The Meaning of Life | Maitreyabandhu

so welcome everyone welcome to the London blue Center my name's Maitreya bandeau welcome particularly if this is your first time coming online like this visiting the London Buddha Center online we're in this retreat that we're running this home retreat many many people have joined us a lot of people on the retreat in news so particularly welcome to anyone who is new and in a special welcome to anyone who's the first time they've tuned in tonight that's that's really really good I hope you get a lot from it I hope so that's see that's certainly the idea how many we've got here now 142 people watching at the moment all over the world that we've been having people tune in from everywhere it seems so welcome everyone welcome to that on the Buddha Center I want to pick and say welcome to those of you are on the home retreat this is we're in the midst of this home retreat I was teaching meditation this morning on zoom' with 380 or so people and we're teaching newcomers meditation in the morning with about 200 people so a lot of people are tuning in to this retreat and what's been I've been hearing back because it's run by a team and I've been hearing back from the team members who've been running the breakout routes that we've been having we've been having sometimes two or three breakout groups a day just so that it's not just like a sort of passive what you know like watching telly that you are able to interact with each other and share your own experiences and so on and I've been struck a revisit rock of the tea by just how deep the retreats been going we've also got a slack lounge and where everybody on the retreat can talk to each other and again I keep on seeing comments there a lot of gratitude being expressed which is really really positive in itself and a lot of them a real sense of that the retreat is going well and going deeper for people sometimes not always comfortably but deeper to people in that's really really gratifying to see really really gratifying to see so one thing that we picked up is also people some people already they were going to be finishing on Sunday morning some people are already wondering okay where do we go from here and just to flag up we're going to be doing a life with full attention course based on a book that I wrote as it happens I always find it slightly embarrassing anyway it's a based on a book I what is the book I wrote and it's going to be a four week course with two sessions a week and it starts on the 2nd of June so we'll be writing to everybody on the home retreat about that soon and you'll be seeing ads about that and if you look at our online site you'll see more and more information coming about that next course so that's the thing I want to really recommend to you is go on to that course you know on the second it starts the second of Union be really really good to do that ok so what I'm going to be talking about tonight is the meaning of life and of course when when you see that title if it does feel you know terribly grand the meaning of life it feels very grand but for me and I hope for many of you probably all of you well it's one of those great questions surely it's one of the great questions where do we find meaning in life has life got meaning what does meaning mean for me that's been a central question in my life right since I was a child and for many of you it will be a great question it's like those other great questions in life like what happens when you die what is the value of love and so on these are these are surely questions that we shouldn't ever get too sophisticated to ask ourselves we shouldn't be we shouldn't sort of think that we can get beyond their their fundamental questions and so I want to try and make my own little contribution to that remarkable and huge question that question that I think is created by the fact of mortality we human beings we only know one thing we know for sure is that we're going to die and one thing we don't know for certain is we don't know when that casts a shadow of both pain and I think meaning on human life and it's those it's that great fact of death and not knowing when we're going to die that makes human beings makes you and I are sequester so what's the meaning of being here does life have any meaning and purpose does my life have any meaning of purpose and if you've got to a place in your life at times when you think it doesn't it's a very despairing place it's a very despairing place I've got that in my life at times where I I really thought the life didn't have any meaning that it was just a sort of a mess a chaos and you know I was really quite despairing particularly as a young man I was tortured by that that thought me of course the other thing is if you try to live your life as if it hasn't got any meaning if you try to treat people yeah as if how you treat people doesn't matter you will do a lot of damage a lot of damage to yourself and a lot of damage to others I don't know about the meaning of life I don't know very much and none of us do but you try living a life in which you believe it has no meaning and how you behave doesn't matter if you want to test that out you'll soon see that it really really isn't in your interest isn't in ending anyone's interest so yeah tonight I want to try and explore this massive matter of meaning which as I say we we mustn't get to it mustn't ever get away from children have that question and we mustn't leave that question behind what's the meaning of life what's the meaning of my life and how to live what to do so for me my story starts of this oh yes just to say about the story I should say about the structure of evening so I'm going to talk for a bit about 20 minutes 25 minutes and then we'll do a meditation then we'll have a tea break and we'll have a tea break in time for you to go out and clap the care workers in the NHS and all of those people in the frontline in this very very difficult moment so there'll be a break in which you can do that then we'll come back and I'll say a bit more and then there'll be some type of questions so do you do you start putting your questions in the chat box and Seb and Sandy will will sort of gather those together and then tonight as ever as every night we're doing on this retreat and then to lead us in a short but it's ritual in times of uncertainty in difficult times particularly perhaps we need to turn to ritual as a way of discovering within ourselves or beyond ourselves deeper resources that we didn't know we have that's what rituals about we'll do that at the end of the evening yes and that's that's a shape of the evening so yes my own story or how my own story with meaning actually starts with my parents it's possible my mother is due to de rigueur that you can tune in possibly some of my very large and very noisy family are joining in as well that's good so when I was when I was eight my grandmother died my grandmother I was very very close to my grandmother she found her I remember really looking up to her even as a small child and I used to my memory very early memories is I used to wake up we used to live next door and I used to wake up and run round from my house to her house she was always seeming to be sitting in his very dark scullery with her auger and she used to always wear black my grandmother was my father's mother she wore black ever since her her husband had died I think 20 or 30 or 40 years before which says she always wore black and she seemed as as all the people due to the very young she seems like you know as old as the hills to me arranging and that we had this lovely bond she I remember coloring in a goose on the coloring in a coloring book and I colored it in bright yellow and I didn't go over the lines and she was very impressed with that I seem to remember she thought I had something so yeah I can't remember how old I was but six or eight she died and you know good on my parents my father and my mother and father decided to take me possibly because I was so close to her I don't really know but they decide to take me and my brother my next brother I've got three brothers all of the million my next brother John Oh Johnny we went next door with my parents seeing my grandmother osteo died she was in I seem to remember her on a coffin in her coffin on the bed also you may have just been in the bed it's that very old memories there they like myths on me and they're almost like parables in themselves and I remember looking at her and and that that that very strong sense that something massive has happened here something some it was like some massive question had opened up in my life and he says how I think about it now and I looked I would she was here I loved her very much and it wasn't grief that I felt I just thought this is a massive issue we have here I didn't think of it like that you didn't you don't think I know as a child but it seemed a great question and I remember perhaps my father or my mother saying and I don't know you she I think my memories are one of them said oh she's asleep and I'd seen Michael my grandmother asleep on many occasions so induced she wasn't asleep no it's not asleep and I think one of them said