Matthieu Ricard on happiness & inner freedom

[Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] yes I'm so glad to be here but somehow I thought it may be time to go back to the mountains before I die no I don't want to die in Airport and just be safe in my Hermitage in the himalaya before exit or something like that anyway I thought due to the great dismay of the audience I've spoken enough of about happiness and all these weird concepts so tonight I would like to speak about something that's very dear to me and a wonderful dialogue presently with the swiss handicapped philosopher and their french secretaries on this subject of freedom and that me seems like a bit commonplace idea but here we'll try to relate most of your interest in happiness in a better society more compassion cooperative society with this notion of inner freedom so first of all to be clear obviously we need outer freedom we need to fight for it when it's not there and we need to continue the immense progress that has been done with the universal declaration of human rights and before that abolition of slavery even though is continuing in various forms so there's no question about that so that's a totally granted thing that we should do anything we can in society so that people are free to fulfill their deepest aspiration in life provided of course they do it in a ethical way that means not using the freedom at the cause as causing others people suffering or whatever not in the selfish freedom but I think we vastly underestimate the importance of inner freedom and of course there are other circumstances which might be so overwhelming in terms of physical conditions you are in a state of famine or persecution or war or if you suffer terribly in your body or somehow your freedom is limited because of your physical condition or mental state but besides that I think there's an enormous margin to go from very little inner freedom to a much vaster inner freedom so I wish to explore that concept and see how it relates to the vision of action for happiness and I guess why you might be here tonight so first of all the idea that somehow we are more less free and less people constrain us because you know we can team we can decide and as much as we can at least we have this inner possibility but is it really the case well first of all there is a clear misconception of what inner freedom is and I heard it once on the BBC actually a younger woman saying you know for me freedom is to do whatever comes in my mind without anyone having to say anything about it so for me the exactly the description of being the slave of every single thought that comes through your mind as truly like being the in Tibetan we have a saying that the grass on the mountain top that's where wherever the wind blows and on the mountaintop the winds blow so many direction within a short time so that's really in my mind just the opposite of what we will call inner freedom and in fact I also remember that the dilemma many years ago thinking that in Western society now everybody say we are free no we can express ourselves and other it of course it's true to a great extent but it is sometime you freedom is little bit like a as cruel that is spinning very fast within the body code that's cruel place where the screw turns so you you spin left or right but somehow you are still within that sort of constraint so what that constraint can be well actually fortunately I hope everyone who is here deeply aspire to well-being to flourishing to happiness whatever name you give to that aspiration that is a combination of every instant of life making sense is worth experiencing that you feel at the equation with yourself the equation with global sort of interdependence there's something that sounds right did within the quality of the present moment the freshness of the present moment has been something of quality not being in utter despair or completely swayed by obsession or other whatever sense of balance a sense of harmony a sense of inner peace to some extent openness to the world and others and then there is the sense of appreciation over time now what about the last twenty years and whatever lifespan I might have how do I consider this pursuit flourishing of having a deeply accomplished meaningful life that when I draw my last breath at least I say well done I did what I could with good heart and so many good things happen in this life I feel fortunate to have lived through all that so that's of course is a genuine fundamental aspirations in human beings in the same way that every sentient beings that includes many of the eight million species which are our core citizen in this world also I spar to at least many of those animals to friendship to freedom to at least live their life even they don't have huge plans but the full span of their life they will definitely do anything to escape danger trait on their physical integrity and debt so there's this natural aspiration to continue and to try to try and flourish and no one were except in the morning think he may suffer the whole day and possible my whole life so that's been granted what is for inner freedom to do with that aspiration well if we are too much conditioned distorted some are enslaved by arbitral patterns by its very strong tendencies by rumination about the past by being unable to deal with the emotions in the present moment by also being torn between hope and fear expectations and apprehensions about what is going to come before mine is like a monkey mind or a spoiled child and we cannot find rest we always never have enough we don't have any sense of contentment all those factors actually decreasing our degrees of freedom I know there's a nice expression in physics we speak about particles how many degrees of freedom they have of course nothing to do with free will but how many states they can have they can go through it's the degree of freedom they have so how much degree of freedom we have in our in your life how much we swayed by our sort of automatic thinking and how much because of that we like discernment and of course we aspire to happiness but it seems we we we turn our back to what could bring real fulfillment and we want to avoid suffering but it's sometime it seems we run towards the cause of suffering there's a kind of almost an addiction to the causes of suffering in that perpetuation of what brings again and again dissatisfaction so in that sense we are not quite free from all those way of being way of thinking the sort of frame world or strays does most or tendency the way we deal or don't deal with powerful emotions with effective mental state how much have we able to deal in healthy way with that and resolve them so that we are not caught in this chain reactions of anger of jealousy of arrogance of obsessive desire and so forth and emerge this has to do with a sort of lack of discernment one of the main cause of suffering in Buddhism is of course those gross mental toxins hatred obsession I mean those poison has just mentioned like envy and so forth but a more subtle one is ignorance not in the sense of not knowing the telephone directory by heart it doesn't exist anymore they don't send you those big boobs but ignorance in terms of distorting reality superimposing on things and people and situations this is 100% desirable that can't be happy without that or this is 100% hittable without that if I don't get rid of that no way I can be happy so how much that kind of sort of delusional confusion leads to this and the circle of repetition of suffering so that's something we should really think about how when a powerful thought of anger arises how free are we to let it proliferate and invade our mind or do we have the kind of freedom that allows that tor to come to go through to be undone as it appears and in Buddhist teaching we have lot of images about that like a bird passing through the sky leaving no trace are we able to do that with afflictive emotions without being of course like a in a kind of lethargic dull state of mental opacity but absolutely crystal clear and yet not being sort of going into the chain reaction that this one thought of animosity will trigger or jealousy why not me while me and then that spin off and this single bird becomes thousand birds and obscure the sky and obscure the Sun so how free are we to whisk to sort of not only resist of suppressed I'll but be free from that or like it's like a drawing at the surface of water that gets undone as it happens and once again it doesn't live to become like a vegetable it actually lead to as I mean if you some of you might have listened or met the Dalai Lama I mean it's someone by knowing him enough for thirty years and sometimes been fortunate to accompany in for some days as his interpreter in France or meeting accompany him for meeting with scientists who really I consider has this incredible genuineness and inner freedom but it's certainly not someone that looks dull and bored and you know life is become colorless is most sparkling attentive present person and yet is not caught into these arbitral patterns so those patterns usually leads to frustration because if we are caught and bound by those attraction repulsion whole fear all the time it hands up in some kind of suffering