1 00:00:00,537 --> 00:00:13,172 It says, Bonte, I have been thinking recently, I have already made mention of how some of the Christians hand out magazines to me at the bus stop. 2 00:00:13,192 --> 00:00:19,700 Would it be wrong if I told them I'll take it if they listen to what I have to say? 3 00:00:20,981 --> 00:00:23,524 Not so much of... 4 00:00:26,575 --> 00:00:31,523 they are wrong but won't have any effect upon others anyway. 5 00:00:35,329 --> 00:00:36,231 What do you think Larry? 6 00:00:37,292 --> 00:00:37,833 Is that wrong? 7 00:00:42,821 --> 00:00:53,258 Yes in a way I think it is wrong because first of all they're wasting other people's time and as he stated he or she 8 00:00:54,959 --> 00:01:12,580 handing out one pamphlets not going to make a difference in how someone feels about their inner beliefs in the first place so really it's quite agitating um we have some people here in the states that go door-to-door from time to time handing out pamphlets 9 00:01:13,505 --> 00:01:42,938 I usually just out of courtesy take them say thank you and I go chunk them as soon as they leave the front door because I'm not going to read them because I know basically I've read enough to basically know some of their beliefs and I just have no interest if they want to believe that way fine but if not you know I believe like the way I would want to believe so I think to be polite to those individuals would be just to say 10 00:01:43,525 --> 00:02:01,145 I'd rather not take your pamphlets because no thank you I don't want your pamphlet and leave it at that. 11 00:02:01,185 --> 00:02:07,632 A confrontation particularly in a bus station or an airport is futile to begin with. 12 00:02:07,652 --> 00:02:10,275 No one is going to convince anyone else of anything. 13 00:02:11,403 --> 00:02:12,304 They believe that. 14 00:02:12,364 --> 00:02:13,986 They believe in apostatizing. 15 00:02:14,787 --> 00:02:15,748 And that's their beliefs. 16 00:02:15,788 --> 00:02:16,469 That's fine. 17 00:02:16,509 --> 00:02:18,692 But just don't take it out on me. 18 00:02:23,858 --> 00:02:24,399 Anybody else? 19 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:25,861 Am I wrong? 20 00:02:28,304 --> 00:02:30,887 I don't think it's an eye for an eye kind of thing. 21 00:02:30,907 --> 00:02:32,609 You have to listen to me and I listen to you. 22 00:02:34,572 --> 00:02:35,493 Fair is fair, right? 23 00:02:35,513 --> 00:02:35,773 I don't know. 24 00:02:37,424 --> 00:02:40,488 Yeah, I would just say, yeah. 25 00:02:40,528 --> 00:02:41,970 Thanks a lot. 26 00:02:41,990 --> 00:02:57,711 I mean, if it's wrong for them to be confrontational in, you know, forcing their views upon you, or if it seems kind of rude and so on, then adding rude to rude is not probably the best... 27 00:02:57,691 --> 00:03:03,179 What I find works much better is to inquire as to their beliefs politely. 28 00:03:03,219 --> 00:03:26,314 What I find has the best effect on people who engage in such blind faith in things like God and so on, and other imaginary things, is to inquire and actually 29 00:03:26,294 --> 00:03:28,777 investigate with them the way Socrates did. 30 00:03:29,557 --> 00:03:33,882 Not exactly the way Socrates did, but politely asking. 31 00:03:34,322 --> 00:03:36,945 Because they have so much stress. 32 00:03:36,985 --> 00:03:37,966 I've talked about this before. 33 00:03:37,986 --> 00:03:40,488 These people have so much stress and tension. 34 00:03:41,069 --> 00:03:43,331 Probably this is the person who asked the question before. 35 00:03:43,792 --> 00:03:47,375 I don't remember it, but I remember answering this somehow. 36 00:03:47,415 --> 00:03:53,922 They have so much stress and tension built up that really all they want is to let go. 37 00:03:53,902 --> 00:04:08,143 not want, but really all they need, and really what would make them happy, truly happy, is to let go and stop trying to justify something that's totally unjustifiable and irrational. 38 00:04:09,545 --> 00:04:10,767 Trying to rationalize it. 39 00:04:11,869 --> 00:04:20,641 Here in the United States, so many times, one particular denomination that I'm familiar with, they send their children around door to door. 40 00:04:20,742 --> 00:04:23,065 They sit in the car, I don't know if they're 41 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:40,547 came to come up or afraid or what but they'll send their children to the door with these pamphlets and you can't confront those kids because quite frankly I think they've been brainwashed it's just like the church out in Missouri that 42 00:04:41,523 --> 00:04:55,482 Their parents and their kids, I'm sure all of you are familiar with this, at least the ones here in the States, where they're protesting the military funerals of soldiers that have been killed in action. 