oh she's gone to a better place and even as a child I was terribly I remember thinking I can't see I don't know I just don't know but that site why I just sort of confronted me even at that age with this massive question of death wasn't even particularly my grandmother's death it was death itself and I even have a memory from earlier on when when my there's a period of time before my sister was born I've also got a younger sister I got a large family when my sister was but before my sister was born and when my three brothers were at school lovely photograph of all all a shoulder head of a head above the other or with their school uniforms on going to school they were all at school mice if my sister wasn't yet bored I remember walking following my mother around doing the housework with her you know holding the pledge tin and holding the duster sort of thing this is before my mother ended up working for the business matter and I remember bursting its here thinkin so lovely bursting its ears and I seem to have I was very I remember being very happy and then suddenly bursting its ears and I had this very strong sense that this would have to end and again it felt like within our human life even when you're very young you have some kind of strange knowledge of death yes so that's for me where this great question opened up and so often these great questions do open up as a as a child unfortunately in the in the in the busyness of life we often sort of close those questions which is such a shame but they Buddhism I think is a is it working out of those questions is taking these kind of questions seriously and trying to live on the basis of those questions not coming to you with not coming up with glib answers but really trying to live on the basis of those great matters that's what Buddhism is so that's for how my own journey started in in these great questions but of course when you think of the meaning of life is there meaning to life you can't help but think of Viktor Frankl and his book the mountain man's quest for meaning you know he was Fame you know he was in Auschwitz and you know that that that the most horrible once a most terrifying things have ever happened in human history although golly we've got we've been having Wars haven't we for the last hundred years and horrors abound in the human world he talks about three possible sources of meaning he talks about purposeful work that can be a source of meaning where you're not just living to get money to do well but you've got meaning that feels significant and that feels that it's valuable for you and for others doing something significant with your life I feel I'm very lucky in that way I'm I spend quite a bit of my time teaching and it does feel like I've got purposeful work so that that's one of Frankel's possible sources of meaning and purposeful work his second is love is love and quite you know obviously the way but you know let's let's just say it as simply and emphatically as that love particularly he means I think empathy feeling for other people putting other people on the same level of yourself reaching out to others caring for others that is a source of meaning in human life and then thirdly he talks about courage in the face of difficulties that that's a potential source of meaning in life courage in the face of difficulties he said even if there is meaning in life at all then there must be meaning in suffering and this is a man who'd experienced and witnessed some of the worst sufferings of the 20th century so yes that was his three areas to look for for meaning purposeful work love and courage in the face of difficulties so I've got my own three ways that I only kind of re remembered Franco laughs where I had thought about his talk so I've got my own three ways and I'm not trying to in any way compete with Viktor Frankl but I had my own three thoughts now so I've got three thoughts and I've got two qualities in which we can know whether we're in touch with meaning because how you find meaning is one thing but how do you know it is meaning what does meaning feel like what do we mean by meaning is another so I'll see how the time goes probably what we'll do is I'll do my three ways in which we can find meaning our sources of meaning in life and then we'll try and take that into the meditation and then after the tea break I'll talk about two ways in which we experience meaning in which we know that we're experiencing meaning because I that seems as important as anything else so the first thing I really wanted to be really made really clear is and in a way praxis doesn't mean to be made clear but I thought it's worth starting with it is that meaning is not primarily a theory or an ideology including a religious ideology yeah including a Buddhist ideology it's not to do with meaning can be found in ideas undoubtedly and it can be sort of kept in ideas sort of held in ideas but meaning is not primarily something that you read is you know the meaning of life he wants that program a guide to the universe Hitchhiker's Guide to the universe you know that in that the meaning of life is 42 which was very funny I thought but you know that's it's a comedy on the fact of as if meaning of life there was an answer the meaning of life is 42 is such and such and such you know is these words so me the meaning of life is never to be encapsulated in these words including religious words yeah it's certainly not to be encapsulated and can't be encapsulated in ideology yeah so meaning is something you discover in life as you interact with it now that interaction is also an interaction hopefully with books what one of the the one of the treasure houses of meaning in human life is actually books if some of us upstairs have been talking about war and peace I remember when I when I read it I it's just so much meaning in it this is so much meaning it on every level meaning about war about about spiritual meaning everything yeah so you know but meaning arises in life through your interaction with life including your interaction with ideas with novels with works of art with the natural world with your interaction with friends with your family with your work meaning is what happens when you meet life and try to respond to it yeah it happens when you you meet life and you it provokes you to reflect to think to question to ask questions yeah it's so easy to just to go through the motions and of life and just do what I don't know your parents told you or your that University assumed you would do to just go through life without ever really touching life and making you think yeah this is one of the reasons why the experience of death or for instance the experience of a love affair breaking down is very often what propels people into these deeper questions of meaning something that you've really put your your value on or some beloved person either they leave you or they die and it shakes your world and makes you question things that you may never have question is this a job I'm should be doing is this what I should be doing my life you know I don't know is I can't be you know is is going to the pub every time Friday night and talking about Boreas really a good use of this life is you know complaining about your neighbors a good use of this time is is is arguing in your mind it's not what I'm can do you know but it's often something some hardship it's interesting that Frankel talks about courage in the face of difficulty I think this is my actual take on that you know it's often in the in the face of hardship and difficulty something that shakes you a bit wakes you up to hang on what am I doing here what's important it's so easy to be so drawn away into the trivia Lord or the tertiary for what's really important so my first idea about meaning is it's found as you interact with life not found in a theory about stuff but is you come into contact with life especially difficulty in hardship and especially when you start to take responsibility for it especially when you start to say things like I'm sorry that was my fault and that's something I keep doing isn't it dr. dot it's that time when you touch life and it makes you think why do I keep getting into this mess why do I keep going out with these kind of people you know I've been out with this person I suppose Elizabeth but why is it why is it I would get to the same place how come I get into this kind of mess yeah I'll say a bit more about that later of course it's it's sometimes found in interaction with it's the ecstatic moments in life where you have ecstatic moments either you know fairly commonly people having ecstatic experiences in nature I've had friends who've had experiences very very deep experiences in meditation sometimes very very early on there have been quite beyond their sense of themselves in the world yeah really quite beyond it something touching on the mystical people have almost religious experiences looking at a work works of art I remember having one looking at a Suzanne painting when I was 24 and that's made me go back to Suzanne again and again I looking at that Suzanne paintings have shook my world in a way that's very very difficult to explain so sometimes people discover