1 00:00:01,178 --> 00:00:23,980 Hello everyone, this is me, I'm here in Thailand, just staying at this kuti in the middle of a orchard, which is right behind a shopping mall in the middle of Bangkok, or on the outskirts of Bangkok. 2 00:00:25,563 --> 00:00:35,488 So I just wanted to first of all make a video to let you know that I'm still alive and still 3 00:00:36,025 --> 00:00:57,662 planning to from time to time make videos hopefully this little device here will let me make videos on the go and even though the quality will be not as good as the regular videos it will allow for more flexibility because i still might be traveling for a little while here 4 00:00:59,836 --> 00:01:21,169 And also to try to revive this ask a monk thing so that when people have questions or when I receive questions that I think might be suitable to make a video about or might be well responded to in this format, I can make a video. 5 00:01:22,702 --> 00:01:34,366 So I thought I'd start it off by asking a question myself and giving a hopefully fairly brief answer, even though it's a fairly complex issue. 6 00:01:35,027 --> 00:01:38,654 So the question is, how do we solve all of the world's problems? 7 00:01:40,237 --> 00:01:41,520 That's the question. 8 00:01:41,939 --> 00:01:48,192 Because it can get quite depressing to think about all of the world's problems. 9 00:01:48,313 --> 00:01:51,339 To think about global warming, for example. 10 00:01:51,820 --> 00:01:57,252 This orchard over here used to have many, many trees in it. 11 00:01:57,673 --> 00:01:59,577 And over here in front of me. 12 00:01:59,557 --> 00:02:08,291 You can see there are quite a few trees, and for Bangkok it's quite, well, green. 13 00:02:09,393 --> 00:02:15,123 But they say half the trees were destroyed in last year's flooding. 14 00:02:16,244 --> 00:02:24,518 What some people say is because of global warming or it's going to get even worse because of the degradation of the environment. 15 00:02:25,696 --> 00:02:41,383 As an example, and then the poverty and the inequality in the world and all of the many problems that exist in the world, all of the many challenges that we face as a human race. 16 00:02:42,725 --> 00:02:47,113 So I'm going to try to tackle this in a very short YouTube video. 17 00:02:48,241 --> 00:03:12,966 So the main premise of the answer that we have to understand first, which I'm going to base my answer on, is the importance in distinguishing between the world and reality or distinguishing between the issues that we face or the 18 00:03:14,212 --> 00:03:44,218 the conventional playing field that or the conventional framework in which in which we look at at the issues that we're faced with and ultimate reality because ultimate reality isn't a um three-dimensional space it isn't a world it isn't um it doesn't admit of people it doesn't admit of societies it doesn't admit of even the earth it doesn't admit of 19 00:03:44,198 --> 00:04:00,064 of any of the the problems or so-called problems that we we talk about when we um try to tackle as human beings ultimate reality doesn't have any problems this is a very important part of the the answer here 20 00:04:02,761 --> 00:04:05,824 Ultimate reality is individual experience. 21 00:04:06,044 --> 00:04:08,066 So my experience is ultimate reality. 22 00:04:08,126 --> 00:04:09,867 Your experience is ultimate reality. 23 00:04:09,907 --> 00:04:11,289 This is ultimate reality. 24 00:04:11,309 --> 00:04:15,092 And all together, all of these experiences make up the world. 25 00:04:15,853 --> 00:04:23,440 And all of our experiences from one moment to the next make up our reality. 26 00:04:23,460 --> 00:04:32,768 And give us this idea or create in our minds these concepts of there being problems, of there being issues that have to be tackled. 27 00:04:32,748 --> 00:04:39,578 And as a result, we wind up dwelling in conceptual reality. 28 00:04:39,898 --> 00:04:42,402 Our solutions are all conceptual. 