and also it will induce us to act in ways and speak in ways that will be detrimental to our own flourishing and usually to that of others so it's a lose-lose situation so what are the obstacle to inner freedom so one is lack of discernment is not seeing the situation as it is where I'm not as free as it I could be and there's a strong element of being said the slave of my own thoughts so first be more visit and then finding out what actually will help me to get to this freedom what is the way of thinking what is maybe the possibility of mental training what are the factors that will favour inner freedom or not so if we think of those things there are quite a few obstacles to inner freedom one and I didn't know that word until I had this we had this recent dialogue on inner freedom and our friend Swiss handicapped philosopher is an interesting case in school Alex on Julia he was an institution he was born with the alcohol sort of tied around his neck so he's all like that all over the place but he's extremely intelligent so he was in the institution for 20 years with handicapped people and not being educated very much and then one time a Jesuit Father noticed that he was extremely bright so it does teaching him and he became a great philosopher and worth quite a few books he can't write he cannot he has heartened to read but he listens a lot and he dictates so when we did this dialogue here the term called aphasia is a Greek term which I didn't know I'm sure all of you know it anak Francia is the fact that you know something is good for you until you don't do it but you know very well all the advantages of doing something all you know very well the disadvantages of doing something falling into an habit person or something and yet we don't do it it's not about just sheer willpower there's something bigger in that some kind of taking it easy not wanting to somehow transform yourself you know I think Oscar Wilde was saying I can resist oome anything except temptation something like that is a crazier so Alexander used to give the example that because it tends to get overweight he went to buy five books on dieting took them home and sat on the couch looking at TV and eating potato chips that's a crazier so that's one obstacle to inner freedom it prevents change and of course the antidote to that is to reflect on the kind of the mess that we keep on perpetuating to that and then generate a strong urge and determination I must get out of it so that kind of energy is the antidote to atresia the other one is quite a different degree of severity one is habits tendencies and it can go up to addiction so of course in addiction well when it comes very extreme then basically you feel almost powerless and not to do what you do and of course it cause in the end it caused immense suffering so there can be no addiction as we sometimes often hear of it to substances or things it can be emotional addiction it could be all kinds of addiction and that's clearly something that you know so much how sort of some of the detrimental it is to everything to your life to your relations to your mental physical lives your health to you achieving goals in life and nevertheless you're caught in it and that's a very strong obstacle and in a way we could say we are also addicted in there more you know crews seemingly innocuous way to the of perpetuating no ordinary suffering and that's a strong obstacle because when they come extreme and I was fascinated we had one of those mind and life meeting with the Dalai Lama and scientist it's an institute that brings scientists with the dilemma for us 20 almost 30 years now and we had one on desire craving an addiction and a friend of mine was a great neuroscientist who a specialist of that can barrage he explained us and that was very enlightening that in the brain the neural network for liking something is very labelled I mean I said maybe it's not an English word is very transient it doesn't last very long but as you keep on liking something for a while repeatedly there's a different network that is about wanting and that builds up in a much more lasting and sort of resistant way so what happens at some point so the one thing of course always pushes you to do what normally you like at some point you don't like that thing anymore it may be even this cutter disgusted with it and it happened with many addicts of substance and whatever but you still cannot resist it so it's it's very hard you want something that you know doesn't bring you any kind of satisfaction and you still want it and it's a incredible obstacle because if you still look at the brain at the same time the areas are to do with willpower are decreased so you would need a very strong willpower to get out of it so that's already decreased imagine as you can muster some willpower to change because you have to undo that wanting system that is much stronger admit takes time to unravel so it takes perseverance but to change you need to an area of the brain called the hippocampus that accounts for any kind of training or changing your way of being your habits your what you learn what you're familiar with so that's what change when you put meditation is also but change when you there was a famous study with the London cab drivers at the time the heroic time were there to learn 14,000 Street by heart which of course is different now with all those machines in Paris they don't even have a clue where the shuttle is is they have to look on the GPS so and there was an area of the brain that was vastly increased in size and and activity so there's neuroplasticity so for that happened if you compress act to be active well in addiction as well as in depression this is decreased so here you are with a very strong almost irresistible one whether it's effective or on substance or anything with much reduced willpower and even you manage to master some of it is harder to change so you see you've got this triple obstacle so those are of course extreme unfortunately even though it's a drama for many of our fellow human beings but it's not I mean every person's a drama at the same time we do have some of that but those ingrain sort of tendencies that perpetuate or dissatisfaction and we have hard time to get out of it so all these combinations of things of course obstacles to inner freedom so now how can we know what will help inner freedom so there's interesting reflection about an ecology of inner freedom sometimes we don't think very much about that so there's a human ecology what kind of human environment you are in and is even also a physical ecology of freedom so first the inner human side of the ecology of freedom is basically no friends that pulls you up instead of pulling you down in terms of either no aggravating your situation in terms of perpetuating suffering or somehow in different ways by what they are but what they might teach you in the way they might help you setting an example or inspiring you to engage in some activities which will help you to you know get out of those automatic sort of habits and thinking so friends in goodness that's very powerful you know ecological human ecology for progressing towards more freedom there's also an environment we know that the environment we are in is a very influential you know to be in a train station or in an airport it's certain atmosphere of nothing's happening people going here and there it's not the same as being in a church or in a hermitage it's not the same in being at Wall Street at the DIF just before they close or something like that but there's something that gets in you from the physical environment and they have been an interesting psychological study they made people to vote on some social issues and the vote they will borrow a place to hold the vote and then sometimes it would be in a bland sort of big house in the mayor's house a very sort of you know gray and without any particular team and then one time they will hold that say in the church and they found that there was a significant difference of the web people will vote now forgot which one they vote more pro-social I think is the church not Alicia depends which kind of church I guess well so you know I sometimes have to put my Buddhist hat the Buddhist literature we have a whole lot of description of places which are favorable to transforming certain aspects of our mental landscape we say for instance if we like in a car which is quite common these days I mean mine is also that monkey mind there's jumping all over the place then they will recommend more like secluded places clearing in forests no everything is sort of quiet soothing the smell of the the trees the quietness a few noise here and there not much solicitation and they say if your main obstacle is sort of darkness you always tend to sink any sort of you know lack of clarity then to go to very open place big sky or the CEO thought of the ocean or on on mountaintop and with fresh crisp hair then the mind sort of opens and merges with the vastness so there's all these kind of ecology of working with the environment human environment physical environment to to cultivate those quality that goes towards inner freedom and of course is not that in the end you know to preserve that freedom you have to stay in the