1 00:00:01,904 --> 00:00:03,265 Okay, welcome everyone. 2 00:00:04,827 --> 00:00:18,381 Today is, in Thai we call it Visakha Puja, which means the day or Visakha Punami, which means the full moon of the month of Visakha. 3 00:00:18,521 --> 00:00:29,852 Puja means it's a holiday or a time to pay respect, to pay homage, to pay puja to the Buddha. 4 00:00:32,279 --> 00:00:39,413 Of course, in Sri Lanka, we know it as ,, which I assume must come from the Sanskrit for . 5 00:00:40,055 --> 00:00:40,936 I'm not sure, actually. 6 00:00:40,956 --> 00:00:44,904 But it might also come from strengthening of the word . 7 00:00:44,924 --> 00:00:46,187 I'm not sure what the Sanskrit is. 8 00:00:50,116 --> 00:00:52,980 So today we're continuing our study of the Dhammapada. 9 00:00:53,702 --> 00:00:57,908 This is what the intention was, but it's also a special occasion. 10 00:00:59,290 --> 00:01:01,153 So thank you everyone for coming out. 11 00:01:01,193 --> 00:01:02,335 We have a full house today. 12 00:01:04,098 --> 00:01:07,543 And we're recording, we're live on the internet as well. 13 00:01:11,910 --> 00:01:17,338 Which is, I think, somewhat... 14 00:01:21,233 --> 00:01:27,221 somewhat proper because of the... This is the International Day of Peace as well. 15 00:01:27,622 --> 00:01:38,636 Because it's the Buddha's birthday and because Buddhism has always been thought of as a religion of peace, it's been given the name of the International Day of Peace, I think, by the United Nations. 16 00:01:39,437 --> 00:01:41,600 Kind of unofficially or officially, I'm not sure. 17 00:01:44,724 --> 00:01:46,667 And so it's important that we... 18 00:01:47,930 --> 00:01:49,332 think internationally. 19 00:01:49,993 --> 00:01:52,317 So we're acting here locally. 20 00:01:53,058 --> 00:01:58,186 We're not trying to change the world, but we're opening up to the world. 21 00:01:58,868 --> 00:02:10,967 So our little activities here in this small corner of the frozen tundra of Canada, not so frozen now, 22 00:02:15,537 --> 00:02:35,453 actually have an impact on the world, that we are a part of a global village, we're part of the universe, putting ourselves in the universe, as opposed to focusing on this little corner of the 23 00:02:38,133 --> 00:02:48,210 little corner of Manitoba, in a small corner of Canada, in the corner of the globe, in the small corner of the galaxy. 24 00:02:50,502 --> 00:02:53,145 in some small corner of the universe. 25 00:02:53,165 --> 00:02:58,551 Instead of just focusing on this plot and our lives, we're seeing the bigger picture. 26 00:02:58,571 --> 00:03:14,788 We're putting ourselves in this perspective, which is somewhat important in Buddhism, that we shouldn't see reality just in terms of this, what we find ourselves, what we woke up to coming out of our mother's womb. 27 00:03:17,553 --> 00:03:31,474 that would be a shame if that's all that we saw, that our life, our journey was just this one short stint on some remote corner of the, in some remote corner of the universe. 28 00:03:31,914 --> 00:03:35,319 And that's kind of interesting because a corner may not, it's not really a corner of the universe. 29 00:03:36,221 --> 00:03:37,182 So on the other hand, 30 00:03:37,162 --> 00:03:39,944 This is the center of the universe. 31 00:03:40,185 --> 00:03:44,188 Our reality is at the center of things. 32 00:03:45,569 --> 00:03:51,214 And so this is this whole idea of think locally, or no, think globally, act locally. 33 00:03:51,835 --> 00:03:55,017 I would even go so far as to think universally, but act locally. 34 00:03:55,058 --> 00:03:55,778 So that's what we're doing. 35 00:03:55,798 --> 00:03:56,659 We're coming together here. 36 00:03:57,380 --> 00:03:59,521 We're not going out and trying to change the world. 37 00:03:59,581 --> 00:04:07,168 We are doing our thing here and being a part of the global or the universe, part of the universe. 38 00:04:07,148 --> 00:04:10,854 I think that's important to think of. 39 00:04:11,876 --> 00:04:18,827 To think of how this is not just something specific to us. 40 00:04:20,470 --> 00:04:26,760 This is something that makes us a part of the universe. 41 00:04:28,799 --> 00:04:48,748 Rightly so, on this day of Vaisakha, this day of Vaisakha puja, where we pay respect to the loka vidu, the knower of the three worlds, the knower of the universe, the Buddha who is said to have come to understand the whole of the universe, come to realize 42 00:04:48,728 --> 00:05:15,192 all there is to know about the nature of the universe which we get a glimpse of in our meditation or we get an appreciation of through our practice of his teachings we're able to see how we're able to see this we're able to understand the universe in the same way that the Buddha did we're able to see that 43 00:05:16,910 --> 00:05:44,875 No matter how far you go, no matter where you go in the universe, no matter what you do, no matter who you are, reality boils down to some very simple principles, simple entities, very simple concepts of experience and 44 00:05:50,002 --> 00:05:53,127 of the present moment, of the here and the now. 45 00:05:58,777 --> 00:06:04,025 And so we come to see that actually reality is both local and universal. 46 00:06:04,305 --> 00:06:07,570 That the universe is here and everything in the universe is here and now. 47 00:06:08,272 --> 00:06:10,174 This is what the Buddha's teaching teaches us. 48 00:06:10,235 --> 00:06:18,407 So, anyway, I don't want to talk too much about Vaisakha because I am supposed to be getting into the next Dhammapada verse. 49 00:06:18,427 --> 00:06:26,860 So I just want us to have an appreciation of this day and to see it as something a little more than just... 50 00:06:28,797 --> 00:06:34,045 one day in May or just another day in our life. 51 00:06:34,706 --> 00:06:57,859 It's an excuse for us to broaden our perspective on things and look at things, look at our life, look at time in terms of the 2,600 years since the Buddha's enlightenment, which we celebrate on this day as well. 52 00:07:06,277 --> 00:07:14,836 to see our life as just a fleeting moment in the passage of time and to take advantage of this. 53 00:07:15,518 --> 00:07:17,923 We've already missed 2600 years 54 00:07:19,372 --> 00:07:24,798 And so here we are, here we have the time, let's take advantage. 55 00:07:24,818 --> 00:07:39,334 And even today we had many people coming out to meditate, so it's very encouraging to see people who realize this and take the time to come to celebrate the Buddha's birthday in a very real way, very appropriately. 56 00:07:39,454 --> 00:07:44,299 Okay, so anyway, today we get on to verse... 57 00:07:46,068 --> 00:07:47,290 I think it's verse number 48. 58 00:07:47,370 --> 00:07:48,993 I'm not sure. 59 00:07:49,854 --> 00:07:50,916 I forgot to look up the number. 60 00:07:51,236 --> 00:08:09,426 Anyway, the verse goes, Which means, 61 00:08:11,718 --> 00:08:32,964 Yatha Bhamaropupam, just as a bee to a flower, leaves the vanaganda, leaves the color and the scent of the flower alone, untouched, unharmed. 62 00:08:34,806 --> 00:08:39,312 Paleti rasamadaya evangami munichare. 63 00:08:40,827 --> 00:08:45,861 Guarding these, he takes only the essence. 64 00:08:46,323 --> 00:08:48,308 The bee takes only the essence of the flower. 65 00:08:48,369 --> 00:08:53,824 So goes the muni, the wise one, through the village. 66 00:08:56,487 --> 00:09:06,176 So it's a fairly specific teaching, not exactly on the surface applicable to our meditation practice. 67 00:09:06,236 --> 00:09:12,662 It's referring to how an ascetic in India would have gone through the village in search of alms. 68 00:09:13,803 --> 00:09:24,233 And it's quite interesting to discuss and to explain, but it's not applicable to anyone in this room but me, I don't think. 69 00:09:24,213 --> 00:09:26,339 But still interesting. 70 00:09:26,359 --> 00:09:27,862 And the story is even more interesting. 71 00:09:27,903 --> 00:09:29,767 And I think there's a lot that we can get out of it. 72 00:09:29,868 --> 00:09:39,994 But first, the meaning of the verse is how one who is wise, an ascetic who is wise and who is enlightened, 73 00:09:41,527 --> 00:09:47,152 doesn't harm the people who support him or her. 74 00:09:48,773 --> 00:10:10,993 When they go in the village, they go like a bee who doesn't harm the flower and actually, just as the bee helps the flower, there's the sense that the presence of the ascetic or the monk, the wise one, in the sense of their offering teachings and offering an example and offering a view of the higher life 75 00:10:12,340 --> 00:10:16,090 is somehow beneficial to the villagers. 76 00:10:17,791 --> 00:10:45,807 I like this verse particularly because it kind of describes an interesting philosophy of this minimal positive impact philosophy, like how Mother Teresa, I think she was a good person, I'm not quite sure, I don't know much about her, but her saying was, you can't do great things in this world, you can only do small things with great love, which is kind of the idea behind this verse. 77 00:10:47,457 --> 00:11:12,553 that our impact in the world should not we should not try to make our impact great we should this is think locally think globally act locally so do your own thing do things do very simple things don't try to be great don't try to be big just do your thing and do it with love or in our case do with wisdom 78 00:11:13,698 --> 00:11:22,009 So even the ascetic, the monk, the wise one going to the village is able to change the village just as the bee. 79 00:11:22,029 --> 00:11:32,603 And there's this interesting concept that you see in the animal kingdom of how helpful the bees are to the flowers and to the whole ecosystem just by doing their thing. 