29 00:04:42,902 --> 00:04:53,657 They're about restoring the environment or creating programs for recycling and so on. 30 00:04:54,438 --> 00:04:57,743 Finding political solutions for war and 31 00:04:57,723 --> 00:05:06,797 political solutions for inequality and famine and disease and so on, and finding cures for sicknesses and so on. 32 00:05:06,817 --> 00:05:16,812 All of this is not the Buddhist answer to the world's problems, because all of the world's problems 33 00:05:16,792 --> 00:05:43,086 in ultimate reality are just experience the only thing that exists is the experience of the phenomena that arise and the reactions to them and the actions that we base on that are based on these reactions and based on these experiences so 34 00:05:44,669 --> 00:06:13,022 while it may seem quite noble and honorable to try to build hospitals and schools in developing countries and to plant trees and so on, all of these things, and actually they are wholesome and they help people and they make our minds in some sense more elevated, they aren't really solving the problem and they have no hope of ever solving the world's problems. 35 00:06:13,002 --> 00:06:21,575 because they are dealing with the effect, or they are dealing with the extrapolation on the problem. 36 00:06:21,655 --> 00:06:24,880 It's like chasing a shadow. 37 00:06:25,762 --> 00:06:28,065 We are trying to fix the shadow. 38 00:06:28,906 --> 00:06:31,450 We're trying to get rid of a shadow, for example. 39 00:06:32,011 --> 00:06:37,339 And we know that a shadow is dependent on the object that casts the shadow. 40 00:06:37,359 --> 00:06:39,162 So all of these issues in the world, 41 00:06:39,665 --> 00:06:43,170 are merely based on our individual experiences. 42 00:06:43,490 --> 00:06:47,996 Now, this can be verified from a conventional point of view. 43 00:06:48,257 --> 00:06:54,325 For example, we talk about greed being a problem and greed being a source of many of the world's problems. 44 00:06:54,345 --> 00:06:56,728 Now, from a conventional point of view, this is easy to see. 45 00:06:58,030 --> 00:07:07,883 You can even understand how if people stopped consuming so much and stopped needing so much and stopped with so much excess of greed and desire, 46 00:07:07,863 --> 00:07:17,019 the resources on earth would really be enough to feed everyone and many, many more people than we already have on this earth if we were to be content. 47 00:07:18,060 --> 00:07:19,262 But of course we're not content. 48 00:07:19,763 --> 00:07:23,510 We aren't able to live with what we have and we always want more and more and more. 49 00:07:24,611 --> 00:07:33,246 And because of this, there's the degradation of the environment, there's war and there's conflict and there's economic disparity and so on. 50 00:07:33,226 --> 00:07:53,547 You could say there's disease that comes from pollution, that comes from even just eating meat or livestock production, all of these diseases that come from our inability to be content with simple lives and with simple experiences. 51 00:07:55,703 --> 00:08:13,915 But from an ultimate point of view, it actually goes deeper than that, that when you give up the causes and conditions that make up the framework of our reality that are causing these problems, the problems disappear and dissolve for you. 52 00:08:13,895 --> 00:08:17,200 Because your reality is that experience. 53 00:08:17,220 --> 00:08:24,913 Your reality is your experience of the six senses and the world around you. 54 00:08:24,933 --> 00:08:31,363 When you change your reaction, when you change your intentions, then your experience changes. 55 00:08:31,343 --> 00:08:44,244 This is why things like the concept of heaven or an angel, the concept of hell, these ideas of being born in such places are not really far-fetched from a Buddhist point of view. 56 00:08:44,284 --> 00:08:48,171 This is an effect, a result of having a pure mind. 57 00:08:48,511 --> 00:08:54,541 And so for a person with a pure mind, they have no need to worry about such things as global warming or famine or so on. 58 00:08:55,583 --> 00:08:58,127 And if we look a little bit more broadly 59 00:08:58,698 --> 00:09:22,917 broadly than we mostly do we'll come to see that actually this is necessary it's necessary to take this kind of an outlook or it's logical to take such an outlook if we're going to be honest with ourselves because anyone who dedicates their whole existence to fixing the world's problems is really 60 00:09:22,897 --> 00:09:27,624 trying to fix something that is impossible to fix. 61 00:09:27,685 --> 00:09:30,139 They're fighting a lost cause. 