Fighting the Demons Inside You | Maitreyabandhu | Step 3 of 7 Steps to Enlightenment

so before I tell you about the shape of the evening and say a bit more about this seven steps to enlightenment course that we're running this week and that you're effectively on let me just introduce a team so let's get Sanjay here first so this is Sanjay Sanjay is our resident genius he is he is mister tech and then he politte representing France he's live both of them live with us upstairs and golly I don't know what we doubt we have done without all the people living on the premises all of them have been doing the tech it's easy for me just to sit in front of here and talk but they have to do all the tech side of it so that's really really good so let me say a little bit about the shape of the evening a longer evening this evening because it's part of this seven steps to enlightenment course so I'm going to talk for about 20 minutes even perhaps up to half an hour and then we'll have a period of meditation which I'll lead us through and then we'll have a tea break and you know that that would be time for you to go off and get yourself a cup of tea go to the loo whatever you need to do and then after the tea break I'm going to carry on the story that I'm starting in the first half of the course so don't sign off I'll carry on the story and and then we'll have some question and answers so one of the things I really love about this live stream is that you can go you and I can interact I can't always answer everyone's questions obviously but we can interact and so there's time for questions so you'll see in the chat box to the side I think it's there you'll see that you can you know put your questions and say do the wave emoji and there's been lots of emojis I've never seen so many emojis anyway there's been lots of emojis and I keep on touching my glasses because they keep falling off and I can't go to an optician to get them tight under me so I do sympathise with my glasses situation on yes so yeah do if you have questions and put them into the chat and the guys here will collect them together and ask me in that second half of the class and then we'll finish the all evening with another meditation so by combine an o'clock you have done two meditations you'll have heard more of the story of Buddha steps to enlightenment that we're following in this course and you'll have a chance to ask me questions about that so that's the shape of tonight and it's part of this seven steps to enlightenment course that started Monday morning and culminates in a day-long day-long retreat on Sunday in which we're going to be celebrating the enlightenment of the Buddha so I hope you'll keep tuning in tomorrow night it's going to be on of Archer again carrying on the story last night I think it was Jana varchar the night before that Subhadra mati so you keep tuning and you'll follow the whole story of the Buddha until we have this whole day retreat with all kinds of events you can have a look down listening for that all kinds of events that day is celebrating the enlightenment of the Buddha in fact tomorrow night it's the full moon so really strictly that's for today so do do you know to do tune in tomorrow but yeah do you do treat him for the whole of the course so that's what we're doing seven steps to enlightenment so yah navarch here was talking taking us through the story Subhadra mati started the story with the Buddha's birth and the four sites and the going forth from the palace I won't recap that but do go back and watch I I was really struck by it so do go back and have a look at Serie C bad am I talking about the the Buddhists to be early life and then Jana varchar yesterday took the story of the Buddha's or rather the Buddha to be his life all the way up till the point that I'm going to start talking about tonight which is him sitting under what's become known as the Bodhi tree and he wasn't called the Bodhi tree then because the Buddha hadn't gained Bodhi which is another another word for enlightenment so that's where going to be taking up the story in a way tonight in tomorrow night yon of ultra and I we're going to be telling you about the Enlightenment really the story the parts of the story I'm going to be dwelling upon tonight are very much I think is central to the Enlightenment as any other element of the Enlightenment they're all told as it were sequentially but I think they communicate warn experience they're not really a sequence of events I my own believe my own sense and I've told this story so many times and every time I tell it it for me it goes a bit deeper yeah I think they're hot they're telling you about one remarkable unprecedented change in consciousness in being and it needs all these different story elements set out in the sequence but they're actually all telling you about one incredible experience of human enlightenment yet but I thought we'd start a bit closer to home so I thought we'd start again I sometimes talk about my partner's children I got children went in my life to a two little girls I always want to say but they're not little anymore and they've never liked being called little even when they were little but I remember when REO are the youngest she was I think eight or nine and she came to the Buddha Center I was giving a talk and I said you want to come into the room whilst I give the talk you want to wait outside she said she's very confident she said I want to come into the room and I said do you want to sit at the front with me or do you want to sit at the back she said I want to sit at the front with you so she was coloring in it wasn't a fashion doll thing I kind of wasn't anyway she said to me what's the talk about and I said enlightenment and she said that sounds boring hello it was really struck by that I really liked that she did that sounds boring because it when you think about it is for me just sound boring in Lyman such a just a huge abstract word so I said would you mind if I tell that sort called that story the toes of the talk so I started his talk and I said I'll Rio said all that sounds boring and there happened to be a little boy in the audience as well and he said yes I'm gonna try and not bore you with the story and it's interesting that thought that enlightenment when you say it story about enlightenment sounds boring because the word enlightenment is the abstract concept and if you're not careful they are frankly boring they don't tell you very much abstract concepts they can feel very sophisticated and rather grand but they often don't tell you very much and they often don't give you a feeling for it very much so what I relate to much more it's not the not the abstract concepts but the stories yeah so every element of this story has got a vital meaning which you can keep on discovering more and more elements of so your watcher left us with the story with the Buddha to be Siddhartha a young prince sitting under a tree that as I said became known as the Bodhi tree beautiful tree it's just sitting there in meditation yeah that's where we we finished in ahead it made this incredible vowel saying I'm either going to sit there until I die or I'm gonna sit there and you they always say or gain enlightenment of course there was no word for that but find the truth would be better I think I'm either going to penetrate into the truth of things and be liberated completely in a way that's at that moment is unimaginable or I'm going to die trying I'm not going to get up again this incredible vow you don't have what to talk about that last night so I won't say any more about that what I wanted to say what I wanted to start with is the tree he's sitting at the foot of a tree and the Buddha's life is very very linked with trees he was according to tradition he was born under a tree he died under trees he gained an Enlightenment under a tree his story is intimately connected with trees yeah and I don't know whether you're funny list but I'm finding spring such a such a relief this year partly because we're all in lockdown and you know you only get that one chance to go outside and the Greens of the leaves seem and who are they green or or is it just is it my imagination is it because the air is clearer and cleaner doing am i hearing more birdsong than usual or is it just because I'm it's such a relief to get out I don't know I don't know but the Buddhist story is very very into woven with trees and of course for me I really love this image of the Buddha sitting at the foot of a tree so that is a beautiful image for me for the truly human being the sovereign individual that's itself to sit at the foot of a tree is a remarkable achievement even before we even think about whatever enlightenment is and Kali what a big word that is and Kali doesn't really say anything but before we even come to that this this man in this case sitting under a tree and what that represents doesn't it is though he's at this intersection between the depths and the heights so he's sitting on the earth so he's he's sitting in on the earth he's not sitting on a chair he's not sitting on a throne he's not sitting on a cloud like God he's sitting on the earth the earth that we