80 00:11:36,248 --> 00:11:38,291 So you can see a fairly specific verse. 81 00:11:38,551 --> 00:11:39,813 It's interesting. 82 00:11:40,454 --> 00:11:42,777 But the question is, how does this apply to us? 83 00:11:43,651 --> 00:11:48,897 I think when we go through the story, we'll have a little bit more to talk about in that regard. 84 00:11:51,280 --> 00:11:55,826 But first, another warning, one of these health warnings. 85 00:11:58,289 --> 00:12:00,992 The fluff warning, I think, is more appropriate. 86 00:12:01,513 --> 00:12:09,743 The Dhammapada stories are probably the worst in this regard, and so I'm having to apologize many times or give disclaimers in advance. 87 00:12:11,782 --> 00:12:14,006 It's not that I don't believe these things. 88 00:12:14,086 --> 00:12:15,870 I don't know what to think of them. 89 00:12:16,110 --> 00:12:20,478 And I certainly think many of the things that occur in these stories are possible. 90 00:12:21,139 --> 00:12:32,340 Now I'm skeptical as to whether they all occurred as they're said to have occurred, especially because the same stories appear elsewhere with less of the embellishment. 91 00:12:32,520 --> 00:12:35,646 So what I'm saying is there's stuff in this story, as with other stories, that 92 00:12:36,554 --> 00:12:38,196 that seems hard to believe. 93 00:12:38,836 --> 00:12:40,698 A lot of magic in this story. 94 00:12:41,839 --> 00:12:52,370 And my guess, or I'd be willing to be branded a heretic by saying it may not have happened exactly as it is said to have happened. 95 00:12:52,390 --> 00:12:57,635 Probably was a lot less embellished, and I think there are some famous monks who would back me up on that. 96 00:12:58,756 --> 00:13:00,238 So I'm not so afraid to say it. 97 00:13:01,439 --> 00:13:04,502 But still, as with all the stories, I'll say again that 98 00:13:05,427 --> 00:13:08,412 It's not the magic that makes the story. 99 00:13:08,993 --> 00:13:09,694 It's the moral. 100 00:13:10,816 --> 00:13:22,575 If you think of Aesop's fables, well, Aesop's fables are not useful because they teach you that animals can talk and so on. 101 00:13:24,310 --> 00:13:28,734 So in that sense, I'm not trying to say these stories are allegorical. 102 00:13:28,794 --> 00:13:33,599 I'm just saying the funny stuff isn't the important stuff. 103 00:13:33,619 --> 00:13:39,805 The important is the moral and the sense behind the story, which seems very much in line with the Buddhist teaching. 104 00:13:41,066 --> 00:13:42,027 So there's the disclaimer. 105 00:13:43,428 --> 00:13:53,558 And that's important, because otherwise there's many people who will give rise to this agati, which is this 106 00:13:54,922 --> 00:14:01,111 judgment, they have a prejudice, and that gets in the way of your appreciating the good things. 107 00:14:01,152 --> 00:14:12,249 Remember, we're not so concerned about being right or being exact or being precise in terms of concepts. 108 00:14:12,930 --> 00:14:13,551 Did this happen? 109 00:14:13,591 --> 00:14:14,252 Did that happen? 110 00:14:14,272 --> 00:14:15,153 I don't believe this. 111 00:14:15,213 --> 00:14:15,934 I don't believe that. 112 00:14:15,954 --> 00:14:16,495 This is true. 113 00:14:16,956 --> 00:14:20,762 We're trying to be precise in terms of experience, in terms of reality. 114 00:14:20,782 --> 00:14:23,005 So if you're sitting here hating everything I say, 115 00:14:23,575 --> 00:14:33,210 and saying, this is useless, this guy is not teaching me anything, it's all just a bunch of meaningless garbage, then the problem isn't what I'm saying, the problem is your attitude towards it. 116 00:14:33,630 --> 00:14:36,354 The problem is those very states of anger. 117 00:14:36,434 --> 00:14:45,929 So if I am speaking, spouting garbage the whole time, which is useful, you know, when your parents are scolding you and stuff. 118 00:14:45,949 --> 00:14:49,414 Um... 119 00:14:53,866 --> 00:15:12,595 then that doesn't change the appropriate response, which is to be mindful, to be present. 120 00:15:12,615 --> 00:15:15,699 So even when I'm giving this talk, the most important thing is not what I'm saying. 121 00:15:15,719 --> 00:15:22,590 The most important thing is what's going on in your mind, what's going on in your experience. 122 00:15:23,161 --> 00:15:24,583 How are you receiving it? 123 00:15:24,603 --> 00:15:25,964 How are you receiving sitting here? 124 00:15:27,246 --> 00:15:37,058 Surrounded by people with the pain in the legs and the back and with the thoughts and with the chaos going on in the mind, chaos in the mind and so on. 125 00:15:37,559 --> 00:15:38,440 How are you dealing with that? 126 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:44,327 That's what's most important. 127 00:15:44,347 --> 00:15:48,392 So, but to cut that off, to head that off, 128 00:15:48,845 --> 00:15:53,170 give this disclaimer to help you see what's most important. 129 00:15:53,190 --> 00:15:55,533 It's so important whether any of this stuff really happened. 130 00:15:55,573 --> 00:15:57,655 It's an interesting and a funny story. 131 00:15:58,756 --> 00:16:08,147 And I think, anyway, story goes, there was a man in, where was he? 132 00:16:08,728 --> 00:16:11,691 Maybe he was in Varanasi, I can't remember. 133 00:16:11,711 --> 00:16:12,632 Maybe someone can tell me. 134 00:16:13,333 --> 00:16:17,518 He was, anyway, 45 Yojana away from 135 00:16:18,055 --> 00:16:20,938 Savati, which maybe puts him in an environment I'm not sure. 136 00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:26,124 His name was Macharya Kosya Sethi. 137 00:16:26,144 --> 00:16:27,186 Anybody know this story? 138 00:16:27,566 --> 00:16:31,591 The scholars in the room know this story. 139 00:16:33,213 --> 00:16:34,314 Many of you have heard it before. 140 00:16:35,195 --> 00:16:38,118 Macharya Kosya, that was his name. 141 00:16:38,819 --> 00:16:42,824 Macharya means niggardly or stingy. 142 00:16:43,464 --> 00:16:44,606 What does Kosya mean? 143 00:16:44,626 --> 00:16:45,607 That's where he was. 144 00:16:46,027 --> 00:16:46,628 That's his name. 145 00:16:47,992 --> 00:16:55,945 And he was so stingy. 146 00:16:55,965 --> 00:16:58,929 He had, what, 80 koti of wealth. 147 00:16:58,949 --> 00:17:05,860 He was the richest guy in, I'm going to say it was in Varanasi. 148 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:07,162 Was he in Varanasi? 149 00:17:08,865 --> 00:17:10,708 Let's say he was in Varanasi. 150 00:17:14,350 --> 00:17:16,333 And he was the richest man. 151 00:17:17,274 --> 00:17:18,496 He was in cahoots with the king. 152 00:17:18,556 --> 00:17:24,565 He was probably, you know, kings and rich people go wealthy together. 153 00:17:27,509 --> 00:17:41,910 But he didn't even spend, they say, he didn't even spend the tip of a drop of oil on the tip of a blade of grass, something like that, on himself or on other people. 154 00:17:44,523 --> 00:17:49,228 And so he dwelt like someone who was, he dwelt like a beggar. 155 00:17:49,288 --> 00:17:52,692 He was so, so stingy. 156 00:17:53,332 --> 00:18:01,981 He was one of these people who didn't even indulge on himself and he was so afraid of losing his wealth that he didn't spend any of it on anything. 157 00:18:02,001 --> 00:18:08,829 He just hoarded it up and lived like, lived as though he had, lived as though he had nothing. 158 00:18:10,611 --> 00:18:12,032 Now one day he was, 159 00:18:16,366 --> 00:18:21,893 Now the Buddha saw him, I think the order of the events, right? 160 00:18:21,913 --> 00:18:31,526 But anyway, that morning the Buddha saw him in his eye of wisdom, in this net, the Buddha net. 161 00:18:32,747 --> 00:18:37,033 See, every morning the Buddha would send his mind out through the universe. 162 00:18:37,053 --> 00:18:39,716 And you see this in the Dhammapada, they talk about it quite often. 163 00:18:40,297 --> 00:18:44,803 He would send his mind out throughout the whole universe and then back to Jetavana. 164 00:18:45,593 --> 00:19:11,854 and back out to the whole universe and looking for someone to looking for who would be able to receive his teaching on that day who would it be appropriate to teach on that day and so on this day on a certain day his mind focused on this focused on this rich man 165 00:19:12,830 --> 00:19:22,881 and said, well, this is someone who I think could very much use my teaching and will actually benefit quite well from it. 166 00:19:25,404 --> 00:19:38,139 Now, on that day, anyway, on that day, this man, he had gone to see the king, and on his way back from seeing the king, he saw some worker eating a pancake. 167 00:19:40,121 --> 00:19:42,043 And for some reason, he got a real... 168 00:19:42,665 --> 00:19:44,148 strong craving for pancakes. 169 00:19:44,168 --> 00:19:45,951 I guess it was kind of a delicacy. 170 00:19:46,412 --> 00:19:48,054 Pancakes were kind of a delicacy in India. 171 00:19:50,058 --> 00:19:56,429 And so he gave rise to this strong craving for a pancake. 172 00:19:56,449 --> 00:19:57,371 He wanted to have a pancake. 