WEBVTT 00:00.031 --> 00:01.673 Good evening everyone. 00:02.114 --> 00:07.802 Welcome to our live broadcast. 00:07.822 --> 00:20.661 Today we're looking at the Anguttara Nikaya, Book of Threes, Sutta number 36, Devadutta Sutta. 00:23.566 --> 00:24.667 Devadutta. 00:25.148 --> 00:27.191 Dutta means messenger. 00:27.211 --> 00:27.912 Messenger. 00:29.444 --> 00:30.766 Deva means divine. 00:30.786 --> 00:50.271 So it seems that there are clearly defined roles and interactions that angels undertake in relation to the human world. 00:52.614 --> 00:58.962 They don't just come down and walk down the street or poke their head in your window or 01:01.034 --> 01:14.487 sit and chat with you and don't see angels coming down and visiting you over breakfast or saving you from car accidents or that kind of thing. 01:16.154 --> 01:35.293 seems that um there's some regulated interaction which makes sense i mean it's certainly not completely regulated but there would be some regulated interaction i mean what's kind of befuddling is why don't angels have breakfast with people or just come down and poke their heads in 01:36.522 --> 01:51.323 And I guess there's a few reasons for this that still allow for the existence of angels because of course many people would take that to the evidence that there's no such thing as angels, the fact that we never see them. 01:51.343 --> 01:54.367 It's pretty good evidence, right? 01:54.387 --> 02:00.235 But it seems that the angel realm is, the divine realms are 02:01.767 --> 02:30.998 so much different in terms of the way they operate the speed at which everything moves and one day in the angel realms is a hundred years in human realms would you imagine how difficult it would be to coordinate and it seems like because they're so different that there's a sort of a difficulty or 02:33.121 --> 02:40.579 a barrier to the interaction between the angel realms, the divine realms, and the human realms. 02:42.844 --> 02:44.027 It seems that they're able to. 02:44.067 --> 02:45.430 Angels are able to come down. 02:45.491 --> 02:51.585 But it seems like it would take some coordinated effort and that they just don't do it. 02:54.080 --> 02:59.548 In fact, they may, but it would be so rare that no one would ever believe if it actually happened. 03:00.349 --> 03:07.599 But apparently, there are ways that the divine realm interacts with the human realm. 03:09.742 --> 03:11.224 In fact, it might not even be the case. 03:11.585 --> 03:24.002 It's laid out this way to suggest that there are divine messengers 03:25.973 --> 03:28.195 Honestly, that's not what this sutta is about at all. 03:30.858 --> 03:31.599 Let's scratch that. 03:34.301 --> 03:38.025 The divine messengers aren't actually divine messengers at all. 03:39.507 --> 03:48.676 But anyway, it's interesting to think that there are regulated interactions. 03:48.716 --> 03:50.377 But that's not even what this sutta is about. 03:50.397 --> 03:52.960 I apologize. 03:56.213 --> 04:23.183 but this guy the this the idea is that there are something that there are these things that are given the designation because they are similar or they should be treated as these divine messengers as as if they were this regulated sort of sort of the thing that the angels want us to see 04:24.158 --> 04:33.072 And I guess that's the point is that we're all as a species, we're very much obsessed with 04:34.553 --> 04:36.775 what the divines have to say. 04:37.936 --> 04:40.599 What is God telling me with this? 04:41.380 --> 04:43.342 What is the lesson that I'm supposed to learn? 04:44.203 --> 05:01.720 And so anything that happens that's out of sorts or out of the ordinary in our lives, we think of it as a lesson from God or the angels trying to tell us something, heavens trying to tell us something, or even just the universe. 05:02.401 --> 05:03.362 We say these things. 