walk on and sit on he sits on this bare earth beneath him the roots of the tree reached deeper and deeper you know how so much of the tree is underground and isn't that true of ourselves so much of ourselves is underground is deep on the ground yeah and the Buddha the Buddha Turbie is in receipt I admire in my imagination he's in receipt of all of that all those roots rich reaching down into the into the mud into the faeces into the dirt and grime so he's not um alienated from that he's not goodly and sort of nice and separated he's not on a cloud yeah he's in touch with the earth and the roots of the tree go deep down into the earth and we need to be like that we need to be in touch with our class onic depths are our deepest instinctual nature I'll say more about this later but religion errs have always had this tendency to cut you off from those deep instincts which are things like sex power lust greed fear disgust all those very deep primal instincts if you're not careful religion wants to sort of concrete it over and you'll never get anywhere with that you just you might get a bit of a some bright ideas but you won't get anywhere unless you're in touch with the debts and I've met people who really are living on the basis of a bright idea on an unrooted with the depth I'll say more about that perhaps a bit later in the second half but also of course the tree has this incredible trunk that the sitter the Buddha's sitting with his back against and then the branches of the tree reach up into the sky so it the buddha is at the intersection between heaven and earth he represents the unification of heaven and earth that's what that that position is about is the unification of the depth and the darkness and and the muck and the filth of the earth which becomes the nutrients for something that grows up into heaven you know that reaches that reaches up into heaven if we're not careful we we fall out over should it be heaven or earth is it about going deep or is it about going high actually you need to do the both and the tree is a wonderful example of that and enlightenment any kind of human progress can only take place never mind enlightenment never mind Buddhism can only take place if you've got those both principles of reaching down into the unknown into the depths into your history into your culture into your into those deep instincts and reaching up into something beyond you above you you need both absolutely you need both and the bigger the root system the greater the reaching our pian so that's just a little bit obviously the tree but the other thing I really love about this symbol is that this tree according to Buddhist cosmology according to Buddhist myth is at the center of the universe it's it's called the Vajrasana or our retreat center which we've sadly had to close of course it's called Vadra astronaut as well and we built the whole purpose-built retreat center around this myth of the tree the place of the tree at the center of the universe and according to Buddhist tradition it's the first part of the universe that coalesces in any new world system and it's the last part disappear so you see how symbolically and symbolic by symbolically I don't mean fancifully I mean the truth that it's getting at I don't mean a sort of pretty picture of where it's getting at but the truth of where it's getting at it's saying that enlightenment is the core of human life it's the core of the world it's the core of the universe the metaphor is saying it's that the enlightenment is a central most important event in the universe you know it's as if the metaphor is saying all nature culminates in this enlightenment of the buddha yeah whatever this enlightenment is its central its core to everything not just the human beings but to the whole of the universe now that's a bit might sound a bit grand but that that's a myth and I think in fact I'm convinced that there's something completely truthful about that so there he is sitting the Buddha to be Siddhartha sitting in this in the cross-legged posture at the base of the of the tree of a the Bodhi tree as it came to be called and he enters into you into meditation and you have to imagine him if not the golden figure that you see behind me you have to imagine this it looked like a beggar basically it looked like a street kid you know painfully saying filthy nothing like a golden figure nothing as religious as that it would be a some somebody you'd want to avoid on the street yeah basically but there he is sitting meditating clothing Iseman and he enters into this incredible meditation based on this commitment which I'm going to talk about a little bit later on and according again to the tradition and according to the myth of an Enlightenment and by myth I mean a story which you can you never get to the bottom of that's what myth is it's a story that holds within it all this information a little bit like a dream or a poem can hold all this information like in this capsule but you can keep on discovering it so in the myths as a Buddhist meditating all these demons appear and it's incredible you see these wonderful paintings of the Buddha sitting in this in his meditation posture surrounded by this kind of halo of demonic figures and these demonic figures are trying to stop him gain enlightenment basically they're there they're horrible that ugly they've incredibly powerful in some descriptions they throw mountains at the Buddha they throw axes and rama''s and hammers and swords and spheres and burning iron bolts and think you you have to imagine a figure in this incredible peacefulness of this figure and these this incredible army of demons throwing everything under the Sun you know you can imagine modern depictions of that what you've got is a image of peace surrounded by the most terrible weaponry so these are the forces of greed traditionally these are the forces of greed hatred and delusion and in fact they're often gendered so you often get Moroz you get the attack of Morris sons and they're the particularly warlike ones so they're carrying they're the ones that are throwing all the spears and jagged guards and so on and you get Mara's daughters and don't worry about the gender here you can if you if you prefer you could regenerate for yourself but traditionally you get Mara's daughters who are trying to seduce the Buddha and say to him why are you bothering with this kind of weird spiritual thing when you could be having lots of fun you know when you could be frankly sleeping with me and these are beautiful women yeah or whatever your tastes beautiful men or both but I think actually there's something valid about that gender that you've got the forces of power and the forces of seduction she's actually another kind of power um you've also got the forces of illusion of what Buddhism would call spiritual ignorance which doesn't mean not being intelligent in fact many very intelligent people are very stupid it means people who don't want to know the truth yeah it's it's that part of you that wants to turn away from the truth including the truths about yourself so these Mara's hordes these demons are demons they represent forces both outside you and they represent the forces within you so they represent historical cultural forces that are trying to stop you grow yeah so any time in history now as any other time any person trying to grow trying to realize their potential and from a Buddhist point of view enlightenment is your potential it's not the potential of a Buddhist it's not something Buddhism is going to give you it's already there in you whether this is the first time you've ever heard of Buddhism it's your potential it's not mine it's not his it's yours yeah and if you're going to and human life is about realizing that potential of course what you don't know and what actually I don't know to be honest it's your potential my potential is unimaginably vast of them we think the Buddha would want to say to us there is more to you than you could possibly imagine I like this metaphor of an acorn to an oak tree if you could talk to an acorn and say what would you like to be when you grow up an acorn would say well I I'd like to be a bigger a shiny I kind of sexier kind of trendier ACORN you know all they could at all in a call could imagine would be a bigger shinier you know dressed a version of a corn nuts and if you spit you if you said to an acorn if you point it to a tree you know those incredible oak trees that you sty see standing in the middle of a field you know how majestic they are if you said to an acorn you could be that an acorn would be just like that is so not me I'm not I'm a kind of Roundy shiny thing it would actually frighten you I mean it would and yet we know that there's that potential for an oak tree in there in the Acorn but if you were the Acorn you just you'd never imagine it never in a million years would you imagine that so that's our human situation that's what the Buddha has been telling us as it were for two and half thousand years every time anyone tries to live out their potential there are all kinds of forces in society that want to stop you and they're weaponized yeah the 20th century for instance