Engineering a life with meaning - Ajahn Jayasaro (at IIT Delhi)

on behalf of the National Resource Center for higher education engineering IIT Delhi we become the study circle and the valestra of iit and our anyway hara trust and welcome the audience to the service gathering to begin the proceedings I would like to invite Percival the head of population center to introduce about the center in BSC and welcome new students it's odorless to have no speakers like you here the queen is described very briefly about natural resource center for value education in DM it was set up in 2001 with the objective of providing you know value based education or no value based inputs to the engineering students at IIT Delhi and also act as a national resource center and its mandate was also dead of course work for providing value of this education in ingenious of the country and since then we have come along with a lot of different types of courses and you know teaching styles know that we experimented with the wakandan study circle is a part of national center for higher education engineering where we you know organize pops by people who have you know have actively worked on these areas and things like that and yes we also this is a student body wellness club that also actively works on these activities so the list Club is a part of what is called the BRCA both Hospital deviation activities a club didn't BRCA which looks to organize radius wellness related activities for the students at IIT Delhi so it connects regular yoga sessions morning and evening it conducts various meditation type of workshops on the campus and it also organizes talks by various eminent people who are in this field and the motor of the business Oh students to become a better version of themselves thank you for second it's my privilege to introduce to the renovated trust to be me and to give you a brief introduction of today's esteem stick the R&D Muhammad trust was formed recently of course about a couple of years back to make widely available the teachings of the Buddha as star by the lineage of Nirvana John Chow in the Thai forest tradition the founders of the trust were inspired by the writings of John servidio who was the first Western disciple of ajahn Chah and felt that lay seekers in India should have an exposure to the tradition the teachers and regions the Mahama a city center of the renewal interest provides facilities to hold retrieves by the visiting monks and nuns conduct workshops and offers a place to do self meditation and study in the library the center is located opposite to the Toyota Center 11 metro station and is open daily from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily group meditation happens during 6 to 7 p.m. everyone is welcome to use these facilities the trust also has keen interest in establishing a manasvi of the time Forest additionally in India in future and is making efforts in this direction now about the speaker agente Solomon a John Jaso whose original name was Shawn mission Chilton was born in the Isle of Wight England on January the 7th 1958 he joined the monastic community of a John Smith a senior monk of the pine forest tradition for rains retreat as an allegorical in 1978 and subsequently in the same year he became a disciple of ajahn Chah in one of islands most he who's one of Thailand's one of Thailand's most renowned Buddhist monks and meditation masters and the what bomb Falls ministry in Northeast Thailand he took full ordination lukkage enchants the visitor in 1980 after the initial five years of monastic training a Jan Jason went on an extended solitary retreat before taking on teaching a mental state views over the next several years he alternated between periods of a treat and services monastic lineage during this time he was interested by the elders of his order with writing the official biography of his teacher ajahn Chah in 1997 he assumed the position of the amount of the wat pah nanachat the international monastery of ajahn chah's lineage which he remained till the end of 2002 since 2003 ajahn Chah has been living in a hermitage and the foot of how the I Mountain National Park in Thailand the Dharma teachings and meditation retreats he gives either intervals and a nearby retreat center offer inspiration to both laypeople masters he is also a key figure in the moment to integrate both his developmental principles into the PI education system many of his Dhamma talks are also broadcast on gradient elution again Cesaro has written many books on Buddhist themes in Thai language a number of which have been translated into other languages including Chinese French Italian and Portuguese his latest English work without him rhythm is a gentle introduction to the Theravada Buddhist tradition he has also written the English version of or than Charles biography which is entitled stillness for me in 2011 a John J asana was granted an honorary doctorate degree in Buddhist pedagogy by the maha chulalongkorn raj of agave University in Thailand his books and talks are available in web sites and YouTube channels of the bagna cauda foundation the link for which has submitted submitted along with the email then announced this time IIT is fortunate to have a judge I saw her with us today also because today is his birthday on my own personal behalf and on behalf of all of us here I request his permission to wish him many happy returns of the day and many long years now as part of the tradition I would like to formally request the judges on behalf of all of us to take the stage and deliver the trunk on the heart of the matter engineering a life with meaning a genocide [Applause] [Music] [Music] thus that evening everyone I'm very very happy to be able to see and giving anyone hear me a discourse and then I ended up for questions discussion to anything but being Institute of of learning has brought up some memories of my own education in England and in particular an exam paper or a supposed to sound paper that I received back from my English literature teacher with a comment on it which I found quite eye-opening he said the fact that you can pose a question which is grammatically correct doesn't mean that it has any meaning and it's it's both obvious and quite intriguing statement but it's I think it applies to one of the most overrated questions and that they likely to hear they said what is the meaning of life it sounds really found question and you literally feel that you sound very profound when you when you ask this question but I would propose that it's it's a meaningless question it doesn't really provide any opportunity for useful of beneficial answer what I think is a better question is held will bring bloonan to life so when you say what is the meaning of life is it's like there is something called a meaning that she can attach to this concept of a life but in practical sense and Goodison if nothing else might this particular school in his especially concern was practical of works and this is how how can we live a life with meaning and what does that even mean so we are creatures I think who are distinguished by need for meaning and we are characterized by need to create stories or narratives out of our life we explain our lives to ourselves in terms of narratives which in other words is giving meaning to our experience but what is what is this meaning and why is it that so much mental distress mental illness can be traced to people having no real sense of meaning in their life so we can put a lot of effort into something if we think it has meaning that we can be very lazy about things that we don't see how many role meanings in your life when you're in school buses or questions never cry and anguish but what will this what how can I possibly make use of this in my life after I leave school and what's the meaning of it so I I'm or less rejected the English religious tradition Christian tradition at a very young age as he goes probably seven or eight and my my father told me I should go to church because it's a good thing to do and I I went to to flee but after a while I ran out of steam and in ceará didn't have any meaning for me and I said I don't want to go anymore and my father said I should go it's good for you so I said what is good for me and it should be good for you then why don't you go and so we didn't have any answer so that was the end of my religious education as such but in my my teens I became very interested in the question of what's a good way to live or what's a good life so if you're comparing cars I save a pair cars and you have another criteria by which you can make a decision as to which is a superior car it might be in terms of its its safety its durability its speed yes beauty its design whatever you you make distinctions and you distinguish between things you choose between things based upon criteria so this was my question what and what are the criteria for deciding that one life is superior