43 00:04:56,524 --> 00:05:01,410 And these church members and their children, they've all been indoctrinated. 44 00:05:01,430 --> 00:05:04,835 The ones here locally are not affiliated with that at all. 45 00:05:05,376 --> 00:05:10,703 But I do Google them from time to time and find out that it happens to be one of the 46 00:05:11,189 --> 00:05:12,831 I guess you could call it a sect. 47 00:05:13,171 --> 00:05:24,522 They wouldn't call themselves a sect, but they happen to be a group that feel like that they're wrong and everyone, I mean, they're right and everyone else is wrong. 48 00:05:24,562 --> 00:05:38,715 And the fact, I've read some articles written by previous members of that particular religious sect that say once you are 49 00:05:48,601 --> 00:05:49,542 We're losing you, Larry. 50 00:05:55,131 --> 00:06:00,179 The term that they use in that particular sect, but it is true, too. 51 00:06:02,283 --> 00:06:03,705 It's a very sticky question. 52 00:06:04,526 --> 00:06:08,893 I just feel like, personally, I just really don't have the time for them. 53 00:06:09,454 --> 00:06:13,360 I try to get out of the situation as quickly as I can without thinking. 54 00:06:15,702 --> 00:06:24,662 I mean, confrontational with them, but they're just not going to convince me of their ways, regardless of what they say or what they give me. 55 00:06:24,903 --> 00:06:27,950 So to me, it's just a waste of my time in there. 56 00:06:28,010 --> 00:06:32,580 Let them go find somebody that will believe what they say. 57 00:06:35,817 --> 00:06:36,779 Yeah, for sure. 58 00:06:36,799 --> 00:06:38,502 With children it's especially difficult. 59 00:06:38,542 --> 00:06:46,637 I remember once these evangelicals came to the monastery and, you know, once they had me targeted. 60 00:06:47,779 --> 00:06:54,552 This woman, she was, there were some women there and then one of them was the leader and she totally 61 00:06:55,190 --> 00:07:01,618 totally cold and I said, would you like this card? 62 00:07:01,639 --> 00:07:02,980 And they said, no, no. 63 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:04,763 She said for everyone, no, we don't want your card. 64 00:07:05,704 --> 00:07:07,586 Just in a really cold and hard way. 65 00:07:07,646 --> 00:07:12,933 And then suddenly the next night, she comes back with her husband and her two kids. 66 00:07:13,114 --> 00:07:22,446 And I think I started talking to the kids and it was, well, depressing because they're obviously 67 00:07:23,708 --> 00:07:43,067 have no ability to think for themselves and have never been taught how to use their, what do you say, the reason circuits in their brain or in the mind, the mind's ability to investigate. 68 00:07:43,647 --> 00:07:48,532 And they've been totally talking of the brain as a filter. 69 00:07:48,612 --> 00:07:52,416 Well, their brain is like a vice 70 00:07:54,674 --> 00:08:00,769 vice grip, keeping them locked in on certain predefined views. 71 00:08:01,712 --> 00:08:07,586 So I asked them, and the parents said, go ahead, Tommy, tell him. 72 00:08:08,709 --> 00:08:11,957 And then da, da, da, da, da, da, da. 73 00:08:11,937 --> 00:08:15,463 Which is really sad because what can you do with kids? 74 00:08:16,685 --> 00:08:26,000 They're so malleable that you can twist them and turn them in any sort of way. 75 00:08:26,081 --> 00:08:34,795 They're not strong enough to reject the things that their parents teach them. 76 00:08:35,516 --> 00:08:37,219 When they get older they may be able to. 77 00:08:38,279 --> 00:08:44,266 But, you know, you still have to feel for these people. 78 00:08:45,371 --> 00:08:46,737 And, you know... 79 00:08:48,455 --> 00:08:54,982 to some extent, not to a very big extent, but to some extent, see their suffering. 80 00:08:55,923 --> 00:09:03,051 From my point of view, because what happened then, I think I've told this story before, the next day I said, well, if they're coming to visit me, I should go visit them. 81 00:09:03,091 --> 00:09:11,020 And then the next day I went to their church, which was this huge church just down the road from Wat Thai of Los Angeles. 82 00:09:12,637 --> 00:09:14,700 And it was such an interesting experience. 83 00:09:14,740 --> 00:09:18,246 I talked with this teacher of preachers. 84 00:09:18,326 --> 00:09:19,949 He was a preacher teacher. 85 00:09:20,450 --> 00:09:24,035 He taught preachers, pastors. 86 00:09:24,817 --> 00:09:28,182 He taught pastors. 