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.
So I just wanted to first of all make a video to let you know that I'm still alive and still
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
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.
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.
So the question is, how do we solve all of the world's problems?
That's the question.
Because it can get quite depressing to think about all of the world's problems.
To think about global warming, for example.
This orchard over here used to have many, many trees in it.
And over here in front of me.
You can see there are quite a few trees, and for Bangkok it's quite, well, green.
But they say half the trees were destroyed in last year's flooding.
What some people say is because of global warming or it's going to get even worse because of the degradation of the environment.
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.
So I'm going to try to tackle this in a very short YouTube video.
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
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
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
Ultimate reality is individual experience.
So my experience is ultimate reality.
Your experience is ultimate reality.
This is ultimate reality.
And all together, all of these experiences make up the world.
And all of our experiences from one moment to the next make up our reality.
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.
And as a result, we wind up dwelling in conceptual reality.
Our solutions are all conceptual.
They're about restoring the environment or creating programs for recycling and so on.
Finding political solutions for war and
political solutions for inequality and famine and disease and so on, and finding cures for sicknesses and so on.
All of this is not the Buddhist answer to the world's problems, because all of the world's problems
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
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.
because they are dealing with the effect, or they are dealing with the extrapolation on the problem.
It's like chasing a shadow.
We are trying to fix the shadow.
We're trying to get rid of a shadow, for example.
And we know that a shadow is dependent on the object that casts the shadow.
So all of these issues in the world,
are merely based on our individual experiences.
Now, this can be verified from a conventional point of view.
For example, we talk about greed being a problem and greed being a source of many of the world's problems.
Now, from a conventional point of view, this is easy to see.
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,
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.
But of course we're not content.
We aren't able to live with what we have and we always want more and more and more.
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.
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.
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.
Because your reality is that experience.
Your reality is your experience of the six senses and the world around you.
When you change your reaction, when you change your intentions, then your experience changes.
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.
This is an effect, a result of having a pure mind.
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.
And if we look a little bit more broadly
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
trying to fix something that is impossible to fix.
They're fighting a lost cause.
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
the point being that the universe is far more than the issues that we run or we chase around and we try to solve.
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
become free from the problems that are inherent in this chasing after things and continuing on.
Okay, so that is how I want to frame this.
Now, that's basically the answer to this, is coming back to the present moment and obviously undertaking the practice.
Obviously what I'm trying to say, undertake the practice of meditation.
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,
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.
Rather than actually doing something to purify our minds, we wind up getting more and more caught up in it.
So the answer is for us to pull out of it and to become free.
And this has an effect for both ourselves and for the people around us and so on.
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.
So that's the basic framework.
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...
four points to keep in mind, or four aspects of the solution.
The first one is our solution to the world's problems have to be here.
We can't solve other people's problems.
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.
But it's up to each and every one of us to solve our problems.
You can't go and solve the problems in another country or even solve the problems in the person next to you.
You can only solve the problems that are in your own mind.
This is what we mean by meditation.
It doesn't mean to go around and preach to people.
Meditation is not this video.
It's not spreading these teachings or even watching these teachings.
Meditation is when you yourself
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.
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.
And so first thing is it has to be here, and here means you have to start with yourself.
Number two, it has to be now.
We can't be worrying about problems in the future.
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.
When you do that, you're no longer in touch with reality.
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.
And therefore it dries up.
Your mind dries up and you wind up in great suffering.
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.
just like grass that is cut off at the root.
So the person who is uprooted from the present moment is unable to find the answers to their problems.
The past as well we can't go back to.
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.
We have to be here in the present doing the best we can.
We have to give up the past.
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.
Like I have an addiction or I have this grudge and this hatred and I have this problem with this person.
You have to take it here and now.
We have to be able to give up the past.
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
Number three, our solutions have to be based on reality.
So I've already discussed as much as the basis of it.
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.
They have to be based on ultimate reality.
And what we mean by ultimate reality is experience.
So when you see something, that is your reality.
And there's a problem there.
Because when you see things, you become attached to them.
When you hear things, that's where the problem arises.
Because when you hear, you become attached to them.
And so on.
When you feel pain in the body, you become attached to it.
You get angry and upset about it.
When you feel pleasure in the body, you become attached to it.
You like it.
You want more of
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
Once we focus on reality, it has to be a focus on the goodness of reality.
So the fourth aspect is goodness.
That we can't simply be doing this for intellectual purposes.
And we have to be clear that our intention is to become a better person, is to purify our minds.
The Buddhist teaching is for the purpose of purifying the mind.
This is what makes it special.
That it actually has a way of bringing people to freedom from greed, freedom from anger, freedom from delusion.
To have no unwholesome, unskillful, useless mind state.
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.
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.
This is the ultimate task because once we're a better person, it's like the source of a river.
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.
But if the source of the water is pure,
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.
Based on that pure mind, all of the world will begin to change, the whole world around us.
Our goodness, our purity will free us from suffering and will make us a truly useful, truly skillful, truly beneficial being
part of this world.
And a good example is the Buddha himself.
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.
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.
One person
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.
This, I think, is at least one answer on what we can do to solve all of the problems in the world.
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
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
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
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.
And just as for myself, this is my task to free myself from the problems that exist in my mind.
So wishing you all the best and see you next time.