to another life or is it even valid or legitimate to to ask that question you know referring back to my English literature teacher is this a question which is grammatically correct but is meaningless but I felt that it was important to come to some kind of that answer is there some ways of living in this world that are superior to others and how did we decide that so I was very interested in the mind I was very interested in questions of good and bad and right and wrong and there was at that time I guess even to this day us and postmodern idea that there's no meaning out there there's no intrinsic meaning but you make a meaning and you create your own meaning and as ultimately there's no say true meaning every created meaning is an equal validity that didn't really I didn't really make sense to me so my my education started to diverge there was the school work which I I kept up reasonably well and then they embarked on my own studies which I was much more passionate about enthusiastic about studied a lot of psychology and social psychology I think the lesson came closest to her to a teacher for me and that period was probably Shakespeare because he posed a lot of questions about life and good to bad right wrong and so on in a very compelling way but eventually I came across the teachings of the Buddha and for me at least it was a sense of homecoming I didn't feel that I discovered some exotic Asian religion but it just seemed to me an elevated common sense and that the teachings that the Buddha in some way articulated feelings that I already possess but was unable to really access or to really digesta to to to to express and the in summary what I like gained from his first exposure to to Buddhism was the idea that as human beings we create an incredible amount of suffering for ourselves and for others because we don't understand the true nature of things we understand the true nature of our lives we don't understand little nature of the world that we live in and at the same time we do have the inherent capacity or potential to understand and to free ourselves from this needless suffering that we create for ourselves and others and learning and to see clearly not to adopt a number of dogmas as as a kind of a stable refuge in a threatening world but using Buddhist teachings as tools to understand herself and to free oneself from all of those ingrained habits of suffering creation and that we are also so fluently and sharing that understanding and helping others not to helping us to be free of suffering bananas to help themselves to be free from suffering this this for me see to be a life of true meaning creating happiness and benefit for oneself and in sharing that knowledge and understanding with others so that was really what led me on the path to the life which I am thankful adopters as a Buddhist month at that time I was 17 16 17 years old and the other main theme in my life for a long time had been based upon an incredible sense of attraction to India as fascinating all things to do with India and so after I finished high school psyched I took may I was a year early so I was 17 and then I worked for a while in a building site and factory in a warehouse and then I set out to India that's my dream and local buses local trains but hitchhiking was my preferred murder transport and in fact I arrived in Delhi in December of 1975 in at the age of 17 in a truck got her lived from just outside ERISA so I have very fond memories of of Delhi from that time and I eventually spent a year in in India I was on a very tight budget ten deliveries a day for everything food lodging travel everything so I was quite an ascetic life but I I learned so much and the stuff of great gratitude sue to this country and of course as my understanding and why my interests and application to the Buddhist teachings grooves and given that the Buddha lived and spent his life in India that that made us this bond I fell to use India even to the standard but as many of the elder members of the audience know you don't always marry your first love and I returned to England eventually and my path into monkhood let me to Thailand and I've spent the last 40 years there and I'm very happy and I feel in many ways now much more Thai than the English my with England have steadily weekend weather my ties was my adopted country and a steadily stronger but coming back to this this question of of meaning I think that if your whatever kind of life that you choose or whatever kind of life you find yourself leading then the your contentment is very much bound up with the sense that you're doing something that has some meaning and the pursuit of of wealth and prestige and social status and fame and and so on cannot really answer that need so it's not we're saying that the unbridled pursuit of these things is evil in many ways it's just basically unintelligent because it's following a path which is not really able to meet neck-deep the sleeves associated B so this is this is the Buddhist hypothesis so in Buddhism we're not so telling you what you should believe we're saying this is this is our hypothesis have a look try it out what do you think so that would have never criticized the pursuit of wealth and so on as such but we pointed out that are adjuncts to a successful life they're not be the essence of that life and that without a spiritual dimension to our life then there's something missing there's some part of us with us inside so decide to make a few few comments on how I understand Buddhism like big-picture one of the in one of the results of the hegemony of Western political economic cultural power over the past hundred two hundred years has been that a number of ideas and views and beliefs have to spread into the mainstream of Asian cultures and if it won't come in under the radar of course there are certain things that are obvious and everybody recognizes them so the economic models the way we dress maybe the music you listen to the movies you watch and so on but indeed the ideas and the values that creep into Asian cultures then I think people are a lot less vigilant a lot less aware of how that happens I was talking today with someone and telling them how underscores I'm involved in in Thailand common common kind of cry of anguish coming from teenagers is on 13 years old and I don't know what my passion is means this idea that you should follow your passion and follow your dream so that that's not an idea without merit of course but it's it is a based upon certain ideas rooted in Western cultural assumptions and when children to tell me this I said well I didn't have any passion when I was 13 is not a bad thing as good seeing your passion you're 13 it's not society wood will be when you're 17 or 20 and there is a loss of studies which would support the view there if you start off and apply yourself to something of which you're reasonably competent and reasonably comfortable and reasonably interested and you apply yourself in the correct way that passion will arise as a result of that effort it's not a passion always precedes the effort so if you feel you have to wait for a pack for some passion and you see inadequate you don't have a passion and I think that's so not such a useful way of looking at life so another of and what I'm more interested talking about now is the understanding of religion and in the West the the religious traditions which are most prominent are those religions that grew up in the Middle East so they're it's like a family of religions today as of interest you slob in particular and those feasting on one of the asleep religions although they don't get on very well with each other share some share books between them but they share a basic idea of what a religion is and that can be summarized most succinctly as a belief system and we can observe that the word religion in the word faith these days are used interchangeably people talk about Christian religion what Christian faith Islamic religion Islamic faith and whether or not you can be considered an adherent of one of those religious [Music] belief systems is whether or not you can accept their chief dogmas if you can and you can be a member of that religion and if you cannot then you cannot so because the religious traditions with which the Western nations have been familiar are a similar pattern a similar structure then the mistake has been made to consider all religions are basically variants of that same pattern of that same structure in other words we believe in Jesus they believe in Allah Muhammad you believe in Rama Krishna and they believe in Buddha basically all religions can be resolved into a choice of things that you put your face when you believe in and this is why Buddhism is personally to two people from that background the idea this is what a religion is and then people come across Buddhism and it doesn't fit and so people say therefore it's not a religion it's a way of life so assuming