62 00:09:31,486 --> 00:09:56,177 why because we know that the earth is unsavable this earth is going to eventually go kaput it's going to burn up to a crisp and it's going to eventually the sun is going to explode or whatever and and eventually in some point in the future there will be no human race there will be no humans in this solar system unless somehow we find a way to go to another planet but 63 00:09:57,068 --> 00:10:04,881 the point being that the universe is far more than the issues that we run or we chase around and we try to solve. 64 00:10:05,802 --> 00:10:22,570 The true issues are our universal and unlimited eternal experience, this unending experience and how to interact with that and how to react to that, how to 65 00:10:24,288 --> 00:10:34,112 become free from the problems that are inherent in this chasing after things and continuing on. 66 00:10:35,932 --> 00:10:39,879 Okay, so that is how I want to frame this. 67 00:10:40,019 --> 00:10:46,992 Now, that's basically the answer to this, is coming back to the present moment and obviously undertaking the practice. 68 00:10:47,172 --> 00:10:50,679 Obviously what I'm trying to say, undertake the practice of meditation. 69 00:10:50,699 --> 00:10:58,092 Because once we come to look at reality here and now, and to see things as they are, and to just get real, you know, 70 00:10:58,072 --> 00:11:14,771 to stop having all these ideas and all these grand delusions, really, delusions of grandeur, the idea that, oh, we're going to save the world, and oh, becoming so passionate about causes like economic equality and so on and so on. 71 00:11:16,193 --> 00:11:22,780 Rather than actually doing something to purify our minds, we wind up getting more and more caught up in it. 72 00:11:24,110 --> 00:11:27,237 So the answer is for us to pull out of it and to become free. 73 00:11:27,878 --> 00:11:32,047 And this has an effect for both ourselves and for the people around us and so on. 74 00:11:32,107 --> 00:11:42,068 It's really the only way out because it's the only solution that is based on true reality and what is really going on. 75 00:11:43,178 --> 00:11:45,364 So that's the basic framework. 76 00:11:45,404 --> 00:11:56,715 Now, based on this, and sort of as an outline of what I mean by the practice of meditation, I'd like to outline four... 77 00:11:58,298 --> 00:12:02,424 four points to keep in mind, or four aspects of the solution. 78 00:12:02,845 --> 00:12:06,370 The first one is our solution to the world's problems have to be here. 79 00:12:07,672 --> 00:12:12,779 We can't solve other people's problems. 80 00:12:12,799 --> 00:12:24,897 You can give people this sort of advice, the advice that I'm giving, or you can give people other advice, and if you think that that's the right way, you explain to them this is how you solve things, and so on. 81 00:12:24,877 --> 00:12:27,902 But it's up to each and every one of us to solve our problems. 82 00:12:27,982 --> 00:12:33,190 You can't go and solve the problems in another country or even solve the problems in the person next to you. 83 00:12:33,751 --> 00:12:37,156 You can only solve the problems that are in your own mind. 84 00:12:37,817 --> 00:12:40,441 This is what we mean by meditation. 85 00:12:40,461 --> 00:12:44,628 It doesn't mean to go around and preach to people. 86 00:12:45,709 --> 00:12:47,171 Meditation is not this video. 87 00:12:47,191 --> 00:12:51,017 It's not spreading these teachings or even watching these teachings. 88 00:12:51,037 --> 00:12:52,740 Meditation is when you yourself 89 00:12:53,075 --> 00:13:03,154 begin to look at your reality, begin to take apart this experience and see it for what it is, piece by piece by piece, until finally your mind becomes straight about it. 90 00:13:03,515 --> 00:13:10,428 You no longer have greed, you no longer have anger, and you no longer have the delusion that causes you to do and say and think that thing. 91 00:13:12,011 --> 00:13:16,399 And so first thing is it has to be here, and here means you have to start with yourself. 