in interacting valuably with life seriously with life in the best sense not not potentially not super earnestly but interacting with life sometimes they have aesthetic experiences of nature of works of art sometimes they have experiences of of love and empathy sometimes they have experiences of having to really take responsibility for themselves all of these things are what grow meaning in your life yeah another really simple way of putting it is tell the truth as soon as you start to tell the truth you move towards meaning and it's not easy to tell the truth sounds like it is how you just turn truth but we actually don't tell the truth to ourselves often we often often enough oftentimes we don't read tell the truth to ourselves we have to work out what we mean by what we're saying to us I'm having to work out the truth of it yes so you could say simply that yeah finding the truth and living by it is how you discover meaning in life yeah just start by telling the truth the truth about yourself the truth about your experience find the truth and live by so gosh time is moving on so that's only my first so I better touch on the others a bit shorter so my second thought about meaning in life is and this is actually a bit more difficult to explain it's I think meaning in life is found by trying to work out the power all of your life yeah to try to understand try to yeah understand the parable of your life I don't know whether you've ever noticed this but do you notice how often almost always your fret whatever your friends do or your loved ones do what very often what happens to them seems to be just like them seems to be really quite in character do you know how often you say oh yeah so what that always happens to them you know they're lucky or they're unlucky or this happens but so often you feel about other people that they rarely feel like the act out of character do they even your very close friends you know very well you rarely feel gosh I didn't expect to do that in fact it worries you when people act out of character and even the things they have that happen to them very often sort of weirdly suit them and you have to be a bit careful with that because if you not care for you you take that too literally and think that um the people the experiences people have are created by them what Buddhism saying is there's some mysterious interaction between South and world I've been thinking about recently I've been noticing it a lot recently as like the actor and the play that there's some kind of relationship with self and world that's a bit like that be a bit careful with that because you can overdo that metaphor but that the what happens to you that the life you're in suits the character you're playing if you sit Amin keeps on underlining the character that you're playing now it's really pretty easy to see that in your friends you can see we are back there acting in that way they're doing that again it's very very difficult to see it in yourself very very difficult one tends to think no no I I am I'm a free agent I do what I like I think my own thoughts I you know I I'm not acting according to character I make spontaneous decisions I can you know I'm free actually probably your friends think yeah you you think that's just what you like it's just part of your character they'll think of you like you think of them that they rarely act out of character that they don't seem in sense so how I'm thinking about this at the moment take a bit of risk for this because it's just what I'm thinking about at the moment particular on this home retreat is that your life is kind of parable it's a kind of story that you're telling yourself and when you tell a story you I don't know you you kind of edit out bits don't you and you draw forward bits bits of it you you make something of and a big parts of the story other bits of the story you kind of quietly edit away so one of the things we can do is try to think try to notice what what the parable of your life is and you're trying to be the hero of the parable of your life just to give you a personal example just recently I caught myself and this is it shameful thinking oh you know I'm the one that's doing all this stuff I'm doing this I'm doing that I'm doing all this stuff other people aren't doing so much now often that that's a habit I've got you know had in my life I I can easily get into that kind of slack resentful thinking and slightly more self martyring kind of thinking it's not all I do but that is one of my habits and those stories they play themselves by the south's without you noticing you get absorbed I were you on I in this case get absorbed into the story but just the other day I think this through because we all retreat and I'm a bit more awake to that I just caught it and I thought why do I need to keep telling myself that story but I'm the one that does all this stuff and is much pressed and much called upon and much busy and other people aren't and hmm you know so on I I play that story since I was a long as I can remember why am i acting out that character and how would that character change how would they become the hero of their life rather than the victim of their life when I was young I saw myself as a victim in various ways it's really not a good look as a friend of mine used to say and it really is really not in our interest to think of ourselves as a victim so when you've got those stories and I've had some very painful stories in my life that I told myself one of the meanings of awareness is trying to think why do I need to tell myself this story and if it was a story in which I became the hero of I've got pasta pasta partly I've got Dickens saying that you need to become the hero of your own life which I've always gone back twice without having a strange idea about what will hero is or the heroine is I think I think he's onto something there as long as you don't take it in that strange rather I don't know sort of silly sense but if you think of your life as somehow a parable that's and that's unfolding that's got its own pattern and you're trying to as a world be the hero of it the person who learns not risen to who learns when who learns the lessons that the parable of their life is teaching them you know I think our life means something I I think not only our life means something I think everything we do everything we say and everything we think has an effect it means something I mean I don't think that Buddhism says huh but what Buddhism says is something that I'd already had it instinct for that life means things that everything I do matters that my behavior matters how I think matters that what I do why I say matters I mean again if you if you don't believe me try living as if what you say and what you do doesn't matter it's a nightmare it's a nightmare so if what if I think that what I do what I say matters what I see if I look at my life is it kind of parable that it's like a story that I'm involved in how do I make that story into a story of love and wisdom and courage and understanding and apology and truthfulness and generosity rather than a story of poor me or you know wonderful me big me you know how do i in dickens term how do i become the hero of my life i think that's how you find meaning that and you have to do that you have i have to do that and i'm still try to do it you know 50 years after much probably more than my after my grandmother died so i'll say just a little bit about the third and i want to meditate because i'll come back to this in the second half group because this is again i think a bit more i hope a bit deeper still which is and i'll need to caveat this but meaning is to be found in something beyond you yeah so first my first point with meaning is to be found in a vigorous interaction with your life yeah that's where it's found it's not found in ideologies if you try and take it from ideologies you're very likely to make matters worse to be very careful with ideologies so it's MIT it's found by a an honest interaction vigorous on its interaction with life truthful to yourself you know what i really don't like that person truthful about it and then how can i work with that you that's the first way secondly this i hope a deeper way of trying to look at your life like a parable if it was a parable what is it trying to teach you that you need to learn i feel more and more strongly as I've got older that we're here to learn something i can't support that belief but that's that's more and more what i think and it's very difficult for human beings to learn so look at the parable of your life look at everything that happens to you it reminds me of somebody wants our sangha ranchito the founder of this movement how do i become like you and he said reflect on everything that happens to you reflect on everything that happens to you in other words discover the meaning of the parable of your life what is it trying to say about what your life wants to be our life wants to be a life of generosity of meaning of value of of goodness we don't want our life to be on meaningful mean small petty none of us on that none of us wanted you don't need me to tell you them but my third area is meaning needs to be