173 00:19:57,411 --> 00:19:58,192 And he went home. 174 00:20:01,919 --> 00:20:07,288 And he sat down and he thought, but if I have a pancake, if I tell anyone, hey, I want a pancake, 175 00:20:08,534 --> 00:20:12,681 then everybody will know we're making pancakes, and everybody will come over and I'll have to give pancakes to everybody. 176 00:20:13,442 --> 00:20:15,706 It'll be a big thing, you know how this goes. 177 00:20:16,508 --> 00:20:19,413 You can't just make one pancake for yourself, but then everybody wants one. 178 00:20:19,433 --> 00:20:23,179 And suddenly you're giving pancakes out to the whole village and so on. 179 00:20:23,199 --> 00:20:24,101 I mean, this was his fear. 180 00:20:24,141 --> 00:20:28,428 He had this great fear, and he thought, well, that's going to be very expensive to have to feed everyone. 181 00:20:28,989 --> 00:20:30,171 So he don't want to do that. 182 00:20:40,310 --> 00:20:44,175 That's the one thing about being rich, you know, that you do always have people asking for money. 183 00:20:44,195 --> 00:20:49,683 People always think how great it would be to be rich and all the wonderful things you can do with it. 184 00:20:49,723 --> 00:20:53,849 But the more money you have, the more responsibility you have. 185 00:20:53,869 --> 00:21:05,085 And you do find this, that you have people always... You become surrounded by people who are... 186 00:21:07,478 --> 00:21:14,528 There's always people appealing to you for money, appealing to you for this, to that, or mooching off you, or so on. 187 00:21:14,568 --> 00:21:18,774 So this rich man knew this very, very well, overly well. 188 00:21:18,814 --> 00:21:32,312 I mean, it's not to say that you should be stingy, but he reacted very badly to this, and as a result was able to keep his money, but dwelt in such suffering, such poverty. 189 00:21:33,534 --> 00:21:34,195 This was safe. 190 00:21:35,727 --> 00:22:05,110 that he he he said to himself i can't tell anybody that i want a pancake what am i going to do and so he just repressed this desire and as a result of repressing it and he couldn't stop himself from thinking about it he just kept thinking i want a pancake oh i wish i could have some pancakes and uh he got very sick as a result and this happens of course with desires 191 00:22:05,950 --> 00:22:09,114 they affect both the body and the mind. 192 00:22:11,617 --> 00:22:20,648 You know, this one story about the Bodhisatta, who was an ascetic, and he was an ascetic with magic powers, and he thought he was pretty hot. 193 00:22:21,269 --> 00:22:33,004 He was able to fly through the air, and he lived up in the Himalaya mountains, but every year he would have to come down to get salt, I think it says, and get necessities from the 194 00:22:34,604 --> 00:22:36,046 from the town, from the city. 195 00:22:37,748 --> 00:22:46,818 And so one day, one time he came to the city and the king saw him and the king wanted to take care of him. 196 00:22:46,838 --> 00:22:54,967 And the king spent the three months of the reigns, or I can't remember, spent some time looking after this ascetic and then looking after the Bodhisattva. 197 00:22:54,987 --> 00:22:59,832 And then he had to go off and kill some people and fight a war and do the kingly things. 198 00:23:00,994 --> 00:23:02,215 And he left his queen in charge. 199 00:23:03,393 --> 00:23:09,823 He left the Bodhisatta under the charge of the queen and said, well, you take care of him, make sure he gets food, and so on. 200 00:23:12,447 --> 00:23:13,588 And the queen was fine with that. 201 00:23:13,668 --> 00:23:17,054 And so every day, the Bodhisatta would come and get food from the queen. 202 00:23:17,094 --> 00:23:26,207 And then one day, the queen had just had a shower or something, and she was lying in her room, and her robe was kind of loose. 203 00:23:28,010 --> 00:23:32,016 And the Bodhisatta, his superman kind of thing, he flew in through the window. 204 00:23:33,076 --> 00:24:02,408 and landed there and when he touched the floor or cleared his throat or something the queen startled she got up and her robe came came apart and she was there naked and of course she was a very beautiful woman and he lost his tapa he lost his his jana I think dissipated his tranquility 205 00:24:02,860 --> 00:24:06,284 was gone, and his mind was seized, like they say, by a snake. 206 00:24:07,366 --> 00:24:21,003 There was a snake in the grass, and when you don't see the snake, the grass looks very calm, and then when you go walking through it, and then the snake senses you, the snake comes up and bites you, so it was like being bitten by a poisonous snake. 207 00:24:22,304 --> 00:24:30,775 And the queen was in her robe, and then she gave him the food, and he's just standing there, like, fighting with this lust that had arisen. 208 00:24:33,573 --> 00:24:42,346 and he tries to give her a blessing and kind of fails at that, and so he turns around and tries to fly out through the window, and he can no longer do it. 209 00:24:42,366 --> 00:24:59,833 And so he walks out through the door embarrassed, and then he goes back to his hut where he's living, and he can't eat, and he can't sleep, and he ends up getting very, very sick as a result, and eventually the king comes back, the king finds out, 210 00:25:00,860 --> 00:25:02,763 And he talks to the queen and says, what are we going to do? 211 00:25:02,783 --> 00:25:05,466 And so she says, I'll fix this guy. 212 00:25:06,348 --> 00:25:11,495 And so she says to the king to give her as a present to him. 213 00:25:12,656 --> 00:25:16,381 So the king goes to the ascetic and says, look, I understand your problem. 214 00:25:16,962 --> 00:25:17,783 You can have my wife. 215 00:25:18,725 --> 00:25:21,088 She's yours. 216 00:25:21,108 --> 00:25:25,114 And so he gets all excited and he takes the queen off. 217 00:25:25,154 --> 00:25:28,298 And the king gives them the house. 218 00:25:28,358 --> 00:25:29,820 And they go and they go to the house. 219 00:25:30,273 --> 00:25:39,265 And then the queen starts her plan and she says to him, okay, now can you go back to the palace and get me my pillow or something? 220 00:25:39,285 --> 00:25:40,587 So he goes back and gets the pillow. 221 00:25:41,007 --> 00:25:42,269 Oh, and get me this from the palace. 222 00:25:42,289 --> 00:25:43,210 Can you get me my mirror? 223 00:25:43,270 --> 00:25:44,532 And he goes back and gets the mirror. 224 00:25:45,052 --> 00:25:46,775 Can you get me my jewelry? 225 00:25:46,795 --> 00:25:53,944 Oh, he goes back and gets the jewelry and back and forth about ten times until finally she grabs him by his beard because he has a beard at the side. 226 00:25:57,509 --> 00:25:59,892 Gives him a couple of slaps and says, look, 227 00:26:00,715 --> 00:26:03,519 Don't you realize how ridiculous you're being? 228 00:26:03,539 --> 00:26:04,920 Or something like that. 229 00:26:04,940 --> 00:26:06,002 Gets him back on track. 230 00:26:09,045 --> 00:26:14,973 Which is an interesting, it's actually the exact same ploy that works here in the case of our stingy rich man. 231 00:26:16,094 --> 00:26:19,138 The only way to overcome craving is not to deny yourself. 232 00:26:19,158 --> 00:26:20,179 Obviously this doesn't work. 233 00:26:20,900 --> 00:26:22,002 It's to become bored of it. 234 00:26:22,062 --> 00:26:26,267 To overcome the craving in terms of 235 00:26:26,534 --> 00:26:34,743 seeing that it's useful, seeing how much suffering it's bringing to you, becoming, working it out. 236 00:26:34,803 --> 00:26:53,605 So in this case, this queen worked it out and showed him how ridiculous he was being and gave him the opportunity to become disenchanted, I think is the word, dispassionate about it, to give up his passion by seeing the negative side of it. 237 00:26:54,277 --> 00:26:59,086 Now this is what happens with our friend, the rich man. 238 00:26:59,307 --> 00:27:05,919 He starts to get very sick, and this is the beginning of his understanding of how his stinginess and his greed is hurting him. 239 00:27:08,885 --> 00:27:14,175 This realization of how sick it is to cling to things. 240 00:27:19,758 --> 00:27:23,905 So his wife comes up and she strokes his back and says, what's wrong? 241 00:27:23,945 --> 00:27:24,566 Are you sick? 242 00:27:24,666 --> 00:27:25,808 And he says, no, I'm not sick. 243 00:27:27,391 --> 00:27:29,093 Well, what, is the king angry at you? 244 00:27:29,394 --> 00:27:32,920 No, the king's not angry. 245 00:27:32,940 --> 00:27:40,833 Is your son, something your son or daughter or your servants or your friends, is something they did to you? 246 00:27:40,893 --> 00:27:41,554 No, none of that. 247 00:27:43,177 --> 00:27:44,078 Is there something you want? 248 00:27:48,158 --> 00:27:49,841 And he just lied there, silently. 249 00:27:52,145 --> 00:27:53,348 Tell me, tell me, what do you want? 250 00:27:53,388 --> 00:27:55,712 No, I can't tell you. 251 00:27:56,213 --> 00:27:56,554 Come on. 252 00:27:57,676 --> 00:28:06,753 And then it says, just as though he was swallowing the words, he says to her, I want a pancake. 253 00:28:06,773 --> 00:28:06,993 What? 254 00:28:08,776 --> 00:28:09,277 I want a pancake. 255 00:28:09,919 --> 00:28:10,740 I want a pancake. 256 00:28:13,555 --> 00:28:15,918 Wow, what are you doing, busting about that? 257 00:28:15,958 --> 00:28:16,919 What's a simple pancake? 258 00:28:16,939 --> 00:28:19,242 I'll make enough pancakes for the whole kingdom. 259 00:28:19,282 --> 00:28:21,685 We've got no problem with that. 260 00:28:21,725 --> 00:28:23,187 I'll make enough pancakes for everyone. 