05:04.878 --> 05:14.510 And so honestly it's more a human superstition than actual fact. 05:17.074 --> 05:19.116 So the Buddha is actually just picking up on this. 05:19.957 --> 05:28.168 He's picking up on the idea that people have that there are this divine 05:33.397 --> 06:00.754 signals signals from heaven telling you what you should and shouldn't do giving you hints reminding you of things that you need to be reminded of giving you advice and support and direction giving you direction this is what we think this is what most religions have to say and folk religion in general even folk buddhism 06:01.308 --> 06:12.325 It was all about how the angels give us these signs and signals or they save us or support us or bless us. 06:13.326 --> 06:18.674 Even as Buddhists, many Buddhists are very keen to get the favor of angels. 06:19.796 --> 06:22.520 I apologize because that's not what this sutta is about at all. 06:22.841 --> 06:26.386 The Buddha is actually playing on this. 06:26.406 --> 06:27.788 Or not the Buddha even. 06:27.768 --> 06:29.876 There's this King Yama. 06:30.418 --> 06:38.065 Yama is like the Hades or the god of death, the god of the underworld. 06:39.918 --> 06:53.972 And so the way it goes, why this sutta, why I even brought this up, is because it's an interesting example of a description of how things go when you die, what happens when you die. 06:54.613 --> 07:05.244 And it's a variation on this, what I guess scholars would call mythology, the death story mythology, the afterlife mythology. 07:06.005 --> 07:09.148 In Christianity, they have the pearly gates, right, where you 07:09.128 --> 07:18.637 stand on a saint, I can't remember which one, St. Peter, standing up at the pearly gates, letting people in or not letting people in. 07:20.338 --> 07:34.952 And then you have the Greeks and the Romans with their god of the underworld waiting for the reaper waiting to ferry you across or that kind of thing. 07:34.972 --> 07:36.233 So here's the Buddhist version. 07:37.563 --> 07:49.395 that there's this king of the underworld and when people die they go and have to stand before this king if they die and they're going to go to hell 07:50.202 --> 07:59.472 And then they come to the entrance of hell and there's this King Yama who, it sounds like he has a pretty depressing job and he's not really all that keen about his job. 07:59.492 --> 08:12.087 It must have been some sort of bad karma that he had that he, some specific karma that he has to sit and greet all these wretched souls who are about to be thrust into hell. 08:13.488 --> 08:16.592 And so he meets them and he asks them about the divine messengers. 08:17.212 --> 08:17.813 He says, 08:19.244 --> 08:20.246 What are you doing here? 08:20.306 --> 08:20.807 Didn't you? 08:20.827 --> 08:38.616 The guards grab him and say, Your Majesty, this person was mean towards his father and mother, was mean towards religious folk, did not honor the elders of their family, blah, blah, blah. 08:38.636 --> 08:41.039 Didn't do wicked and evil deeds. 08:41.861 --> 08:42.602 Punish him. 08:44.455 --> 08:52.905 And the king is actually not, see in Buddhism no one punishes, it's not the person who punishes, it's the power of the deeds. 08:52.985 --> 08:57.471 So the king doesn't actually punish, but he's going to give this guy a lecture. 08:58.752 --> 09:05.721 So he says, didn't you see the first Devadutta, the first divine messenger that appears among human beings? 09:07.439 --> 09:21.554 And in general, the people think, whoever it is standing before the king would think, well, I didn't see such a messenger, you know, no angels, no divine messenger coming to warn me against doing evil deeds. 09:21.634 --> 09:26.640 And he says, what, you didn't see anyone? 09:26.680 --> 09:34.088 You never saw a man or a woman 80, 90, 100 years of age, frail, bent like a roof bracket? 09:34.777 --> 09:45.410 crooked, wobbling as they go along, leaning on a stick, ailing, youth gone, with broken teeth, with gray and scanty hair, or bald, with wrinkled skin and blotched limbs. 09:45.430 --> 09:48.934 I never see such a person. 