then look at your bottom pressed against the chair how does it feel if you need to adjust the position on the chair please do so what we're practicing here is some awareness together with kindness awareness allows you to get feedback your bottom is this position you move it that feedback which that awareness gives you allows you to find the best position and the kindness stops stops you moving when you find the best and then you move up your body to your back many people have back pains because they do not have awareness of how they've got their body position especially their back you don't always have to to sit ramrod straight you can lean against the back of the chair if that's the best position so you find the best for you today if necessary move and then once you are satisfied with the position of your back then where are your hands positioned right now are they comfortable many people sit down they fidget because they don't spend enough time enough care just noticing where their hands are making sure that they are comfortable there just like when you set out on a journey in your car you make sure everything is on board enough fuel in the engine before you leave same way we're checking on our body to make sure it's comfortable before we start meditating and then check again your shoulders and relax your shoulders sometimes people have difficulty knowing how to relax so there was a simile which I was using this afternoon which I'll repeat again just imagine that you're your shoulders are made up of a lot a lot of strings elastic bands which have been stretched and because they've been stretched is the tightness attention the stress in your shoulders and just imagine letting go of both ends of that elastic so it gets looser and looser until there's no stress your awareness of your shoulders will tell you from feedback if those shoulders are relaxing more and more little by little you are learning how to relax your own body if the shoulders get more tense the mindfulness gives you feedback will tell you that and then you can look at the neck many people have neck pains just to be aware of any sensations in the neck and move the head until the neck feels very comfortable and lastly see if you can notice the sensations in the muscles around your eyes and see if you can relax those muscles sometimes it does take trial and error to know how to relax but when it does relax you can feel it the tightness attentions change into something which you recognize as being free relaxed nothing being pulled or stretched or squashed by putting awareness mindfulness on those muscles you find that everything gets loose it's not just about relaxing the body he's learning how to be aware of just one part of the body then how to relax it bring it to a greater sense of peace and comfort and health and then just you aware of your whole body sitting here taking every part of it relaxing it comfortable but I go one step further in the awareness of the body and learning how to relax it you go to a part of your body which is still aching or tight or in pain there's always something there you have a cold irritation in the throat irritable bowel syndrome or whatever there's always something there so zoom in on it as you focus in once you have awareness of a part of the body which is painful tense then you can learn how to relax that pain even if it's in a part of the body which your hand cannot reach which movements of the body know do not help deep inside your body you can be aware and learn how to relax that part of the body so I said to something that I teach this the wonderful effect to people or women who are suffering from breast cancer be able to heal the world body by focusing on that part focusing on it and you can feel what makes it relax become an ease heal and what makes it more tight what makes it more sick the awareness of your own body and the kindness which relaxes everything till my body feels very relaxed and there's something which I notice is the delight of a relaxed body feel so free no tightness nothing squashed or caught everything just as it is with no force now it feels very delightful and then once the body has been relaxed part by part with mindfulness and kindness now we go to our emotional world the mind and first of all so I introduced this afternoon there is something I'm asking you to look at which I call the peace ometer they have a speedometer in your car so to understand what I mean how peaceful are you now or how agitated give it a score a number from one to ten one is really really peaceful ten is very agitated when your peace will have very few thoughts when you're agitated the thoughts are just almost uncontrollable so how peaceful are how agitated are you what you're aware of is what I call the peace ometer just like your way of tightness tension pain in the body now you're aware of how peaceful how agitated you are in the mind now see what's necessary to bring more peace to your mind when you're mindful of the right area then you soon see what makes you more agitated more peaceful you get feedback just like when you press your foot on the accelerator the speedometer needle goes up when you release the pressure it goes down you find out what is necessary to bring more peace to your mind what makes it more agitated your fire is the same kindness opening the door of your heart to this moment making peace with this moment being content we're just being here that brings the needle of your piece ometer closer and closer to one and keep your attention inside the mind if you send it outside to the noise of the cars to maybe an a for paying heat and cold in the body it gets distracted keep it inside just on how peaceful is your mind and how to make it more peaceful and very often in meditation at this time quite naturally people become aware of their breathing so anyway if you're not aware of your breathing just see if you can become aware and to help as you breathe in imagine you're breathing in peace health energy if you're tired you breathe in imagine these good qualities peace or energy coming into your body with every ingress and as you breathe out you're breathing out all of the difficulties of pain sickness worries anxieties all of that negative stuff going out with every out breath breathing in peace breathe out let go breathing in peace breathe out let go just a natural rhythm of the freezing breathing in joy happiness breathing out any negativity any fault-finding breathing in joy happiness using our negativity feeling in peace breathing out like [Music] always one breath of the time with no concern about the breath which happened a few moments ago no concern about the breath which is going to come next it's natural you don't do the breathing you just observe the breath be the inner peace breathing out there god there's no need to name or assess or just to take notes in your mind about what's going on you can do that later on all you need to do all I recommend is to enjoy enjoy the peace of this moment you're not going to be tested or examined you just let this moment be if you do need to cough or move please do so don't force yourself that creates more stress and tension just gently just if you need to cough cough if you need to move slowly gently move relaxing your body relaxing your mind breathing in peace without like no force no pressure relaxing to the max I'm going to be quiet now for a few minutes when I start speaking getting to be a couple of minutes before the end of the meditation so just enjoy see what happens [Music] how's it going now how relaxes your body how peaceful is your mind what does it feel like to have a relaxed body at ease what does it feel like to have a peaceful mind just happy to be here not going anywhere but try to get rid of anything just being content just being a peace by making peace here kind of a gentle please just observe three more invests in our face you know amount you know the end of the third out-breath open your eyes to end this meditation period after three more breaths please cuddle kindness to myself and venerable Chanda please smile when you come out of meditation otherwise I have to look at a whole lot of miserable faces thank you so much excellent so if you're sitting comfortably that I'll begin no no so now you've done a little bit of meditation and it allows me to just get my energies back because I use my meditation to really start giving myself an oomph of energy which is what happens it's just there's something else about this path of meditation which I'll just mention that when you learn how to speak in this moment not do anything be kind be content you don't need to think you don't need to plan or burden yourself with all these memories instead you stay in this moment is still not doing anything not going anywhere which means you're not wasting any mental energy and if you don't waste the mental energy by thinking planning doing