was a century of ideology it was the century of of fascism the century of communism we I'm reading an art wonderful Irish novel that just goes through all the wars World War One World War two Vietnam and so we go on all these forces are actually trying to destroy your human potential and of course what the other thing that I've been thinking now is one way to imagine these weapons and go even times moving on already is that words weaponized very easily I'm struck by the fact that these demons they're not just demons coming rushing for you they've got weapons the tongue can become a kind of dagger the Facebook feed can become a kind of javelin words easily weaponized and they often weaponize words make you feel guilty or they try to make you feel afraid or they try to make you feel small or they try to make you feel hatred you can you can create work you could say words that try to make people hate people you can try and say words to to make people frightened and so on all of us have had words that weaponize yeah one of the things anyway let's forget that from it I'll do for that so that's it yeah so much to say about that but perhaps we might have some questions about that something I've been thinking about alive been noticing that the strange power of words and how they can distort human beings and how they can crush ones potential only too easily but of course these demons are also the demons inside you in fact the reason why their team is at all is because they are both outside and inside you so those weaponized words I was talking about bet you've used them yourself I bet you have I bet you've waded in with an opinion before you've listened to the point of view I certainly have so the the reason things become din Manik is not because they therefore ghouls out there it's because they live in here and now that they move there like ghosts they haunt us so these are the sort of demons that we have in our own life they're our own hatred and one of the things that meditation does I think if you if you take it seriously if you take it like a sports person would take it in other words if you take it up eople eat who's doing the one of the pillar heat he was a he's an athlete he was doing a volleyball one knew for a long time so he's very trained he knows that you have to train hard he took it really seriously if you take meditation seriously like that and that's how you all make any progress with there I bet you you'll be confronted with your own hatred you'll suddenly discover the nice person you thought you are it's just a bit of a fiction a South pleasing fiction you start skiing gosh I've got much more hatred than I thought I've got much more resentment and I've thought I've got much more lust than I thought I'm not as anat a nice person actually you're a much better person you think than you think you are much much better than you think you are and you're also frankly a worse person than you think you are and don't worry folks so Mike we're all I'm not very great at the appositive we're all in the same boat we're much better than we think we are I mean much worse and we need to embrace both and we need the energy of both yet so these demons within it within us that there are energy that they're incredibly powerful yeah and as I said religion including Buddhism actually easily gets mixed up with a pious self-suppression where you think oh no I am not that kind of person and you see how there's the thing I also been thinking is there's always a righteous war even with this outbreak of covet I'm seeing righteous Wars starting up there's always a righteous war that we're involved in so yes religions often often gets associated with pious suppression or earnest goodliness but what we need to do actually is be in touch with all these very very deep energies and we need to transform them so what happens I won't tell the whole story just now because I want to make sure we have time for meditation now I'll continue this story in the second half but what happens is these weapons are being thrown at the Buddha and again you have to imagine these are incredible forces of power the power of lust the power of greed the power of sheer human stupidity bearing down on potential on actually an unlimited potential the or at very least the potential for acorn to become an oak tree and what happens is as those weapons move towards the Buddha they're transformed into flowers they're transformed into flowers and the flowers drop around the Buddha it's almost like they just become the blossom that we've just had on the trees a cherry blossom the apple blossom they they're transformed into like a confetti of flowers that that carpet around the Buddha that's an incredibly profound I want to leave us with that image and I want to try and see if we can take our own tiny tiny baby step towards that image in the meditation just now but let's just have a moment to think about it so what you've got is all these forces which we want to think out there I was just a real bit confessional I was a bit stressed this morning and at the moment there's lots going on that even when you're running a Buddhist Center and helping to run a Buddhist Center what's going on and what I was noticing as soon as I get stressed and we all get stressed I get stressed you get stressed really really isn't easy isn't to blame somebody else to think oh well you know poor me or whatever it is it's so difficult to just say this is it see this is the kind of pattern I get into you what's going on here so easy to say this is caused by outside of me so what we do is recreate demons around us and we say those demons are making me frightened those demons are making me stressed those demons are threatening me those demons are making me angry those me demons and making me want to be indignant about something those demons are making me want to tell people what they should do we put them out there but of course that the Buddha tepee understands that they're their projections from in here actually it's difficult to say which they are they're they're both actually but one simple way is to think that they're projections from in here and what he does is he there's something about his State of Mind and we'll explore this in the second half which is so open to those forces to the energy of those forces that he can't that they become adornments they become flowers they they become decorations they become Beauty itself yeah but we'll come back to that and then we'll continue the story from there in the second half I want to now just start to move us towards meditation and I want to do some mindfulness of breathing meditation if you've never done it before don't worry I'm going to lead us through it and I want us to try to work on this first of all really focusing on the breath because according to some traditions at least it was the mindfulness of breathing that the Buddha was actually doing on the night of his enlightenment which according to tradition is tomorrow evening so I thought we'd do the mindfulness of breathing but I particularly want us to try to be open to things that we don't want to be open to be open to discomfort in the body be open to ourselves be sitting where the Buddha would be sitting with the roots of ourselves running off into the dark and the tree the branches and leaves reaching up into heaven so so let's if you want to sit to get yourself as comfortable as you can probably sitting on a you know good hard back chair is best we're going to meditate for about 20 minutes and you might even turn the brightness down on your screen at home turn the lights down like we've just turned them down in the center you might want to turn them down at home and when you're ready closing your eyes as soon as you've closed your eyes come back to the earth so in this case the earth is our weight on the chair or the cushions or feet on the floor so we're not going off into a fantasy we're not just going off somewhere in our head we're feeling the earth of our body weight of our body and you're trying to feel the actual experience not what you think you can feel so where do you feel that sense of support your backside and you know the soles of your feet really feeling your body support it just now and then softening your eyes so we're easily slightly screwing up our eyes or following our brow we often don't notice that we're doing though so just see if you can soften your eyes your brow and then see if you can relax your jaw we're often a bit chilly automatically clenching the jaw or tightening our mouth even though noticed that it's having an effect on our mind just see if you can curve the jaw of it and then taking attention into your shoulders again really try to feel your shoulders can you and actually feel them just now what do you feel should I be really clear about that not what you think you feel or what you think you should feel for what you actually feel in your shoulders now imagine just letting them go sometimes you can just say to yourself letting my shoulders go sometimes you just imagined his shoulders releasing relaxing imagining those muscles of the shoulders smoothing down calming down thing your belly can you tell if