1
00:00:00,031 --> 00:00:00,912
Alright, next question.

2
00:00:01,213 --> 00:00:08,003
Why don't modern day arahants let themselves be scientifically tested to show the effect of meditation?

3
00:00:09,405 --> 00:00:15,114
What are we going to hear?

4
00:00:15,134 --> 00:00:17,437
To show the effects of meditation on the mind.

5
00:00:18,979 --> 00:00:27,372
Well, I heard that my teacher... Okay, first of all,

6
00:00:28,887 --> 00:00:33,833
How do you know who is an arahant or if there are arahants around today?

7
00:00:35,956 --> 00:00:36,777
Very difficult to know.

8
00:00:36,837 --> 00:00:47,149
So whether there are any or where they are, they might be off in the forest meditating happily and peacefully and with no cares.

9
00:00:54,078 --> 00:00:57,342
An arahant is an enlightened being.

10
00:00:58,958 --> 00:01:10,760
But I heard a story that my teacher went to have himself set up with an EKG or some sort of brainwave scan.

11
00:01:11,181 --> 00:01:12,904
And I've seen various meditators do these things.

12
00:01:13,605 --> 00:01:17,813
When they hooked him up to it and he had sat in meditation, they couldn't find a brainwave.

13
00:01:18,875 --> 00:01:20,578
This is what I heard.

14
00:01:20,558 --> 00:01:29,676
So, I mean, I'm not saying anything because of that, but except that my teacher has apparently been asked and submitted to it.

15
00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:37,431
So I don't think it's unheard of, of experienced meditators submitting themselves to that.

16
00:01:37,491 --> 00:01:38,914
And I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

17
00:01:38,934 --> 00:01:40,677
It'd be an interesting study.

18
00:01:40,657 --> 00:01:51,202
And of course they've done that with Tibetan Buddhists and they've found that true enough, all that development of compassion has made them more compassionate.

19
00:01:52,404 --> 00:01:58,699
All of those years of compassion has made them more compassionate, which is what you'd expect.

20
00:02:02,425 --> 00:02:16,472
But, you know, there was this question was asked, or there was this bet posed over this man who promised a million dollars or some huge amount of money to anyone who could show him a psychic power.

21
00:02:17,434 --> 00:02:19,658
And he still hasn't had to pay up.

22
00:02:22,034 --> 00:02:31,568
I don't know what that says about psychic powers, but in Buddhism, Buddhist monks aren't allowed to show their psychic powers.

23
00:02:32,289 --> 00:02:37,537
So it's against our rules to do it in the first place, for a million or a billion or however much money.

24
00:02:38,198 --> 00:02:43,285
And so from a Buddhist point of view, the answer to why no one has come forth is pretty easy.

25
00:02:43,506 --> 00:02:51,197
Why no Buddhist monk has come forth is pretty easy, because first of all, they're not allowed to, and second of all, money is nothing to them.

26
00:02:51,177 --> 00:02:53,860
money is something that they've decided to give up.

27
00:02:58,024 --> 00:03:21,049
But as to why a person wouldn't come forth and prove to people is because of the result of it, that this sort of bragging or boasting about your attainments doesn't make people more interested in meditation, it makes people more interested in the arahant, and it brings great fame and renown to the person.

28
00:03:21,029 --> 00:03:37,786
The Buddha compared it to a prostitute or a dancing striptease person who shows their private parts for money.

29
00:03:38,667 --> 00:03:39,849
This is how the Buddha compared it.

30
00:03:40,569 --> 00:03:45,935
So he said, this is not something that we should encourage in people.

31
00:03:47,296 --> 00:03:49,939
That's not something that really helps.

32
00:03:49,919 --> 00:03:54,789
The important thing is to encourage those people who want to practice, encourage them in meditation.

33
00:03:55,510 --> 00:04:02,264
And the other thing is we don't go looking or trying to bring people to the practice who aren't really interested in it.

34
00:04:02,304 --> 00:04:06,713
We put it out there and say this practice exists and let people come to it.

35
00:04:06,693 --> 00:04:18,650
it doesn't help to show off or to put yourself out there and make a big scene about it.

36
00:04:19,531 --> 00:04:27,242
So I can't see it really helping or coming to an arahant that I should do this for the benefit of Buddhism, because it's not really for the benefit.

37
00:04:27,262 --> 00:04:32,970
It just makes people who are not really keen on practice come and get involved and

38
00:04:32,950 --> 00:04:38,979
You know, it brings a lot of fame and gain and so on, and therefore a lot of people who are interested in fame and gain.

39
00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:46,130
So I don't see it as something that an Arahant, and the other thing is Arahants have no desires, so what would it be to them?

40
00:04:47,312 --> 00:04:52,900
It sounds kind of weird, like, contradictive that an Arahant would go out and

41
00:04:53,335 --> 00:04:55,159
See, see.

42
00:04:55,179 --> 00:05:12,893
And the other thing is an Arahant will never try to, a true Arahant, Mahasi Sayada gave this great, he wrote this great passage about the Arahant and he said an Arahant, anyone who calls themselves an Arahant, it's very hard to believe that they could be an Arahant because an Arahant doesn't have any interest in letting people know that they're an Arahant.

43
00:05:13,294 --> 00:05:14,256
They want to show everyone.

44
00:05:14,296 --> 00:05:14,837
In fact,

45
00:05:14,817 --> 00:05:38,513
an arahant will be very much keep it to themselves and you see this carried out in the scriptures there's stories about this so whether they're true or not but if you go by the scriptures you can there's you see many stories that's where people i would ask monks and the monks would always equivocate even there was this lay woman uh i think we gave a dhammapada story about her who

46
00:05:39,691 --> 00:05:42,496
who became an anagami.

47
00:05:42,856 --> 00:05:47,284
And this monk came and asked her, so are you the woman who can read people's minds?

48
00:05:48,586 --> 00:05:50,069
And she wouldn't answer him.

49
00:05:50,149 --> 00:05:52,152
She said, can you read my mind or something?

50
00:05:52,833 --> 00:05:55,678
And she said, oh, why do you ask that?

51
00:05:55,758 --> 00:05:59,925
Well, you've given me everything I want, everything I want you've prepared for me.

52
00:05:59,945 --> 00:06:03,892
And she said, oh, people prepare things who haven't gained magical powers.

53
00:06:04,373 --> 00:06:05,715
People prepare the right things.

54
00:06:05,695 --> 00:06:07,257
She said, well, I don't care about those people.

55
00:06:07,277 --> 00:06:07,937
I'm asking you.

56
00:06:07,958 --> 00:06:10,040
And still she wouldn't answer him.

57
00:06:11,802 --> 00:06:20,431
So this is clearly from an orthodox response would be that this is not the case.

58
00:06:20,972 --> 00:06:27,960
An enlightened being would never talk or even hint about their attainments.

59
00:06:28,260 --> 00:06:30,943
They would act as an example to people.

60
00:06:32,543 --> 00:06:35,831
But I can see an Arahant if people wanted to hook them up to an EKG.

61
00:06:35,911 --> 00:06:37,715
I can see an Arahant doing that.

62
00:06:38,577 --> 00:06:40,181
It's like, yeah, okay.

63
00:06:40,201 --> 00:06:47,397
I don't think they would necessarily refuse or so on if people came to them.