stuff you find all the energy of the mind which would usually get wasted in complaining thinking planning that all gets collected together and it just brings energy into just the knowing into the mindfulness into awareness you literally become more aware and with that awareness more energized it's like a free form an energy mental energy through stillness through not wasting stuff so I've often use that after the end of a busy day just to energize yourself so that you can just serve and do stuff for others so it's not fitting in see tonight's not the coffee I had a couple of hours ago it's vitamin M vitamin meditation pure powerful energies and I love using that because that's a little secret technique which you can use to empower your mind when you have to perform many many times in my life you know you travel a lot you do a lot I just reminded I only arrived from Australia on Monday afternoon that's only with two days ago and so now seven hours difference is now worth twenty six that's two thirty in the morning so my body says you should be fast asleep but my mind says no need you've got energy power so this is a little trick which I've used very often very effectively and also totally off topic but I hopefully you felt that when you started experiencing your body really mindful of it and learning how to relax it amazing things happen to your body to make it really health healthy had so much real good success in using this meditation to heal people's bodies that in many places that you're getting it's not like in Toronto every year I go there throughout the university invites me to teach as part of the course degree course in Buddhism medicine and psychology because there's a few things there which are very powerful for people's health I did mention with cancer's which is it's terrible that so many people have to you know endure so the pain the difficulties and a fear of cancer in today's world yeah you have to sort of go to the doctors and stuff but number one wouldn't be wonderful though you went to the see the doctor and it wasn't there the cancer wasn't there how can you actually do that you know that a lot of people are so unaware of their bodies but they just do not see or do not feel the the imbalances whatever you wish to call it the aches and the pains and the body happening in the first place until when it actually happens you know it's a bit far gone it's the same when reading a medical journal heart attacks don't come from the out of the blue you know if there is sort of problems that cardiac problem gives you many signals not before the big one hits but many people that is not aware of their own body that totally oblivious to it and so they don't check the science they don't feel it and so even as a monk sometimes I've been seen situations a long way from anywhere and you have no real choice there's no doctor available and one of those little stories again off subject or who cares you in here now so you can't get out you can complain afterwards one of those little stories was you know no exaggeration being in monastry and Australia in my cave where I live I had food poisoning now not exaggerating it's real food poisoning and sometimes you don't know what people give you to eat today because this was Manchester and I it was almost like a resolution something which I haven't done which I meant to do for a long time for many years because some of my friends especially friends from even university days kept on telling me that the best fish and chips are from Manchester so I had to check it out and basically I think they're right and a delicious lunch today ain't too much but who cares but it's sometimes you don't have a choice people just give you food and sometimes you don't know what you're eating and so sometimes you get tummy ache for a monk it's called occupational hazard but sometimes it's worse and this time it was full-blown food poisoning I was in my cave and every few seconds ah oh ah whenever you give a talk it's very helpful to every now and again go well ah because it means people don't fall asleep so there was a need you can't stop it it's just automatic reflex so then I thought what should I do let's go down and call a doctor or an ambulance but by the time you get to the telephone and by the time you know don't have a mobile phone as amok it's so wonderful not to have an iPhone you know what i phone means idiot phone so India because no he controls you it's not a convenience you know you have to keep checking it just in case of people couldn't actually contact you anytime the day and night so it's great when you don't have one freedom piece but anyway there you own your cave oh so instead of complaining or getting an ambulance we'll think about half and now you wouldn't be dead by the time it arrives so you have your other option exactly what I told you you're aware mindful of the feeling and you're trained enough to know how to relax it so it is giving this beautiful innocent kindness compassion learning had just to relax this pain in your tummy in our digestion or your testers whatever it was a little by little because you are aware you can feel it get worse or get better worse or better and because I've been practicing like this for a long time he's pretty easy for me you're very aware of the body so you can just relax it relax it relax it relax it every minute it got a little less painful and so there was twenty minutes and it was totally gone there's no pain left never came back full-blown food poisoning and now there's nothing left digestion perfect no aches and pains at all it really was out quite so no exaggeration is really quite impressive you can have full-blown it's that bacteria in the body something was in there and the bacteria supposed to be multiplying an irritating your your digestive system causing these cramps and now they would they were gone and sometimes I just wondered as a scientist what will those bacteria are doing they must still be there but I figured it out that I imagine oh I don't really know a bacteria looked like but I imagine that uh globs with all these like tentacles coming off it that's my imagination and so I met and all those little blobs actually crossing their tentacles sitting calmly and meditation in my digestive tract not harming me at all I don't know if that was true but certainly they didn't do anything after that time but that was a wonderful way of dealing with the problem even anxiety which is a common problem in today's world the key story was a a young student in Adelaide University who had chronic anxiety disorder so much so that she was bedridden in the student accommodation not even able to get out of bed to go for a walk to do anything then I don't go to the studies so she had obviously free access to doctors the psychologists in a university psychiatrists no one could help her so to the rescue came ajahn brahm like the seventh Cavalry by spider-man like Iron Man this was super monk like what did it fly to the rescue just say uncle you know who as a disciple of mine sort of said can you help her so she called from her bedside and so the therapy the treatment was very simple and highly effective I said when you have a panic attack where do you feel it on your body because every emotional problem has a corresponding physical counterpart so she said I feel tightness in my chest I said where well in my chest and I said I want coordinates measuring from your navel how many centimeters up to the left to the right is it an oval area or is it a square area or circular how much radius I want a very accurate description of the area where you feel that tension that tightness in your chest when you have anxiety attack call me in three days and give me a report now what is important now in for doctors for therapy is that you don't do everything for the patient you let the patient know have some control over some input into their healing otherwise it's just basically you depend upon others you're not part of your treatment and that takes away a lot of your integrity so three days later she gave me a really good description she was actually doing dentistry she was really good at science so she gave me well it was about three point four centimeters above my navel you know a lived Center about a little one point two centimeters to the left sort of an oval area maybe just the shortest diameter was this and really impressive I said great now how does it feel so well it's tense not good enough I want a clear description now I know for doctors when you go to see them it must be terrible for a doctor I say no it hurts where well roughly here what does it feel like well it's painful there's million different types of pain how can a doctor find out what's going on when you say things like that because a lot of time number one we don't have the language a number two we're not really aware enough to really investigate it so this girl gave a