that they have the the right to decide what is isn't it isn't it's not a religion so I don't agree with this I don't think there is a thing called religion and you can make these statements like religion is like this and religionists like that and wherever religion appears if causes this of course is that or beneath religion and I think a more nuanced approach to religion is thoughtful and particularly in the case of Buddhism so I would argue that Buddhism is not is essential not essentially a belief system it is essentially an education system so it's a very different idea of what a religion is or might be so we can and we can perhaps we'll talk about families of religious circles of a different family or perhaps a different species of religion so the the teachings of the Buddha begin with the human condition and the Buddha points out that life is and for ordinary people and enlightened people essentially unsatisfactory and there is a reason for that his mother is not a purse it's not something that's built into DNA but it's because we don't understand the way things are and wherever there is a lack of understanding then almost inevitably there is misunderstanding and together with that misunderstanding there are there are kinds of desire which we call somehow so the Buddhism device motivation into two kinds we can say an ignorant and destructive motivation and an intelligent and constructive motivation now this point has often been misunderstood misrepresented or completely ignored by many non-buddhists commentators and you're often hear a Buddhist issue should desire anything you should completely kill desire and anything how is that possible or that our sounds really kind of dreary why would you want to do that and that's quite a reasonable objection I think but the Buddha in fact did not teach that and that the Buddha said that the kinds of motivation which spring naturally from misunderstanding of the nature of things inevitably cause suffering but when we see understand things clearly the motivation that arises from that is to be cultivated it's essential to a meaningful life we can take the example of of the Buddha after his enlightenment he spent a short period of time number of days weeks just enjoy this enlightening and then the thought came into his mind if so I approved you know he improves through his own efforts that suffering human suffering can be completely and irrevocably transcended so this thought is well if I can do it then maybe other people can do it as well and he had some doubts that this it's so subtle and it's so profound I'm not sure whether anyone else frankly can and you'd be willing to and able to realize this and then the in the traditional stories assist the Brahma God comes down and this is Lord there are beings with little dust in their eyes please teach out of compassion so you can choose whether or not you believe that there was a Brahmin God came down or you can you can consider that to be figurative language and it was a movement his harvest depends how you how you want to trim translate them interpreted but less Buddhist having become convinced that human beings can in fact free themselves from suffering got up from his comfortable seat and set off to walk to sign up yeah why don't I see some to 300 kilometers in order to teach his former companions and to begin the life of 45 years of ceaseless and tireless teaching until the end of his life the age of 80 so the the connection here and this is absolutely essential actually to Buddhist teaching is that the Buddha was enlightened through wisdom and understanding but that wisdom issued in compassion and compassion was the motivating force for the remainder of the Buddhist life but that compassion was expressed in a way that was mediated and formulated by his wisdom in other words he had to wish to share his insights with other people and yet he used his wisdom to fashion teachings to find words and images and similes and so on which would most effectively put across his message so there's constant interplay between wisdom and we can take these two these two qualities as being the truth of each other in other words you notice if someone is someone should be wise or just smart then how do you know or one of the ways you know our son was truly wise is there compassion now you say someone truly compassionate or they just saw felt pity or feel sorry for people and because that compassion will have wisdom with it something was truly compassionate profession and mature way will use wisdom in order to to help others because they kind of bind wish to to help others without wisdom can be frustrating for the well-wisher themselves but also ineffective a lot of people burn out because they have good intentions but they're not very wise and how they how they act upon them so in our in our lives we can see that there are different kinds of motivation that we can experience if you have this we call wholesome motivation which is called Chanda or damage anger or couselor Shanta which is separate from the craving this is the ignorant kind of motivation which is called Tana then it feels very different so if you see someone who's had an accident they're in pain and you rush to that then you want to help somebody so that the Buddha is not saying you should let go of that wish to help someone who's in pain and said yes you should have sort of good that you do that so if you if we if we look at study research work then then what's our motivation so we would start bidding on values meaning and it's very much concerned with our motivation so someone is motivated by this ignorant desire for for wealth and fame prestige and so on looks on the work itself as merely a means to an end and when you look at at work and and study or your duties or responsibilities as a means to get something which you really want then you have no true respect for your work and if you happen to respect for your work respect for yourself when you have no respect for your work as in itself then it leads to all kinds of of unfortunate consequences people have no love for their work for their responsibilities themselves are much more likely to be corrupt because if you can get what you want without having to to adore the tiring work meaningless work then why not it leads to shabby and careless word because if you can just get by and still get the reward that you want why not so if you if your attention is on the quality of your work and the quality of your study the quality of your research or whatever it might be then that is in the quality of your life isn't the quality of your mind and when you put your your effort into the work yourself you're not waiting until you get your result and you get your reward at the end of it before you can feel happy you feel happy and contented while you're working and it's not that you're making some kind of noble sacrifice because you'll get the material rewards and probably more than you might do otherwise and it's not meaning you're just looking to a life of penury to be a good poke you need to be a good person and poor doing work but does love the work itself and care and attention and respect every single moment of the work irrespective of the fact that some some parts might be tough and some parts might be easy but big picture you really committed to doing this in the best way you can and you feel quality your life you feel meaning in life and then the money in them and the prestige and the name and all these things that they'll come but it's they're not they're more the icing on the cake rather than the cake itself you know it's not that you're not doing it for those things so when we're talking about a meaning of life and adding me life itself is a nebulous possible spell I mean all them we've got to work with is the present moment is now right now this is all we've got that's all we've ever had so you know if you were ten years ago I said where are you now you say here what's the time it's now 20 years ago you would give the say months 10 years in the future 20 year next lifetime you're always in the same place here it's always the same time now this is what you've got so if you're imagining some you know sparkling future and then I'll be happy when I've got everything worked out you know if I just get this I just get that and yes this I've got it all worked out then I'll be happy it's not gonna happen if you're gonna be happy you're gonna find some contentment and value and meaning in your life this is it right now this is this is the time you've got to do so I have a adopted have an adopted got daughter from in Tibet and she's just started University this year and was tough tough for her Tibetan girl from the countryside in the in Chinese University and she started this social social networks yes I started a little group so we've there's three Guardians myself in suit Chinese ladies and we were guardians of this young girl and she pulled group