forest or you have to stay in a mountain or something but at the time we need to cultivate those quality we are too weak to withstand Wall Street atmosphere things like that or just be able to kill it in a freedom in a traffic jam so we need to achieve some element of that freedom and then of course we should be able to apply any circumstances in life so that brings - how to cultivate inner freedom and that has to do of course with recognizing what qualities are what skills will contribute to that inner freedom to then express with a sense of wholesomeness of well-being and naturally also you will if you have free from the the scores of those afflictive mental state they are much more likely to naturally acting ethical ways no ethics is not just what is good to do but also what is good to be what you are going to do on the spur of the moment confronted with the situation and not going to calculate all those ethical pros and cons of doing this or that it really natural expression of who what you are deep within that will express in the benevolent gesture or in anger or in contempt or whatever so all these can be cultivated as skills and that's what my training is about and of course our meditation is more and more familiar in many ways in Western culture but if we look at the rules at least in the east of course there's a tradition of meditation here for centuries philosophical meditation religious meditation prayer and so forth but in Eastern traditions the words for which we translate as meditation means to cultivate to cultivate could be a scale like attention or artistic law or it also means to become more familiar with something so and that's not just a skill but it's also familiar with the way your mind works to be more aware of what's happening in your mind of to see a spark of animosity that's just taken birth and before it becomes a forest fire then what can you do if you are mindful with that spark so all that needs familiarization with our mind which we deal with from morning till evening and which can be our best friend or our worst enemy in case of hatred or depression or mind sort of keeps on nerdiness endlessly so yes those skills can be trained in a freedom can be trained because the way we deal with our thoughts as they arise can be trained we can more familiar with that process and instead of systematically getting to those chain reaction that is more freedom about this so that's the process of practice and because we are talking about inner freedom this is an inner practice so meditation is one name mind training is another name but it requires to become more aware other when thoughts come up and also becoming aware that there is a potential for at least getting free from those mental patterns if it was so intrinsically part of deepest of deepest of our being then this hopeless most like if I want to get rid of the redness of this claudius is red all over inside outside so I have to destroy it basically or to burn it but if it says a stain on my robe and I can brush it or wash it if it's a glass of water no h2o is the natural state of water know they could be cyanide in the water they could be amazing medicine in the water it will acquire different quality but that's not intrinsically as to all so there's always a possibility to filter to purify to distill the water that possibility exists because it's not intrinsically good or bad so there is the potential of this pure awareness that is not tainted by attraction repulsion jealousy and so forth if it was if it was such a hardcore component of our mind and even in the deep state of stillness openness pure awareness without much mental construct as some meditators can achieve then they will see haha he is the hatred there now he is the obsession that's why Angelus is he hiding the in this corner when there's a great lucidity about the death of your mind and you will see it somewhere but when you are in this pure awareness is like a blue sky there's no such where to hide for those things and clearly what is the most fundamental component of the mind is that pure cognizance the pure Faculty of knowing that is not modified by the contact and maybe an easy example is like a torch light or a beam of light it allows you to see things beautiful as ugly but the light rays will not become dirty if they light up a heap of garbage they don't become expensive with the light of a diamond light just reveals so because of that there's always a possibility to change the content which is due to many causes and conditions circumstances or past dynamic history of memories and arbitrations and so forth but all that by impermanence that means that we can again apply different factors different mental states to gradually and do some tendencies which brings our suffering thought after thought emotion after emotion just in the way they actually shaped and formed thought after thought emotion after emotion so that's part of the mental training and doesn't it next time why should it not I mean those quick-fix by definition can achieve much because it was so easy that means the change is bound to be very small so a real change next time but it's worth why not and it's not all unknown it's not that suddenly Wow one morning suddenly you're completely free from all your mental poisons it's a gradual process of course it's like somehow more and more freedom more and more clarity more and more inner balance and so forth so that's worth pursuing it seems to me and so both thousands of years of contemplative sort of approach ins we could say science of the mind and more recently the all the studies neuroscience and so forth have shown that if you train in anything that skill can be enhanced and no matter what is our starting point it may be different from one person to the others we might have so different kinds of obstacles and we may not all become able to achieve the same kind of a type of accomplishment but there's a considerable margin of change so that is possible so then what will be the harvest of training in inner freedom so first of all yes a life that is there's this sense of contentment and satisfaction deep within freedom comes also with some kind of resilience because if you know you're not going to be completely destabilized by the ups and downs of life you are not so vulnerable it's not that you are insensitive but you are not so easily swayed by adverse or even favorable circumstances you could be swayed by success into vanity you could be swayed into despair by failure so you are not anymore so easily vulnerable to those ups and down so greater freedom if that happens then of course you'll be you will be less over-concerned by me me me because knowing that you have the inner resources to deal with those ups and downs of life give you the sense of confidence so if you are not over preoccupied what might happen fearing everything instrumentalizing others with the favor of my interest or not so this very narrow world of self-centeredness you know this bubble of selfishness is quite stuffy within that bubble so because your mind is much faster then also less sort of feeling of exacerbated self-importance then you will be naturally more open and so the sense of readiness to others available open to having consideration being concerned by their faith and so that's opening the door to a much more impartial and unconditional no compassion and loving kindness and I remember a meeting a an American moral philosopher I won't name him but who said that the oldest thing about universal compassion is so silly it's just inconceivable how can you have compassion for everybody's just like that I mean you have to just start with your kids with your those who are in charge of of course it doesn't mean that so this is just this weird ideas become very vague and that's really has no realistic value so I think what those people are thinking is that realistically they are not going to actually physically contribute the well-being or alleviating suffering of every single sentient beings on earth but there's something that we can do because very often we don't have this openness even of thinking that we we are like a son that instead of shining on everyone equally and what's wrong with that shining on nice place is not so nice places on good people wicked people shining on everyone I'm going to shine on these two my kids my dog at least I can afford that so what happens imagine those just add one small dozen of rays of light from the Sun know how much heat and light even those people will get there's nothing this Frank and miserable Sun but if you shine on everybody then there are people who are close to you because of circumstances of life so they get more warm and light because they are close nothing of other reasons but you still continue so there's absolutely no obstacle whatsoever to just wish may all sentient beings without exception find happiness and the cause of happiness anything wrong may all sentient beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering you get unconditional benevolence at least you don't limit from the start that idea of nononono I'm not going to care for those guys even a bloody dictator what best can you wish that made the cruelty the indifference the grid may that be uprooted from