flower description three days later of the pain how it feels burning tight you know how it extends across her tummy how it sort of starts off and how it sort of develops brilliant it was an exercise in mindfulness in awareness so she could actually know the location and the feelings thoroughly not just superficially and the next thing was the kindness aspects of this therapy I said so next time now you know what it feels like would have an anxiety attack a panic attack now next time that happens get your hand and massage that area with as much kindness and gentleness and compassion as you possibly can do at that time she had a living boyfriend who was one of these boyfriend's you know from heaven if you get a boyfriend like this get a ring on him as soon as you can he would what for her cook for her look for her after her because no she was bedridden and said if you can't do it you feel - we can't your boyfriend to do it no boys would actually quite like that rubbing your chest sir well they didn't when I was a young man I don't know these days anyway but I'm sure that's true but she said yeah and I said call me in three days time so she called again in three days time and I said well how did it go he said well yeah I did what you've said and I said what happened to the physical counterpart of the anxiety when you massaged it she said ah after a couple of minutes no the tension of tightness in my chest vanished and disappeared and then I asked her what happened to the anxiety and that was one moment which I will never forget the Eureka moment she was silent for a few seconds and as you said the anxiety went as well but by dealing with the physical counterpart the feeling in the body then the cause of that the anxiety the emotional problem that went with the physical counterpart so great they know what to do and I hung up a couple of weeks later had a hot out of bed back to university got first-class honors and very privileged as soon as she graduated she came back to Perth to marry her boyfriend insisted that I did the ceremony of blessing for them and so I was their hero simple thing to actually overcome anxiety because so many emotional problems and is Mental Health Week so so many emotional problems whether it's depression anxiety fear anger even have a manifestation in your physical body and if you stood up some people most people aren't people to deal with the emotional world but my goodness they know how to deal with the physical world with my friends and kindness so I remember that because even on the plane from Perth to Singapore before I changed to get to London there was one fellow sitting just on the opposite our uhm bra yeah oh my father goes to your talks in Singapore he's one of the pilots in Singapore Airlines James Koo so what are you doing in Perth he was following in his father's footsteps he did some training as a pilot and he said I'm going back to Singapore tomorrow I have two interviews one with icing scoot the other always tigerair or something and he said I'm so nervous I don't know what to do and I said get your hand and start rubbing your tummy before you go in the interview because the anxiety in the fear if you try and get rid of it in your mind it gets worse physical just massage it and you find you relax people already doing it and as also there was this doctor the Bangladeshi doctor who told me well you know if you can't hear it goes down let me know not to put up again the Bangladeshi doctor she said that she was just dealing with many patients one the patient had such severe anxiety that she was on oxygen all the time even just can't breathe properly so according to the medical directive at the time you had to try the first medicine medication to reduce the anxiety that wasn't working so then it was number two a whole list of medications and she came to the last medication after a couple of weeks nothing was working it was a Thursday afternoon she wanted to go home to her husband and kid and so she did something which he know we didn't work she getting to be problem for she said okay normal treatment doesn't work I'll try out your blood method so she told her to actually whenever you have an anxiety attack feel it get to know exactly where it is and don't worry about the anxiety the physical manifestation rub your tummy so that's what she said and then she went out of the ward went back home relaxed when she came back to that ward the following morning the woman said it worked she had the oxygen mask off I'm going home and I really scolded that doctor you should have done that straightaway he would have saved the the health service fees of Australia a lot of money it actually works so there's many things you learn from this meditation which I just taught you which is highly effective no in dealing with problems mental problems mental health problems and physical problems which is wonderful to be able to see and to be able to help just one last little addict some of these really move me the fellow came to one of my meditation retreats in Perth a lot like yet a couple of stories high resistance because it inspires me then works so one of the people who came to see me on one of these nine day meditation retreats he came wearing a rubber face mask I thought who are you you know you use some sort of deviant fetish person I don't know these things I'm a simple monk so said no and he actually opened up his shirt he had psoriasis this rash and he said it's all over my body he lifted up his trouser legs and this disgusting rash covering the bottom of his legs and owned over his face every square centimeter of his body he said I have to wear this maths because to stop me scratching my my skin off my face and he said whatever the doctors had given him nothing had worked psychiatrists and not being able to help him and so again one of the last rows of the dice as they say though try some meditation and he came out to check in with me saying I don't know if I can last an hour here it's itchy all the time he can't sleep at night it was torture and I was so good proud of him because he lasted the whole nine days when he came to check in with me at the end of the retreat he wasn't wearing his face mask because his skin was perfectly clear and with a big grin on his face he tore open his shirt look at this totally clear he lifted up his trouser legs and there was an inch a square inch of ring of psoriasis over both his ankles see this is all that's left many people couldn't stand this but this is nothing this is nothing compared to what I brought into this retreat thank you so much and that was not true that really moving that you can actually take so someone and give them some freedom another guy I'm really getting into this now totally off subject but I'm inspiring myself another guy he came on one of the meditations and add a question time I got all these complaints can you please ask people not to breathe so loudly during the meditation it was really and so I answered the complaints by saying that gentleman has got a huge tumor in his nasal passages he's dying his doctors have given up hope and has come on his retreat again nothing to lose last chance he can't breathe like other people because this is huge tumor in his nose he has to breathe through his mouth and at the last meditation he did he came running to me and said something happened and he described it as like a popping sound in his nose he could breathe through his nose just for one minute and then it closed up again but for him that was just so encouraging for me I thought he'd left it too late just like a kid who only does live he does the swatting the night before the exam bit late but to my great joy about three or four months later I was in Sydney and this guy came up to me and said do you remember me please don't do that to me I seen many hundreds of thousands of people every year and you expect me to remember you and I have to be honest I say no and offend you supposes nor we can remember everybody so sometimes instead of offending somebody I learn this trick so you know you can be honest without offending people and say oh yeah you're the person whose name I keep forgetting well as a little trick which we use in our profession let's be authentic not telling a lie but you know not offending people either so anyway this guy came up and said that do you remember me and I was that time what I said no who are you he said I'm that guy who had two big human in my nose I kept on doing what you taught me and the chair was totally gone remission and now he said whatever years I've got left I'm spending teaching that meditation to others so that's the best you know some of you come here you see me on YouTube you say I've really helped you you don't need to thank me the Buddhist way is so I've helped you you're in debt and the only way you can pay off that debt is helping somebody else don't come and help me back help somebody