261 00:28:23,227 --> 00:28:28,233 And his eyes go wide, and he says, what is this, crazy? 262 00:28:28,273 --> 00:28:29,395 What have they done for us? 263 00:28:29,875 --> 00:28:31,377 What have any of those people done for us? 264 00:28:31,397 --> 00:28:36,804 He says, what are they to you? 265 00:28:36,824 --> 00:28:38,025 Can't they work for their own food? 266 00:28:38,065 --> 00:28:39,006 And I'm raging. 267 00:28:39,067 --> 00:28:43,512 I seem to think that my wealth is nothing, and so on. 268 00:28:44,622 --> 00:28:46,684 way to guard my wealth. 269 00:28:47,145 --> 00:28:48,606 He just goes crazy on her. 270 00:28:49,487 --> 00:28:54,693 He says, okay, okay, well, we'll just make enough for our street. 271 00:28:58,457 --> 00:29:01,000 He says, what are those people to us? 272 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,043 He says, okay, well, fine, just make it for them. 273 00:29:04,304 --> 00:29:05,885 Our own house will have some pancakes. 274 00:29:06,126 --> 00:29:08,228 He says, what are those people? 275 00:29:08,488 --> 00:29:09,790 What are our family members to us? 276 00:29:09,810 --> 00:29:10,731 What have they done for us? 277 00:29:11,071 --> 00:29:11,912 What are they going to do for us? 278 00:29:12,365 --> 00:29:13,687 He said, okay, well, enough for you and me. 279 00:29:14,147 --> 00:29:14,688 And who are you? 280 00:29:14,708 --> 00:29:19,954 He said, that stings you. 281 00:29:19,974 --> 00:29:23,618 Really, his own wife, he says to her, what are you to me? 282 00:29:23,638 --> 00:29:25,080 What have you done to me or something? 283 00:29:25,741 --> 00:29:26,301 What will you do? 284 00:29:28,424 --> 00:29:31,347 Okay, I'll make you a pancake if you like. 285 00:29:31,367 --> 00:29:35,232 And he said, it's not going to work if you make me a pancake. 286 00:29:36,093 --> 00:29:37,515 Everyone will know. 287 00:29:37,575 --> 00:29:38,135 Here's what we'll do. 288 00:29:39,117 --> 00:29:42,000 We'll go up to the seventh floor of our 289 00:29:42,470 --> 00:30:08,359 mention, bring some broken rice and oil and whatever, ghee or whatever, and all the pots and so on and make and fire one and so on and arrange it all up at the seventh floor on the seventh story and we'll lock all the doors and just you and me and you'll make me a pancake and no one will know. 290 00:30:11,123 --> 00:30:12,665 So she does that, and he's waiting. 291 00:30:14,648 --> 00:30:24,123 And she goes up and she arranges it all in secret, and she sends away all the slaves, all the servants, and tells them to go tell him that he's ready. 292 00:30:24,483 --> 00:30:29,792 He goes and locks all the doors of the mansion, and the door at the bottom of the stairs. 293 00:30:29,812 --> 00:30:36,822 He goes up the stairs to the seventh story, locks the door, and sits against the door and waits. 294 00:30:37,584 --> 00:30:38,565 And there she starts. 295 00:30:38,984 --> 00:30:43,030 lighting a fire and making the paintings. 296 00:30:44,833 --> 00:30:49,840 Now we zoom over to Jetavana where the Buddha is staying. 297 00:30:49,940 --> 00:30:57,392 It's the early morning and the Buddha has someone called Moggallana, Superman. 298 00:30:57,632 --> 00:30:58,834 Moggallana is our Superman. 299 00:31:00,216 --> 00:31:03,040 Moggallana is the Buddha's chief disciple on the left side. 300 00:31:03,060 --> 00:31:05,123 The Buddha had a right-hand man and a left-hand man. 301 00:31:06,085 --> 00:31:08,248 And the right-hand man was Sariputta who was 302 00:31:09,207 --> 00:31:12,132 ultimate, supreme in knowledge. 303 00:31:12,272 --> 00:31:15,297 Besides the Buddha, there was no one with as much wisdom as Sariputta. 304 00:31:15,878 --> 00:31:19,444 And Moggallana was supreme in terms of magical powers. 305 00:31:19,845 --> 00:31:22,709 So he had great mental strength, mental fortitude. 306 00:31:24,192 --> 00:31:30,703 So apart from the Buddha, no one had such great mental strength and ability as Moggallana. 307 00:31:30,723 --> 00:31:32,245 Or maybe Sariputta, I'm not sure. 308 00:31:32,305 --> 00:31:35,130 I think Moggallana was special enough. 309 00:31:36,511 --> 00:31:47,387 He was the highest in terms of mental fortitude, magical powers. 310 00:31:47,407 --> 00:31:49,550 So he calls Moggallana because he says, well, this is a job. 311 00:31:49,691 --> 00:31:51,153 Wisdom isn't going to work here. 312 00:31:52,074 --> 00:31:53,176 We've got to scare this guy. 313 00:31:54,598 --> 00:31:56,601 So he says to Moggallana, Moggallana comes in. 314 00:31:56,621 --> 00:31:59,746 He says, Moggallana, Moggallana is one of the monks. 315 00:32:02,450 --> 00:32:04,813 He says, Moggallana, today we're going to eat pancakes. 316 00:32:12,387 --> 00:32:19,480 Me, you, and the 500 monks in Jetavana, 500 of the monks in Jetavana, we're going to stay here today. 317 00:32:20,202 --> 00:32:25,191 And we're going to sit here and eat pancakes. 318 00:32:25,211 --> 00:32:27,355 And what the Buddha says always comes to pass. 319 00:32:27,395 --> 00:32:31,302 This is the majesty of the Buddha. 320 00:32:31,984 --> 00:32:35,170 There's no question in Moggallana's mind that this is going to happen. 321 00:32:35,190 --> 00:32:35,931 He's like, OK. 322 00:32:36,957 --> 00:32:43,384 Most of them would be like, dude, where are we going to get pancakes? 323 00:32:43,404 --> 00:32:45,466 But not Moggallana, and not the Buddha, certainly. 324 00:32:48,308 --> 00:32:57,378 And so he told them that 45 leagues away, there is a stingy, rich man trying to make a pancake. 325 00:32:58,379 --> 00:33:00,281 And that's all he has to say. 326 00:33:01,442 --> 00:33:03,964 But I think he says, bring him here, or something like that. 327 00:33:04,004 --> 00:33:06,627 But really, he doesn't have to, because Moggallana's 328 00:33:06,877 --> 00:33:07,438 very clear. 329 00:33:07,538 --> 00:33:10,082 He understands exactly what's happening and what to do. 330 00:33:10,683 --> 00:33:12,666 He says, go to. 331 00:33:15,310 --> 00:33:17,053 And Moggallana looks up in the sky. 332 00:33:19,316 --> 00:33:21,479 Up, up and away, like a bird. 333 00:33:21,580 --> 00:33:22,060 It's a bird. 334 00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:22,701 It's a plane. 335 00:33:23,082 --> 00:33:27,208 No, it's Moggallana. 336 00:33:27,228 --> 00:33:34,960 And he flies the 45 yojana, which is about 45 leagues, so 45 times 16 miles, I think, something like that, which is a lot of miles. 337 00:33:37,201 --> 00:34:04,710 four hundred something seven hundred six seven hundred miles that's a far ways away I wonder where he was anyway and again the distances are also often exaggerated as with the number of monks there may not have been five hundred five hundred just generally means a lot but okay for the story's sake let's say there's five hundred monks because you're like this guy doesn't have enough pancakes for five hundred months even if he did make more than he's just making one pancake right 338 00:34:06,260 --> 00:34:15,790 Moggallana goes to, and he comes outside of this rich man's palace or mansion, flies up to the seventh floor and stands outside the window. 339 00:34:17,192 --> 00:34:18,013 Just stands on the air. 340 00:34:20,675 --> 00:34:22,217 And the rich man looks out the window. 341 00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:26,502 And he sees Moggallana standing there. 342 00:34:27,903 --> 00:34:28,944 And his heart stops. 343 00:34:30,446 --> 00:34:32,488 Or his heart starts shaking. 344 00:34:33,669 --> 00:34:35,271 As you imagine, this guy is so 345 00:34:35,791 --> 00:34:36,772 It's not from fear. 346 00:34:36,813 --> 00:34:38,956 It's like he doesn't even think. 347 00:34:39,016 --> 00:34:42,581 He doesn't even seem to be fazed by the fact that there's a guy floating outside his window. 348 00:34:42,601 --> 00:34:46,627 He's just like, there's someone who wants to take my pancake away from me. 349 00:34:46,647 --> 00:34:47,488 He's got a bowl, right? 350 00:34:47,528 --> 00:34:48,810 This guy wants my pancake. 351 00:34:51,374 --> 00:34:52,456 And he starts freaking out. 352 00:34:52,476 --> 00:34:56,882 And he gets this anger. 353 00:34:56,942 --> 00:35:00,668 And he doesn't even realize how angry, but he becomes very, very angry. 354 00:35:02,521 --> 00:35:17,334 and he starts stuttering, and there's this Pali phrase, that does something, he becomes, like he says, stuttering, that's what they mean. 355 00:35:18,675 --> 00:35:20,157 Sputtering, sputtering is the word. 356 00:35:20,557 --> 00:35:24,300 He starts to sputter and he says, oh, I know what you think. 357 00:35:25,041 --> 00:35:26,162 You think you're going to get a pancake? 358 00:35:26,202 --> 00:35:31,667 Well, even if you were to walk back and forth in the air, you wouldn't get one of these pancakes. 359 00:35:32,558 --> 00:35:34,841 So Moggallana starts walking back and forth in the air. 360 00:35:38,005 --> 00:35:40,489 Even if you sit down in the air, you won't get one of these pancakes. 361 00:35:40,589 --> 00:35:42,331 Walking back and forth isn't going to do you anything. 362 00:35:42,371 --> 00:35:44,854 Even if you sat down in the air, you won't get one of these pancakes. 363 00:35:44,874 --> 00:35:49,861 So he sits down, crosses his legs, puts his legs in the lowest position, just on the air. 364 00:35:51,563 --> 00:35:53,085 Sitting in the air isn't going to do you anything. 