that person's mind may all the condition in the world that brings about those people this kind of person in a society be alleviated through education to whatever that wish we can do is not condoning that bloody dictator regime in good and success is not stupid compassion it's just and compassion is slightly different from moral judgment of course we need definitely to have a sound ethics but compassion is about getting rid of any cause of suffering whatever shape it takes and what wherever it is it's like a skillful doctor he when he get a completely mad violent patient he's not going to smash his brain with a big stick he might have to tighten well for a while and then you see no okay can I cure this guy prevent him from harming others farming himself but then can I cure him isn't it no no hatred from the physician side so one can we have this physician attitude to all sentient beings so that's a novice from inner freedom because the lack of inner freedom is we are so biased with completely lack in partiality we only react to people like only how close to us they are the way they treat us in the present moment so we like this spaciousness at the many other aspect of inner freedom also how we face that you know if we come towards the moment of that with this sense of inner freedom of a well lived life where we could flourish ourselves and the best we could to the extent of our capacity contribute to the happiness of others and alleviating the suffering of others then that freedom comes with absence of fear why should we have regret why should we fear and a peaceful harmonious death can be the culminating point of a peaceful harmonious life so there's all kinds of beautiful harvests coming from inner freedom so in that sense it's not just like as you can easily see now it's not just like do whatever comes in your mind it's not just a kind of luxury or when you can afford to be having a freedom when everything goes well outside I remember when I was writing the book I didn't happiness I came upon the Polish scientists study happiness I forgot his name is one of this complicated language I'm Dyslexic on top of it something like ducky bits or something he said it's just impossible to be happy in jail just no possible the situation is not suitable to that just no way well no we are not asking people to find this a fantastic place to be but now suppose you are there or in any other whether you did something wrong while you were there because of your in some countries where they put you in jail because hardly anything I heard of we go who was put in jail for six months because he had what's up on his telephone is not allowed there so anyway there's many ways that you can deal with that and since you cannot choose it's not a sense of resignation simply what do you do do you get back something of your inner sanity and somehow find some kind of balance another friend it's a Buddhist friend and in his young age he was caught off a little bit more marijuana that he should have have in the gentle states I didn't more more than he would needed for the next hour I mean I never try to another so he end up ten years in jail because I because they say you are trafficking or something like anyway whatever very nice man so he was a practitioner and even he had a visit of a teacher in the jail and he really practiced and he said there was TV going on they are night almost knowledge everywhere so I found a place behind the staircase where he could sort of sit there and nobody bothered him too long and one day and also he was trying to help others in the chair and one day he said I feel so good he said I'm really deeply only and lastingly happy and he taught us completely crazy but that's a fact so when he came out he then became someone who did conflict resolution helping people in jail so again if you say that people say oh you are teaching them resignation not at all it's completely different it's not passivity is no matter what they say space of freedom that nobody time can takes away and you can always be there so that's this kind of where this inner freedom become resilient as one of the harvest of inner freedom so there's many good qualities that come both for your own flourishing and because it has a tendency to manifest as I mentioned as unconditional benevolence which makes you a better human being a better citizen a better whatever you can be in life and to contribute to a better world with more awareness if you are not caught in to lack of freedom because of immediate greed or something should be more consideration for the fate of future generation which takes a kind of kind of leap because it's not just emotional it's not immediate so that space of being able to embrace future generation to embrace all the other species comes from inner freedom not lack of freedom is sort of shrinking your inner space so I think it's a very profound concept is not an invasion at all in Buddhism some people describe enlightenment as ultimate freedom from ignorance from all those mental toxins from all the veils that obscure your Faculty of discernment and so forth and therefore leads you to perpetuate suffering and so it's just another way to reflecting on what has been your reflection in action for happiness or whatever else you do foo how to drive yourself and also contribute together to a better society and especially these days we certainly need all these to address the major challenge of course of our time which is the change of the environment that will affect the quality of life and bring so much suffering to so many on this planet so more than any time we need this in a freedom not to be completely the slave of our narrow short-sighted and short term maximization of personal interest so that needs some achieve some level of freedom from that so anyway since I have to say something I didn't know so I thought I'll speak sharing a few thoughts and thank you so much and I think mark will join me for having a small dialogue so you can Mattia thank you so much Matt sure has obviously very willing to take questions from the audience and has also kindly offered to lead us in a sort of meditation exercise which I think will do it the the very end of the evening I suspect you may also want to say a few words about the wonderful work of oh you having a session as well at the end so whenever's now it's time that might forget right so anyway thank you for being here because besides you know participating in the beautiful work of action for happiness and I was one of those who was present when the whole idea is sort of steamed in the result and minor than all of you joined yes so this evening is also dedicated to that but also to [Music] serving the humanitarian projects and we started at 20 years ago now with a few friends going to Eastern Tibet with the two big suitcase full of banknotes was the only way to bring money there because there are only small denominations and trying to build some clinics and schools and that was really like the Far West sort of here the the heroic time of doing this kind of work now we've got much more organized and as to last year we benefited 380,000 people in India now main operation now in northern India in jaqen and Bihar - very well published states in the pan and also we still of course work in Tibet was more discreetly so it's no more in our reports or website because not to endanger our collaborators there so it's in the field of health and education and Social Welfare so we do things like women literacy we train village women to become solar engineers we have a preschool programs where you know in India in the countryside the kids are parking area in the room and they bought all day and they cried they fight and the teacher don't know what to do oh it's true there are at my house and then we introduce cooperative play so they do the buildings with things that they have to do it together and it's amazing they are so happy all day long and it's completely changing so we have about 70 of those schools so anyway with all kinds of things we have a electric rickshaw driven by women in Bihar it's so successful that the Chief Minister came and disposed in front of it and this is from the Chief Minister anyway someone gets the the praise so we and in Nepal we work so hard after the earthquake 2015 that still has repercussion now and the communities we managed to had 20,000 people in six hundred villages in three months so all kinds of things we do and we have a wonderful team some are volunteers now we have a few people that are full-time and so it's a great work and as I'm getting old I'm looking for a smooth transition but my only heart wish is that this good work may continue and so yes so that's what we'll send around a link to the wonderful work in the follow-up email that everyone receives tomorrow so they'll have a chance to find out more about that and before we turn to the audience for questions I wanted to just ask you a few things that I've been longing to ask you and I hope who have real relevance for the audience and your change subject that well I think I think we were naturally drift beyond but I actually think your your theme of inner freedom is so important and relevant and my question is really one was about our inner lives one is