else and that way the help the kindness the service goes on and on and on if I help you and you help me back is finished if I help you and you help somebody else and they help somebody else you find it goes on and on and on endless which is beautiful so don't you say thank you to me you have to do the same to somebody else serve them and that way there's no end of the kindness and generosity but sir was the last I forgetting the last little story now have know how the meditation and the relaxation has helped everybody but anyways I think that's enough just like is a huge amount of satisfaction that this is powerful stuff and it's hard actually to to get people to relook at it Jon kabat-zinn did a lot of good work with pain paying their management using mindfulness but with the kindness as well it's brings it to another level of power it works it doesn't cost anything something you learn and something which is highly effective if you know for your life so that's my business serving and I the last one comes to mind now because all these YouTube every now and again you get this is one email I got back from a lady in Poland and she said that she had been suffering from severe arthritis though she was an elderly lady and arthritis an inflammation of your joints sometimes you've seen people suffering that disease and sometimes now they know that their limbs are deformed because of the pain because the information is a gross disease and the medication she had to take would never cure that ailment of arthritis but she had to take them to get rid of the pain otherwise she just could not get through the day and those medications had severe side effects so she wrote the letter to me that it wasn't much of a life at all you know but she had to take those medications otherwise it was unbearable but she said she heard this little meditation and she practiced sit and she said I'm indulging now because I get emotional when you've really helped somebody and she said I don't need to take the medication anymore because the arthritis is gone and imagine you get an email like that that somebody just one person have been in severe pain with no hope and you get some sort of technique some sort of method which can actually take away that pain once and for and arthritis gone arthritis is an inflammation so maybe you can do it you can do it in her case it works so that's why that I'd love to get this stuff into the medical mainstream and the only way to do that is to get trials but it's very hard to get funding for such trials because there's no money in it the drug companies can turn a profit when it's something you do yourself but anyway that's another another thing but the main talk steve me well I want a teasing or authenticity in my work you know this is what happens but it doesn't always happen the way you expect it sometimes mistakes happen at my work other people's work but you know that where I learn how to deal with mistakes bang thank you bang okay the way I'd learned how to learn to deal with mistakes was when I was a school teacher because I had to set my first math exam in school and that's nothing I've never been taught before how do you set an examination a test and so I went to a senior teacher and he gave me some wonderful advice which I extended to just life and it became what I call the 70% rule because he told me if you make the exam too easy and know your students get 90% 95% that examination is not worth anything but if you make it too hard so the average go is 40% or 50% your students will come away from that test thinking they can't do math it's too hard they'll lose motivation so try and set the average score to seven out of ten 70% that's a reasonably good mark it means yeah you can do maths but the 30% where they made mistakes that was important for me their teacher so I could identify what part of my lessons they hadn't understood which I didn't explain carefully enough it was my feedback so in the next lessons I could address those points where they made mistakes if they'd never made those mistakes I would not know so I could not sort of deal with things which I thought they understood but which they hadn't so that's what I did try to aim for 70% and then I realize the same happens in life if you always score 95% 100% in life if you are one of these people who always win always have good luck never have any difficulties or problems in your life you have farmer you don't learn anything you don't grow you're not tested and challenged if you're tested and challenged in life too much and your score is 50% 40% you get depressed and you think you can't do anything but 70% is the best score in life yeah you're not perfect you make mistakes but you're doing reasonably well and where you make mistakes that is the growing part of life that is where you learn to do things better to improve to grow to extend so when I realize that I realize that making mistakes is not something wrong it's not something bad it's the most important part of life because there is where growth happens so whenever a mistake happens you don't hide it under the carpet you don't deny it you learn from it you gloat from it so the the acronym which are used in Australia they have a football code which is very popular caught Australian Football League a FL so everyone in Australia knows AFL what that means but I use that AFL as what to do with mistakes number one College don't hide it it happened forgive its which means no punishment though if the partners will resides mistakes and third learn from it grow from it it's not that you're afraid of making mistakes you're welcome estates because that's when you learn and grow and do better unfortunately most people have got it into their brains that if you make a mistake there's something wrong with you bad stupid boy you've got it wrong as if you make a mistake and it's a personal failure a scar on you you learn that from your kid from when you're young when you're at university when you're at work which means people hide the truth they don't admit to mistakes in life but is totally unrealistic everybody does make mistakes and I love telling people about my mistakes such as the part of my job is to visit people in hospital in the ICU last chance so there was a Chinese family in Perth and their patriarch of their family was in ICU dying and they wanted a Buddhist monk to come and do some prayers and shouting for them so I was the one they wanted so I went into the ICU in Royal Perth Hospital and when I want to I can charge my charging can be very powerful sometimes I can really give it full power zap them with my super power charging and that's what I did this old Chinese gentleman it was like a miracle he came out of his coma he recovered and that is where the hit the fan as they say that is where are going to big trouble because a family came up to me and they were really angry they said what do you do that for the whole family had come from Hong Kong and Singapore and mainland China to be with the senior relation and the last moments in their life they'd actually already arranged a funeral service they'd taken time off work and spent a lot of money flying from overseas for the last moments and then this Western monk comes along and they get better not have to cancel the funeral service or go home and they have to come back again later on whenever he dies that properly next time I really got scarred for that because they told me they did want sort of me to tell him to get better they wanted me to chance tell you had a peaceful death it was my mistake for not asking so these days these days whenever any I would never go to a hospital and people ask me to chant for someone I always ask what do you want get better charting or die peacefully charted I learn from my mistakes that actually happened but you know I grew from that so if you want me to bless you child for your peace which one you want don't blame me afterwards so another mistake I made which turned out to be very lucrative honourary we have personal interviews now that people could come and ask know about their meditation what's going on so on a retreat last December in Kuala Lumpur this couple came in know for an interview young couple and the girl did all the talking she was asking all these questions of me and every now and again no turning around to the guy so I thought you know they had some sort of relationship together I thought they were married and so in the end of the little 10-minute interview just know cuz the guy was silent all the time I thought that was a sure sign that they were married please excuse me for being stereotyped ago but I assume that totally wrong of course so at the end of the interview I said I was that your husband and both of them burst out laughing mom was hysterical she said ass not my husband that's my dad he says I'm only 16 and I said well you looked at least a bit in your early 20s and your