you're gripping with your belly we're often think tively holding on with a belly and we don't know too sometimes that we're doing them often enough but is having an effect on us they're calming your body calming your mind so your soft you can unfollow your brow you can let go of your shoulder the better you can from your belly so in this way the whole system body and mind are calming down quieting down and notice that your body is breathing you don't need to try to breathe your body is breathing you and see if he focus your awareness see if you can feel your breath coming in and going out see if you can just rest your awareness on your breath if your mind goes away that's alright not just what your mind does everyone's mind as though things you notice come back to your body to the earth of your body the weight of your body and come back the sensations breathing following the breath in following the breath out the surgery you've noticed your mind the Conaway got into some kind of memory or planning or fantasizing as soon as you've noticed that in the very moment of noticing you're actually meditating again so as soon as you've noticed your mind's gone off you're now meditating again so you can just enjoy the fact that you're back in your experience rather than just taken away in the clouds of thought you can just come back again to the weight of your body to the warmth of your body and to your breath for having gathered some awareness around the breath having brought more of our mind into relationship with the earth with the body if you can bring your attention to an area of your body that feels uncomfortable now this might be an area of your body might be a shoulders or some kind of discomfort in your body or you might be in a you know difficult mood just now or something difficult happening for you just now and these things become to us to the degree that we feel threatened by them it's natural enough to feel threatened by physical pain of course even discomfort threatens us but see you can take your awareness into an area of discomfort and see if you can feel it just as it is without reacting to it in your mind without try to avoid it without end around it you can have the courage just to face into to open up to something of discomfort in your experience just now curative but you're trying to cultivate a sense of welcoming that you're just opening your mind to that sensation feeling it even relax into it if you find that much if it's too unpleasant then just back off for a moment come back to the experience of your whole body sitting here you might your eyes again in your brow [Music] relaxes shoulders again in your belly then again turn your awareness to an area that feels uncomfortable in your experience even if it's only slightly so just open up to it mr. Dev running a from it move towards it try breathing into it area imagining the breath going into that area you're really very you're not trying to bog in with the discomfort trying to just feel it of the teeth without reacting in your body or in your mind and then broadening out your awareness again feeling your weight on the body being your weight on the ground feeling your way I'll finish the meditation by reading you a very short poem the ideal this is where I came from I passed this way this should not be shameful or hard to say a self is a self it is not a screen a person should respect what he has been this is my past which I shall not discard this is the ideal this is hard [Music] so when you're ready opening your eyes and coming out of the meditation just sitting comfortably again so we're going to have a short break now so you can get yourself coffee we'll have a break for about 10 minutes now you better get yourself a cup of tea vow to go to the new way of it stretch your legs something miraculous might happen here we don't know so bring your tea back and you know about 5r say we'll carry it I'll carry on telling you continuing this story then there'll be time for questions as I said so do put your questions in the trap beside me yeah and then we'll finish the evening in time for 9 o'clock with another meditation so let's have a break for a few minutes just now [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] because such a talented community that's Matt from my community and I'd also just joining us we've got a GPS thank you very much Matt gray that's really good yes please good have that for the rest is he so we'll started getting just a minute it's time something like that so hope you everything you need get some goatee or whatever so as I said in the second half I'll carry on telling the story oops forgot to turn my cue sheet and there now let's screw all the few notes on a flip chart behind the camera which I sometimes need though mostly don't so you know coming to the end of our tea break yes entry usually we have these huge classes here that under Buddha Center and at our tea breaks we I'm often in the other room next door in the reception room standing on the chair making an announcement about the next retreat because one of our main things we encourage people to do is go on a tree of course we can't encourage anyone to go on retreat now and our own retreat center is closed so we want to nevertheless still encourage people to go on retreat so we're creating and have created a home retreat that we're going with just launched just yesterday I think from the 17th that's the 24th of May a home retreat starts Sunday evening work goes all the way through the week and finishes a Sunday morning so on this home retreat your if you're if you're new to its it's free anyone it's free and anyone can come so you can be learning meditation with Caravaggio and the teachers here at Center if you're familiar meditate with with meditation if you sign up for this retreat you can then join me in with my meditate in my meditation in the mornings I'll be teaching in the mornings from 8:00 till 9:00 so you can I'll teach more about meditation and we'll I'll lead you through a meditation and then there'll be more meditation and more instruction in the mid morning from 10:00 I think until 11:30 then we can have bodywork every every day at 12:00 and then the evenings these longer sessions again so we're creating a whole retreat we're trying to do everything we can to create for you and for us a retreat that we can beyond together so if you possibly can take the time off work so you can do the whole retreat it's so that you can really take part in it if you can't do as much of it as you can that's what I'd recommend I mean cause that's what I'd recommend but do as much of it as you can so you know we're gonna be sorting meditation as we always do retreats at 7 o'clock in the morning and then there'll be another session at 8 o'clock and then they'll be they've mid-morning and then the evenings and there'll be other events as well that we'll be bringing into it in the afternoon so just do as much as you can but yeah you'll need to register what's the word you need to sign up for the retreat so the team will put that link for signing up on the retreat on the on the chat just now yeah we've got a thousand people on this course this seven steps to enlightenment course so be gray if all of you if you would all share this with your friends and say why don't you come on into a tree with your with me you know any person now my my aim for this lockdown period is to try and get a million people meditating so you could say to your friend why don't you just join me on this retreat you know they go off and learn the meditation we've met at we care about if you're familiar with meditation you come actually upstairs to my bedroom and meditate with me home front of my own shrine in the morning and I'll teach you more about meditation and then we'll have these evenings where we we're really exploring you know fundamental matters of life here so yes do do come on do come on our home retreat 17th to 24th of May okay so on to continue the story just now and then there'll be time for questions so we've got this incredible array of demons and these demons which they are the forces of life these incredibly deep claw sonic primal energies that course up into US and through us and the horn society it's throughout time if you if you if you if you think you haven't got them you need to think again I remember once again with my partner's daughters with Alex the oldest when she was very small carrying her somewhere and it was very crowded and somebody bumped against me I was carrying little girl and somebody bumped against me and I suddenly felt my Wolf's nature you know if you think you haven't got it there just try carrying a child that you love dearly and as soon as any any kind of threat comes to you you feel that you could bite them you know you you suddenly realize gosh I got all these primal energies I didn't know about you so these demons are all of that energies and what the Buddha is doing just by the the wanderer is meditation it's transforming that energy into flowers into adornments into beauty that's what he's doing and you can Matt in the story you first of all you go well you know all the Mara's sons the forces of power the