about our sort of interaction in the world around us and then one perhaps a bit more looking at the bigger picture and on our sort of inner lives I think I would hope that almost all of us in this room when we hear what you said this evening would long to be able to have a greater sense of inner freedom and also a greater sense of benevolence and compassion for others and yet it struck me as you talked about this cultivation that really in many ways this is about habit formation because really what we're doing with actually pack is trying to help people change their habits both inner and outer and yet behavior change is really hard so I wondered if you had any tips really for all of us perhaps those of us that are much earlier on our journey to enlightenment than you are yourself how do we how do we build this into our busy lives how do we begin that journey of contemplation when there's so much distraction and actually that beginning of habit formation is almost harder than when you've been doing it for many years do you have any life so the word tips you know it's suspicious I remember I went to all those incredible things you can't believe there was a conclave of India today which is a very nice weekly in India they do a lot of good work so the lady asked me can you give us the five the fact that the secret of happiness in five points and three weeks I said first there's no secret and second is not easy and there's no five points she was bit the despondent I said if it was too easy that again is suspicious I mean a superficial change is cosmetic it's not going through so it's practice practice practice so people don't like that they don't like but really the questions have to begin in the front yeah that's right so then another very nice phrase is from the Buddhist teaching is there is no difficult task that cannot be broken into many small easy task that's what meditation is about so if you say okay I'm sitting I'm starting intentional you don't want to do it as step four eighth house sit like that don't move let's see and what kind of change are you going to achieve maybe a lot of things might happen that will teach you something but basically that's nothing how things change its continuity is many times even short so there's a trickle of water becomes a stream and that change happen and that will happen and then science will tell you that's how it happens in the brain is regular repetition of even small moment but concrete continuity rather than from time to time a huge effort can't no training for the marathon you first run small distances again and again and then you increase another is going to swallow something and try to run a marathon from the start and never get anywhere so yes it is starting with what anyway things which are easy like you know if you want to learn sailing and I was born in a seller's family you start with the fine weather and the light breeze you don't start by a force eight storm problem so then when you become you know more and more experienced my mother's brother he after the Second World War he did three years wound the world on the on a sailboat without engine very quiet around the world solo navigation one of the it was one of the pioneers very everything went well because he had you know he was born in that and becomes killed and it becomes something that he knew how to do so yeah so in the beginning it's very well known that everyone was taught meditation said well that's not for me because I tried and had so many more tous than usual come on it's not that at all is simply you become aware of what's going on the catastrophe that's taking place in your mind for the first time you start looking at the whole noise that's going on otherwise it's like a background noise that's so much all the time there as you don't even pay attention to it so it's just normal that when you look at it it looks like a waterfall not one place is sitting still okay that's no problem then water can become low quiet like a mountain stream and then like a flowing river and even then the problem is not me if you think I'm going to fight the thought and it's hopeless how can you stop at all that's already there can you tell me this idea of stopping thought is just nonsense so the point is not to is to gain more awareness is to no matter how many birds pass you don't lose sight of the sky and that's awareness so if you become more familiar slowly with what is there behind the screen of doors so another one of my teacher Mingora machine some of you might know his beautiful books recently the one is called in love with the world is supportive when he left for years without money wandering in India and the Himalayas it says that whether your mutation is dull whether is very beautiful and blissful where there's a lot of toads are no thought the moment you preserve the sense of awareness then you are not distracted so you are not carried by the river you are sitting and watching the river so if the reverse turbulent you still watch it if it's calm you watch it so this comes with familiarization so it means that you start just not there's no mystery invitation there is no secret it's just need to start and do a little more and like playing a music instrument slowly slowly it comes and that's it so there's no secret is not easy in the sense that this rest doesn't come like that but it will and so what's wrong with practicing nobody went against having to learn read and write no no no more finish we don't want to go through that to the chips of something in might we might come down but it's a there is a these days there's something we thought with or two friends there is a kind of looking down the notion of effort people really make effort on this guy making efforts everywhere it should be easy you know everything is easy we make it easy for you happiness is so easy kind of preparatory spa life will be a big star we'll make it for you with the custom-made just for you know there's a brand which under coca-cola they have a tradition all over the world especially in India they have at least 700 brand of water h2o and one of them I saw is this this one is especially for you I was gonna say what you're really reminding us this is a fundamental life skill which is why the work that so many people are doing to help children develop this from an early age this mindful awareness is it's a bedrock for living better and it brings me on to well in fact I'm reminded of a quote that I very often use which is something I think you wrote in that wonderful book on happiness and you said something along the lines of happiness is more is not just a fleeting emotion it's an optimal state of being and I think as always when I listen to you much I'm struck by that the foundation for that optimal state of being is is the mind for the awareness but I would love respect others might love to hear what that also means for you personally in the way you interact with the world because of course you spend a lot of time in contemplation but I'm sure this has ripple effects for your relationships your the way you spend your time when you're not in a in contemplation for example what could you say a bit about what your being is like what your action to happiness is like when you when you live in a way that sort of builds on that that groundwork what do you find yourself doing and what have you seen in others that the habits it in terms of how we interact and what we choose to spend our time on what I mean is always difficult to speak about yourself but yeah well I I could certainly experience contrast I remember once I want to really wanted to stay as long as possible my Hermitage in Nepal and I accepted to to go to the World Economic Forum where I also saw which art so I went straight from a hermitage to the airport and next day I was in the World Economic Forum I mean never seen such a contrast I mean the complete difference of feelings situation atmosphere and business intensity so in a way if you could only maintain your inner balance just when everything is ideal and then you will be completely unsettled the moment becomes different of challenging and so forth that's of course a complete failure and there's a Tibetan saying that it's easy to be a good meditator sitting outside in the Sun with a full belly but when you are put on the scales means facing challenging times then way that's why you see the meditator how that person reacts what is the level of inner space and freedom precisely that translate into resilience so ideally and that's the ideal that any at least Buddhist collaborative pursue is that at some point there will be a seamless continuity between so-called meditation and non meditation or post meditation and that has to do not with being no hyper tense attempting every step you take is more somehow resting that's in a space of freedom of awareness that's always there so if you don't lose sight of that if you don't lose sight of the blue sky no matter what is one bird or thousand Birds or many clouds then you are much less likely to be swayed by difficult circumstances or or challenging supporters is over very different circumstances now when it comes to make life choice where should I spend most of my time what is the activity that I want to devote myself most