found in something beyond us so I wanted I'll talk more about it in this in in the second half and I think vixen Stein said something like that didn't he said that the meaning of life lies beyond life something like that put it much better than I can we need to have some sense and as I say are trying to unpack this a bit more in the second half you need to have some sense that it's not just me it's not just me and my small Eggert ISM do you sometimes feel that you just sort of going round around yourself it's so boring I've got all these catchphrases that might all my friends in my community teeth me God that I said something of a day and friend of mine I live with officers matt said that's so like you to say that and actually so like me to say a metaphor so you can feel that your self is just endless and tedious I think if you're honest with yourself at times it really just feel like that just endless and tedious so you need something beyond that that you can find meaning in of course for many people historically that's been God I I've never believed in God but I think it's on to something I think the instinct is onto something for me I find it a problematic metaphor partly because people don't realize it's a metaphor I think it takes you to all kinds of problems that I I think actually a deeply problematic but the instinct to think there's something beyond life that gives meaning to life I think it's absolutely crucial instinct but how do we train that instinct so it becomes something more and more robust something more and more reasonable not fantastical and not ideological something more and more that we can feel that isn't just some sort of unsecured belief yeah but look that's that's enough of talk for a moment let's see if we can take some of that into the meditation I'll lead us through a meditation and then we'll have a break and I'll I'll try and say a bit more about finding meaning something in something beyond us before the way just remember beyond is a metaphor as well I'll come back to that yeah so let's set ourselves up to meditate so probably you you'll be sitting on a chair sitting in front of your computer will dim the lights in the shrine room here and you might want to dim your screen just so that you haven't got the light of the screen shining on your eyes and once you once you're ready closing your eyes you wanted to sit upright but relaxed so you want your head nicely balanced on the top of your spine and see if here you can bring your mind into your body so as I was saying earlier meaning isn't to be found in ideas or at least not in bright ideas in sort of heady ideas to find meaning in a life we need to be more and more integrated more and more complete or more unified and the key to that is cultivating much more awareness of our body because the meaning is going to be growing out of our experience it's not coming into our experience literally from the outside so see if you can really bring your attention to the weight of your body on the cushions really feeling a contact of your cushions of the of your body with the cushions or the chair and as I often say you don't need to think about that you don't need to have any picture of your cushions on your chair you just feel that sense of pressure of support well then once again softening your eyes your brow very often following a brow and we often don't even notice we're doing that so see if you can just soften your brow soften your eyes if you can relax your jaw release usual see if you can let go of your shoulders and if you can soften your belly see if you can like have your legs we're often gripping with all eggs so just imagining your whole body calming down quieting down calming the body calming your mind and then bring your attention into your heart center so I don't mean your literal heart just the center of your chest so you just you're aware of your body you can feel your weight of your body in you're trying too hard with all this you're not laboring over you just aware of your weight on the chair to bring your awareness into the heart center and just notice what you feel there a lot of people tell me they don't feel anything there but even not being able to feel anything feels like something what we mean really is that we just don't feel very much it's very bland and neutral and that's just fine that's that's how we often are so see if you can feel what you actually feel around your heart center even if that's nothing much that's fine then all we're going to do for the next few moments is just turn over in our heart just those things that we value in our life just now but give us a sense of meaning and value and purpose and it doesn't need to be big things it can be a novel you're reading a joke he shared with a friend someone you talk to today enjoying walking in this beautiful weather in London things you appreciate things you value and all you're doing is bringing them to mine and as it were taking them into that heart area you're not trying to make yourself feel anything about it you just remembering I can remember my friends and book I'm reading them really valuing I'm valuing the interactions I'm having with teaching I've got children in my life and I value etc just turn them over in your heart well you're not try to make too big a deal of a just bringing your mind into the whole center and just bringing to mind what are you grateful for what you appreciate us now what do you value just now simple things love you bring them to mind you see if there's any response around your heart clear bringing your attention back to the heart and if you find it difficult to feel anything they just come back again to your body to the weight of your body on the ground [Music] just turning over in your heart is those simple things that you're valuing just now if you get distracted that's alright just come back the weight of your body or chair cushions [Music] come back to your heart center whatever you feel there even if it's nothing much then just bring to mind you know kind of light way things are you're appreciating just now they give your life a sense of value and meaning you and then coming back again to the weight of your body on the cushions of the chair opening up to the sensations of your body opening out this around you read when you're ready opening you're right okay so we're going to have a ten minute break we'll start again at five past 8:00 and that gives you time to run outside and yeah so we'll just what will do is will mute the computer here for temp for a few minutes and then I'll start again about five past 8:00 yet so got time to do what you need to do and the games have a drink and we'll come back and I'll carry on talking about meaning and how we feel meaning and then we'll finish with a ritual you okay I think we're cheating it again now yeah so we're back live again well we're live all the time we're we're unmuted so I'll say something more about meaning found in beyond you in a certain sense we're going to be trying to explore that in the ritual that's what ritual is for that's why human beings have always done rituals is to uncover discover imaginatively apprehend a meaning beyond themselves a meaning beyond their own egotism that's what all rituals are really about so we're going to sort of actually try that out a bit but the one thing I was thinking about it I thought I'd have a go at is that at the very least we know that if you try and make something you already have meaningful it'll end up hurting you so for instance if you if if being if if money is meaningful to you if that's where you try and find meaning in amassing money you'll never feel like you have enough you'll always feel impoverished if success is what you put your meaning on you'll always feel you're successful enough and there's always other people about to snatch that from you as always the new talent coming out to challenge your success if you put your if you think it's your looks your look silly your beauty your physical beauty that you find meaningful of course that's not going to last if it's your popularity that you create the creates meaning for you well that's not what happens when you're not popular so if we try and make something we have meaningful I think eventually will hurt us success is a good example for instance you know if you are successful if you have success and you try and that becomes your meaning then you'll never feel successful enough of course this gets more difficult because I think probably for most people the great sources of meaning of his work and family rearing a family or work you know my for instance my own mother for her she initiates five of us and so in many ways was a great life's work I mean she also had to work for the business my father's business and driving coaches she was the only woman coach driver in more action I think that time ago and she didn't really want to do that but we had to because we had no money but you know family it's very often that we put that's what we try and get meaning in family and quite sort of reasonably under you know a understandably but I remember my mother saying how difficult it was when we all left home you know I've got girls in my life