365 00:35:53,145 --> 00:35:56,490 Even if you were to stand on the window ledge, you wouldn't get one of these pancakes. 366 00:35:56,510 --> 00:35:57,391 You wouldn't get a pancake. 367 00:35:58,853 --> 00:36:00,355 So he comes in and stands on the window ledge. 368 00:36:03,170 --> 00:36:09,299 Even if you come in and stand in the... No, even if you were to... Right. 369 00:36:09,559 --> 00:36:19,954 Even if you were to start smoking, even if you were to start smoking up, I wouldn't give you... Burst into smoke, I wouldn't give you one of these pancakes. 370 00:36:20,215 --> 00:36:21,697 So Moggallana starts emitting smoke. 371 00:36:22,799 --> 00:36:24,121 His whole body starts smoking. 372 00:36:24,161 --> 00:36:29,228 And the whole palace, the whole mansion fills up with smoke. 373 00:36:30,149 --> 00:36:32,653 And yeah, his eyes are stinging and he's coughing and 374 00:36:34,186 --> 00:36:45,296 And then he thinks, because the next thing he's going to say is, even if you were to burst into flames, but then he's like, oh, wait, this mansion is made of wood. 375 00:36:45,316 --> 00:36:46,237 He says, I can't help it. 376 00:36:46,797 --> 00:36:48,459 He's like, ah, ah. 377 00:36:50,521 --> 00:36:52,022 He starts to get afraid for the mansion. 378 00:36:52,583 --> 00:36:55,425 And so he says, I better give him this guy. 379 00:36:55,585 --> 00:36:57,807 This guy is really stuck on this. 380 00:36:58,388 --> 00:36:58,888 He's greedy. 381 00:36:59,049 --> 00:37:02,792 He's got this greedy, greedy recluse who doesn't take no for an answer. 382 00:37:03,802 --> 00:37:06,685 Better give him one of the pancakes. 383 00:37:06,705 --> 00:37:11,350 And so he says to his wife, all right, make the aesthetic. 384 00:37:12,812 --> 00:37:15,935 Take a little bit of dough and make him a little, little pancake. 385 00:37:18,538 --> 00:37:24,904 She takes a little bit, takes a spoon and just makes a little one and fills the whole pan up. 386 00:37:26,546 --> 00:37:29,269 Makes the biggest pancake, huge pancake. 387 00:37:29,958 --> 00:37:32,281 And he looks and he says, no, no, don't give him that one. 388 00:37:32,361 --> 00:37:32,962 Don't give him that one. 389 00:37:32,982 --> 00:37:33,642 Put that aside. 390 00:37:34,123 --> 00:37:34,624 Make a small one. 391 00:37:34,644 --> 00:37:35,184 Here, I'll do it. 392 00:37:35,284 --> 00:37:37,387 He takes the spoon and he says, just a little bit. 393 00:37:38,068 --> 00:37:38,708 And pours it. 394 00:37:39,189 --> 00:37:40,831 It's even bigger than the last one. 395 00:37:42,253 --> 00:37:43,594 And he tries again and tries again. 396 00:37:44,075 --> 00:37:45,196 And then he's stacking those. 397 00:37:45,216 --> 00:37:46,097 He says, no, don't give him those. 398 00:37:46,117 --> 00:37:48,060 Don't give him those. 399 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:49,281 And then he just loses it. 400 00:37:50,002 --> 00:37:55,008 And he finally gives up his... No, he says, okay, well, fine. 401 00:37:55,048 --> 00:37:56,710 Give him one of those pancakes. 402 00:37:56,770 --> 00:37:59,273 He's got a stack of pancakes, no? 403 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:01,642 Give one to the reckless. 404 00:38:02,463 --> 00:38:04,085 It's fine. 405 00:38:04,225 --> 00:38:06,508 We'll make it up next month. 406 00:38:07,990 --> 00:38:09,011 The price of the pancake. 407 00:38:10,192 --> 00:38:12,015 And so she tries, and she says, they're stuck together. 408 00:38:12,035 --> 00:38:14,878 The pancakes are all stuck together. 409 00:38:14,898 --> 00:38:15,419 What can we do? 410 00:38:16,060 --> 00:38:17,241 And he says, oh, you're useless. 411 00:38:17,261 --> 00:38:20,325 And he starts to pry them apart, and he can't pull the pancakes apart. 412 00:38:20,545 --> 00:38:22,067 They won't come apart somehow. 413 00:38:23,188 --> 00:38:24,029 They're all stuck together. 414 00:38:26,072 --> 00:38:29,496 And the commentary says, even if they had 80 million... 415 00:38:29,712 --> 00:38:31,274 koti of people or something. 416 00:38:31,354 --> 00:38:33,237 Even if they each brought 80 koti of people. 417 00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:35,680 No, I can't. 418 00:38:35,821 --> 00:38:39,125 The translation is not clear. 419 00:38:39,145 --> 00:38:41,008 But something like that, they wouldn't be able to break it apart. 420 00:38:41,028 --> 00:38:47,197 There's no way they could have gotten those pancakes apart. 421 00:38:47,217 --> 00:38:51,523 And you can see how this building up, what's going on here is this building up in the rich man's mind. 422 00:38:51,543 --> 00:38:58,673 He's just getting more and more stressed about this until finally he does give it up. 423 00:38:59,227 --> 00:39:08,856 And this is how it relates back to that other story I told from the Jataka of this Bodhisattva who gets told by the queen, gets smacked around by this queen. 424 00:39:11,678 --> 00:39:24,169 The stress and having the stress build and seeing the stress of the craving, because as he was going back for the queen's things, he would have been having this craving, this desire, and, oh, I get to go and na-na-na with my queen, with this woman. 425 00:39:25,330 --> 00:39:27,192 And he's, you know... 426 00:39:27,458 --> 00:39:43,521 back and forth, back and forth, dealing with this desire until finally she smacks him and he realizes, not just from the smack, but also realizes, yes, what a fool he's been and how much suffering there is in his desire. 427 00:39:43,561 --> 00:39:47,347 So this rich man is going through this, even on a far worse level. 428 00:39:48,809 --> 00:39:50,451 All he wants is a pancake, right? 429 00:39:50,892 --> 00:39:54,597 And it's getting more and more complicated, more and more difficult, more and more suffering. 430 00:39:56,888 --> 00:39:59,170 And so this is just too much for him, and he gives up. 431 00:39:59,470 --> 00:40:03,034 And he loses, he actually loses his appetite. 432 00:40:03,054 --> 00:40:09,880 I don't know how people say when they lose their appetite because of something that happened, they just become disgusted by it. 433 00:40:10,801 --> 00:40:15,085 And this is very much, very similar to what happens in meditation. 434 00:40:15,285 --> 00:40:17,347 For the meditation, this happens with just about everything. 435 00:40:17,387 --> 00:40:25,815 You have to deal with your desires, your cravings, until you see that really the craving is causing you stress, is causing you suffering, because you can't act on it. 436 00:40:26,723 --> 00:40:30,967 and so you become disgusted by it, or where does it disgust you? 437 00:40:31,007 --> 00:40:33,789 You become bored of it, I think, tired of it. 438 00:40:34,189 --> 00:40:42,717 It's a good way, it's kind of like feeling tired and fed up with the craving and attachment, and so you give it up. 439 00:40:43,798 --> 00:40:50,163 So this is what was happening to him, and finally he just gave up, and he says, give him them all, give him all the pancakes. 440 00:40:51,705 --> 00:40:55,768 He says, come in, sit down, we'll give you all these pancakes, you can have them. 441 00:40:56,221 --> 00:41:00,187 So he puts them in the bowl and really kind of fed up. 442 00:41:01,569 --> 00:41:04,072 And he just sits down and is totally defeated. 443 00:41:04,112 --> 00:41:12,184 And Moggallana gives him a blessing. 444 00:41:12,725 --> 00:41:16,310 But his blessing, of course, in the Buddhist time, the blessing would be a teaching. 445 00:41:16,791 --> 00:41:21,958 So he started to talk to him about there is what is given, there is what is sacrificed. 446 00:41:23,474 --> 00:41:28,341 starting from the idea of giving, which is somewhat important. 447 00:41:28,642 --> 00:41:30,304 Giving is the beginning of giving up. 448 00:41:32,528 --> 00:41:48,211 If we are like this rich man, if we're worried about our wealth, concerned about our belongings, concerned about anything, it can be your possessions, money, people, it can be even your own physical well-being. 449 00:41:48,792 --> 00:41:52,097 As long as you're concerned with these things, worried about your health, worried about your 450 00:41:52,651 --> 00:42:12,398 If you're worried about anything, as long as you're clinging to anything, not just money, not just possessions, but all things, you're going to have this difficulty. 451 00:42:24,005 --> 00:42:29,634 And so you're never going to progress. 452 00:42:29,754 --> 00:42:33,539 You're never going to become free from suffering. 453 00:42:33,559 --> 00:42:37,465 You're always going to have something that will set you off. 454 00:42:37,525 --> 00:42:44,496 Your experience is based on partiality and your reactions to things are partial. 455 00:42:44,596 --> 00:42:46,559 When you meet with something pleasant, you enjoy it. 456 00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:51,126 When you meet with something unpleasant, you can't help but feel disappointment. 457 00:42:51,899 --> 00:43:17,232 even though you'd want to be happy we all want to be happy even sitting here in this room we want to be happy that we're here and yet we find our minds going back and forth from happiness to suffering based on our partiality our inability to center ourselves and to just be here and now and be objective so meditation is very much about being objective which 458 00:43:17,482 --> 00:43:23,570 allows you to let go, allows you to experience all things equally. 