of the time there you should exercise discernment and judgment I mean I guess I could survive in wall street for no certain time by keeping my awareness but I will not deliberately choose to set my emitters right in the middle of the stock market it's a better place to be that's all so yes so you should be able to keep that at least something that always there at any time and circumstances this being said you'll also be wise in choosing the right friends that again and companions on the path rather than distracting you are pulling you down and circumstances that will favor discontinuing on your pad rather than distracting you are or just pulling you back so that's but this being said you should also be able to navigate in stormy weather otherwise this kind of useless now remember once I was in Bhutan and we were I was taking someone a few people to a place called Italian nest it's a beautiful one tempura meters on the cliff that sheer cliff from 900 meters and he said 3,000 meter of altitude so this is a quite extraordinary place in Bhutan so we came with this group of French people were visiting and in one of the small chapel of whom there's few places there was a person deep meditation and people say oh I say good meditator was the problem matsya one of the criticisms I think of them the mindfulness movement from often from people outside it is that somehow finding our inner peace is almost an excuse to ignore the problems in the world and I think it's a fairly weak critique but there is a sense from some quarters that mindfulness might be sort of allowing a broken system to continue you know we need to change our aspects of our capitalistic model we need to make change happen of course and we're all frightened I think by trends in modern society the rise of a sort of populism which is seems to be fueling this fear of the other this us-versus-them narrative that is at the heart of lots of the current challenges now you've already shown I think in in your work and new amazing humanitarian efforts that your cultivation of inner freedom has led to much altruistic behavior but for all of us really that are worried about the world around us yes we can work on our inner freedom and our peace of mind our happiness how do we then use that as a springboard to have a positive influence in a world that sometimes feels like it's heading in the wrong direction and it is really quite frightening in many ways right before going to the bigger picture that you brought just say about the very notion which I was asked of often once I remember here on BBC Radio even selfish to do that just be in your Hermitage and you could pitch to something good to society well it depends what you do if you just dare just to know take it easy accept escape from tags and family duties it is like taking it easy but really if we Tina said let's take the example of the humanitarian world before coming to populism and all that now I've seen myself over 20 years know and a friends here who have been working many many years in the humanitarian world know the grains of sand that sometime put a halt to a very virtuous endeavor to bring good is usually due to human shortcomings it's not that there is no resources to do it on nothing to do this plenty of things to do to improve the quality of life of others can be corruption in the worst case but could be also conflict of egos and geo collapsed more often from within that from the outside so all those are due to the fact that somehow people didn't bring enough to the optimal point those qualities of resilience of dedication of less you know being upset by anything people might say I remember once we were in in Bihar the very beginning we were helping in the countryside and people have been there I've been exploited by landlords for generations and generations and generations so whenever people come to do something for them they are very suspicious so they although that we are filling our pockets with money from abroad and doing a few things to just pretend and so they were not very welcoming in the beginning so to the extent that we had a mobile clinic and once I we were coming to a village and we used to come every 15 days sort of van got stuck in there in the river so we were going to have the village and we call for help and they say well you have to give us money to take you out of the river but we just come in for helping you with it just give the money and they will see so one of my friends said we have to be real Bodhisattvas no two sulfur atoms against there so now we win their confidence and all that so I think not to be affected by that and also not the idea that we come here to say our health program or build a school not to make everyone perfect on the way that's not our job that's the Buddhist job or somewhere else so that kind of all those qualities can be cultivated so you know spending time in a hermitage it's like building a hospital all the plant breeder cement work for two-three years don't cure anybody you could say well just go and operate in the street is because we have a media NEADS but once it's done it's almost more powerful so it's same with culture change and you know populism and old what's happening in many quarter's places or in the world it's a question of do we have a more individualistic sometime narcistic the epidemic of narcissism in that the state has been well documented by psychologists the fact so now how does culture change well first of all there are some some ideas that come in people's mind we should say let's say we should file transform ourself and genuinely to become more compassionate now what happens when those I D gain momentum at some point they get a critical mass and then they say it doesn't have to be the food majority one is a coherent idea that makes sense that ethically sound at some point we can see the change that's happening not to us environment I mean still the hard to do but change from 30 years ago is tremendous I mean I remember when I was a teenager I was a birdwatcher and when the washer Carson's book Silent Spring came out it was a few bunch of so-called no nature lover who care but nobody really care at all no it's at the forefront of even though politicians don't know how to handle that decade it's like a hot spot that burning pot they don't know how to handle but still it's at the forefront of conversation and that may be wrong and if I'm wrong in history you will correct me but I think in the late 1700 in the late 18th century when the slavery was abolished here there was a few respectable people who proposed the idea of abolishing slavery and they took it to the House of Commons easier to say in France because nobody can check whether not but something like that 1780 and they thought they were just lunatics and they were told you know the British Empire going to collapse I mean all of trade is going to collapse this no way and then that idea because of the strength of its validity moral validity I think 15 years later slavery was abolished so he did a tip a tip over and I think for the environment I read a very interesting study which I mentioned in the ultra-simple about are you ready to do something for the environment so 20 to 20 percent people say yes no matter what I'm going to change no to do whatever needed in my house or in my way of living 20% I don't care I'm now includes few presidents whatever happened don't care it's not my job so anyway 60 percent said I would do something if others do it so those of good those are the one you need to nudge and that's what cultural change common law so I think we should not underestimate the power of ideas and also realize that all together I mean despite those hiccups of civilization that we are seeing now here and there quite a few actually but still all together if you with Steven Pinker's book on decline of violence so many things the decline of global poverty in the world haft in 20 years thank to the Millennium plan of the UN an almost change maybe by 2030 there will be almost every child will have access to education I mean those things are progressing in a big way so there are things which are progressing despite despite those so there are contrary forces hyper individualism you know complete selfishness no regard for telling the truth or not I mean we see that I mean if appalling but at the same time there are few under and couraging sign so who is going to hit that don't know there's one concept which I like personally it's the banality of goodness and I maybe I mentioned that last time I forgot is the fact that most of the time most of 7 billion human beings behave decently to each other and that's also why we are so shocked and we speak so much about the deviance if it was normal that people sort of keep on killing each other cheat each other lie to each other nobody will be surprised we won't find that shocking somewhere that's normal so we don't speak about the fact that we do most of the time we have decently that's also this the silent goodness is because itself Gordon that's how we should be as a as a regularly good basic human being so there are encouraging signs there are times in history where things happen education of cosplay measure measure measure war and I think education is never neutral when