dad he don't like three maybe in his early 30s I thought you were married and you know neither of them complained the daughter only sixteen was so happy that she looked like a a 22 year old or 23 year old because you asked your daughters that I hate you want to be a bit older you know sing getting certain nightclubs or pubs or whatever I don't know so she was very happy that she looked older and as for her father oh he was over the moon but I thought he was a thirty year old he was so happy of my mistake so they went outside and they came back five minutes later with a hundred dollar donation now that's actually how to raise money for this but on the donation little form there's a little note for your monastery but please use some of it to go to the optician and get your well okay so if they were happy you made a mistake and said everybody but making mistakes is wonderful number one it shows you're human number one it allows you to get feedback from others not even embarrassed about it you just learn from it and you grow from it and also that when you share your mistakes with others it means that you're a human being in this world no one is perfect wonderful that is there is no such thing as a person never makes mistakes there's people who hide mistakes that's all because they're embarrassed or ashamed that's a big problem and because people hide mistakes that's where we get this seat and lying from because you know that it's a very important precepts in Buddhism not to tell lies but why do people tell lies so it's not a case of Dao shalt not you say why it's not the same you should not get cancer you just find out why do people get cancer find the causes and work it out other courses and so the effect never happens so one of those that were anecdotes which told me about why people lie to one another there was this little at his Sweden concur she's about eighteen or nineteen she be coming to the temple ever since she was really small and it's not-it's really good to have a monastery where you can take people like know and answer monastery here because you children get to know the nuns that they feel comfortable not only that the parents trust the monks and nuns as well so you're like an extra part of the family which really helps enormously as this anecdote shows so she came to see me I've known her since no her parents took her to the temple when she was small and he said I Templar I'm in big trouble said what trouble big trouble she said I'm pregnant for my boyfriend I said have you told your parents yet he said no that's why I've come to see you they will kill me if I tell them can you tell them for me and you know I was I was quite touched by that he knows that she trusted me enough to you know help her out of a difficult situation so I was really quite flattered no thank you very no give me the opportunity trust me enough to do that for you so I did that for parents like you know people make mistakes you know sometimes human beings no my brother you got my cousin second cousin in the back my brother when I was visiting some time ago when he was busy doing something I was telling my nephew and my niece you're my nephew and my niece oh don't call me uncle they call me monk Oh which is which is the the word we use you know when you are when your uncle's a monk so anyway so they were asking me so what was our Father like you know when he was our age so I was telling all the stories and what he got up to you know when we were young and you know the my nephew or niece was so fascinated they couldn't get enough of these stories of what their father was like when it when he was that he was their age and so my father came to me and my brother came in and what are you telling my children all the things you got up to when you it don't say that I try to shake my children not to do all the city stuff I did but we all do silly stuff where were young being human so we don't need to hide it you know we acknowledge certain that dad was a human being that Sam Brown was a human being that wasn't born amuck so just you got no two people have known me for a long time and they're back there they can tell all the stories that what I caught up to when I was young I don't mind that it's good fun just a human being so anyway so oh you know something because my brother just took me past acts and where I used to live you know once I was very lucky we looked after me saved me from I don't know what but I was just just so it must have been about seventeen staying at the this little flat and then I was walking out going somewhere forget where and a police car stop in those days I was way ahead of my time fashion wise my jeans had holes in them I thought that was cool so it's also cheap as well and so a priest car came past and stopped and they asked me a question where were you in the last hour you know if a policeman you don't expect that so oh I don't know can you get in the car sir and I got in the car and he got on the radio and I said I think we've got him well we won't worry when he got me I said our hours in the flowers actually what I was doing you know I had already a price at Cambridge but I didn't have any interviews anywhere I thought you know I want to go for an interview somewhere so I was actually reading prospectus for Sussex University said I was reading the perspective they did believe that because that holds in my genes so fortunately before they actually ran off my good karma my brother just happened to be looking through the window at the time and he came running down to save me he said no he was in the house he was actually doing that is reading a prospectus and so they let me go my brother saved me so and I wasn't always you know you know always this this beautiful perfect board headed Buddhist monk to be I got up too troubled as well missed if you know this should I tell all his toys why this has got to deal with the the subject for this I remember that time it was crazy that you think that these big universities are very refined but you know sometimes they're not they had every year at the college they had what was called the scholars dinner and this was actually you know for the scholars that earned about 10 percent of us were the scholars and we went for this huge 7-9 course meal and we started off with sherry in the I wasn't called in the the gallery no built designed by Sir Christopher Wren and had these servants were in like Butler's in coats and Tails this was full-on high-class and so when they they came around serving sherry at the time I was doing maths before I went on to theoretical physics so with a friend we worked out that the the butler's were going around this long table in a clockwise direction if we went round in an anti-clockwise direction at the same speed we would meet the Butler's twice on every circuit thereby scoring twice as much sherry than our friends we thought that was being smart and then when we went for the dinner nine-course meal every course was served with a different wine and the butler's you know it was you know is your wine glass half full or half empty it was never more than half empty because as soon as they got to that level this Butler appeared on your right side to pour out some more wine and after all of that we went to the old library for port Clarets and Madeira someone told me a joke this afternoon he said they went to a cake shop in Manchester most of the cakes were 2 to 2 pounds lower 5 pounds one of the cakes was 10 pounds he said why is this so expensive this is my dear a cake that was one of you who was this bottle for at least after the right of you all right but I promised I'll tell you my dear great Madeira okay hey I'm just getting into it okay where was i before I was doing cake oh yeah Cambridge I better not tell that story yeah that's where you want tittle-tattle I think you've been conditioned by The Daily Mirror the son thought of the Northeast thought it was a really naughty but I learned from that after that claret Madeira and port and then they had this big goblet came down it was massive encrusted with priceless jewels and it was filled I forget which rich wine I didn't make much difference at that time and you had to drain it and then say the college toast in Latin it wasn't very clear Latin pronunciation but I did that with everybody else and that's probably the last I remember it was absolutely ridiculous because I may I woke up in my room very very lucky because when I open my eyes there's a big pile of vomit next to my pillow it's disgusting and I realize you can choke on that you could die very easily and the next day the whole day I felt that maybe I should have choked on it because I felt terrible and everyone was saying oh what a wonderful night that was what a lot of and at least I had enough rebellion in me to say that wasn't a wonderful night that was terrible and I felt so ashamed that all of their incredible food which some