forces of violence the forces of aggression all of that being transformed and we've all got that but it's all being transformed into flowers then in the story you've got Mara's daughters don't trip up on their agenda but the forces of lust of seduction of even manipulation and so on of tempting you away into sex into comfort interstate us into into prestige into success into glamour so the daughters represent that force of being drawn away from your potential by mere success or mere glamour trivial things yeah but things that we're all seduced by I think we're very seduced for instance by success neither at none of those can shift the Buddha from his quest for enlightenment he is he is bound to become enlightened and none of these forces can move the Buddha so Mara who is sort of like the king of the gods they were that the great demon father of these sons and daughters has got one last trick yet one last attempt to stop the Buddha becoming enlightened as I say even though it's said as a story that stopped him becoming enlightened I think it might be better to think this is all part of the Enlightenment experience it's all happening in one moment but it's being told as a fairy story yeah and it's been told in images because images very often get deeper than abstract content concepts so mara and it's interesting the word Mara is it simply means death so the force in other words all the forces of death and he is the sort of king of death he says to the Buddha basically who do you think you are who do you think you are to sit here at the vad Rosner the center of the universe and gain enlightenment so he you see how this isn't it the forces of doubt of doubt they go very very deep indeed either doubt in oneself or doubt in value and meaning we we sometimes are both but we either don't think we can do much or we don't think there's much that can be done yeah so mara represents the forces of doubt he's saying to the Buddha to be who do you think you are what can you know what makes you qualified to sit here under the Bodhi tree and gain enlightenment this is an absolutely crucial moment in the story and what the Buddha does he doesn't say anything what he does is he reaches out his hand and he is the earth and in some of the later descriptions of enlightenment it's beautifully described this this jest this earth touching gesture you might have seen image of the Buddha with his its fingers touching the earth like that yeah which you can't say kiss my hand can't libertate okay yes hands touching the earth which you can't speak of him so that's very striking isn't that who do you think you are and he touches the earth soon as he touches the earth the earth goddess arises I find this endlessly beautiful when we first imagined this retreat center and we we knew we wanted to base it around the VAD Rosner and in the retreat center you'll see when eventually we're able to go there is huge I put a figure that we've run through commission from Chintamani a wonderful sculptor who's actually did the image behind me it's in this earth touching mudra when we first imagined it I wanted in the other corner to have the earth goddess arising we couldn't quite run to that but that's why I was like because I think this is absolutely crucial she comes out of the earth the earth goddess and she comes out of the earth to her waist which is she comes out of the earth to her waist and she basically says he's I know who he is III she she's there to witness everything he's done she she is the earth did you see that this metaphor of the earth keeps coming back he's sitting on the earth and then as if to deepen and enhance the meaning of that to to yet deepen the meaning that he touches the earth and then just from that touch the it's goddess his beautiful goddess arises from the earth up to her waist and says I've watched the Buddha to be through countless lives live an ethical good valuable life I know who is I've seen him I've seen his practice of meditation I've seen his practice of kindness I've seen his truthfulness his courage his integrity his remarkable integrity I've seen his individuality I've seen his strength he can become a Buddha he will become a Buddha even yeah so this is this arising of the earth goddess how I read this and there's so many ways to read it is that all of this is attesting to that enlightenment itself whatever it is and it's a mystery and we're going to explore that mystery with your honor watcher tomorrow night particularly on the full moon night of the enlightenment itself it's the deepest mystery there is deeper than God deeper than human beings the deepest mystery of human enlightenment she's saying the earth goddess is saying it's part of nature that I am nature and he is nature and this enlightenment is the final flourishing of nature so it's not a thought it's not an ideology it's not an ism it's a shame we got this Buddhism is not an ism it's not some sort of fancy spiritual gymnastic it's the ripening of something what she appears to say is just as a earth goddess would say this Apple can now fall from the tree because it is right and I've seen it from a seedling grow into the tree so going to blossom become the red the green sour hard apple and I've seen it ripen and now it's so ripen it will drop from the tree I that's what nature does we her Apple pits she's saying that's true of human rulers that they can go from being the human being there that the so failed that were they're so ignorant the so immersed in hatred and greed and delusion they can grow from that and become a Buddha just as I don't know swallows go south in in in you know just as apples grow a Buddha appears in the world it's something natural it's something that you grow up into yeah it's the idea of growth extended from the Acorn all the way up to the oak tree yeah that's what she's attesting to that this enlightenment is not a thought it's not an ideology it's not a theory it's the final ripening of humanity itself we're going to come to explore that more tomorrow night with your watcher but let's open us up to some questions we've got to question and so forth so let's explore some questions and then see how we go yeah the good questions good question maybe the short answer is I don't know why they exist I don't know that anyone really does you could go on and on about why they could I find personally I find why questions problematic they exist don't they that the Buddha is a kind of remarkable pragmatist he he didn't get into that in fact the Buddha often he's described as having this metaphysical register reticence that's a word metaphysical reticence in in other words here we want to say never mind about that never mind about why this is there he'd say you've got it haven't you you know that and bad mood you were in you know you've got into blaming your parents or the state or or work and you know that you got to this that hurt you didn't hurt people around you and it wasn't in your best interest that's not going to be how you grow why don't you grow yeah so the Buddha was a kind of he had a kind of in an enlightened common sense he's a very pragmatic so he didn't tend to get into why questions he tended to get into ok what's going on how do you take the next step how do you take the next step lots say about that but that's probably enough of an answer for now I think let's see what the next question yes you see part of what's in that question from in that or this box are for me is the idea of Maura being basically the devil you know and is a devil saved Maura in Buddhism is a bit more like a figure of fun he's a bit more ridiculous than that he's like a trickster he's like a prankster he's not like the devil so that it's perhaps important to say that interestingly at least in the Buddhist sutras that come down to us that the stories and legends and parables and myths and teachings that come down to us more appears after the Enlightenment as well I think it's best to think of Maura as being always present but and it actually particularly pledged present present when you are getting somewhere Maura is particularly attracted to you when you grow in this is I think follows a basic principle that I know that your honor transceiver dramatically have been talking quite a lot of about commitment and I think that's absolutely crucial Mara only really appears when you commit to something yeah until you commit something he's not bothered by you he'll just kind of play your merry dance as it were talking highly symbolically but when you commit to something then all the forces that opposed that commitment start to rear up don't they so if you commit to I don't know running a marathon your desire to stay in bed and be lazy and overeat or wherever it is or not train that really forcibly comes up until you make that commitment that doesn't come up when you commit to being honest all the desire to slink away from that comes up when you commit to being kind you really get presented with your unkindness yeah when you commit to being generous you start to notice how mean you are it's only when you commit to things with your heart with your guts that you evoke Maura in a way that more is often a good sign