459 00:43:26,674 --> 00:43:36,427 So the practice of giving is a way of approaching this sort of objectivity, of taking the things that you're incredibly partial to and giving them up. 460 00:43:37,448 --> 00:43:46,240 It also means taking the things you're partial against and accepting them, allowing them to come, allowing the experience to happen. 461 00:43:50,371 --> 00:43:53,636 So this is a good way to enter into the Buddhist teaching through charity. 462 00:43:53,776 --> 00:43:58,603 Charity is not, of course, a principal virtue in the commentaries. 463 00:43:59,865 --> 00:44:05,432 But it certainly is in the Buddhist teaching, and especially for people who maybe even don't think about meditation. 464 00:44:06,113 --> 00:44:15,307 Charity is a good way to begin this shift from wanting, getting, needing, to letting go and giving up. 465 00:44:16,008 --> 00:44:18,471 Giving is the first step to giving up, which is important. 466 00:44:19,919 --> 00:44:24,545 So he started talking about charity, and he would have given some talk along these lines, of course. 467 00:44:25,926 --> 00:44:31,333 As a chief disciple of the Buddha, it would have been profound and incredible and given great faith to his listeners. 468 00:44:32,254 --> 00:44:48,053 And as a result, both of them became quite appreciative and happy and acquired great faith in this monk. 469 00:44:48,944 --> 00:45:00,375 And they said to him, okay, wow, that's really profound, this idea of giving up, letting go, and how our suffering doesn't come from what we don't get, it comes from wanting. 470 00:45:01,616 --> 00:45:05,340 Not getting what we want, the problem is the wanting, not the not getting. 471 00:45:07,022 --> 00:45:12,327 I'm starting to realize this because, you know, I've really had great suffering, not because I didn't get what I want, but because I was wanting. 472 00:45:12,847 --> 00:45:18,613 And she said, please, thank you for that teaching, please, please 473 00:45:19,015 --> 00:45:19,776 eat your pancakes. 474 00:45:22,618 --> 00:45:23,099 So what do you think? 475 00:45:23,119 --> 00:45:24,701 You think he's going to sit there and eat his pancakes? 476 00:45:25,762 --> 00:45:26,142 Why not? 477 00:45:30,266 --> 00:45:31,027 What's left to do? 478 00:45:34,790 --> 00:45:36,572 Yes, we have to fulfill the Buddha's wish. 479 00:45:37,213 --> 00:45:39,335 Not the Buddha's wish, the Buddha's prophecy. 480 00:45:40,516 --> 00:45:41,317 What did the Buddha say? 481 00:45:41,357 --> 00:45:46,862 He said, we're going to sit here in Jaipur, 45 leagues away, and we're going to eat pancakes all 500 months. 482 00:45:49,913 --> 00:46:04,474 So Moggallana says, right at this moment, he says to the rich man, right at this moment, there is a fully enlightened Buddha sitting in his kuti, waiting to eat pancakes. 483 00:46:07,538 --> 00:46:11,304 And he says, where? 484 00:46:11,404 --> 00:46:12,145 Where is the Buddha? 485 00:46:14,729 --> 00:46:18,334 And with your permission, if you're okay with it, I'd like to bring you 486 00:46:18,601 --> 00:46:23,087 both there to serve him pancakes, where he is to serve him pancakes. 487 00:46:23,107 --> 00:46:24,889 And he says, okay, where is he? 488 00:46:26,251 --> 00:46:32,099 He's 45 leagues away in sovereignty, which is what, 45 times 16 is lots and lots of miles. 489 00:46:35,463 --> 00:46:37,566 And he says, I don't think we'll get there before lunch. 490 00:46:39,989 --> 00:46:46,498 And Moggallana says, well, if you're okay, I'll take you there by means of my magical power. 491 00:46:47,761 --> 00:46:49,203 He says, okay. 492 00:46:49,724 --> 00:46:54,711 I guess it was a big deal back then to have people teleport to places. 493 00:46:57,195 --> 00:46:58,096 Kind of like Star Trek. 494 00:46:59,718 --> 00:47:02,262 And so what he did, what Moggallana did was interesting. 495 00:47:02,663 --> 00:47:04,726 I thought he would lift them in the air, right? 496 00:47:05,427 --> 00:47:06,088 What do you think he did? 497 00:47:08,311 --> 00:47:09,012 What would he have done? 498 00:47:09,052 --> 00:47:10,795 How would he have gotten these people 45 legs? 499 00:47:10,815 --> 00:47:11,956 He could have lifted them up in the air. 500 00:47:11,976 --> 00:47:12,717 That's what I would have thought. 501 00:47:13,178 --> 00:47:13,519 But no. 502 00:47:14,240 --> 00:47:16,603 What he did is he opened a wormhole 503 00:47:18,895 --> 00:47:26,005 And he put one end at the gate of Jetavana near Savatthi. 504 00:47:26,025 --> 00:47:27,888 There's still a gate there even today. 505 00:47:27,908 --> 00:47:28,569 They made a new gate. 506 00:47:29,470 --> 00:47:37,221 And he put the other end at the bottom of the staircase on the seventh story of this, the bottom story of this guy's mention. 507 00:47:39,283 --> 00:47:45,392 So that when he opened the door at the bottom of the staircase, there was the gate of Jetavana. 508 00:47:50,772 --> 00:47:51,373 I can do that. 509 00:47:51,393 --> 00:47:53,395 I wouldn't have to fly to Toronto. 510 00:47:56,599 --> 00:47:57,020 Hi, Dad. 511 00:47:59,943 --> 00:48:03,748 So they walk down, and they walk down, and suddenly they're at the gate of Cape Devon looking around. 512 00:48:03,788 --> 00:48:08,935 They walk in, and there's the Buddha. 513 00:48:08,955 --> 00:48:13,660 And they walk up to the Buddha, and then Moggallana takes them and says, this is the Buddha. 514 00:48:13,681 --> 00:48:14,762 This is a fully enlightened Buddha. 515 00:48:14,782 --> 00:48:17,405 This is a rich man and his wife. 516 00:48:19,948 --> 00:48:20,509 And 517 00:48:22,835 --> 00:48:49,062 they offer pancakes to the Buddha, and the Buddha takes the pancakes, or they offer some to the Buddha, and then they go on and they start offering to the other monks, and then they realize how many monks there are, and they're like, okay, I'll give as many as we have, and somehow they find they're not running out of pancakes, and so they're giving pancakes, and they end up giving pancakes to all 500 monks, and then some of the monks want more pancakes, and so they go and give more pancakes to those monks. 518 00:48:55,724 --> 00:48:59,587 and they're still hungry, so they get another pancake, and they're still not running out. 519 00:49:00,208 --> 00:49:03,591 And finally, all the monks had eaten their fill and had enough food for the day. 520 00:49:04,272 --> 00:49:05,433 And there's still pancakes left. 521 00:49:05,653 --> 00:49:07,775 There's a huge mass of pancakes. 522 00:49:09,837 --> 00:49:13,200 And so they go to the Buddha and they say, what are we going to do with these leftover pancakes? 523 00:49:13,220 --> 00:49:14,181 They're just not running out. 524 00:49:14,221 --> 00:49:19,025 And the Buddha says, well, go and dump them down the hill. 525 00:49:19,105 --> 00:49:20,326 There's this hill or something. 526 00:49:20,346 --> 00:49:21,167 It's not clear what it is. 527 00:49:21,187 --> 00:49:22,928 I think it's some kind of sloped incline. 528 00:49:22,948 --> 00:49:23,689 Throw it over that 529 00:49:24,563 --> 00:49:27,487 that hill or else it's a hill or something. 530 00:49:28,047 --> 00:49:31,071 Probably it's going down, make a landfill kind of thing. 531 00:49:32,833 --> 00:49:39,282 And so he did that and to this day, or to the time of the commentary, to the time of the commentary, it was still called the Pancake Hill. 532 00:49:40,263 --> 00:49:41,284 That was the name of that hill. 533 00:49:41,625 --> 00:49:42,946 Anyway, that's the story. 534 00:49:44,728 --> 00:49:53,119 Then Moggallana brought them back to their palace, their mansion, and then the monks were thinking about it and they were so amazed at how 535 00:49:53,622 --> 00:50:10,332 Moggallano is able to do that, just by going for alms, special alms, just by walking, looking for breakfast, he was able to bring this rich man over to 536 00:50:11,459 --> 00:50:22,533 Sorry, I missed the most important part, of course, is that then the Buddha, after the meal, the Buddha gave a talk to the rich man, rich woman, and they both became sodathans. 537 00:50:22,653 --> 00:50:26,879 They both had a realization of Nibbana as they were sitting listening. 538 00:50:27,399 --> 00:50:32,947 So meaning they would have sat listening, not thinking about the teachings, but actually practicing them. 539 00:50:32,967 --> 00:50:39,475 And as a result, they were able to let go and become free and enter into cessation and realize the truth. 540 00:50:40,720 --> 00:50:55,122 and to see that it's possible to be free from suffering, and so as a result they were called Sotapanna, which means one who has entered the stream to enlightenment. 541 00:50:55,142 --> 00:50:55,382 Right. 542 00:50:56,043 --> 00:51:08,382 And then Moggallana brought them back, and then the monks were so amazed at this, and look at how Moggallana is able to do this, and Buddha came and said, that's just the way of the sage, the Muni, 543 00:51:09,357 --> 00:51:27,499 and then he gave this verse, and he said, So this is how, just as a bee goes, because if you look at this story, you think, it's kind of greedy, no? 544 00:51:29,381 --> 00:51:36,470 Like, is that all you're going to do with your enlightenment, is to sit around and say, hmm, this guy's making pancakes, I'd like some of those. 545 00:51:36,490 --> 00:51:38,993 I'll just sit here, and when Duxit is making pancakes, 546 00:51:39,698 --> 00:51:45,744 I don't dare say any poo because I know that if I do them tomorrow, someone's going to bring it to me because I think, oh, he must like that. 547 00:51:47,466 --> 00:51:50,869 So I don't dare even give an example. 