Alexandria and they've already got to the eye-rolling teenage stage where they just don't need me around so much so even things like family if you put your if that's where you're gonna find all your meaning before they you know it they've left home isn't it seems to happen incredibly quickly or work you know so many people come to put of them come to some kind of quest for meaning when something's happened to work when they've they've been laid off or when they're further just now or you know a friend of mine has become redundant in this time as many people have so my own thought about it was that if you don't have a meaning beyond you you've your force into creating meaning from what you already have and there's something about that that will eventually come around and bite you yeah sooner or later no it's easy to say but that it's difficult to sort of understood to to then discover a meaning beyond you but well I try and say that bit that bit about that at the end I want to leave enough time for questions II might have questions about that but I wanted to talk about so those are my three ways and I wanted to talk about to quad you I'll mind so I don't think genuine meaning can be found in something you can't believe in that you can't experience even if only to a small degree I know there's a question sound yeah the lights on my back how long it was away for okay okay so yes I'd say explore these two qualities for this first quality is that the meaning needs to include all of you in fact it needs to be include more than you but you for something to be genuinely meaningful you can't leave a part of yourself out doesn't mean to say you naturally have to express it be you can't leave a part of yourself out it needs to find its place in a greater meaning I mean you know a part an aspect of that is it can't be something that you have to leave your reason outside that this was one of the reasons I always found God so problematic I never believed in God and I said earlier but I just couldn't believe in it I just couldn't do that I just thought I just don't it didn't I couldn't reason I couldn't believe in it and I've read some great Christian thinkers including a Marilyn Robinson's recent book called why are we here she's a wonderful Christian thinker and some people managed to find a way of making it reasonable to themselves but I never managed to split I don't think you can find meaning something that you have to kind of cross your fingers to believe that you have to edit out your experience believe it needs to be big enough to be able to meet all of your experiences it's quite demand for meaning for meaning but it needs to feel like I've got all the space in meaning that I need yeah now my own experience is that the dollar is the only thing I found that has done that I have actually also found meaning in art and literature particularly but it's never been big enough it's never encompassed the whole of my life so I think that's another qualification for meaning needs to be able to contain all of you you need to be out to reason for it it can't be something that's fantastical or you know ideological in the sense of you you can believe it and even be passionate believing it but you have to leave out all of these criticisms of it all you have to suppress elements of yourself that don't fit into it I don't think that's very healthy and so it needs to be big enough to include all of you and you think in fact it needs to be encouraging all of you into it I think and to live that and then the second thing I'm thinking about meaning is how do we actually experience it it's all very well the more you say that word meaning is like saying it on the word umbrella lots of times you say umbrella enough you just it just becomes a just a sound noise it you keep saying meaning eventually go what on earth is it you know so how I've been thinking about meaning recently I was just talking to again a friend of mine I live upstairs with David we were talking about and I was saying that my own experience of meaning is it's an experience of a lineman that I feel aligned with meaning I don't always feel like I'm moving towards it heroically I don't have that sort of sense of my life but I feel at times and at times even very deeply really deeply aligned with something as if I don't know as if there's a gravitational pull and I can start to feel the gravitational pull of meaning and value and I can feel when I'm in that Paul and I can feel when I'm not I was talking about dharmic responsiveness yesterday in the retreat responsiveness to the truth and I think partly this is what it's getting at that sense of alignment with value and meaning you know when you rise up and you do the difficult thing I remember one time when I was young having to go to criticize my to my Buddhist teachers about something about something I was concerned about and I was very uneasy about doing it I naturally look up to people I think I remember going to see them and saying Laura I'm really I feel quite critical of that and I I remember I thought I did it really well I was empathic I was sympathetic to them I was understanding I wasn't moralistic I've come to really low with moralism moral indignation and moralism generally there's always a new brand of moralism around I managed not to be moralistic and blaming but I did now say look I just don't think that's very good I I sort of experienced myself growing up in that moment and as I remember walking downstairs afterwards I remembered it all this time I felt this lovely sense of alignment it's almost like your spine is in alignment like you know like when you go to an osteopath and they crack it's my hand feels better you feel like everything's lined up properly the top is at the top and the bottoms at the bottom and you're in the right alignment to it sometimes I felt that very deeply that I'm I'm aligned with meaning and value and I'm not you know an embodiment of it I'm not an exemplar of it um I'm very aware of my shortcomings but I feel aligned with value and meaning and it's quite palpable you feel it it's not it has thoughts in it but it's mostly a kind of feeling of a sort of positive healthy pride even that you're doing what you should do you're you're living how you should live it's very very pleasurable but you know it's pleasure in a very quiet way I think sometimes it's what people experience on retreat that you you you're doing what you should be doing the the top is at the top and the bottom is at the bottom and you're in the right place in the in the the mystic order of things almost like a spine running the way through the universe and you just got your little place in that and it all feels right you know where you are in life yeah it's very palpable this it's not an idea you bring in and of course you can sometimes really feel that you're out of alignment with me kind of painfully out of alignment you can just feel that you're lost you just don't know what your you're doing went in for instance when you lie you you feel immediately like you've been pushed out of alignment with meaning when you're mean when you're harsh somebody you're sort of pushed away from this alignment with meaning perhaps another way of thinking about it is it against you I'm using alignment and I'm using this idea of gravitational pull so it's as if there's another planet of the planet of meaning a value of truth so it has its own gravitational pull and sometimes you can feel that pull but very often you you feel very pulled in other ways don't you you know that those times when you think I'm going to do something valuable and you end up just flicking idly through Facebook you know you're pulled into trivia you put falls into I don't know a triviality that's worth thank you not only I have a lot of people who can feel by working for me you're pulled into triviality you pulled into sort of just silly behavior easing why ever did I do that we're all subject to all these kind of polls that are deeply buried in us but there is also this pull towards meaning and value and truth and when you're in the slipstream of that when you're in there when you're in the the pull about the gravitational pull of that you feel it you feel it - definitely anyone can feel it it's got this lovely sense of relief about it this sense of of knowing in a way knowing who you are knowing what you're about very very satisfying him so let me just feel coming back again - meaning to be found in something beyond you and what I was saying before of you know this sense of the tedium of being you saying the sort of things that you say of doing sort of things that you do of going into the same sort of scrapes very often getting into the same kind of relationship hasn't it's all sort of things and how tedious I can be and how how sometimes you can feel it's difficult to get out of it even in meditation even when you're a Buddhist like I am you can find it so difficult to to get out of what I do sometimes you sometimes it feels like one is in in the grip of the myth of being me and I don't mean that in a positive sense but I thought I'd finish my little talk at least by telling you around experience I had in which I experienced