I mean my own life 101 things that brought me to Buddhism was painting I was at art school when I came here when I was 20 25 and I remember the moment of committing to painting suddenly I did this painting I suddenly discovered I really want to do this it is like not just in not just mentally important but this is massively important to me this is touching something really fundamental to me I want to do this and I put myself out to do this and as soon as I did down the whole game of painting became serious yeah your life only becomes serious when you commit to something if you don't commit to something you never grow up you stay kind of shapeless and infantile it's only when you commit something especially when you commit to something good that you start to gain weight you start to gain a kind of psychic muscle yeah that only happens when you commit and soon as you commit you feel opposing forces that start to test your strength yeah what Buddhism would say is why don't you commit to the most - the best commit to enlightenment itself so I think one might think of good morrow the appearance of morrow is a good thing very often the forces are trying to push you back in your box the forces are trying to keep you small that try to keep you distracted that try to keep you trolling through your Facebook feed or or whatever you Maura is attracted to success that's one way but it's a spiritual flourishing then without your question I think I think that to some degree but it's saying much more than that you see that the language of symbol is very important here because we're talking symbolically which is humans way of talking deeply it's trying to say symbols parable these kind of mythic structures are trying to say something about the very nature of consciousness itself about the very nature of experience itself it's not it's not pedagogical it's not just trying to give you some handy tips oh look you know I don't know the nail my nails come from an Assam from the Stars or whatever it is it's not just trying to say oh look I'm weirdly related to the dogs and you know it's actually not great on Spanish I should always keep away from science and maths I'm not great on history either but every one I think it's saying something more fundamental it's saying that our experience is structured in certain ways err if we look at our experience deeply well not even deeply if we just look at our experience we see that it's gone and buying certain laws some of these laws are the laws of science have been discovered by science of course science has not got to an end so it's still discovering and science science has gone further than anyone could have ever imagined but you know there's a simple example is the law of gravity actually apparently it's problematic but you know that if you throw something up it will fall back down if you throw a ball it will follow a certain arc and you've got by observing that you you create this law of gravity that that the universe the experience life as we experience it has got that structure in it yeah and some of that's to do with science and other things aren't I know you know the nest building of birds they've got they do this nest building thing so there's their structure their universe in that way that that the world that the universe is structured in in has got laws running through it you see what I mean slightly rambling but that when you look at your experience there are all kinds of laws running through it now what Buddhism is saying is that there are laws running through it at the scientific level at the biological level the zoological level the psychological level laws like fight and flight so if you open up your email smart morning you get a horrible email from someone you feel that fight and flight thing immediately you don't have to think it you don't know it happens instinctively those instinctive psychological patterns their laws and you can study them you can learn about them and therefore you can start to learn how to work with them the universe is patterned it's structured its law bound in this in the sense what buddhism is saying is that there are laws that go beyond that as it were or laws that we don't really fully understand yet but which buddhism is trying to show you so for instance there's a law of karma which means that your actions have consequences appropriate conscious consequences that what happens to you it's the sort of thing that happens to you I didn't I would talk to a friend about it's actually talking to Matt this morning about this that you know when you you talk about I don't really you have this but you know when you talk about your friends and things that happen to that your friends don't you often notice that what happens to them is just like them and the person that's loved and honored is somebody who's very loving the person that is aggressive gets avoided but even more mysteriously than that you you often look at your friends people you know and they very rarely act out of character and you actually feel yourself either you're completely free and you do you you're just making spontaneous decisions you're free you know but you're all your friends weirdly just seem to act out of character all the things that happen to them seem to be the sort of things that would happen to them like me getting stressed this morning that's the sort of thing that happens to me yeah Sanjay who I know very well he doesn't seem to get stressed it doesn't doesn't happen to him very much other things happen to him I go to that so there's a law what what Buddhism calls the law of karma that your actions have consequences appropriate conscience consequences and without you knowing it you're co-creating your world that your world fits you like the play fits the actor yeah the play an actor a post part of one hole yeah and you can there if you learn that law you can learn to be a different actor in a better play yeah you can learn to be a you know their hero of your own life is as Dickens said or the heroine of your own life so that's the law of karma but it then says that there's a lore above that above I'm using above metaphorically and a law of deep of the mouth you could say which is the law of Dharma was much more difficult to describe to the degree to which you act on the basis of karma and cut you don't need to take my word from this all you need to do is after this livestream make you know do something friendly someone do something that's generous and you start to feel the universe changes immediately all you need to do to change the universe is be generous all you need to do is be honest and immediately the universe ie the bit of the universe that you are living in which is a bit you know best starts to change yeah so that you can fashion your life and what happens as you do that as you make use so to speak of the law of karma you become a healthier happier more effective more courageous more outgoing human being you become in a word less selfish less egotistical as that starts to happen a new law comes into effect which is the law of Dharma which is a current taking you as it were beyond yourself the current that takes you up to Buddhahood as soon as you stop acting on the basis of vanity egan ego pride self concern you start to feel something pulling you some people feel even mysterious even mystical pulling you as it were a current taking you to enlightenment itself and again that is natural it's there in your experience just now it's just there are so many other pulls on you just now so you've got this universe of being which is law based is patterned but the lowest level as it were by geological laws you know by protons and all that kind of stuff all the way up to your potential to enlightenment is there as law in you if the more you let go of egotism the more you'll feel some new consciousness arising from your old consciousness as easy to sound a bit I don't know pseudo spiritual about that but you'll have a taste of it even now even to the fact you are watching this 3 you've got some taste of that say do you think believe in multiple lifetimes is necessary to really commit to that's really good question - yeah really good question whose question is it and I thought I'd that nicely yeah really good question I mean Buddhism is very clear that all still schools of Buddhism is toward rebirth or sometimes called RIBA coming and if you think you understand it pause because you probably don't and I don't again so it doesn't mean reincarnation reincarnation means that you know basically under than all this areas of me that exists and that gets born in another life as another person doesn't mean that I don't know what it means to be honest but it definitely would ISM were always teaches that this life is not it it's very very clear it the Buddha explicitly denied Neel ism in fact he seemed to think it was worth an eternal ism he thought it was not only wrong misguided foolish but also ugly which I think he's interesting these or near Lisa was ugly so Buddhism was always has this core belief that there are lives that this journey towards this enlightenment is a journey of lies now whether you can practice Buddhism that the pot pot