92 00:13:17,476 --> 00:13:18,898 Number two, it has to be now. 93 00:13:19,479 --> 00:13:21,581 We can't be worrying about problems in the future. 94 00:13:21,621 --> 00:13:33,176 We can't be thinking, oh, maybe 10 years, 20 years, 100 years down the road or sometime in the future there's going to be these problems and we have to worry about them and we have to concern about the future. 95 00:13:33,797 --> 00:13:37,282 When you do that, you're no longer in touch with reality. 96 00:13:37,322 --> 00:13:46,133 The Buddha said this is like grass that when you cut it off, it's no longer able to receive the water from its roots. 97 00:13:46,619 --> 00:13:47,903 And therefore it dries up. 98 00:13:48,164 --> 00:13:52,137 Your mind dries up and you wind up in great suffering. 99 00:13:52,298 --> 00:13:59,481 And this is what leads to, of course, worry and fear and as a result, anger and greed and so on and all of these things. 100 00:14:01,874 --> 00:14:05,081 just like grass that is cut off at the root. 101 00:14:05,101 --> 00:14:11,074 So the person who is uprooted from the present moment is unable to find the answers to their problems. 102 00:14:12,256 --> 00:14:13,819 The past as well we can't go back to. 103 00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:21,115 We can't be angry about the past or trying to make up for the past or we've hurt other people who've done bad things. 104 00:14:21,095 --> 00:14:24,679 We have to be here in the present doing the best we can. 105 00:14:24,759 --> 00:14:25,860 We have to give up the past. 106 00:14:25,980 --> 00:14:34,990 If you've done bad things, if you've had many problems in the past, you have to stop seeing your problems as something that have been going on for years and years. 107 00:14:35,030 --> 00:14:40,797 Like I have an addiction or I have this grudge and this hatred and I have this problem with this person. 108 00:14:41,157 --> 00:14:42,539 You have to take it here and now. 109 00:14:43,039 --> 00:14:45,482 We have to be able to give up the past. 110 00:14:45,462 --> 00:15:12,398 to make a break from the past and say that's who I was that's completely gone and will never arise again and it doesn't have to affect the way I act right now I can act in any way I want in this moment and so we have to take that and change our life for once and for all we have to make a break from the past and the same with the future so number two 111 00:15:13,627 --> 00:15:23,121 Number three, our solutions have to be based on reality. 112 00:15:23,602 --> 00:15:26,026 So I've already discussed as much as the basis of it. 113 00:15:26,627 --> 00:15:42,250 Our solutions are here and now, but they can't be based on our living conditions, or they can't be based on our physical health, or they can't be based on our relationships with other people. 114 00:15:42,230 --> 00:15:44,633 They have to be based on ultimate reality. 115 00:15:44,753 --> 00:15:46,976 And what we mean by ultimate reality is experience. 116 00:15:47,537 --> 00:15:49,940 So when you see something, that is your reality. 117 00:15:50,301 --> 00:15:51,262 And there's a problem there. 118 00:15:51,703 --> 00:15:54,446 Because when you see things, you become attached to them. 119 00:15:54,466 --> 00:15:56,789 When you hear things, that's where the problem arises. 120 00:15:56,869 --> 00:15:59,313 Because when you hear, you become attached to them. 121 00:15:59,333 --> 00:15:59,753 And so on. 122 00:15:59,873 --> 00:16:02,236 When you feel pain in the body, you become attached to it. 123 00:16:02,256 --> 00:16:04,179 You get angry and upset about it. 124 00:16:04,199 --> 00:16:06,642 When you feel pleasure in the body, you become attached to it. 125 00:16:06,702 --> 00:16:07,263 You like it. 126 00:16:07,323 --> 00:16:07,984 You want more of 127 00:16:09,398 --> 00:16:26,530 these are the problems this is the ultimate reality this is where the problem exists and this is where we have to where we have to tackle the fourth aspect of the the solution is that our our focus 128 00:16:26,510 --> 00:16:31,415 Once we focus on reality, it has to be a focus on the goodness of reality. 129 00:16:31,455 --> 00:16:33,017 So the fourth aspect is goodness. 130 00:16:33,798 --> 00:16:37,102 That we can't simply be doing this for intellectual purposes. 