09:48.954 --> 09:51.737 Oh yes, of course, I've seen old people like that. 09:53.680 --> 10:01.489 And he said, good man, didn't it occur to you, an intelligent and mature person, that I too am subject to old age. 10:01.609 --> 10:03.872 I am not exempt from old age. 10:05.050 --> 10:31.659 Did he never think that this was a sign that you should make use of your youth and do good deeds and prepare yourself for getting old, for when you would not be able to just do whatever you want and try and avoid the consequences, when the consequences of a corrupt mind would inevitably get back at you in your old age? 10:32.720 --> 10:33.741 And he said, no. 10:35.172 --> 10:35.973 No, I didn't. 10:35.993 --> 10:40.439 I kind of, you know, feels kind of ashamed of the fact. 10:43.543 --> 10:53.376 All right, well, didn't you see the second type of, well, then he admonishes him and says, oh, you didn't, you failed to do good deeds through heedlessness. 10:54.858 --> 10:57.602 And because of that heedlessness, you're now going to be 10:58.308 --> 11:11.795 That bad karma of yours was not done by your mother or father or by your brother or sister, by your friends and companions, nor by your relatives and family members, nor by the deities, nor by ascetics and Brahmins. 11:11.875 --> 11:17.346 You were the one who did that bad karma and you yourself will have to experience its results. 11:21.477 --> 11:24.382 The guy sort of hangs his head or her head. 11:25.323 --> 11:26.044 And he says, so what? 11:26.645 --> 11:29.069 And you didn't see the second divine messenger? 11:29.089 --> 11:32.695 I said, look, I didn't see any divine messenger. 11:32.715 --> 11:47.839 He said, well, okay, you never saw a human being who, a man or a woman who was sick, afflicted and gravely ill, lying in their own urine and excrement, having to be lifted up by some and put down by others? 11:50.620 --> 11:53.884 And he replies, oh yes, I did see such a person as that. 11:53.904 --> 11:57.688 A good man, good fellow, a good woman. 11:58.329 --> 12:12.966 Didn't it occur to you, an intelligent and mature person, that I too am subject to illness and I am not exempt from illness, that this is going to come to me and that I should make use of my health. 12:13.587 --> 12:23.552 to make something of myself, because when the sickness comes, I'm going to be gravely afflicted by the mental corruption that I have cultivated in its stead. 12:26.319 --> 12:29.908 The person says, sorry, I didn't think such a thing. 12:32.707 --> 12:34.049 And then he repeats himself. 12:35.511 --> 12:39.157 Because of your heedlessness, you did bad deeds. 12:39.698 --> 12:41.520 You avoided good deeds. 12:42.602 --> 12:55.341 It wasn't your brothers and sisters, your mother, your father, your friends and companions, your relatives and family members or deities or religious people who did these deeds. 12:56.042 --> 12:57.184 You can't blame anyone. 12:57.224 --> 12:59.948 You are the one who did them yourself. 12:59.968 --> 13:00.909 And you were upon them. 13:00.929 --> 13:01.971 You will suffer for them. 13:04.043 --> 13:18.925 The person kind of starts to realize the extent of their falling and says, but seriously, you didn't even see the third divine messenger? 13:18.945 --> 13:22.170 What was the third divine messenger? 13:22.250 --> 13:31.924 He said, tell me you didn't see a person who was dead? 13:32.191 --> 13:37.679 You never saw a person lying in a coffin or lying in the charnel ground? 13:37.699 --> 13:47.752 A person who had been dead one day, two days, three days, a bloated corpse lying on the side of the road, did you never see that? 13:49.395 --> 13:53.220 And I said, well, yes, I did see, I have seen dead people. 13:54.888 --> 14:09.333 And it didn't occur to you that you too are subject to death, that you're not exempt from death, that this is going to be you someday and that you should wake up, make use of the life that you have, do something with your life. 14:10.054 --> 14:15.664 Don't die heedless, don't die with a corrupt mind so that you have to come and stand before me like this. 14:17.180 --> 14:19.803 As a whole, Lord, I was heedless. 