for a better tomorrow and so I I changed the name of the group is called making today better you know so we have to wait for a better tomorrow you know just struggle on grit gypsies and do it then tomorrow will be better I said make today better you know you can do it you're not gonna make tomorrow better so how do we do this so a few minutes ago I spoke about Buddhism at least as I understand of course there are many different views and takes on this but my view of Buddhism is essentially an education system based on the fact that the Buddha said that a comprehensive and holistic development of conduct of our emotions and of our thinking is a path that will lead to that true happiness true freedom to wisdom compassion and liberation from from suffering now this path you may have heard is referred to as the late for class but it's very commonly reduced to three kinds of training or education in the pali language this is the word of seeker si double kha and that's the meat of the Thai word for education and probably in other Indian languages aunty so we're talking about an education of conduct an education of the heart and an education of the mind or the the cognitive faculties and a clear vision so in in terms of conduct then the school that we use the essential basic tool is volition so as human beings this is again not an article of faith I would say we have [Music] drives we have instincts no different from any other animal you see to procreate Muslims to to fullfil physically survival for fur and so on but what we have a super beings and I I'm not sure I don't think that animals have this or they do in a very only in a very rudimentary way is that we have the ability to stand back from these instincts and in certain circumstances not to follow them this is quite a remarkable thing when you think about it so you see something maybe you of walking to an empty room and you see something of some value this looks very attractive and you recognize I really would like that always wanted one of those yeah you feel this strong urge to take it but I think that most of you would not take it how all of you not would not take it why not well you would say well it wouldn't be right you feel perhaps you feel sorry for the person who who's who's the owner or you might believe it's bad karma but the point I'm making is that you have this reflexive ability that is to say you can stop and you can take stock and you can make a decision yeah I want this but I won't take it now I don't think that animals can do that very well from my observation no I don't think that you could teach a cat not to chase the mouse even if you your your your technology it's probably very advanced but whether you can communicate with cats but let's just suppose you you came up with some means of community mechanics you say can't don't chase after that Mouse feel some compassion for it you know it is just like you it doesn't want to die I don't think even if a cat could understand he could help himself it's cancer more as prisoners of their instincts so for the untrained human mind then that animal nature is very strong but it doesn't have to be because we have this see we have this capacity which we can cultivate very systematically not to do certain things and and so in in our life in in our families and in our communities this is the basis of our morality we start off with a problem how can we live together we're all different people with different needs different personalities different vices different weeks strong points weak points is it possible for us to live together in a in a way that we every person can you feel that they're flourishing and they can feel that they're learning something that they're growing as human beings and what this answer is well let's start off with bottom line what is it that we need before anything else before we can flourish in community and families and society and I'll say that whatever your religious philosophical beliefs you'll probably agree that safety is number one you need to feel safe if you don't feel safe in a relationship you don't feel safe in a in a place then you can pretty well say goodbye to any more profound spiritual development just keeping yourself alive keeping yourself free from danger sounds just so much energy so we want to provide and find a way of creating environments in which everyone has that basic foundation in which from which on which they can grow so the idea of Buddhist morality is we we we say I still I still have a lot of anger inside me and and irritation and say oh people in our family I love you so much but symptoms really get on my nerves you know and and and and the people who most Adan you know you see the people that you love the most because they know how to press your balance don't they so so what you say is you know I do I do every now and again I love you for sure but I get angry and and you know that but what I want you to know is no matter how angry I get I will never abuse you physically or verbally and so how do you feel if someone says that to you yeah yes the relaxed company before safe you know you're not having unrealistic you know we should all love each other we should be kind to each other at all times and yeah that would be lovely but human beings can't can't do that but we can refrain from hurting each other physically and verbally and we can do it consistently not just for days but for months of the years and so and we we can we take what we call the five precepts which are five commitments you say I take on the commitment to train my conduct by refraining from hurting and abusing others I take on the the I am to take to train my conduct to educate my conduct by not taking anything which is not given I undertake to train my conduct educate my conduct by not committing adultery or not betraying my my spouse or my my loved one I imitate your training of conduct not supply to achieve I take the I undertake the to train my conduct to educate my conduct by not consuming alcohol or drugs which which limit or undermine my ability to keep these four promises or four commitments so the Buddha said if if somebody makes those five commitments takes on those five forms of Education of conduct then he says they give the great gift to drape down at Mahayana to all those wrong is the greatest thing that you could possibly give your family so precepts and community morality is is often were students of negative terms and you know I'm not going to do this I don't do that it just feels like you you're missing out it's like you you're making all these sacrifices for what but at the same time if you look at in this slightly different way from the way to put it you're giving something of inestimable value to all those around you and you're creating a meaningful life for yourself and life in which you feel self-respect and life in which you you feel a friend to yourself so before you can be a true friend to others you have to make friends with and one of the ways you make friends with yourself is through this training of that one damnit when you when you know that whatever the temptations might be whatever the precious might be that you have certain boundaries that you have taken on voluntarily not out of fear not out of desire but with wisdom and understanding that this is a way to increase the quality of your own life and the life of those surrounds you and when you know that you can maintain those boundaries and they're not being forced upon you it's really important that they're voluntary and then you you find that a lot of guilt and a lot of remorse and a lot of negative mental states start to dissipate your mind becomes brighter and you start to find you kind of like being with yourself but of course these commitments owe you some volition has a tool for education is is is not the whole story you come because the emotions and the thoughts and the beliefs and the views that underlie the kind of negative behavior they're still still there so on the in the heart training the education of the heart then we we emphasize is putting forth of a different kind of effort so one of the one of the words that were used to refer to his teaching was my teaching is a weari a water so what that means like teaching teaching of effort teaching of the efficacy of effort and the Buddha criticized teachings that believe everything is due to the grace of God or that there's some mysterious teachings and everything is random that they denied this very important quality that we had to make changes in our life and if there are certain core beliefs as Buddhist is not gonna put some without beliefs but these are beliefs that are expected to be put to the test and the and beliefs Buddhists as we can abandon the unwholesome and the negative qualities in our heart we can develop wholesome virtues we can purify online so this is not a belief in something which is way beyond our capacity to put to the test you know something