548 00:51:52,211 --> 00:51:54,713 Ducks, it is making kitty butt. 549 00:51:57,676 --> 00:51:59,638 I go, oh, ducks, it's making kitty butt. 550 00:52:02,221 --> 00:52:04,643 Wow, I feel like some kitty butt. 551 00:52:05,500 --> 00:52:09,844 And then call my assistant to go and get me some. 552 00:52:11,626 --> 00:52:13,628 It seems like I'm doing it for a fairly greedy reason. 553 00:52:14,029 --> 00:52:17,292 So this is a charge that's leveled against monks. 554 00:52:19,554 --> 00:52:22,998 We go walking through the village, kind of expecting people to give us food. 555 00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:26,341 And so it's a challenge. 556 00:52:26,381 --> 00:52:33,448 And this is a response to that challenge, that you know a deed by its fruit. 557 00:52:35,200 --> 00:52:43,610 If something is hurting people, if something is causing suffering, then it's wrong. 558 00:52:44,671 --> 00:52:46,994 So when people call monks beggars, they actually don't beg. 559 00:52:47,014 --> 00:52:49,196 A monk is not allowed to beg. 560 00:52:49,256 --> 00:52:50,177 They're not allowed to ask. 561 00:52:50,798 --> 00:52:53,101 But they're allowed to go and see if someone wants to give. 562 00:52:53,321 --> 00:52:54,002 And why is that? 563 00:52:54,062 --> 00:52:56,705 Because giving is an important practice. 564 00:52:56,765 --> 00:53:04,414 It's the beginning of giving up, which is the essence of Buddhist practice. 565 00:53:05,626 --> 00:53:07,609 So this is what the bee does to the flower. 566 00:53:07,649 --> 00:53:12,375 This is also what the sage does in the village. 567 00:53:12,976 --> 00:53:15,679 They don't go looking for giribat. 568 00:53:16,300 --> 00:53:20,145 They just go into the village and take what is given to them. 569 00:53:20,205 --> 00:53:30,739 They go away with the essence, the pollen of the flower, and that doesn't hurt the flower at all. 570 00:53:31,630 --> 00:53:52,757 So when a monk goes to the village, they look, and if people have leftover food or people have made food especially as a gift, as an alms distribution, which is common in Egypt, they don't go looking for sports cars or widescreen television or something. 571 00:53:52,777 --> 00:53:59,005 They only take what is of necessity and nothing more. 572 00:54:00,301 --> 00:54:03,947 And the Buddha said, Moggallana has always been this way, and he told one of the Jatakas. 573 00:54:04,248 --> 00:54:10,178 And so in the Jataka, the same thing happened, and I think it was the same guy in a past life, Moggallana once. 574 00:54:10,779 --> 00:54:17,130 Which is another interesting point, because the Buddha must have seen this, and so he would have seen that these two had a relationship. 575 00:54:17,150 --> 00:54:24,823 He saw this rich man, and he thought, wow, Moggallana's done this once before, let's get Moggallana to do this again now. 576 00:54:25,462 --> 00:54:27,624 reenact what they've done in the past life. 577 00:54:27,644 --> 00:54:31,747 So apparently the exact same thing happened in the past life without the Buddha getting involved. 578 00:54:31,767 --> 00:54:36,812 And Moggallana wanted to show him, I think it was Moggallana who just wanted to show him in the past life. 579 00:54:37,492 --> 00:54:41,156 And so they said, let's get him to do this again, only bring Dhamma into it. 580 00:54:42,917 --> 00:54:43,958 Bring him to see the truth. 581 00:54:46,300 --> 00:54:47,321 And that's how the story goes. 582 00:54:48,962 --> 00:54:50,944 So what is the lesson that we can take? 583 00:54:50,964 --> 00:54:54,287 I think there's that key lesson here, and it's 584 00:54:55,820 --> 00:54:58,866 This is a very good example of that reason. 585 00:54:58,886 --> 00:55:17,541 If you look at the story on the surface, it seems like pretty useless, pretty meaningless, but if you go deeply into this aspect of craving, it actually is quite key and an example of the essence of what happens during meditation, which is that we 586 00:55:18,736 --> 00:55:19,997 give up our craving. 587 00:55:20,017 --> 00:55:35,214 We come to see the stress involved with craving by having to see it again and again and look at it again and again, which is really the only sustainable release from craving that exists. 588 00:55:35,294 --> 00:55:37,176 And you can see this in life. 589 00:55:37,196 --> 00:55:39,518 When people become fed up with something and just have enough. 590 00:55:40,239 --> 00:55:43,562 I was reading this book written by a neuroscientist who used to be a drug addict. 591 00:55:43,643 --> 00:55:44,984 Very good book. 592 00:55:45,004 --> 00:55:45,925 He was a Canadian. 593 00:55:48,368 --> 00:55:49,209 from Ontario. 594 00:55:49,970 --> 00:55:52,434 He was a drug addict and he was a thief. 595 00:55:52,614 --> 00:55:57,261 He was breaking into people's houses to steal drugs and breaking into doctors' offices to steal drugs. 596 00:55:57,281 --> 00:56:01,847 And then one day he just realized, or not realized, but he just had enough. 597 00:56:03,390 --> 00:56:04,131 Nothing was working. 598 00:56:04,171 --> 00:56:05,272 No treatment was working. 599 00:56:05,292 --> 00:56:08,637 There was nothing that could get him off these hard drugs, heroin, and so on. 600 00:56:10,019 --> 00:56:11,722 And finally he just saw that this is endless. 601 00:56:11,802 --> 00:56:13,244 This is never going to end. 602 00:56:13,544 --> 00:56:17,650 And if you read the story, how he describes it, it's very much the 603 00:56:18,305 --> 00:56:20,908 Realization of how pointless it is, not how bad it is. 604 00:56:21,649 --> 00:56:26,756 Of course, hating yourself for your addictions doesn't overcome them. 605 00:56:27,697 --> 00:56:32,584 But realizing how pointless it was, how it was just repeating itself over and over again. 606 00:56:32,624 --> 00:56:36,369 And so just one day out of the blue, this came to him and he stopped. 607 00:56:37,671 --> 00:56:39,233 It wasn't that he wasn't addicted anymore. 608 00:56:39,313 --> 00:56:47,063 It's that he didn't want... It wasn't... 609 00:56:47,768 --> 00:56:53,073 wasn't afraid of the addiction or wasn't attached to the addiction, I guess is the best way of putting it. 610 00:56:53,133 --> 00:56:59,359 And so every time the addiction came up, he just said, no, he said, no, I really don't see the point anymore. 611 00:56:59,419 --> 00:57:04,744 I really don't want it anymore. 612 00:57:04,764 --> 00:57:07,126 So, so you can see how this carries out in real life. 613 00:57:07,186 --> 00:57:17,235 And it's, it's an incredible freedom to know that you don't have to hate yourself because of either your addictions or your aversions because of any of your mental states, you just have to understand them. 614 00:57:18,397 --> 00:57:19,759 And this is how meditation works. 615 00:57:19,819 --> 00:57:21,100 You don't hate yourself. 616 00:57:21,721 --> 00:57:23,062 You don't chastise yourself. 617 00:57:23,123 --> 00:57:32,053 You don't repress any of the states in the mind or any of the qualities of mind, even the bad qualities of mind. 618 00:57:32,754 --> 00:57:34,175 Just see them for what they are. 619 00:57:34,236 --> 00:57:35,918 Just understand them, study them. 620 00:57:38,220 --> 00:57:40,803 And this is why we have meditation. 621 00:57:40,823 --> 00:57:42,345 This is why we sit down to 622 00:57:47,287 --> 00:57:50,672 focus on something, on mundane reality. 623 00:57:50,792 --> 00:58:00,187 We're not sitting down, closing our eyes to try to drift away and see heaven, see hell, remember our past lives or so on. 624 00:58:00,207 --> 00:58:00,908 This isn't the point. 625 00:58:00,948 --> 00:58:09,141 The point is to see ourselves, to see the truth about what's going on in our mundane reality. 626 00:58:12,826 --> 00:58:13,227 So 627 00:58:13,882 --> 00:58:25,979 And so as a result we get this much quicker, much clearer, and much more detailed than these examples that I'm giving of ordinary life. 628 00:58:26,400 --> 00:58:27,581 We start to see this about everything. 629 00:58:28,202 --> 00:58:32,949 We start to see it about every aspect of your life, all of your likes and dislikes. 630 00:58:34,751 --> 00:58:40,800 Simple dislikes like the pain in the legs, or the pain in your head, or the pain in your back. 631 00:58:41,017 --> 00:58:52,693 simple desires like the desire for food or the desire for excitement, for entertainment and so on. 632 00:58:52,713 --> 00:59:05,151 This is really the essence of meditation, allowing us to become objective, to live here and now, to live unattached or independent of any clinging 633 00:59:09,097 --> 00:59:17,710 So it's a model for our practice, this kind of process that we can go about on a moment-to-moment level. 634 00:59:17,770 --> 00:59:20,113 We can approach everything in this way. 635 00:59:20,153 --> 00:59:28,966 Look at our obsessions and see how we're obsessing about them and begin to change our reaction so that we simply see things as they are. 636 00:59:30,969 --> 00:59:38,901 So we have this tool of reminding ourselves when you see something, instead of letting yourself get excited about it, you just remind yourself that scene 637 00:59:40,450 --> 00:59:41,971 The Buddha was very clear about this. 638 00:59:42,011 --> 00:59:46,976 Seeing, the most important thing, the essence of the practice is that seeing should just be seeing. 