14:21.125 --> 14:22.466 And he repeats a third time. 14:22.506 --> 14:26.871 Through your heedlessness, you have failed to do good deeds. 14:26.931 --> 14:28.713 You have cultivated evil deeds. 14:29.474 --> 14:34.700 It wasn't your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, and anyone else who did these deeds. 14:34.740 --> 14:38.985 You did them yourself, and you will suffer the consequences yourself. 14:42.323 --> 14:43.326 And the Buddha is relating this. 14:43.366 --> 14:48.920 He says, when he questions him like this, this person, man or woman, falls silent. 14:53.431 --> 14:55.236 And Dhamma says, get out of my sight. 14:55.878 --> 14:57.261 Well, he actually doesn't say anything. 14:58.810 --> 15:04.958 Actually, it says when, it doesn't say who falls silent, whether it's the king or whether it's the person. 15:05.038 --> 15:07.200 Anyway, the king kind of steps back. 15:07.321 --> 15:08.082 And this is important. 15:08.102 --> 15:09.844 The king doesn't actually do the punishing. 15:10.945 --> 15:12.968 The king is actually a kind of a good guy. 15:12.988 --> 15:19.055 And, you know, it's actually a fairly useful position. 15:19.095 --> 15:24.722 It's just a shame he didn't get around to teaching people when we're still alive, when we still had a chance to change. 15:25.643 --> 15:27.045 It's kind of like... 15:30.012 --> 15:34.736 And then comes the torture. 15:34.997 --> 15:41.502 And the sutta goes on to describe how the wardens of hell torture this person with a five-fold transfixing. 15:43.004 --> 15:47.768 They drive a red-hot iron stake through one hand and another red-hot iron stake through the other hand. 15:47.808 --> 15:52.312 They drive a red-hot iron stake through one foot and another red-hot iron stake through the other foot. 15:53.593 --> 15:58.618 They drive a red-hot iron stake through the middle of the chest, this person's chest. 15:59.982 --> 16:01.748 And this is actually a mild description. 16:01.788 --> 16:08.270 There are other commentaries that describe in much more detail the various types of punishment. 16:08.290 --> 16:11.140 I think actually in the commentary, 16:12.082 --> 16:23.845 To one of the searches we didn't go over, there's the various types of punishment that either a king or the wardens of hell will inflict. 16:23.885 --> 16:24.466 Here's a bunch. 16:25.188 --> 16:31.440 The wardens of hell throw him down and pair him with axes, hack him up with axes or her. 16:33.007 --> 16:36.352 Then they feel painful feelings yet do not die. 16:36.372 --> 16:40.098 As long as the karma of their deeds is not exhausted. 16:40.138 --> 16:43.423 Then they turn them upside down and pair them with adzes. 16:44.144 --> 16:48.772 I don't know really what an adze is, but it sounds painful. 16:48.792 --> 16:55.422 They harness them to a chariot and drive them back and forth across ground that is burning, blazing and glowing. 16:58.046 --> 17:01.191 Using them like horses in the fires of hell. 17:03.095 --> 17:09.904 They make them climb up and down a great mound of coals that are burning and blazing and glowing. 17:09.924 --> 17:14.430 And then they turn them upside down and plunge them into red-hot copper cauldron. 17:15.271 --> 17:19.417 I mean, it's a red-hot copper cauldron. 17:20.238 --> 17:25.084 I guess a cauldron of water or else a cauldron of molten copper. 17:25.145 --> 17:25.525 I don't know. 17:27.631 --> 17:52.035 probably informer probably it's water or oil or something yeah because they're cooked in a swirl of foam and as they're being cooked they are swept up down and across and they feel painful racking piercing feelings i gave these uh i talked about these are the more detailed version to a bunch of young cambodian kids who had become novices at our monastery a long time ago 17:52.015 --> 17:54.098 really helped, really sobered them up. 17:55.059 --> 18:01.967 Of course, that night they ended up sleeping with a head monk because they were so afraid of ghosts and hell and that kind of thing. 