say oh we should not introduce ethics and education Hot Topic because what kind of ethics now I was telling nor liable when we had a bite before before coming here that when I was at the last time in my last time at Davos Economic Forum there was a survey done with all over the world with young people between 15 and 18 25 or plus age to Facebook all over the world do you think there are universal values by yes for the question I was amazed at 60 percent said no so I thought about that I thought well you know I guess a young Pakistani would say all universal values means you are going to bring Western values a young Chinese might say oh you are going to bring that stuff with human rights maybe so maybe the question was not rightly ask if you ask do you think that honesty is universal value that to be benevolent is universal value to be honnest is invested value to be someone reliable universal value to be able to have to show friendship care at the most people we say of course yes so they are I think this somehow its kind of sanity that we can relate to now again a lot of adversary forces know if the environmental crisis becomes so bad that we end up with 250 million climate refugees and all that there will be a lot of conflicts there will be lot of misery so yes we have a lot of turning points in our society civilization they could go many ways and I'm getting old and often when this kind of questions are asked to my my spiritual guide the real AMA says while not my business it's your business it's also young people but I really sincerely pray from the depth of my heart that the cultural evolution of culture will lead to a more cooperative and compassionate society let's hope so thank you so much now Ivan conscious I'd love to leave time for the meditation you can t offer to do but I'd love to hear some brief questions from the audience we've got the microphone so if anyone didn't want to ask Matty or something Adam there's a gentleman salad just behind you actually don't go back ok have you got on there great thank you oh oh sorry you just missed your chance for thank you thank you you have compared at the beginning the toads to birds some other compared to clouds white clouds dark clouds and several spiritual traditions people buy enlightenment not only the Buddhists can we compare the enlightened state to actually the only source of life in this universe which other stars so if we want to be central stable if you want to keep our happiness our you know well-being our awareness can we say is a comparison that no matter how many birds are many clouds no matter boughs you know they the day in the night and all these things if we keep our focus on the actual Sun our inner Sun then we can actually reach that goal and enjoy the state of being I'm sorry but no old age doesn't help hearing I got some of it okay let me try let me try and paraphrase thank you for the question but I think it was I apologize but one of the reason not to do conferences anymore building on lots of what you said really but actually I think the question was can we think of enlightenment a bit like the source of light that comes from a star that is there regardless of whatever changes around it and I think in many ways that's reinforcing much of what you said but how do we how do we see that that sort of inner light or that light within us can help us see through all the changes the number of clouds or whatever I not sure I'd completely sure but about the question but I will try my best to give an answer and it's amazed me when the Canadian friend who told me a philosopher is somebody when he gives you the answer you don't understand your question and you have one be the case so anyway I will try with this I heard the clouds and the sky and enlightenment so I'll try to make up something out of that whatever it is so we said that experiences which you might get not only in live with your practice spiritual practice and meditation and idealistic of enlightenment you mean within the spiritual path and not the age of enlightenment experiences happen sometimes you feel red bliss or sense of clarity Wow not so many thoughts amazing but they are transient they're like miss to say they come in the morning and then disappear and if you cling to those then you sort of again sort of fall into you go astray to deviation into wanting that again and then feeling upset it doesn't come and so it doesn't help we say that the more you become naturally aware of this basic awareness this we could say it's more like an unchanging space that's always there no matter of there's clouds no clouds sky doesn't change spaces and changes and always shining even you of half across the room it seems that the cloud is there for hundred years just cross with an aeroplane within ten minutes blue sky and the shining Sun so something unchanging and the reason that when you have some kind of whatever you call that enlightenment or inner freedom in the perfect sense is unchanging because you know in the midst of the Sun there's no trace of darkness I mean everything is clear you have you know all all those thoughts come and go yeah familiar with the tricks and patterns it's like you know you get vaccination you get once some of the sickness we get when we are kids we get them once you don't get them twice so once you have cure from that sort of immune so this something like that is unchanging you know freedom that goes with unchanging sort of wisdom and awareness so causes for him from in my mouth is just blah blah but at least that's what how it explained is going from something that is transient to something that is much more stable so there's a great helmet called Milarepa lived in the 12th century and he spent many years meditating in caves and he said something that is quite encouraging I find you say in the beginning nothing comes and that's when we say we have so many tools and bla bla bla in the middle nothing stays because things are so and end them in the end nothing goes so that's I think the sign of accomplishment and flourishing so getting to in your freedom thank you very wise let's take one from this side of the room thank you lady here halfway down thank you very much for a very inspiring talk about inner freedom my question was also building on something you've already said about finding that balance between working on our minds to you know put ourselves and Shinzon Retreat or meditating or for you and your hermitage to work on our minds and then being out in the world and altruism and I appreciate it's more of an art than a science but I wonder what's your rule of thumb how do you negotiate the tension between working on our minds and being out there in the world and sharing the fruit of practice well ideally it should not be a tension should be a synergy yeah there's no reason why it should be a tension it's only attention if you again go into spiritual practice as going to a spa or in the winter you go to Turkish baths very hard wonderful then you go out and you catch cold so if it is really a process that every time you do spend time whether it's on your cushion for 20 minutes whether you to that walking to a park or walking to your place while you work I mean some time where your focus is on this inner process of a medialization and cultivation or taking something we go more whatever you can afford to go to a place where you actually full-time do that for a while and then that give you increasingly more facility and ease into doing everything else so that should be the criteria of that things being somehow useful and working properly again if the contrast was such that you know it's such a shock each time you come out and you can stand that and you're completely stabilized and you've seen decks completely two different worlds even the outer conditions are very different but it's something that is a trickle of water that goes on from one to the other then every time you spend some time dedicating to this process of change you you will get stronger freer more resilient and more able to to achieve in a harmonious way what you are trying to do so it will all work in favor of it I mean people spend so much time doing professional training I mean all kinds of thing which is to do better what they do so and even our physical fitness everybody agrees that we should do certain amount of exercise every week so why not this mental IG know or something that to do something with our mind that's actually something given us more trouble than our body sometime so I think this should not be a conflict but I think personally I find it's quite good from time to time to take some days week or whatever years of man not promised I spent five years in solitary retreat I don't regret one instant so the reason is like that even it's one week if you know that the whole day is going to be dedicated to that is quite different even the same say our safe homes let's forget about getting up at 3:00 in the morning and all this stuff let's be reasonable say six to seven okay you do one hour of meditation and then you go in the tube and all that so I noticed when I do that in the monastery and I know have some work we have a lot you know the projects we have archived so I have quite busy when I'm down in the monastery so that