you you sites I could leave it this is something it's about you and about your life is saying I can abandon I can let go of negative mental states I can I have that capacity within me I have the capacity or the potential to cultivate patience and kindness of compassion and all these beautiful noble virtues there's no one that I cannot I do not have the potential to develop if I go about it in the right systematic fashion I can purify my heart so these are these are teachings that have to be put to the test and so the the we know whether we have some real faith input to the extent which with we're willing to put them to the test and see whether or not they're true that's that's absolutely essential so in the in the training of the heart there are four fourth four kinds of effort that we learn to apply and the first kind of effort is learning how to look after our mind in such a way that negative mental states whether it's anger depression anxiety confusion stress and so on we look after our minds in such a way that they cannot enter into the mode but of course it's highly unlikely that you're gonna have a hundred percent success rate with that and so that which leads us on to the second paragraph it is in the case that your mind has become invaded by or taken over by this kind of negative mental states we need to develop the skillful means to effectively reduce or eliminate those negative mental states the third kind of effort is given that we have this confidence in this belief that we can cultivate wholesome mental states all these virtues then we have to learn the the the means to introduce those states into the mind and fourthly when does that you start to appear in mind we have to learn how to take care of them to nurture them they're like small fragile plants need a lot of watering of care and so this is the essentially the education of the heart so that education of the heart is take place throughout the whole day throughout the whole life but we we talk about two kinds of effort or two we put these four kinds of effort excuse me in two different phases or two different modes so there's a formal mode and this informal mode so the formal mode is what's generally called meditation you sitting with your eyes closed or walking up and down but the essential features of the four mode of effort and educate education of the heart is that you manipulate the environment to make it as conducive as possible or to to the world so that would mean a place that is as quiet as possible not too hot or too cold and one where you're not going to be disturbed disrupted so it's it's like if you're any kind of subtle work if you're a scientist you are doing the lab rather than the pavement if you're a doctor you want to be in the operating theater and in the training of the heart the most profound work can be done where you set things up in that kind of way but you can only spend so much time you miss a month in those kind of conditions but as per silly as household girls summer leading an ordinary life much more of your life is in the second world which is the inform world but the basic pattern is still there young you have this focus okay in this particular situation what are they one of the kinds of the negative mental states that I should beware of so if you're driving to work let's say you have a car fortunate enough time your own kind trying to work then often you can get maybe get angry with people who drive carelessly and try selfishly and so that's your spiritual goal and how can I Drive all the way to work without losing my temper with others these people who drive comes this way oh you're in a you're in a meeting say ok not gonna sit and meditate on a mantra in a meeting and it's like with your eyes closed and they kicked out so what are your goals in a meeting well then they might be patience and just to be patient with meetings when people grab the microphone and start going off on a tangent which is nothing to do with what we're supposed to be talking about and developing listening skills and being giving the same quality of attention to people that you like respect and to people dislike and disrespect as the people you like this way if it's your time to speak then dealing this whole sense of self-consciousness or wanting to be praised or afraid of being criticized so this is all this is all grist for the mill in his spiritual life it's like what is the suffering right here or what is you know what is the cause of suffering what is the way out of suffering so it's very very direct you know it's not a matter of taking on so beliefs as such as using the Buddhist teachings as tools so the thinking a bit over time I want to give you a chance to to to ask questions but the one point I would like to make is the key virtue here is mindfulness mindfulness means remembering everything you need to remember in any situation so that may be holding something in mind or recalling something but if you're in in in the formal meditation it might be holding your meditation object and being awake and aware your meditation object not allowing it to slip out of your mind in other circumstances it might be bringing the appropriate knowledge that you need to to bear on the challenge at hand but as I mentioned before we are starting point is that we that our animal nature if you like is very prominent even though we we we find it a little bit humiliating sooo to knowledge that sometimes but the more you look at your mind the more you realize how conditions you are how unaware you are and how much less rational you are and you'd like to think even I would say all of your own saw very brainy people otherwise you'd be sitting here tonight but the irrational elements are life far stronger than many people realize and often our logic is dressing is something that we add on afterwards we just like to tell you one of my favorite pieces of research this was conducted by Professor Charles Tarleton in California long time ago now he was doing research on hypnosis and he had a group of students around at his house and one of the students was hypnotized and that says the student they after you come out of the hypnotic state if I ask you if you have a cup of tea I want you to go over and put up that umbrella behind the door so the hypnotized student comes out of the state and there and a teacher professor Tarsus how you doing said would you like a cup of tea he immediately walks over to the to the door puts up the umbrella and the professor says why did you do that and he said well as I was walking along today you know it seemed very cloudy and it might it might well rain and I haven't got a raincoat with me and I said well they might ask to borrow your umbrella I just wanted to check that it was it was ok so for me this was you know I remember the first time they read this it's like revelation he was somebody who without thought without a moment's hesitation was able to give a completely rational and completely believable reasonably believable reason for something which was 100 percent irrational the only reason that he put up that umbrella was because he was requested to do so while I was hypnotized so this isn't your story about hypnosis is a story about what an incredible or Kandice brain is and how how we can create reasons to justify irrational behavior at such an amazing and completely effortless rate that I would contend that we have to take our rational minds with a pinch of salt sometimes okay so one more thing about mindfulness a wonderful short summary of lifeless someone without mindfulness has few choices someone with mindfulness has many choices so the more mindful you are the more you wake up in the midst of this automatic pilot kind of mode that we fall into daily life and the moment you wake up to what you're doing you're awake you're aware then the questions arising when is this right is this wrong is this in harmony with my values is it in conflict with my values what are the short-term long-term impact on the people on myself and my people the people around me all these kind of questions emerge in the mind magically when you wake up to what you're doing and it's really important you you observe this and thus Candice's my hypothesis you can put to the test so much of our life is on the automatic pilot this is just too much you know to give that kind of attention to but we make a lot of foolish errors and we fall into rats and we become blind to things and sensitive to things and attached to things merely because we're just following the stream and that with mindfulness we're learning to wake up and when you wake up the wisdom faculty which we all possess can spring into action and actually be a refuge to us and be a and to give us some direction in our lives so I'm not going to go too much into the wisdom development but this is it begins which is basically sound thinking you know using the rational mind well if you're going to use the rational