of the best chefs had made for me well it was on my pillow well there's other people hungry who don't have enough to eat and that just there was a stupid thing I did but at least I learned from that that was the last alcohol I ever took that was it I'm not going to take that anymore didn't make any sense at all you know that was a bit of a sacrifice no giving up alcohol because I thought no one would invite me to any parties I've been invited to more parties afterwards the person who could drive them home afterwards first they could look after them it sounds wonderful so anyway but I learn from those stupid mistakes I made so with that lady that poor girl had to talk with the parents what really shocked me was why is it that a girl in big trouble would not ask her parents directly she was afraid to tell her parents why is it the properties still in UK certainly in Australia people who are gay are afraid to tell their parents why do they what's going on there why is it that your son might be in trouble with drugs and they're afraid to tell you and think that they get scolded punished you'll shout at them the times they need their parents the most when you're in big trouble they don't tell me so there's something which I'm encouraging people what I learned from that is for goodness sake those of you who have children please tell them that son daughter you can tell me anything as long as that as long as it's a truth we won't punish or scold you or drive you away because that's what parents are there for and to help you through some of the most difficult times of a young person's life we all make stupid mistakes some of those important parts of your life as long as you're telling me the truth maybe you can scold them if they tell lies but please if they're telling the truth we do make mistakes mistakes of importance in life was what we learn I don't to be scared and never actually just know push the boundaries of size of development of relationships push those boundaries sometimes that's where we learn will we grow we do things a bit differently but don't be afraid when you make a mistake we're not here to scold you to punish you we're here to help you yeah he did something stupid but I did many stupid things when I was young the important thing is we're here to help for you to learn and to grow from it it happens so and they're saying with relationships boys and girls you're married are you going to make mistakes in life of course you are have you got a good enough relationship you can tell your partner your faults and weaknesses please have this beautiful relationship and sell your partner as long as you're telling the truth darling I will never scold you I'll be disappointed sometimes but and I'm here to be foot be here for you to help you in the difficult times please tell me yeah yeah why do you do that but people do make mistakes as you make mistakes so I want to be there for you to help you resolve it together but when you lie look you often tell people I spend a lot of time in Singapore Hong Kong and now sometimes so many of the rich people there they have mistresses you know why because some of those people say how I can get away with it I can hide it my wife will never find out there is so dumb guys if you have a relationship of freeing outside of your relationship your marriage he or she will find out and the example I gave is General Petraeus he was the head of the CI a he was an expert in covert operations but you know how he got busted he had a mistress and if the head of the CIA can't keep it secret from his wife guys you've got no chance so forget it this is gonna find out so you're gonna get busted no no no other alternative saying the other way about people find out but the delusion is that we think we can see that you can't conceal it it's much better just to bring it up first of all that you know you imagine that is some other guy or girl you really like tell your partner about it say look you know you're the partner you're the one I want to stay with but you know I've got lost I'd like other people please help and when you work together you can actually have strategies so it never happens so you can keep together so all those little techniques is why we lie to one another is because it's not in our interest to tell the truth we're afraid of telling the truth and that breaks up families that breaks up relationships so I mean I do marriage ceremonies that's also one of the things which I encourage the partners to do but you're together please make a vow that we can say anything to each other as long as the truth we won't get upset angry we won't go please let me know because we're in this together we have to work it out together there's no way you can work it out if his lies politics why don't we trust politicians why do they lie because if they told the truth then you'll kick them out of government give politicians a break when people were really upset and angry why did Donald Trump get elected they'll say because he's a representative of the American people that's why many of what many American people are like it's democracy so don't blame the representatives brave the people who get sucked into that stupidity so that means we actually look at the causes of things rather than containing about the results so like even in business why is it the businesses are sometimes corrupt exploit each other and you notice that the businesses which have a long term viability they're the ones who have this brand recognition of being trustworthy they're being good having a monastery is like having a business sometimes I call myself the CEM the chief executive monk I have many monasteries to deal with you get personal relationships with the people who you builders your backhoe drivers all the other people you know who have to work for you you have personal relationships with all the donors who look after you and those personal relationships when you really are honest trustworthy for example there was a lady the very wealthy lady in Thailand who donated $50,000 alien dollars to build what we call a stupa like when you put Buddha relics in a huge mound you see them over in Thailand Burma but then after she gave that donation we made a resolution and I'm gonna see what do we need that for the real relics of the blood of other teachings not these bones and so we decided not to build one but she'd already donated the money so I made a special trip to Thailand to find her and say can we return the money to you it's the only honest thing to do because we're not going to build that stupa which you gave the donation for and we had full intention of giving the money I sell a lot of money but she said no thank you for that we trust you so use it for something else whatever you decide but that's what we do to be trustworthy because if your religious leaders aren't trustworthy honest how can we inspire you you be a hypocrite if I didn't sort of walk my talk do as I teach others to do it's so important so anyone who ever goes through the mala see where I live my home is a cave and sometimes it's not really my home anymore it's like a tourist attraction people say cannot see your coma okay that's where I live so people actually look at it inspect it go under the mattresses see if there's any Playboy magazines under there there right so you've got nothing to hide but the only thing is to be now that opened let people have a look and see what's there that's really important because that is our honesty which builds trust in in my business by Marc business not monkey business monkey sness that we're developing very well I have franchises I call them franchises in Sri Lanka the ajahn brahm society and I'm going to give some talks there soon however well Sauveur in Sydney and in Melbourne building a monastery over there and in her Singapore the braum center and the bodhinyana know his Buddhist fellowship so those spiritual patron they're over in where else Hong Kong at they call it the Biff Society the boudin yarny International Foundation then I called it Biff they don't know what that means in Australia that means Biff and what else is there all right yeah it's it should I go to prom Society so now it's something else somewhere else Malaysia put his gem fellowship over there Penang Indonesia yeah that's the a heap a secure foundation there's all these other Buddhist monks over there in Indonesia but they say on the most famous Buddhist monk in Indonesia and I don't even live there I like that but what it does mean is that you have brand recognition as we deliver so the reason I'm here is because of this young lady beside me because she is a bikuni a fully ordained Buddhist nun with no place to stay in well for tonight she's staying somewhere on a web but no place to stay in Austria have got a monastery she hasn't got a place to stay sorry in England yeah so my organization has another motto rather than light a candle