131 00:16:37,182 --> 00:16:42,288 And we have to be clear that our intention is to become a better person, is to purify our minds. 132 00:16:42,688 --> 00:16:46,032 The Buddhist teaching is for the purpose of purifying the mind. 133 00:16:46,072 --> 00:16:47,413 This is what makes it special. 134 00:16:47,794 --> 00:16:56,263 That it actually has a way of bringing people to freedom from greed, freedom from anger, freedom from delusion. 135 00:16:56,243 --> 00:17:02,673 To have no unwholesome, unskillful, useless mind state. 136 00:17:02,693 --> 00:17:13,290 To have a mind that is pure, a mind that acts and speaks and thinks from a pure and wise mind in an appropriate way at all times. 137 00:17:13,270 --> 00:17:25,606 So as we practice meditation, as we learn more about ourselves, our focus should be on, for the purpose of making ourselves a better person. 138 00:17:25,626 --> 00:17:31,554 This is the ultimate task because once we're a better person, it's like the source of a river. 139 00:17:32,415 --> 00:17:40,145 If the source of the river is impure, then all the way down the river, the whole river will be tainted and is useless, is undrinkable. 140 00:17:40,846 --> 00:17:42,788 But if the source of the water is pure, 141 00:17:42,768 --> 00:17:53,781 then all the way down the river, meaning whatever we do when our mind is pure, will be of benefit to other beings, any other being who comes in contact with it. 142 00:17:53,801 --> 00:17:59,208 Based on that pure mind, all of the world will begin to change, the whole world around us. 143 00:17:59,228 --> 00:18:10,902 Our goodness, our purity will free us from suffering and will make us a truly useful, truly skillful, truly beneficial being 144 00:18:10,882 --> 00:18:12,704 part of this world. 145 00:18:13,184 --> 00:18:15,066 And a good example is the Buddha himself. 146 00:18:15,246 --> 00:18:31,299 One person was able to change so much, was able to do so much for the world that even now people are practicing his teachings and are freeing themselves from so many unpleasant, unwholesome states of mind and states of being. 147 00:18:31,399 --> 00:18:39,887 People who have addictions, people who have aversions, people who have worries and phobias and so on, are able to become free from these because of the Buddha's teachings. 148 00:18:39,907 --> 00:18:40,467 One person 149 00:18:41,729 --> 00:18:49,917 was able to influence so many other people who were then able to influence so many other people and even today are able to influence people and change things about the world. 150 00:18:51,061 --> 00:18:59,114 This, I think, is at least one answer on what we can do to solve all of the problems in the world. 151 00:18:59,134 --> 00:19:13,997 Because I truly believe, and not just believe out of faith, but based on what I've come to see in the practice, that the answer to the problems lie within ourselves, the answer to all the problems in the world, and that the problems 152 00:19:13,977 --> 00:19:38,314 that you see in the world around you that make you depressed that make you feel hopeless and so on are completely solvable completely um fixable here and now in the present moment here now if you base yourself on reality and develop goodness so this four aspect please make up one um one 153 00:19:39,745 --> 00:20:09,094 solution that I would offer here to the all of the problems in the world so here's a another ask a monk I've asked myself and I've answered myself and hopefully this has been of use for people and that you'll be able to put these concepts into practice or use this as an encouragement for your practice not just encouragement to watch more of my videos or watch more videos or learn more and so on but to actually say yeah I should take the time to do some meditation 154 00:20:09,074 --> 00:20:16,391 And I hope that you all do and that your meditation is fruitful and that you are able to free yourself from the problems that exist in your mind. 155 00:20:17,092 --> 00:20:23,848 And just as for myself, this is my task to free myself from the problems that exist in my mind. 156 00:20:23,868 --> 00:20:27,015 So wishing you all the best and see you next time.