something more and something seemingly infinitely more so I taught us - I started this really by talking to you about my grandmother's my grandmother's death and that great question that my grandmother's death for me created and I could tell my parents didn't know and it the answer to it even as a child I knew that they didn't know and I knew that was a massive issue and effectively it stayed the issue one of the issues of my life when I was 30 I was ordained so that's a long time ago now it's nearly 30 years ago in fact I was ordained on this thing at the 2nd of June so it's coming up soon and you have a private ordination and a public ordination ordinations by the way into the tree ratna buddhist order means commitment to them it means dedicate it's actually means a bit more than that it means that you've decided to dedicate your life to Buddhism which is dedicating your life to meaning and value and come on may dedicating your life to the Buddha dedicating your life to his teachings and dedicating your larger trying to create Sangha by being honest by being kind by created by making friends with people when you're ordained what's being said there is yes you can do those things and we can see that you're doing those things of course the great challenge of ordination is staying true to your ordination coup take you take ordination valves when you get ordained that you'll say true to those things and that's a lifetime challenge to keep true to those those vows you take of ordination but you there's a there's a two parts the ordination ceremony a private ceremony in a public ceremony in the private ceremony you you you yourself pledge yourself to committing your life to Buddhist practice to discovering and uncovering the truth whatever it happened whatever it turns out to be whatever it turns out to be the truth and in the public ordination you you are witness of doing that in the company of our Sangha in the company of the Trier and the Buddhist order in vivid relationship with each other being on it's being kind making friends apologizing forgiving all that we need to do in our relationships with others and out of which can be can come one of being Victor Frankel's basis for for meaning that that love that can come from from all of that from relationship yeah anyway after my after I was privately ordained in those days you used to be left on your own after the ordination all night and I'd written her I'd written my own ritual we're going to be doing a ritual in a moment I read I'd written my own ritual and I I am I decided after my ordination that once my preceptor had gone I would read this ritual out was had written and it wasn't very good the ritual death it wasn't a beautiful piece of poetry or enough all I did it said in the ritual it's thank you to this person thank you to that person here's what's been valuable to me I just realized my life the parable of my life you could say to go back to that and I read it out very much it might pretty much my ordinary set of mind and then I close my eyes and as soon as I close my eyes [Music] gosh how can I that there was meaning and there wasn't idea it wasn't a force wasn't even a vision quite Oh although you could say it was a vision I've moved quite beyond myself and quite beyond the world in which everything in that experience was perfect or at least what we call perfect but it is really a Christian word I would think but everything see nothing could possibly go wrong in that stage of mind yeah I can never explain it I can't really remember it what I remember of it is it felt like I had this metaphor for it very immediately and I didn't come up with that it just appeared so often metaphors tell you more deeply about life as deep as language can go anyway it was like a very kind figure it touched my shoulder and it showed me that I'd been and just I've been looking down the telescope of my look to my life at the wrong way around it really felt like someone had just taken his telescope out of my hands very kindly I just turned it round and showed me showed me not just my life but life experience reality showed me it just as is and you can't say anything matter what you could say it's beautiful but that's a bit weirdly trivial but it was everything you know it was everything nothing could ever possibly be a problem no problem was possible including death in that experience it was a vision of how things really are and that vision closed I'm not making any any claims for myself that vision closed and I just went back into my boring old neurotic old South habitual south us I I was in the moment before it happened the doors closed on that experience and I was back to me again boring on me again but yeah I can't gain say that experience it's an experience I definitely had an experience of meaning itself as a living force in and around and everything yeah anyway fare I thought I was finished with that story I didn't with him well you can make of that and now I'll just open it up for some questions if you've got any any questions and then I will finish as usual by just doing a short ritual because rituals one of the ways in which human beings open up to meaning from beyond themselves beyond their if it isn't beyond their everyday consciousness yeah it's a good question meaning people can have experiences of meaning that vivid and true and then it seems to disappear how do you turn back to it but the main answer really is put yourselves in candy put yourself in conditions in which you're more likely to experience them for me I mean the sense of meaning wanes waxes and wanes a lot you can feel it very strongly and sometimes you can feel like you don't feel it at all and of course we mustn't get too hooked up in it as it being a big experience the sense of meaning can be very how come every day you can sometimes hardly know it but you're living on something that you know you're not quite aware of but where I feel it more particularly there when I go on retreat when I put myself into conditions in which foster meaning when I'm dating when I'm not on my phone all the time when I am in friendship with other people when I'm in community with other people when I'm studying the Dharma when I'm just trying to think deeply when I'm reading well when I'm in direct contact with nature all those things foster an experience of meaning I mean you can have an experience of meaning in the most bizarre situations including in very painful ones but clearly certain conditions foster meaning more than others I think the other thing I think is communication truthful communication Foster's meaning in my life very much but yes it does wax and wane and one of the things we need to do is if you start to feel the meaning is running really thin in your life or what I'd normally say is you need to get on retreat you need to deepen your meditate you need to take that into your meditation you need to start to study the Dharma more deeply I think we need to be quite sensitive to when we're starting to lose meaning in our life because then we start to act foolishly then we start to find meaning in success or beauty or popularity or some other form we'll try and finally some people try just try and find meaning in food or wine you know and deep within yourself you know that's not here so I think we need one things we're trying to watch out for is when our sense of meaning is starting to thin and we needed to try and do something about that pretty quick if we can and that's one of the revant that's one of the purpose of Sangha of a Buddhist community at the spiritual community is hopefully you've got people around you to remind you look you're getting a bit thin on the on the meaning you're getting a bit [Music] that's a really good question yeah so I think you when when you're aligned with me I think yes you are protected from negativity more you know this yourself that when you're in a good mental state difficulties can come if it's a genuinely good mental state not just a intoxicated mental state because remember a good mental state isn't necessarily a happy one isn't necessarily a up cheery cheery one sometimes that's just sort of a kind of triumphant state when you think you've way you've basically just got what you want but when you're in the genuinely positive state you're kind of more insulated from your own negative tendencies and we've all got negative tendencies when you're in a genuinely positive state when you're when you're aligned with meaning you feel yourself to be a safer in the universe I remember once I had this conversation with somebody who was actually frankly very very difficult and he was trying to trap me in a communication where he was trying to blame me for something I was very striking experience I had and it was it was quite unpleasant quite manipulative he's trying to make me try to blame me for something and I was really I happen to get myself into place where I was clearly quite mindful and normally when people try and trap you usually just jump in the trap because you feel threatened and I just didn't do that I didn't jump in the trap I felt somehow protected by being in meaning and truth I kept on just telling the truth like and