87 00:09:29,680 --> 00:09:31,704 He was suffering, it was so easy to see. 88 00:09:31,724 --> 00:09:40,103 I made him see, not to a great extent, but he must be dealing with this conflict inside of himself every day. 89 00:09:40,143 --> 00:09:49,022 How difficult it is to keep this faith that is so ungrounded in any form of reality. 90 00:09:50,099 --> 00:10:06,983 To the extent that you're able to gently show them their own suffering, I think you do them a great deal of benefit. 91 00:10:07,343 --> 00:10:19,060 Just showing them confidence, real confidence, in the sense that, I don't mind if you talk to me, I don't mind if you give me your brochure. 92 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:20,522 Why? 93 00:10:20,622 --> 00:10:21,743 Because I'm happy. 94 00:10:22,223 --> 00:10:24,746 I'm settled in who I am. 95 00:10:24,806 --> 00:10:27,529 I mean, you want to give me your brochure? 96 00:10:27,549 --> 00:10:27,769 Sure. 97 00:10:28,010 --> 00:10:29,231 It's just a piece of paper. 98 00:10:29,291 --> 00:10:40,002 But somehow bringing across to them a sense of peace and happiness and helping them to see that that's not possible to gain with blind faith. 99 00:10:40,643 --> 00:10:46,309 That you are free from something that they are not free from yet. 100 00:10:46,349 --> 00:10:47,190 I mean, 101 00:10:47,170 --> 00:10:51,979 And I think this doesn't come from imposing your views on them. 102 00:10:52,640 --> 00:10:56,067 It comes from being accepting and open and loving and caring towards them. 103 00:10:56,107 --> 00:11:02,779 Because really that's generally why people go to such cults, you might say, or sects. 104 00:11:03,921 --> 00:11:05,905 It's because of the love that they find. 105 00:11:05,885 --> 00:11:16,524 the need that they have for being controlled or for being taken care of. 106 00:11:17,906 --> 00:11:22,695 The need for, in Judeo-Christian religions, the need for a father figure. 107 00:11:22,675 --> 00:11:28,204 People become, you know, it's such a fatherly religion. 108 00:11:28,304 --> 00:11:34,955 If you read, if you actually read the things that Jesus says, it's, you know, it's very much, very oppressive, actually. 109 00:11:36,157 --> 00:11:49,999 Some of it's nice, but a lot of it's just, you know, you're a father, you're a father, and how you have to... So if you help people to see 110 00:11:50,367 --> 00:11:58,457 the possibility of just loving without needing, then you do them a favor. 111 00:11:58,477 --> 00:11:59,238 I mean, this is the thing. 112 00:11:59,718 --> 00:12:10,992 Rather than seeing it as a conflict, rather than seeing it as a confrontation, you should see it as a fellow human being who you might be able to help. 113 00:12:10,972 --> 00:12:30,878 And if you think in terms of helping this person, and not in a condescending or self-righteous way, but just in the way that you would help someone who needs food, and give them some food, you know, you're not judging them and you're not thinking to look down on them or that you're better than them, but just look and see if there's any way you can help you. 114 00:12:31,258 --> 00:12:34,903 With children, if it's children bringing pamphlets to your door, there's not much you can do. 115 00:12:34,883 --> 00:12:36,486 But you can love them. 116 00:12:36,867 --> 00:12:41,976 It makes you happy and these kids come to your door and they want to give you some brochures and say, thank you. 117 00:12:42,497 --> 00:12:43,499 I hope you have a good day. 118 00:12:43,559 --> 00:12:46,444 That's good for you. 119 00:12:46,544 --> 00:12:47,987 That's a good thing that you've done for them. 120 00:12:48,768 --> 00:12:54,158 It's not going to change them or make them doubt their religion, not in any significant way, but 121 00:12:54,138 --> 00:12:55,359 It's what you could do. 122 00:12:55,379 --> 00:13:02,427 It's like you gave them a muffin or something. 123 00:13:02,447 --> 00:13:05,370 You gave them something that was good for them. 124 00:13:07,052 --> 00:13:13,139 It's not going to solve the world's problems, but we're not here to solve the world's problems. 125 00:13:13,259 --> 00:13:16,583 We're here to do good things, avoid evil things, and purify our own minds. 126 00:13:17,364 --> 00:13:20,567 So whatever helps you to do that, that's what I would do. 127 00:13:22,471 --> 00:13:23,915 Hopefully that's what I would do. 128 00:13:24,356 --> 00:13:32,235 I might just get all self-righteous on them and start telling them about Buddhism and so on, but I should. 129 00:13:33,318 --> 00:13:39,012 I'm not saying that I practice everything that I preach, but do as I say, not as I maybe do sometimes.