then complain about darkness do something so that's why I'm here for building a monastery for women fully ordained women yeah I sacrifice my time but even more than that stood up to all the friends who I'd known for many years and I ordained bhikkhunis because they weren't there before and for that lost many of my friends we know is one of the beautiful things one of the things I'll always be happy with and pleased with there was a moment in my life when it was a very clear choice just buckle and have my friends or stand up for this woman's equity they have down there in front of this building without equality there's no democracy I noticed that sign so I said no you can kick me out but iron supporting bhikkhunis I did that but that's not enough so we built monasteries for nuns this beautiful bhikkhuni monastery in Australia damn asara look at it on the website it's really beautiful facilities so we mean if you are Buddhist and you want to become a bikuni a further time that you are treated with respect instead of treating as big fast Buddhists I've done that but it's a certain amount I can't do I go a lot of my disciples who was an Indonesian man I just hanged him just put the hard word on him and last year he donated four hundred thousand pounds so that project is happening I deliver so we're gonna have a big weenie monastery one way or the other that's why I am here it's going to work just a matter of wind so if you want a piece of the action donation box outside so that is actually how we have authenticity yeah I make mistakes I learn from them I keep on going on one mistake which I will never make is actually it's a to abandon a project before it's completed there's so much one of my predecessors noticed I will keep on working until it's finished there's a sense of commitment and for those of you who want another difference between commitment and involvement ok Q&A session in a bit ok no mana involvement when you're involved in something it's the difference between bacon and eggs an involvement in bacon and eggs if you really think about if you're smart enough you realize in bacon and eggs the chicken is involved but the pig is committed I apologize to any vegetarians here but you know that you can understand what we're talking about that the peak is its whole life committed it's gonna keep on going not gonna stay but the chicken walks away so don't walk away come here whatever you're doing in life if you have a relationship together make it a pig relationship not a chicken one go go all the way with it and then you find is the something which is really inspiring for that inspiring in companies in work it's authentic yeah you have a vision you have a dream you make it happen it's like sometimes you don't see the results like planting a tree planting a forest sometimes 200 300 years people see the results that they have you ever been doubt the new forest just the north of Southampton I did a retreat down there years ago all those trees were cut down to build ships to fight the Spanish but some wise people for every tree they cut down their plot III know that many would make it and now you go down to the new forest it's inspiring you can actually have environmental devastation and you can repair it some however this earth is very forgiving it's amazing what you can do to it but it will come back with effort and with commitments and with respect that this is important people that lose hope in this world you can't lose hope commit and then it's nothing you can't do that is your scent isset e that's something which hopefully you can inspire people to follow doesn't matter what obstacles will get there eventually and to give this nun and all those who want to you don't have to but if you want to use this opportunity for full ordination follow this path peace beauty joy service to others is there for you the opportunity so that's why I'm here so there we go I don't know if that really was what you expected but that's what you got so now their questions and answers absolutely gain much much respect because it's something which never felt right we could exclude anybody it's not just the the equity for women it's equity for anybody you know I once I stood up for the gay community in Australia simply because I gave a talk once and this person came out to me afterwards and they said something I think I mention this afternoon just went straight into my heart it hurt me when he said with passion with pain that religion has been very cool to the gay community he was right and in that moment of openness you could feel his despair his pain so okay I'm gonna do something about it so I'll try my very best they obviously worked because some years ago I got my invitation to the gay and lesbian Mardi Gras breakfast I'm really proud of that you know I did something I came because so many other religions are cruel and it does make sense to me core teachings of Buddhism of the Dhamma may all beings be happy and well its indiscriminate kindness even to enemies just melt them with love and kindness not with ballistic missiles and threats of annihilation that's so juvenile but and it was so even though if you follow your stray Lea news sometimes I'm embarrassed to be an Australian because they're having a same-sex marriage of folks they know what most Australian poll after poll after poll after poll they said yeah of course have it no problem was a problem and if you look at religious history marriage has never been part of religious services it was made a part of religion much much later in history I think about four or five hundred years ago Karen Armstrong did a wonderful example of that and saying it was made a sacrament because that's priests excuse me that's the way the church could control people it was never originally part of any Christian dogma any sort of Buddhist Dogma so any it was free what you wanted to do in your own home as long as you were kind not sort of exploiting people not hurting artists but actually banning not treating people equally that does hurt people it hurts people very badly and I don't know about you maybe I'm just too soft people say I should put more salt in my meals because salt hardens the arteries and hardens your heart as well I'm too soft-hearted that's like joking you just why'd you do that he can't do that you have to give people equity and even recently I mean you were telling me just roll Hingis in Burma and Bangladesh and in Sri Lanka and India you know you have a lot of information where this came from but yeah we can say blame this blame that blame somebody else but the point is though as homeless families got nowhere to live who had to run away for their lives gotten no in great poverty great strife so we can actually say oh this is wrong they shouldn't be done so many people can say that but let's do something about it so just last Sunday raised 6000 Australian dollars not that much to send over to to Bangladesh to actually to be of service to anybody who's in need may all people be happy and well you see don't see who is at fault is someone hungry you give him something to eat why they're hungry we'll deal with that later one that's important to do that to show some as you told me show some leadership do something which Buddhist mean they don't need to be embarrassed about it's important to do that so I don't know you had to be very careful there because there's so many conflicting interests it's politics so you had to tread very carefully so I hope I did the right battle sir it's on YouTube so it's important to do things like that so to create a better happier world we can do that so we have to do it so let's do it there's all part of my the spiritual life next month next months on the 9th of November I'm coming back to UK there's a long way from Australia coming about just for two nights and the reason I'm coming back it was an invitation which I just couldn't refuse he was in Cambridge my old University they have a Cambridge Union a debating society and it's the president is Stephen Fry and they have all these really interesting debates and they wanted me to come back for a debate his son this house has lost faith in faith this house lost faith in faith and they want me to speak for the motion I've got to argue that yes the United Kingdom has lost faith in faith and in opposition we have this scallywag called Russell Brand and he apparently is speaking against the motion he said no that we haven't lost faith in faith now that's really that's gonna be fun so that's the sorts of things which you know you love to do because it shows a bit of leadership but a little bit of moving things forward so people feel proud but a lot of times you're MUX and you're nuns like the football team you support that was actually the BBC did an interview and they made a very know intuitive and very accurate so description those of you a Buddhist you want your leaders actually to show leadership