your question their honor is expressing a belief which is problematic for Buddhism beliefs and then about belief it's a problematic word I don't know I don't know whether it there is rebirth I'm more and more inclined to think there is I certainly hope there is but hoping there is is disqualifies you I I'm more and more in Christ thing there is what open to it I've even had what I can think of at least as a memory of a previous life only one and very very very long time ago you know I'm not claiming anything from that but I'm personally more and more open to it I think well all I would say is that it's what is absolutely crucial is knowing that you don't know yeah what people often say say to me is I don't believe in rebirth what they don't then say is I believe that when you die that's the end and it's a belief what we've got for most of us is a belief disguised as a fact people think no no I know you're born you live and then you die end of that is a belief it's an unsecured belief is an idea it's a theory it's an even ideology which you are picked up it is not your experience you don't know yeah so I think to practice Buddhism seriously and valuably you've got to have that don't know yeah least you need to be open to I might have this badly wrong is it otherwise it's a bit like saying to an acorn going back to that metaphor from first half you know what do you think about who you know you know something and they joke they just answer as an acorn yeah if you just stick to what you think you know you'll never grow yeah so you definitely need that openness but you don't need to believe I don't I think belief is a bit problematic I think what you do need to be is open to your experience and open to question well great you might be our youngest you are congratulations that's great wait where are you from not that I'm aware of is that it's a short answer Tara not that I'm aware of having said that and immediately following that I've met Pete well firstly I know directly know people who are much more developed than I am yeah in a sense that that's all I need to know I need to know that I've got more growing I can do your nine at the moment that's fantastic what I would need to know if I was if I'm talking in if I with you now I'd want to know golly I can get more and more genuinely grown up because you probably already know even a nine that some of these grown-ups aren't so grown up are they they don't seem to be so grown up as you might hope even grown-ups act foolishly so I definitely know people are more developed than me my own teacher sang greater gains and gradually the founder of this movement is probably the most developed person I've ever met I can't prove that and people have different opinions about him but from my point of view in my meetings with him I've never met anybody like it he seemed to me to be in touch with he died only very recently he and I knew him relatively well he seemed to me to be in touch with something really really beyond me so I've never met an enlightened person in my own teacher has never said that he was enlightened but I've definitely met people in touch with something that goes beyond me way way beyond me and in a way that's all I need to know that there is there's more growing to be done than where that answers your question over yeah that's really important question yes great question reminds me slightly of them I was asked to do a radio program once and the program was on failure and how you deal doubt with failure and you know we had this I didn't actually have there was a roundtable discussion and didn't find out very much to say and we could talked about failure failure failure and then right at the end I thought hang on it's just a posh word for not getting what you want so when we talk about failure oh I thought I didn't I fail what we mean really is I didn't get wand didn't get what I want and we need to learn to don't we we need to learn to not get what we want and as I've seen that I've forgotten where we are that's why sorry I know I long way to start with somewhere so goals are something for you on they you see to mean a goal of a as I said the goal of her if I was to say what is if you're an acorn I said what is your goal it would be to be king of the Akon's or the sexiest acorn or a pop star acorn or a bigger shinier acorn goals are always to do with you know something for you it's something you can get now it's fine I think to think of enlightenment as a girl earlier on because it'll get your energies going it's even fine I think to compete a bit for that goal with your friends you know if that competition means that you're meditating that you're generous that you go on retreats that you tell the truth then if you can compete like that that's not bad you'll need to go as you go along but it's not bad so it's fine to have it as a goal at first but goals by definition are always something for you they're like success success is always success in the eyes of others so there's something highly problematic about goal-setting I think at least after a certain point here you need to disappear for enlightenment to take place in other words you're in what enlightenment is is the seeing through of egotism so how can it be a goal really yeah because a goal is always something you add to you that embellishes you that makes you bigger and shinier yeah but as I say it it's fine to have that as a sort of to get you going for the first out of their 5 10 years especially if it means that you you know commit yourself to meditation commit yourself to being honest commit yourself to being generous then that that's fine and that you never purify as you go along [Applause] yes it's great to have that question about calm and so many people think about karma that it's it's basically saying or whatever happens to you is your fault that that's a really classic Western misunderstanding of karma even some goodies think that and they're wrong huh in that case so it's very often misunderstood yeah the word means action comma just means action that's what it means so what it's saying the law of karma as I'm using it in this sense like the law of gravity is a law in that sense it's not saying that everything that happens to you something falls on your head it's because you hit somebody on their head in a previous life that's just like a cartel yeah things can happen to you for nothing to do with you at all I mean here we are in the middle of this Cove in 19 it's not because you did something in a previous life that caused it things can happen to you for all kinds of reasons that aren't to do with you karma is to do with your wills agency it's to do with what you're trying to do and the consequences of that is quite it's very subtle really I'll try and unpack it a bit more so much to say about Karma certain it's so misunderstood so thank you for the question yes it's to do with so if let's say for instance like today I went off for a walk with Matt and I it was my turn to buy the coffee there's a place we can get coffee yeah any one person goes in at a time my coffee you have to get a cake and I don't mind that frankly now I can find the coffee because I deal with my phone and of course nowadays I can do I can buy on a coffee because it's my turn yeah he bought it last hunt is my turn that's all right I can buy him a coffee because I'm trying to impress him because because I'm trying to get him to like me yeah or I can buy him a coffee because I like him and yes he's got less money than me actually doesn't matter we've got less money or not I just want to give to him because I like him I do like it it's a good really good black man so did you see it's the same action but I know I mean it's a bit trivial example but sometimes trivial examples tell you more than grandiose ones same action buying coffee and in this case a little pastry thing for a friend I just see how the action is the same but the motivation what I'm actually doing just doing my bit he got it the last time I'm getting it this time trying to get round him in some way trying to please him in some way or just thinking actually I I really like him I just what do you want to coffee I want to give you a coffee you don't have one yet tiny example but that what karma is saying is that their action in that deeper sense of what you mean by your action has natural consequences how the consequences of those actions are appropriate to it in a way that we don't really fully understand perhaps we will go one day or at least understand it more deeply don't even will ever fully understand it but if you're generous you start to live in a universe that reflects your generosity I remember a friend of mine a long time ago now used to get into very very bad states of mind I used to work with and when he got into a bad state in mind his experience was that nobody likes him and that people who want him you know his withdraw what he actually looked like from outside is that he hated you so people just gave him a wide berth yeah so that negative state of mind created its own necessary and natural response if I'm sitting here vibing hatred you instinctively step back unless you're quite developed and you say