mind avoiding logical fallacies learning how to keep the mind in a neutral mode and I'm sorry as scientists I'm sure you're familiar with a lot of the what makes sounds thinking and what makes 40 thinking and that's part of wisdom development for sure but the and creative thinking and scientists I think you have to do a lot of creative thinking you have to come up with experiments to to put hypotheses to be excessive as a creative thinking isn't it but there's a kind of thinking beyond that and one of the things about thinking is that you have to become familiar with the space around thinking before thinking and after thinking and so see thinking in context so if thinking is just the the default activity and you have to think all the time you had to have something rather in your mind all the time that kind of neuroses and there's no peace there so in Buddhist meditation the goal is not to learn how to stop thinking is become like a insentient smiling rock or something it's it's it's based upon the principle that we have a lot of junk in our heads and and it's like you have all this furniture in a room far more than you can so you have to sort of push it away to make a way through the room so what's the rational thing to do what what what do I actually need in this room I need a Sofer I need a chair or neither and and then and then get rid of the rest not says you don't have anything so our minds are so cluttered and this of course of unnecessary stress and strain and anxiety and our thinking is completely it's like the servants taken over the house if you like to use another analogy if I may so we're trying to to let go of unnecessary thinking and also when we don't need to think just to dwell in that presence that clarity of mind it's not that not thinking means absence and dullness and sentience you can experience this non compulsive thinking and rest in it but wait awareness is a wonderful state soon to come to know it's a whole dimension of life that many people unfortunately don't ever recognize but then you begin to notice and you begin to turn your minds of impermanence and so the process nature of phenomena and and again I don't want to go on too much further this one key point of Buddhist with wisten development is seeing and appreciating how in our life there are no nouns there are only verbs okay the body is a verb it's not a noun so it's physicists or scientists I'm sure you'll understand this your mind is a verb it's not announced thoughts feelings every aspect of your existence is verbs it's a flow of the nomina and in Buddhist wisdom development we're moving away from this idea of things and me and him and us Beth and our group and their group than this kind of very rigid noun billiard ball Newtonian view of life and seeing things as they are which is a flow of phenomena and learning how to navigate that flow and to see what elements of fo you can take some responsibility for and why elements you can so yeah I'm going to end my talk here I could I forgot talking about this for a long time and just say that we're beginning a new year 2020 and you know in eyesight 2020 means perfect vision so I would like to wish you all 20/20 vision in this year [Music] [Applause] my jaw would be a bundle of penciling a few questions there are some microphones it wasn't a pass one the last one so anybody who has a question is behind up and the mic enlightening that being talk today is or you can't I can't be sure be sure that anything but we we do have you know our body in our mind and our appreciation of negative mental states we call crystal Atticus level so a person mental states has it directly experienceable gauge of whether any activity that we are engaged in whether it's meditation or indeed anything else whether it's going to lead to learning or not if a reasonable length of time some hundred months I found you find that negative mental states are waning not increasing and the positive mental states are increasing not decreasing then that's a good sign that they are on the right path but when we're talking about the words the Buddha translated from 2500 years and we how come the answer there's always going to be something for doubt and that that's the right you believe we can live with doubts doubts not a you know it's not a demon or an enemy or so sometimes not really sure but this just makes sense and then this locator says and see what happens so we have long we have traditions and we have trustworthy people who have been practicing for long periods and they share their experience and you listen and you see who you feel trust what you do you feel some trust and does this person seem they know what they're talking about them and that there is yeah that's so sometimes you do have to take things on trust but you're constantly looking and checking one one of the very simple often people say how do I know I find really developing in meditation or in this Buddhist training and us and one of the best answers this question that I received and I had teach others is if you find that the things that make you suffer are steadily decreasing and the things that make you happy are increasing then you're on the right path thanks for sharing your experience teaching see that we ready practice the various lost without various Buddhism practices that they're so during your life you come across like the machine oh yeah I mean from after the Buddha passed way remember this community s monastic communities spread swell northeast India particular and further south and the communication in those days of course was very difficult and so it's quite natural I think that teachers right from that time you teach what what works to you and you tend to emphasize those those areas of the teaching which work for you and then become that's how traditions develop and the and the diversity of traditions I think is is often due to that that you have gifted individuals who are applying themselves and they have two different gifts and different qualities and different abilities and understanding diversity takes place in if we look at Buddhist history and a very simplified presentation you have like the Conservatives and the Liberals okay so the Conservatives that we serve are about twenty or thirty different groups their view was everything that the Buddha taught is it's enough what you need and all are all we need to do is care for this look after it practice it share it with others and of those of those groups the only one that survived to the present day is cetera by the tradition because it went south and to Sri Lanka and was free from all the depredations Center Buddhist communities in northern India suffered subsequently so the liberals these are the ones that said you know this is such a wonderful thing that we should share with as many people as possible and we should go it off in two different countries and we shouldn't be too attached to the external features of our religion we should just keep the essence and be flexible with the externals so obviously this is a lot more portable religion and this is why the what we call the Mahayana which is there's not a thing call Miami relative mateesah they went moved into China and Tibet in Korea and Japan and Pakistan Afghanistan and Kazakhstan Uzbekistan LaVon huge a very Swift expansion but problem trounces they who decides which is what is the essence and what is not and this is why you've got a much more diversity in a Mahayana and when they're willing to make compromises in order to get through to people from different cultures and backgrounds then starting to absorb so long Buddhist forms and so in you find Buddhist groups in Japan for instance who deviated for so far from the original teachings that is almost like like a different religion all together so so I would say that in one sense we can say this is mr. natural diversity but there are also this introduction and this evolution of the teachings and in from a song must be from tera vaada point of view from Terra Cotta point of view one of the like key to citrus that wood picks up a handful of leaves and he said which is more amongst the leaves in my hand until you sand the forest and the monks of course they were that leaves in the forest and the Buddhist says was at least as far as to like all the things that I know as a Buddhist and leaves in my hand and what I'm teach you this is all you need you don't need all the leaves in the forest so it's a very pragmatic teaching whereas in the in my yarn at this philosophical implications of the original teachings really take off and from a Mahayana point of view say this is like an evolution like a increased sophistication and and is building upon original teachings from terrible point of view these are all the leaves in the forest of the Buddha said you don't you don't need those so they there is a question what how how much is authentic colleges not authentic and Indian you just have to read and study and