because I kept on just telling the truth but but doing so with this empathy for him and concern for him I felt like wonderfully sort of safe in a sensitive way but yes you're right that feeling aligned with meaning does protect you from negativity it won't necessarily protect you from negativity coming to you from outside because not everything that happens to you is to do with your mind by any means but it will help you respond more creatively to it in the Buddhist tradition they said the metaphor they use is if you wanted you know in carpentry where you put a peg in a joint if the peg has got rotten how you knock it out as you knock in another peg so the way to knock out lies and deceit is to tell the truth the way to knock out being mean or selfish is to be generous if not doesn't usually work you just try and not do the main thing you have to do something you have to knock in a good another plug the way to manage feeling that you haven't got meaning in your life is to open yourself up to meaning it's to read Viktor Viktor Frankl is to open yourself up to meaning is to read Dharma it's to meditate yeah it's not usually enough just to try not to do the negative things you need to put in a positive and one of the one-way tacky way of doing that is this the sense of alignment with meaning and value it's great good question no nothing's the whole story yeah how do we how do we work with this sort of parable of ourselves um so what I'm trying to say about that I think it's suggestive more than the literal but most valuable things are suggestive really do you get do you get what I'm getting at I'm suggesting something I think the best attitude to have to your life is that you yourself have things to learn from it so the scrapes you get yourself into are there for you to learn something yeah now that's not saying that they are necessarily you know it's not saying the difficult things happen to you and that's somehow god-given for you to learn from but that's the most creative productive attitude to life so you know when you get into those situations where I don't know you feel that you've been worsted in an argument or you feel that you're not valued or you feel that you're overlooked or you're not appreciated we all have those sort of stories I can I can forward to those stories as soon as you get into who's to blame for that usually that gets you nowhere in fact I've never seen it get me anyway I've never seen a get anyone anywhere cluding blaming yourself but if you think if this was happening to me in a parable how would I learn what would the parable be telling me about how to live so I don't know what that means about a narrow overview it's so difficult with a narrow view of yourself because I think we all have a narrow view of ourselves to one degree or another I mean this figure behind me represents the broadest possible view you can have of yourself we all effectively get in our own way so the thing is we notice some ways we do that but don't notice others you know we notice how our own self dislike gets in our way but we often don't notice that we're also actually not very generous and we might say well that's because I don't like myself but that lack of generosity is getting in the way as well that's narrowing us as well I mean I definitely grow with a lot of you know so self dislike actually I had quite a lot of dislike of others as well which I was much less keen to admit because he didn't get sympathy for that but I had quite a lot of them self dislike as much more willing to admit that um but um and that definitely narrowed down my experience I was very lucky to have friends who who wouldn't relate to me on that basis again so much comes back to friendship but yet I think we've always got somewhat narrow sense 4000 what you hope as you grow older and this isn't by by any means can happen because if you don't actually work with your mind you hope that you keep on opening yourself up and learning things I've been striking in this lockdown period you know I've been learning a lot of it from Sanjay about about how to do this online thing and slack I mean I never heard of it till it meant something else now those are so trivial learnings but think of your life is something that you're really involved in and that things are happening to you you're co-creating in some way and no that's a difficult thing to say in a difficult thing sometimes are here especially if you're very unhappy and golly I've been very unhappy in my life so it's not coming from because I'm mr. cheery chops try to have that thing water my what is my experience trying to teach me sometimes it might be teaching me that when I get in this day I isolate myself because I feel unfit for human consumption I need to ring a friend and tell them that I'm not in grades day and so on I hope you see what I mean but I think that's a much better attitude to have your life and assume that yes you're narrowing yourself again even when you're in a really good state there's much much more to you than you think there's much more to all of us and we think and that's what this figure represent gosh that's great really good question crikey so yes you can be married yes you can have a family no the family doesn't have to move into a community house in fact very very few people live in a community one of the problems about for me for me teaching and in this particular context is that many of us because we live on-site in these Buddhist communities it gives you this sense that most Buddhists are living in communities because I'm talking to you quite a lot in the levanta he lives a Mesa by dramati Caravan she lives in the community and I rigged up to the chair of the center doesn't live in the community I don't think she ever has she has a son that she lives with she hasn't moved him into a community either she's very much an autumn ember Anissa is the chair of the center so absolutely you can have a family absolutely and there are older members who do have families very many you can you can be married and so on so let's just be very very clear about that you can have a partner you can have more than one partner that the what ordination really is is saying you want to dedicate your life to the Buddhist path which is a movement which is a path from where you are now just now on a Thursday evening to enlighten you what you've decided yourself completely freely without any pressure from anybody else that's what you want to dedicate your life to now ordination doesn't just mean that it also means other people who know you well particularly other order members other members of the tree ratner Buddhist Order they also think that that's what you really want to do now this is a very inexact science because you can think you want to do that and actually it turns out you don't really want to do that well you can think you don't want to do that it turns out you do you want to do that and you can get that wrong and your friends can get that wrong and of course remember you can always fall away from ordination it's not ordination isn't a status it's not something I care I'm now or an all remember and I never fall back from that I fallen away from myself at times every older member does so the just to talk about the name briefly the neck the my name is Maitreya bandeau Maitreya means a kindly one and bandeau means friend it's it's a Sanskrit root of the other of the word brother for instance you can always hear the relationship of bandeau and brother it means brother in the sense of a friend that won't leave you your blood brothers you're in that in that sense so means someone who's like a brother to you a friendly friend a friend who's like a brother to you and when you're and I was given that name by the man who ordained me savanah is someone I look up to very much and he gave me that name and it's sort of it's like saying this is who this is your name when you when you're a Buddha you're a bit like this now you've got some of these qualities in fact they even perhaps some of your strongest qualities and you need to live out those qualities more and more until when you're a Buddha you're going to be called my trap and oh yeah now I am definitely not a good but you see that's what that's the meaning of the name the name becomes your path towards wisdom so jnana varchar for instance jnana means wisdom varchar means speech so speech is very connected with thought with reflection so it means he who thinks and speaks and lives for wisdom and you can see him living that I've seen him I've known him since his very early days in the movement I've seen him living out that wisdom voice more and more in more and more elements of his life yet so that the name is given to you and it represents you at your best it represents your journey from who you are now to enlightenment and when you are an enlightened Buddha everyone called you olivarez there were suggest and they'll be one called Mara bamboo we'll be quite different Buddha's yes quite different Ruth and then if you're thinking what nation my suggestion to you would be hesitate that would be my suggestion to you is hesitate it's a very very serious commitment and it's a commitment that amplifies your