well what's going on it's quite difficult to do that with someone who's you know that have vibing off hatred yeah so what can't the law of karma is getting out is that that your mental states your your mind your mind your heart your actions expressing they're creating a world which is appropriate to that now all sorts of other things can crash into that world but much more of your experience is being shaped by the mind you've got so for instance if you better finish with this but if you I mean when I was young I used to I used to think that people didn't like me hard to believe now I was a joke I think people didn't like me so if you think people don't like you I remember going to this party once and I'd go in and I'd feel the people didn't like me that I wasn't welcomed and you give off this funny vibe when you do that you sort of you sort of look a bit suspiciously at people and then they pick up on that and they slightly back off from you if you go into a party and you think people really like me I'm welcome you'll act differently and that'll create a different world well of course you could go to party think I'm the best thing under the sexiest in since sliced bread and I'm fantastic I'm the best one it's party and people probably back away from that as well I just think you're the arrogant yeah so there's this sort of dance between state of mind and world and they co-create each other and you're much more part of that than you realize and you don't need to think about the theory very much it's not really a theory it's an observation all you need to do is be a bit more generous and see what happens or see what happens when you're in really bad mood start listening to your friends rather than just giving your opinion what happens then when you say oh how you do it you know start giving a bit more a good time start telling the truth more it start saying I should you know what we keep talking about Donald Trump or whoever it adds and I'm not sure really this is really getting us anywhere can we can we talk about something else here taking risks like that the world the universe that you are a part of that I said earlier on changes instantly changes it might be my neat buddy the changes in that moment that's what Karma's getting out yeah it's not saying that everything that happens to you with your karma it's like taking it's trying to get you to observe your experience the Buddha keeps saying look at your experience it's not trying to sell you something he's not trying to I know spin his Buddhist elicit thing on you he's just saying look at your experience when that happens what happens when you're generous what happens when you mean what happens yeah just look in in a certain sense the Buddha is just telling you to look you know to observe look we better better start finishing there I think because I'd like to finish with a meditation to finish just to bring us back to that what I want to do with this meditation and sorry I if I haven't answered everyone's questions no matter how many people are here great that's fantastic 248 that's wonderful so what I thought we'd do I you know haven't said much about the situation we're all in partly because well we said all who we can say almost about it but I just to rang another friend of mine earlier on and it's the other day I'm gonna Vadra a very good friend of mine I've known for many years and he's had kovat I hope he won't mean money chinese' and yeah it's been just being very very very and well you know that awful sort of post-viral kind of lethargy and I know a lot of people who are experiencing something like that so I'm not at the moment I'm fine in a moment and all my old people I live with a fine but I thought what we could do is just sit together in our leaders in the meditation in which we just wish everyone well but Pataki particularly wish people well who are suffering at the moment and frankly all the time most people are suffering we live in this incredibly lucky place where we've got things like run it clear air clean water and food we might be out that we might complain about the queues but there is food you know so we're incredibly lucky so let's let's be aware of our good fortune and let's just sort of wish people well but I also even want to go a bit further and I want to include the dead but someone was asking about previous lives just now and us and I was saying that more and more I'm open to the fact that this isn't that this life doesn't just end nothing else ends like that why should our life and in this dreadful nightmare near lism that we've we cooked up which we believe to be a fact I don't know who and you don't know but let's just wish the dead well why not my father he died I don't know 20 years ago now and he's still here with me I you know I write poems and he keeps stepping back into my poems and I just want to say I want to you know shake his hand like I did so many years ago still you've got hands just like me I want to sort of wish him well so let's finish by just doing just wishing people well we don't know much about life or death so let's just wish everyone well especially those who are suffering at the moment and those who have moved on into this mystery that we don't know anything about and then and then we'll face we will do this very long but just enough to settle down again so when you're ready closing your eyes and I've been doing quite a lot of talking so when now you're closer I just come back to earth again come back to touching the earth come back to your weight on the cushioned come back to your feet on the floor come back to your body and then just wishing yourself well you might just say to yourself may I be well may I be happy may I be free from the suffering and may I may progress in my life they are grow now I moved to my potential growing to my potential see what it is sentences to yourself but still have a sense of your body sitting here may I be happy may I be free from suffering may I make progress may I grow and any friends or family unwell at the moment in any way just bring them to mind may they be well may they be happy may they be free from suffering maybe may progress so you don't need to worry too much of other sentences you just wishing them well either difficult times for so many people and you can help with that by just wishing people well and people have died there might be people close to you there might not be I know people around me that have died just recently you might but we don't know what's happened to them not really we think we do but we don't so if we don't know what's happened to them we can just wish them well you can send them as it were our love our well wishing may they be well may they be happy may they make progress and then coming to your weight on the chair or the cushions to your feet on the floor okay so that's almost all we've got time for tonight yeah just to say obviously that if you can make a donation to learn the Buddha Center that would be great there's a link underneath this video to our Just Giving page normally when you're what actually when I first used to be on the team for the Wednesday class I used to be one of the people with save a dramati actually when we were young holding the bowl for donations and the whole Center runs on generosity runs on Yahoo brands on generosity yeah none of the teachers here at the center paid we want to create a culture of giving not a culture of exchange so if you can make a donation that we really need it obviously you know you can imagine we really need it the best for us is a monthly donation but if you can't do that just give a give a one-off donations it also I think helps you feel actively involved in this course not just sort of shooting into a television station passively but yeah if you if you can possibly give that's great and thank you to all the people who have given a lot of you have given and not just people who come to the London blue Center or have got done but people who've never stepped in the doors the London blue Center so if you can give that's great that would be great have a look and click on the link below this video and then yeah tune in tomorrow night as our course continues so you don't have Archer tomorrow evening at 7 o'clock we'll explore still more the mystery of enlightenment it's a full moon night tomorrow night the night itself as a very very special night stay on with the course all the way up to this day retreat we'll we'll celebrate for a day on on Sunday with a day-long retreat and then even from there we're going to be taking you on to our actual home retreat from the 17th to the 24th that's all we've got time for now so I hope to see you again I know I can't see you but in my mind I sort of can yes so I hope you'll tune in again soon and yeah that's all for now

Channel: London Buddhist Centre

Views: 3,424

Keywords: Fighting the demons, happy, healthy, demons inside you, learn meditation, dharma, dharma talk, enlightenment, steps to enlightenment, what is enlightenment, buddha, buddhism in london, maitreyabandhu, metta bhavana, meditation, be happy, freedom, bodhi

Id: 5NVY2pbU93w

Length: 120min 32sec (7232 seconds)

Published: Wed May 06 2020