639 00:59:47,957 --> 00:59:50,939 So we remind ourselves that's just seeing. 640 00:59:50,959 --> 00:59:53,101 When you hear something, you remind yourself that's hearing. 641 00:59:53,482 --> 00:59:57,305 Even when you like something, you remind yourself that's liking. 642 00:59:57,325 --> 00:59:59,567 When you dislike something, dislike. 643 00:59:59,587 --> 01:00:03,290 When you're afraid of something, afraid. 644 01:00:03,310 --> 01:00:04,792 When you're walking, walking. 645 01:00:04,812 --> 01:00:06,073 When you're sitting, sitting. 646 01:00:08,195 --> 01:00:09,816 When you're bored, bored. 647 01:00:11,281 --> 01:00:13,084 and you're excited, excited. 648 01:00:14,285 --> 01:00:31,890 Just seeing things as they are allows this process of boredom to occur, of disenchantment to occur, where the things that excite you begin to bore you, begin to see that happiness doesn't come from clinging. 649 01:00:32,891 --> 01:00:39,280 See what we really already know, because if happiness came from clinging, then we would all have been happy by now, right? 650 01:00:39,682 --> 01:00:46,188 We spend so much time chasing after the objects of our desire, and we're no closer to being satisfied. 651 01:00:46,969 --> 01:00:49,592 You don't see any discernible change except more wanting. 652 01:00:50,573 --> 01:00:56,479 So if you look at the levels here, we have these little meters where we could assess the level of certain things. 653 01:00:56,819 --> 01:00:59,441 So a little bit of wanting comes up. 654 01:00:59,461 --> 01:01:00,923 Well, something arises. 655 01:01:00,963 --> 01:01:04,166 You get something, and so there's a little bit of pleasure comes up. 656 01:01:04,687 --> 01:01:05,748 Or maybe even a lot of pleasure. 657 01:01:05,768 --> 01:01:08,170 Let's say the first time it's kind of exciting, so there's a lot of pleasure. 658 01:01:09,213 --> 01:01:12,116 And so as a result of all that pleasure, some wanting arises. 659 01:01:12,857 --> 01:01:14,919 Just a little bit of wanting, because you've never had it before. 660 01:01:14,959 --> 01:01:18,603 The next time you see it, you've got this wanting there, and you're like, oh, cool, so you get it. 661 01:01:19,083 --> 01:01:22,507 The wanting increases, and the pleasure is actually less when you get it. 662 01:01:24,309 --> 01:01:28,453 But the wanting, because it's habitual, it increases. 663 01:01:29,034 --> 01:01:31,657 And you can watch the brain, and you can actually assess these levels. 664 01:01:32,678 --> 01:01:37,583 The wanting increases each time, and the amount of pleasure you get decreases. 665 01:01:38,980 --> 01:01:49,130 And this has to do with, well, you can view it on a physical level in terms of the cycle of addiction as they study it in the brain. 666 01:01:49,810 --> 01:01:55,195 This book I was mentioning, because this guy eventually gave up his addiction, eventually he became a neuroscientist. 667 01:01:55,235 --> 01:01:59,239 And so he's describing his own life from the point of view of neuroscience. 668 01:01:59,259 --> 01:02:08,548 So dopamine, this chemical makes you want to get it, and when you get it, something else is released, and that releases more dopamine. 669 01:02:08,815 --> 01:02:15,144 except then there's fewer receptors or something, so less pleasure next time. 670 01:02:15,164 --> 01:02:20,292 Interesting stuff. 671 01:02:20,452 --> 01:02:25,299 So we know this is something that is not difficult to see. 672 01:02:28,604 --> 01:02:36,375 What I think may be difficult to see is how it's addictive, the nature of addiction. 673 01:02:36,946 --> 01:02:42,114 we're not able to see that our wanting is increasing because there's a nature of wanting. 674 01:02:42,174 --> 01:02:47,241 Wanting is like focusing on that, on the object, not focusing on the wanting. 675 01:02:47,922 --> 01:02:50,105 And so you might even go further and say that's the problem. 676 01:02:50,146 --> 01:03:00,301 The problem in all cases in our lives is why we fall into suffering is we focus much more on the object than we do on the subject. 677 01:03:01,963 --> 01:03:03,325 Instead of focusing on 678 01:03:05,026 --> 01:03:08,351 Our wanting, we're focusing on what it is that we want. 679 01:03:08,591 --> 01:03:11,976 So we never actually see the nature of the wanting. 680 01:03:11,996 --> 01:03:14,881 We never actually see that it's building and building and building and increasing. 681 01:03:14,901 --> 01:03:16,523 We don't see the problem. 682 01:03:16,643 --> 01:03:18,306 We just see the result. 683 01:03:18,346 --> 01:03:21,310 And this is how dopamine works. 684 01:03:21,911 --> 01:03:24,996 There's very much this excitement that arises. 685 01:03:25,276 --> 01:03:28,401 Anyway, the point being we never look at our own state of mind. 686 01:03:28,801 --> 01:03:32,426 When you dislike something, when you're angry at someone, you never look at your anger. 687 01:03:32,447 --> 01:03:34,830 You always look at the other person, how angry they make you. 688 01:03:35,418 --> 01:03:39,463 You made me angry, and the focus is very much on them, never on your anger. 689 01:03:40,684 --> 01:03:42,306 So meditation fixes that. 690 01:03:42,386 --> 01:03:48,574 It readjusts, and it helps you to see yourself. 691 01:03:49,195 --> 01:03:54,621 It helps you to see what's really going on, because the other person is just a concept in your mind. 692 01:03:55,302 --> 01:03:59,447 If someone's yelling at you, the idea that there's a person yelling at you is just a concept. 693 01:03:59,467 --> 01:04:01,830 The reality is just sound arising at the ear. 694 01:04:02,097 --> 01:04:03,639 and the anger arising in the mind. 695 01:04:03,659 --> 01:04:07,823 This is what's really going on, what you're really experiencing. 696 01:04:07,843 --> 01:04:14,029 So you're not really, when you, when you, when you, when someone's yelling at you, you're not really experiencing someone yelling at you. 697 01:04:14,069 --> 01:04:16,131 You're just experiencing sound, you're interpreting it. 698 01:04:16,271 --> 01:04:20,936 And as a result of all the stories that you tell yourself in your mind, you're getting upset. 699 01:04:22,578 --> 01:04:26,081 When you like something, when you want something, you're not really attracted to that thing. 700 01:04:26,722 --> 01:04:30,045 You're attracted to the chemical reactions in the brain, the pleasure that arise. 701 01:04:30,262 --> 01:04:56,252 arises it's still it's it's just another drug addiction you can talk about all the sublime pleasures of life and so on but in the end it's all just chemicals in the brain you don't really experience a sunset you just experience a light touching your eye and and and pictures the fantasy the the illusions the dreams that you create or the concepts that you create in your mind oh it's sunset oh beautiful 702 01:04:57,278 --> 01:05:02,883 And that gives rise to pleasure and poof, you're addicted. 703 01:05:03,544 --> 01:05:06,827 You get your drug, you get your happy drug. 704 01:05:12,172 --> 01:05:18,898 And so again, I'm not trying to say that there's anything wrong with looking at the sunset or anything wrong with any of these pleasures. 705 01:05:19,479 --> 01:05:24,163 I'm saying that rather than chase after them again and again and again, 706 01:05:24,329 --> 01:05:32,901 we should look and see what they're doing to us, and see whether it's actually satisfying, whether it's actually making you a better, nicer, kinder, happier person. 707 01:05:34,163 --> 01:05:44,657 And it's surprising in many cases, even in the most sublime desires of life, sublime pursuits. 708 01:05:44,698 --> 01:05:49,885 We see that they're actually not qualitatively different than a drug addiction, unfortunately, sorry to say. 709 01:05:50,406 --> 01:05:53,610 But the bright side of that is... 710 01:05:54,265 --> 01:05:56,989 that happiness doesn't depend on any of these things. 711 01:05:57,189 --> 01:06:03,998 You don't need your happiness to depend on X, Y, or Z, on anything in the world around you, or even inside of you. 712 01:06:04,018 --> 01:06:09,945 Your happiness can be independent of those things, and that's why we understand Nibbāna to be special. 713 01:06:10,085 --> 01:06:16,734 Nibbāna is not a thing, it's not something that arises, it's not something that you experience, it's a cessation. 714 01:06:17,515 --> 01:06:23,783 It's this freedom or this release where your happiness is independent of everything. 715 01:06:25,315 --> 01:06:28,678 You fly like a bird independent of the tree. 716 01:06:29,820 --> 01:06:46,577 So that is the latest talk on the commentary of the Dhammapada, which does lend itself to some interesting teachings and always gives you a good story to tell. 717 01:06:46,617 --> 01:06:54,985 So thank you all for waiting patiently, for listening patiently, and for everyone for tuning in both live and to our YouTube channel. 718 01:06:55,657 --> 01:07:08,013 I hope this has been somehow beneficial and helped you to open your mind and at least consider a new way of looking at certain things in your life. 719 01:07:08,433 --> 01:07:16,543 And as a result, it might bring you closer to peace, happiness, and true freedom from suffering. 720 01:07:16,563 --> 01:07:17,204 Thank you all. 721 01:07:17,344 --> 01:07:22,831 And I wish you all to find peace, happiness, and freedom from suffering. 722 01:07:22,911 --> 01:07:23,352 Thank you.