listen for a certain period of time and then make a choice and aware that you don't know there's the right choice you can't know but you can know what happens within you but there are certainly in terms of groups and teachers then any teacher who steadfastly ignores or refuses to mention his own or her own teachers and it's like presenting himself as the fully formed wise person I don't trust someone and doesn't feel any gratitude for their teacher unless tradition so that was that's one warning sign for me if there's a lot of money involved and you're pressed for donations of there's some kind of personality cult around the teacher decent like warning signs you know don't go close to those kind of things so money power sexual shenanigans those are the things to stick hero wasn't one of the things I don't want to be so like a partisan for about a month but one of the things that really attracted me to this form of Buddhism was the decoded discipline for the the Sangha and so I've been a month for 40 years now and I dress in exactly the same way as I did the first I was a month there's no way you don't have a special hat or I don't have any time insignia or anything in and I have to keep all of the same rules that I did when I was there's no kind of exceptions now your senior and even if you're an arahant like Iceland charm you keep exactly the same rules there's no exceptions it's not this idea you don't have to do all that stuff now you're enlightened you that's just the beginners but the idea is that as as a senior or in cases alleging charlyk in Iran you keep all of these Safety's rules as a good example you see if you had if you're if you're a general you are your guru or someone you know he no longer has to keep all these moral rules because then you think wow yeah that's the goal you know I get there and I can do all this stuff you know it's not very awesome mental state is it and then I think it it just opens the way for so much abuse of students when you have this idea that an enlightened being is beyond moral standards shouldn't be judged in the way the normal person is oh yeah if he was a normal person that would be sexual abuse but he's not so dumb how could you dare accuse him of that and so there's so many spiritual communities been ravaged by these kinds of scandals because there's not as clear-cut moral code and it's this idea that when you reach a certain level of spiritual enlightenment you no longer need to keep all the moral codes of onion lines and people so much tradition it says you need to keep them even more so maybe you have a you have a decisive I don't need to do that anymore I don't know not attached to this and I could do that but you think well my teacher he's far more enlightened to me and he doesn't do it so how can I possibly justify doing it so that's that's the compassion of this great masters a great great announce as they do all this laughing they don't need to do it out of compassion for the students and for for future generations as well so I think the the moral conduct of of teachers and the spiritual groups that avoiding groups which support a new personality pants or corrupting empire building or building huge edifice and all these kinds of [Music] [Applause] [Music] so as humans we have four sections these perceptions are always of conditioning now different perceptions they could be disputes later at home in relationship business the political setup country's voice a Romanian for me decisions they might be judged harmony violence [Music] thank you first of all one of the the qualities that we develop in we emphasize development of wisdom is knowing time and place this is the right time this is the right place to bring up difficult topics so sometimes you often think maybe is just so full of self-righteousness or you so we're we're we're right and they're wrong and then we just want to express ourselves but why would we do that English surely our goal is communication and we want to enable that bus be able to hear what we have to say and somebody will only listen and accept what you have to say if they feel safe and if they feel sense of respect and if they if the foundation of trust is there for that communication to take place so the more sensitive something initially is then the more important that consideration might be and it depends upon the values of an organization or of a family for instance the one of the guiding principles of nastic order is what we call kawaranai this means that we we announce it formally to all the members of our community from the highest to the lowest that you know I I have blind spots ivory if you see and you hear you to be acting in an appropriate way please speak to me perfectly I am open to listening so you make this declaration and not everyone lives up to it of course but that is the guiding principle you know that's the thing you sign up for making yourself open to feedback now has to be said that in in in my mind astok order time monastics and it's based upon this idea of you have hierarchy and you have this openness to feedback and they counterbalance is to check the balance idea but the in Thailand and the the feedback side has become very weak where the hierarchical sides become very strong misses imbalance and it's not a it doesn't really reflect the system that Oda established as long as it should as many problems in the monastic order because of that but in in general I would say that you get a sense of whether someone is is is able to hear you you know if you have some evangelical someone from the evangelical religion and come and tell you you know you're not going to change their mind with logical arguments then they're not interested in changing their mind so why why why why so so there's a question is it worth it or not is there some possibility for some kind of communication or not but you know I was talking about interfaith I don't ever go to interfaith meetings I think a complete waste of time but one of the one of the kind of the cliché things about interfaith is you know we're all talking about the same thing they're all on the same we're just using different words you know this is that kind of the the template for all it although no I don't think I mean she believes in democracy but it seems to me that this was a very arrogant assumption you know that you know what the ultimate goal of your religion and you know that theirs is the same in the u.s. I mean what are you basing that on it's very unscientific and it's just it's just an idea it's a nice nice thing to say but I think that that what would be a lot more practical from my point of view is let's say you have a Buddhist and a Christian and a Muslim or a Hindu in you and you say for instance I'm I'm a Christian I believe that Jesus was the only Son of God and He died for my sins this is what I believe but I'm actually no it's my belief and then the Muslim said I believe that Muhammad is the prophet of God and so on this is what I believe but I don't really know and the bully said I believe that you know this we've been born and died many many lifetimes and but I don't really know and this for me is where interface should be working in this humble acceptance we don't really know what we're talking about you know and the problem is that religious people say speakers if they know everything that they know what it's all about and they can never be any harmony that way but when people are willing just to accept yeah this is what I've taken on faith but for me this is a major flaw of most religious people is that they confuse faith and knowledge or vision so it's a circular argument you say I believe I believe was why why do you believe well I read this book and I just you that it was true and so that's why I believe so you get to see I believe because it's true and it's true because I believe it and that's that's that's as far as it does for most religious people you know how'd it happen you okay you you believe it but there are also there are four or five six thousand million people in the world that don't believe it so on what grounds would a neutral observer say you're obviously right and everyone else is wrong so if your story is true because I believe it I believe it because it's true there's no dialogue possible missus pending an endless conflict but if you can make this distinction is I don't really know but I do believe it makes sense to me I hear and I feel this the sense of consent and yes yes that that feels right to me but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is right that's just how it feels to me so yeah I'm looking for more humility in the religious world and there is like apparent at the moment thank you so much for sharing once of the concept of 8:30 should intervene into the ingest set it is to take you back to the moment you say that you no sense of home the government decided to serve as kind of floral attracts you I looked on violence against a