be something you're proud of so we say yeah I'm a Buddhist no I'm proud to be able to actually doing something we're creating some harmony some growth some leadership in this world not just sitting in our case meditating all day it's nice to do that honestly it's a great sacrifice you know you know you love to just be in a cave all your time meditating same with me but you do this because you need to so let's make a better world let's make some equity and you've got all these incredible ways not just with medicine little ways of actually creating peace and harmony in this world powerful ways good example and I said this teaching it for a long time in Australia and you know that somebody must have taken on board because it was a lead article in the Melbourne Age just after the last Australian election you say is it really democracy the way we elect people first of all no all of your people who stand for election they're called candidates you know where that word comes from Candide is a Latin word for white because in Roman times anyone standing for election to the Senate had to wear white clothes that was actually signifying that this person is standing for election to the Roman Senate and again the reason why they wore white clothes was a sign of their purity of their honesty of their self-sacrifice in ancient Rome you were elected to the Senate not on what you promised to do in the future but on what you've done in the past on the past record rather than future promises and I will never ever blame any politician who breaks promises I blame the for making promises in the first place who knows what the weather is going to be like tomorrow who knows the what the economy is going to be like who knows you know the changing political geopolitical situations of our world you can't predict those so why the heck do you make promises which you won't be able to keep if you were electing somebody to the as a CEO the managing director of a company would you elect them or what they promised to do for the future would you look at their past record their CV the CV is something you can check see how they've managed problems and difficulties in the past why can't we do that with politics please let's get out of the the habit of believing promises let's look on past records what people have done in the past while other problems in the future look at people's honesty hard work self-sacrifice selflessness those are things which we would like people on and secondly why is it that everyone has an equal vote we assume that that is democracy why is it that some people say with someone like climate change you're in your 80s or 90s and you have the same vote for someone who say 18 those in the 80s or 90s you're out of here soon you weren't probably how to experience the results of bad policies but the 18 year olds they've got more stake in what we call life it's going to affect them much more than anybody else so it's just like in a business the more shares you have in a company the more votes you have the more shares you have in life the more votes you should have it would skew the democratic system to those who are young and lessen the power of those who are old because you're out of here soon you've got not as much stake in the decisions which are made imagine what that would happen what would happen sort of in the British Parliament if you had the life expectancy of a person and that was safe the amount to know them but the years left there'll be the votes you have well some people say are you experienced the older you out you are sometimes more bigoted and dogmatic but something has to give because people aren't satisfied with the political system just because it's been happening a long time doesn't mean you can't change it tweak it so I have been saying that it's something you may be able to do but now somebody's took it up in a major newspaper in Australia even if that doesn't suit you at least you can start to see the logic just because it's worked for a long time and now it's broken surely we can do something about it think outside the box try something different see what happens so who knows it doesn't okay one more question my answers you should take half an hour so and the other question yeah yeah I try me quick because it's personally you could practice so much but there's something which is like missing you know you're not true to your practice there is why are we ignoring other people so there'll always be something in the back of your mind saying this is not good enough this is not fair this is not right there's summat to do about it and you don't there was I did a fundraiser on I was in Singapore I had a free afternoon believe it or not this was many many years ago and one of my friends he was doing a fundraising walk he's a Buddhist library in Singapore they've built this huge library taken out a huge loan and they were heavily in debt and they were trying to raise funds to pay off their debt it's out of the afternoon so I took many of the people who are in my said they come on it's helped somebody else so we went over there and because now it's well known I was no sad was a jablome he wonderful can you give one of the speeches and so there's a politician there as it always is and I asked a politician and a are you gonna come on the walk with us he said no I'm just gonna give a speech so I went out there being cheeky and I said to the crowd and now we're going to have I think Minister Luke I forget Lucy or something anyway that this Minister is now going to give a speech but he's not going to go on the walk he's one person who talks the walk but doesn't walk the talk [Music] because I hear him when India's being cheeky just laughed so he never actually put me in jail or expelled me from the country that is true if you're gonna give a talk you have to walk it that's important you talk the walk bitterly but never was so somehow this unfinished business and you just you can't ignore it so you have to do something be away from without ordaining is that your question okay so we're now in Manchester you know you don't have to you know you can walk to London you can do that but when there's a train or a bus or a car you'd be stupid to walk all the way to London when there's a beautiful vehicle which you can take even more so I say well it's possible to walk from Perth to Sydney it's about 3,000 miles to a desert you can do that it's possible but you know we've got aircraft these days so you can actually go in the plane never they're pretty cheap so why would you want to walk we've got this beautiful Sangha monks and nuns Buddha air which is pretty cheap so why would you want to practice the hard way yeah you can become enlightened as a lay person just like you can walk from Sydney to Perth but you'd be dumb to do that when there's an aircraft available you get it certainly but they call they cost very cheap they cost your hair for a couple okay it's just like one of my friends said I'd really like to be a monk as long as they could have every Saturday evening off and another person once told me they wanted to ordain this was some years ago but they weren't ordained yet until after they see the last Harry Potter movie because you can't watch movies with your buck look you know if you're a monk you're mark that's why we know we do have separate monasteries for monks and nuns if you want another reason why it's because you know people who don't know think oh you and all the way people go home we know what happens and this is the my father remember sir II know then I gotta take this this is what on his favorite jokes he's all said he jokes he would come home this a long time before I even thought of becoming a monk he would ask what fun does a monk have answer none that's self-deprecating it's not true but that's what people think they do because I had that experience we build us in building our retreat center and they're all people walking past you know when having their lunch break and they take all sorts of crazy things about what max do because even today many people think that you cannot live as a celibate you have to have some hanky-panky on the side it's like you have respect for gays that lifestyle there's beans transgenders but you know the last thing which we haven't really got is respect for celibacy people think that celibacy is unnatural and they say that to me celibacy is unnatural just right now they said before that it's unnatural to be to be gay to be lesbian so the next Mardi Gras I'm gonna get a float Center Bert lights okay time out sorry hope you enjoyed that so use for maybe not what you expect but there's some interesting stuff challenging stuff deformity stuff thank you for this thing

Channel: Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project

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Length: 120min 20sec (7220 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 06 2017