one hour is the same hour from 6:00 to 7:00 nothing happens very quiet nobody comes to disturb me but is not the same when I do the same 6:00 to 7:00 in my Hermitage facing the Himalayas knowing that I have a whole day in front of me so there is a sense of starting something that is continuous so in that sense I think to take some time off people go for holiday after all so why not giving us a holiday for you know somehow achieving something that has lasting effects I found myself since you won't ask me about my own personal feeling which I found extremely useful to have those completely quiet time I remember the last time I was able to spend almost a year in my home it is non-stop I have felt at the beginning not like I was like a person that is given a beautiful fact I feel to cultivate wow I have no I have nine months ahead of me what a wonder and not a single moment no I felt bored Oh everyone's so precious and actually near the end of it all that I have to calm down and then I was getting those messages the clinic has only two months funds to run and here I was there you know eating some dal Bhat and I said I feel almost guilty I thought I cannot feel like that you know where you can have a life and this can be most trying to continue this work so you should not think that it's a kind of selfish luxury I think it's so formative and it gives you so much strength than to engage in the world so anyway that's my little recipe thank you for all those answers and I'd love to take you up when you're kind off with leading us all in a moment of putting this into a bit of contemplative practice if you be ya wedding so yeah however feels natural to you it's funny I when you say that everybody stuff what's wrong I do that too in Sims what that means one thing that we do feel that if some other body is balanced the mind is going to be more balanced right now every we should Street straight sleeping meditation why not so yes so you know the mindfulness movement is has been experimental I mean I was one of the last thing I'm try to do less stuff but last year I went for one of the last big symposium of contemplative science or when by mind and life there was a thousand researcher in Phoenix Arizona thousand researcher not just like no spooky loonies type real good ones so encouraging and Jon kabat-zinn did a review of 30 years of mindfulness was so amazing he said in China there are thousands of people doing that in hospitals and all that so it was amazing and that's the only way to do it in a secular way in hospital in schools in business so no qualms about that this being said of course nobody pretends the whole of Buddhism is not it's not even Buddhism is just as tools taken from Buddhism so now I think if we we could if we have interest you add some kind of dimension to it by having a motivation and altruistic motivation and very strongly at the start you know I'm doing this in order to become a better human being so I can better be at the service of others and in fact know people stick enlightenment enlightenment Buddhahood in the great vehicle we are not trying to become a Buddha for the sake of becoming Buddha is clearly said is for the sake of having the infinite capacity to help sentient beings that's the goal not just sit in the oven now Wow no problem anymore so yes to cultivate this very powerful aspiration that through whatever meditation techniques we'll do is to become a better human being of course to flourish outside but also to contribute something to removing the suffering of others and we should have also some kind of a kind of view that is little bit bigger than just being mindful the present moment now things are not just as and that has to do with inner freedom are not as solid as the scene now when we said this is beautiful this is ugly this is a friend this enemy we just superimposed those beauty ugly layers whatever good bad as they were intrinsic quality belonging to that object with always all superimposition from our mind so we we verify so much the outer world what is transient impermanent interdependent actually is devoid of intrinsic like autonomous existence so sitting as not as solid as the scene is also an important part but usually we don't cultivate so much in the regular mindfulness training so I'm not inventing on any of those things that I heard one of my teachers saying those two points are very important the motivation and the view so I would suggest in the few moments we are together to first generate this motivation whatever we do first for five minutes may that be dedicated so that I make my human quality bloom so that you can better human beings and that's translate somehow into a better world not just feeling good okay we'll just try that and then yes we need some attention we need to be mindful so that's as you many of you I guess might be of tried meditation we take a support to rest our attention upon it could be an outer object where often we use the coming and going of the threat because it's not very obvious it you can see it it's not that a flashing red light that even you completely distracted you still see it if a distracted is gone so let's for a moment try to follow the coming and going of the bread simply just paying attention right after bright and then let's move to caring mindfulness that means yes try to generate loving-kindness how you do that remember the example of sailing with the nice weather with a light breeze to begin with so first generate unconditional love or someone who is very dear to you to assume this know with any hindrance to feel unconditional love made his child made this dear person whoever it is in your life may that person find happiness despair suffering flourish in life and so forth just wish nothing but good to that person let it fill your mental landscape if it declines revive it if I just write that come back to it then try to extend that remember the Sun not just this few sort of narrow sunbeams but to all sentient beings strangers those who don't like particularly those who might harm others let them be free from what caused them to be harming others we can reach that of course so let extend this Sun of benevolence at it embrace all sentient beings who deep within rather not suffer and find happiness that's the deepest aspiration any sentient being have at the very bottom of everything and when that unconditional loving kindness meets with suffering it's just become compassion may sentient beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering and if you start feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of suffering in the world you may sometimes shift to celebrating the qualities of others rejoicing in the achievement whatever positive things they might have done intellectual ideas a matter of contributors discovery they might have made that improved the fate of humanity free choice is a very unselfish attitude to rejoice nobody's going to blame you if you don't rejoice nobody's going to praise you if you rejoice from the depth of you heart rejoicing I don't know Matt McGann Dee's work the Sun Mandela's world at rel Emma's work and sang heroes of compassion world that though wonderful things in societies which hoist intellectuals who have brought change of ideas for a better world rejoice from the death of your heart Meadows continued and increase further and then finally always remember this idea of impartiality we give the example of the Sun so those wonderful sort of states of mind loving kindness compassion only work if they are not partial otherwise just like again following in the same sort of divisions fragmentation that's what give rise of course to intolerance populism and all that so let's try to genuinely there's nothing wrong in wishing everybody happiness and freedom from suffering why should we not wish that to anyone why should we say everyone except this dozen of bad cars it doesn't work don't spoil it by being Pasha so remember the beginning we try to generate a motivation then we try to practice and I'm sorry but what can you do in five minutes and then at the end you have to put some kind of seal and the seal is the compliment of the motivation which is some kind of dedication meant through what I have done we have done together tonight method serve to something that will continue that will be nurtured that will have its own momentum to to make an increased good in my own transformation into some motion of society in transformation of towards a better world so dedicate what we have done so that it may continue to have positive effects so that's kosta quite important it sort of puts a momentum in in motion so thank you so now my meditation is about silence but if I don't say anything that you might be upset so but frankly sir again it's doing the same thing of a slightly more extended period of time that's yes thank you so much I do have a couple of final announcements but I really just like to invite everyone to join me in saying a huge thank you to you for your time

Channel: Action for Happiness

Views: 103,617

Rating: 4.8245616 out of 5

Keywords: happiness, compassion, mindfulness, meditation, inner freedom, benevolence

Id: Wuw_rrgKaFk

Length: 107min 35sec (6455 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 10 2019