little age difference it recruits Marineris father the trust so keep behind our tradition exactly of these issues yeah I mean you have a sense of homecoming without you can be exposed things that competition yes I remember see in Boudia and and one great blue Boucher and recently passed away and his deep poster saying please come back soon you know and I thought that's so different from my tradition just say well we hope he doesn't ever have to come back again so I'm not because I visited Tibet Autonomous Region and the family a family you know had relation who was a great ceviche and just before he died he said I will come back with the Sun and the moon and then a couple of years later a child was born in the family I have a photograph and he's got birthmark on his forehead it's like this side like a crescent moon and then a side and so he was a young age she was taken off to the monastery in and so I I'm I'm I don't have any problem about believing in this repo shades of compassion come back for the benefit of all sentient beings but it's not something that is bounded in the Terra Cotta tradition but what I what I like about Buddhism is you know we're all friends we don't feel it was like this one survivor in my honor competition or all we think is sort of heretics or something there's just neutral appreciation as I said and you should respect but certain things well yeah that we don't quite see things the same way into being and yet that I'm familiar with that that again is not part of the Pali of the pterygoid of tradition we're talking about this flow of conditions and learning the the hound at that condition process works and how it leads to suffering and how one can transcend that but that philosophical idea of you know different candor for reflecting each other is a beautiful idea but it's not it's not one that really fits into the path practice that I'm following [Music] okay speech understand this we should have what is mine how so what you saying we are I mean we just give like an explanation or words it's it's more important that you you pursue this question with yourself in your experience otherwise we just in the realm of philosophy theorizing so much simply mind is knowing so it's a this is if I say anything see - a rather than a thief so I highlight lead the translators are three Tibetan texts they often translate his mental continuum I think that's that's quite a good translation gives that idea of slow and it's not like it's like you it's like you have in mind what is this mind this is one of these wrongly established questions just look look and see what's going on inside [Music] thank you one of the important features of Buddhist teachings is that the virtues and qualities and not thought as entities or independent qualities but they're seen in terms of their relationship to other associated qualities so in this case like we have what we call the four Brandi harness or the four positive emotion and these are loving kindness compassion sympathetic joyous ability to rejoice when other people do well so it's a direct antidote to jealousy and then the fourth one all these groups of teachings are where virtues they wish they weren't always have one of them usually the last one which is a wisdom quality and in this case is equanimity so we see these four emotions as interconnected services something they interviewed and that they are appropriate in different circumstances so we develop loving-kindness which is means these wishing people well so let on a very practical level and you know you it's not like you have to love everybody but you have to have a sense of wishing them well so in the case of someone who is very selfish or aggressive or enjoys inflicting pain on others they say well how could I wish them well may you be happy then you think well what makes them happy is being nasty to other people is you see this is there a conflict there but my my answer this would be as no if you wish somebody well then you say main that person experience the happiness of freedom from that desire to hurt others may someone selfish may that person experience the happiness of oneself if that person's aggressive made that person know that the the happiness of letting go of that aggression so it's like judo you just flip it on its back it's not that those negative objectionable qualities are stop you from developing kindness and compassion but you see what is the happiness and the freedom that you would wish for someone afflicted by those qualities but in seeking to to help others in a practical means they're always going to be times when you're frustrated and maybe distant so many of you want you see someone it's suffering so much you really want to help them and you try everything and they reject you they won't listen and they're just you know happy to they basically they want to go on the way they are so what do you do in that situation so that says that's the occasion way where you intervene to hope a car or or equanimity so equanimity is not indifference it's not saying well okay I tried my best and you rejected me and then you can just go your own way but it's saying right now the causes and conditions that prevail do not allow me to help you but I'm ready if things change that's like I'm in neutral gear right now but if things change and you are open and you're and I can I will go into that more active mode again but I but if you like that a quality you can just get discouraged and you can get you get full of sadness and deprive you can't anything for this Porthos so so this is the time you just look after your own heart and just drawing and you're ready if the time should come to do something more reactive to something that's become familiar with this piece and our thinking as okay so well if you just tried to meditate on your breath or something and there's just like extremely sore languages but then after a while there's some gaps appear it's not like constant thought maybe just for a second or a moment as it's a silence in your mind and then the thinking starts again but actually actually continue those spaces become large and maybe even they last longer than the singing but if you are aware of that space between thinking and you just present to it it's just a wonderful thing and it gives you a context of thought so we tend to think we like intellectual people don't often don't identify with the body so strongly as they do with their mind and you see this is like you're at your Center this is who I am you know I'm smart this is this is my identity so this is why conventionally intelligent people q-final meditation such a challenge because you have to be willing to put down your attachment to thinking you know if you're if you're enough in the motive I think therefore I am you know then the idea of letting go thinking is very threatening because it means that we disappear you know everything that you you identify this makes you uniquely who you are is bound up with thinking then letting go thinking that's that's like suicide so you have to just gradually show your mind that you can exist without thinking and it's actually very pleasant it's not that you don't you're gonna give up thinking it's just you finding a space between it and then thoughts and then as you might guess calm may be just as calm and then just this thought just pops out and then you see that well that it's just a mental phenomena where did that come from you know like a millisecond before you thought that no idea but I think that you know you didn't plan to think it it just arose and then it passed away and so wow that's a whole different idea worth sources you know stuff you say I think this and I think that Leslie just thinking arises and then the ownership of it comes afterwards so we had on the sense of I am thinking to the sinking and the sinking is just part of this crisis arises and passes away so you're you're you're educating or you're calibrating your whole relationship with your inner world and the things that go on within it by it by this process of observation with that like to bring this program to a close with all gratitude to the idea and I would also be failing in my duty if I do not express my sense of gratitude to all the people that are behind this program the staff of this all the people that cover the Institute address the people the staff of the guesthouse well passivity so from the organizers I I would like to express my gratitude to the trust and that natural source of educational engineering the very common study circle and we'll just as organizers I would also like to know last but not least express my gratitude to all the nice audience and patience listen to this wonderful evening outside there's some tea so I'm going you to please join us [Applause]

Channel: Dhammarama

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Id: GLqODuHW_j0

Length: 117min 27sec (7047 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 08 2020