1 00:00:08,013 --> 00:00:15,448 I read your reply to my question whether past life recollections are reliable. 2 00:00:16,130 --> 00:00:21,902 I am confused that you said that in ultimate reality all that exists is mind and body. 3 00:00:22,603 --> 00:00:24,587 What do you mean? 4 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:46,413 I hesitate because it's a difficult question to answer. 5 00:00:46,473 --> 00:00:51,486 It's not a question that should be answered. 6 00:00:53,153 --> 00:01:22,519 from an intellectual point of view because I can give you the answer and I will but I want to preface it by saying that the only thing that's going to help is if you actually start looking at ultimate reality this is the first thing you have to learn in meditation is what are the building blocks of reality and so now you know my answer you should see what your answer is when you look at ultimate reality what do you see 7 00:01:23,714 --> 00:01:28,797 But the way you can understand my answer is 8 00:01:35,122 --> 00:01:38,467 in terms of how I define ultimate reality. 9 00:01:38,947 --> 00:01:40,630 What do I mean by ultimate reality? 10 00:01:41,932 --> 00:01:47,459 Because people have many different ways of defining the word reality. 11 00:01:49,242 --> 00:01:57,353 I define reality based on the first principle, the first... So language fails us, no? 12 00:01:58,255 --> 00:01:59,897 The... 13 00:01:59,877 --> 00:02:24,754 starting point of everything if you do even if you do experiments on third third person on impersonal it's a quote-unquote objective reality and physical reality the physical world out there you're still required to approach it from the point of view of your own experiences 14 00:02:26,540 --> 00:02:31,735 There's this neat thing about quantum physics that requires the experimenter. 15 00:02:32,176 --> 00:02:39,497 You have to know what the observation is before you can talk about what the results will be. 16 00:02:40,861 --> 00:02:41,764 Without knowing 17 00:02:44,090 --> 00:02:52,724 Without something being experienced, there's no way to talk about the outcome. 18 00:02:54,167 --> 00:03:00,377 This is the quandary that came up out of quantum physics, as I understand it. 19 00:03:02,247 --> 00:03:08,759 So, this is great evidence for the fact that reality has to start with experience. 20 00:03:09,300 --> 00:03:20,963 Which, from Buddha's point of view, it's really a silly... From a person who's seen ultimate reality, it's really a silly thing to even talk about. 21 00:03:21,223 --> 00:03:21,724 Because... 22 00:03:22,193 --> 00:03:27,622 Obviously, what exists, right here, right now, is what exists. 23 00:03:27,682 --> 00:03:28,964 Experience is what exists. 24 00:03:29,044 --> 00:03:30,206 There's nothing else exists. 25 00:03:33,592 --> 00:03:34,574 The Sun doesn't exist. 26 00:03:34,634 --> 00:03:35,555 Pluto doesn't exist. 27 00:03:35,616 --> 00:03:36,537 Mars doesn't exist. 28 00:03:37,659 --> 00:03:39,202 Solar systems don't exist. 29 00:03:39,522 --> 00:03:42,527 All of these things, they only exist up here. 30 00:03:42,567 --> 00:03:43,549 They exist in our mind. 31 00:03:43,589 --> 00:03:44,390 We think about them. 32 00:03:45,372 --> 00:03:48,437 We say, yes, that's the Sun. 33 00:03:48,417 --> 00:04:17,648 that's the moon this is grass this is a tree and so on but actually what is it it's seeing hearing smelling tasting feeling and thinking that's all that's real these are the only the only aspects of ultimate reality meaning they're the only things that can be experienced all that can ever possibly be experienced is seeing hearing smelling tasting feeling and thinking 34 00:04:19,366 --> 00:04:23,135 And what are the constituents of these six things? 35 00:04:23,195 --> 00:04:26,523 What are the constituents of these experiences, of experience in general? 36 00:04:28,287 --> 00:04:32,878 And if you observe it, you will see that there are two constituents. 37 00:04:33,019 --> 00:04:34,843 One is the physical, one is the mental. 38 00:04:37,253 --> 00:04:44,302 So, for example, when the stomach rises, well, the stomach is, theoretically, it's rising and falling all the time. 39 00:04:45,444 --> 00:04:47,647 But if the mind is not there, there's no experience of it. 40 00:04:47,907 --> 00:04:50,731 So without the mental, there's no experience of rising. 41 00:04:51,372 --> 00:04:56,038 But if the stomach doesn't rise, then even if the mind is there, 42 00:04:56,018 --> 00:04:58,621 there will still not be any experience of rising. 43 00:04:58,922 --> 00:05:03,708 Without the body and the mind, the feeling of rising can't arise. 44 00:05:04,449 --> 00:05:11,238 If your eye is good, and there's light touching the eye, but your mind is somewhere else, there's no seeing. 45 00:05:12,219 --> 00:05:15,543 If your eyes are not good, and the mind is there, there still is no seeing. 46 00:05:15,563 --> 00:05:21,351 If your eyes are closed, even you put your mind there, you still don't see anything. 47 00:05:21,331 --> 00:05:24,896 If the lights are out, if you turn out the lights, you still don't see anything. 48 00:05:25,337 --> 00:05:29,123 So the physical and the mental are the two constituents of experience. 49 00:05:29,143 --> 00:05:33,750 That's what is meant by body and mind is all that exists. 50 00:05:34,371 --> 00:05:37,215 Because we define existence as experience. 51 00:05:37,235 --> 00:05:41,722 And we're only... Whether you want to define existence as something else, we're not concerned with that. 52 00:05:42,463 --> 00:05:47,211 All that we're concerned with as Buddhists is the reality of experience. 53 00:05:47,371 --> 00:05:48,773 That to us is... 54 00:05:48,753 --> 00:05:52,468 is their equivalent reality and experience.