life so once when you get ordained if you do good that is amplified in fact you can do more good I think if you're ordained if you practice because ordination doesn't do anything in itself you have to actually live up to the ordination if you live up to the ordination you do more good if you fall away from the ordination it's I think it's quite serious and everybody falls away from their ordination more or less for the more or less period of time but your your actions are amplified so if I do something very negative now my actions are amplified so my suggestion if you're thinking about ordination is to edit eight to talk to your friends about it too awesome is this is this a good idea to make sure you've gone on retreat you make sure you become a Mitchell first and see where that fails like becoming a mature entry Ratna means that you want to get more involved you're not saying you're going to commit yourself yet you're just saying I like this I think I'm a Buddhist I feel I'm a Buddhist I want to explore that a bit more and I want to actually do that in a way I want to take that seriously enough to do a ritual around there but I'm not saying I'm committing my life to it and I'm just saying yep I I think I'm a Buddhist I think that's what I want to be I want to go further with that so I would do that first because you can step back from that much more easily and I've got friends if you've stopped being Mitchell's and it's just fine they're still good friends of mine I've got all the members who've resigned from being an order member overall and they're friends of mine still all right anyway I'll think about that later but it's very very serious thing so my my suggestion to you would be to hesitate ask your friends definitely make sure you've got on a longer retreat become a Mitchell first really get to know that the writings of Sangha the founder of this movement because it's his ordination you'd be taking on so you're getting you're actually getting closer to him but look I know there's lots of other quest it's really really good questions thank you very much I really love questions and I'm in danger of going on too long so let's let's finish with this threefold who do this ritual if you're new to ritual that's great just just jump into it I would say so it's very short and what I need what I suggest you do is close your eyes in the ritual you might even want to do this gesture which is basically a prayer gesture isn't it and that's always meant human beings have always done that in every faith to say is there something out there remember out there as a metaphor and so there isn't somebody as far as my belief says there's not somebody you know I can phone up that's out there it's a metaphor for beyond my everyday consciousness beyond the tedium of me open myself up to I don't know the world I don't know the universe what would I know let's just put our hands together and act as if there is forces in the universe that I can open up to this acts as if let's play that let's try it out so what we'll do is we'll start with the first verses of the Dhammapada which said we'll read so you'll hear those verses these are these are leaders probably as close to the Buddha's teaching as you can possibly get well listen to those then we'll do three short verses in : response so I'll say the verse sorry I'll say the line and then you just respond and try out it's not it's not a spectator sport and so try out if you if you're at home and you've got your flatmate in the room a story a bit embarrassed just mumble it under your breath that's fine and then we'll finish with the shark community mantra that Sandra will lead and then we'll make offerings as a mantra goes and then the man toward our way and we'll just sit quietly for a moment oh I'll say my goodbyes so it won't point you to are pointing to it now the next thing is tomorrow and and then we'll just put the candles out and I'd suggest you just pop down the lid of your computer and leave it at that let's just turn everything off off of this just to say before I do all that had forgotten that yes first of all I just won't really wanted to thank so many of you are on the home retreat for giving we've we've already got halfway tour we've already got halfway to our fundraising target for the retreat we we I mean I mean those of them in finance have worked out that a retreat like this if we were doing it would probably raise about twenty thousand something on that so we've already raised ten thousand pound on this retreat from the people on the home retreat so the main thing I want to do is really thank you all for doing that it's just it's very very heartening it means that we can keep on giving the Dharma so thank you very much I'm I'm sorry I can't individually thank you because we'd actually really really need the money we've got a very very big shortfall that we're we're looking at and let's keep on if you haven't given yet do give so we can meet this target but not so we can meet the target read but just so we can use that money to do more of this kind of work and that we can put it straight back into the Dharma none of it goes to me none of it goes to Ser Boros and I have taken a week off work to do this so no you're that Sunday so so if you haven't given you do give that would be that would be really really good we could redo then as I say we're halfway there we're offering okay so let's close our eyes and then in a moment said not Sandra said well we'll read the first verses from the dollar corner that hearing the voice the words of the Buddha effect experiences are preceded by mind let my mind and produce my mind if one speaks or acts with an impure mind suffering follows even as they can't wield the follows a hoof of the Ox drawing the cart experiences are preceded by mind led by mind and produced by mind if one speaks or acts with a pure mind happiness follows like a shadow that never departs those who entertain such thoughts as they abuse me they beat me they conquered me they wronged me will not still their hatred those who do not entertain such thoughts as they abused me they beat me they conquered me they robbed me will still a hatred not my hatred our hatred and hatred ever pacified ear in the world they are pacified by love this is the eternal law fathers do not realize that we are all heading for death those who realize it will compose that morals threefold puja opening reverence we reverence the Buddha the perfectly enlightened one the shower of the way we reverence the Dhamma the teaching of the Buddha which leads from darkness to light we reverence the Sangha fellowship of the Buddha's disciples of inspires and guides reverence to the three jewels we reverence the Buddha and aspire to follow him the Buddha was born as we are born what the Buddha overcame we too can overcome what the Buddha attained we too can attain we are Reverend Saddam and aspire to follow it with body speech and mind until the end the truth in all its aspects a path in all its stages we aspire to study practice practice realize we reverence the Sangha and aspire to follow MIT the fellowship of those who tread the way as one by one we make our own commitment an ever widening circle Sangha grows offerings to the Buddha reverencing the Buddha we offer flowers flowers are today are fresh and sweetly blooming flowers are tomorrow are faded and fallen our body is - like flowers will pass away reverencing the Buddha we offer candles to him who is the light we offer light from his greater lamp a lesser lamp we light within us the lamp of Bodhi shining within our hearts reverencing the Buddha we offer incense incense whose fragrance pervades the air the fragrance of the perfect life sweeter than incense spreads in all directions throughout the [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] Burnie [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] me buddy [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay good so that's all we've got time for today normally at this point I say put your questions and that's where in the corners and I'll see you next week but yes tomorrow as usual we'll start with meditation at 7:00 a.m. with Subhadra mati and if you're familiar with notation enjoy me at 8:00 a.m. and garavato is not very well at the moment so it's about a matter you'll carry on as 8:30 teaching newcomers and then again events all the way through the day the program as before so do join us tomorrow for the rest of the continuation of the home retreat it's going really really well that I would read so well done everyone and I'll see you very soon oh so I'll just ask Sam to stop putting out the candles and we'll and then I'll suggest as we do that you just pull your own laptop down and come off the screen you

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Keywords: london buddhist centre, system of practice, meditation, dharma, learn mediattion, meanng of life, home retreat, retreat, buddhism, metta, metta bhavana, Maitreyabandhu, buddha, emotion, receptivity, life, death, dukka, suffering, meaning, why life, what is life for, what is the meaning of life

Id: 6UKz6FL_8wo

Length: 124min 45sec (7485 seconds)

Published: Thu May 21 2020