18:04.270 --> 18:05.532 He wasn't very happy about it. 18:06.813 --> 18:08.796 I think it had its effect. 18:12.160 --> 18:13.922 All right, so that's about it for the sutta. 18:14.257 --> 18:31.371 why this is interesting to us well it's interesting to think of what actually does happen when you die and and what sort of beings there are in the universe that we don't see we as the most some of the most coarse beings in the universe what's going on with the divine what's going on with 18:32.313 --> 18:57.527 with the bureaucracy right we're very obsessed with our own bureaucracy well imagine what divine bureaucracy is like people like this king yama who has to stand there in judgment i wonder who's waiting at the pearly gates really probably not saint peter but there very well may be bureaucracy involved but more important 18:58.047 --> 19:02.255 This is a really important teaching of old age, sickness, and death. 19:02.275 --> 19:04.119 These are the real divine messengers. 19:04.179 --> 19:11.753 And that's really how I started off on the wrong point. 19:13.285 --> 19:22.640 it's quite clever that in Buddhism we're not supposed to be at all concerned with what the divine are actually doing. 19:23.562 --> 19:38.787 They're generally portrayed as ineffective or impotent to some extent, that angels don't actually do, the divine don't actually do much. 19:38.767 --> 19:42.681 They don't actually affect the human world. 19:43.464 --> 19:47.578 They don't actually get involved with humans, not in the ways that we think. 19:49.010 --> 19:55.322 But there's something that takes the place and something that we should watch out for. 19:55.362 --> 20:04.279 There are things that we should see as guiding principles, as things that will direct us and guide us. 20:04.699 --> 20:08.807 Old age, sickness, and death, these are considered to be 20:08.787 --> 20:12.372 message from the gods, message from heaven. 20:12.953 --> 20:18.642 This is the most divine and holy message, messenger that you can have. 20:19.543 --> 20:21.526 They are the only messenger that matters. 20:22.247 --> 20:31.361 They are the messengers that remind us of our own mortality, of the borrowed time we are living on. 20:31.401 --> 20:33.985 The fact that 20:33.965 --> 20:36.828 It's not just borrowed time, it's the impermanence of it. 20:37.368 --> 20:53.004 It's not that death is the end, but it's that whatever we have right now that seems stable and that we try to cling to and make stable, all in the end will be thwarted by the reality of change. 20:54.285 --> 20:56.667 And everything that arises ceases. 20:56.688 --> 20:59.230 And it ceases without warning, 21:00.458 --> 21:05.423 without consultation. 21:06.905 --> 21:08.106 You've got no say in the matter. 21:08.146 --> 21:19.459 It's going to come when it comes, and it's very much dissociated from our desires and our ambitions and our expectations. 21:20.740 --> 21:22.402 Old age comes to all. 21:22.462 --> 21:24.564 We're all getting older moment by moment. 21:25.445 --> 21:26.807 Sickness comes to all. 21:26.907 --> 21:27.968 We're all getting sick. 21:29.146 --> 21:32.529 We all will eventually suffer sickness and death. 21:35.232 --> 21:36.593 In the end, we all die. 21:39.857 --> 21:43.520 The old, the young, the middle and age, the poor and weak, the wise. 21:44.421 --> 21:46.603 For rich or poor, one end is sure. 21:46.643 --> 21:48.525 Each one among them dies. 21:51.868 --> 21:53.250 That's our teaching for tonight. 21:55.212 --> 21:56.093 Do we have any questions? 21:56.173 --> 21:57.634 I wasn't here last night, so I 21:58.913 --> 22:00.777 We've probably lost some questions. 22:00.817 --> 22:08.354 The new interface is actually going to have a filter version where we can filter the chat so that it only shows questions. 22:09.637 --> 22:10.619 That'll be kind of neat. 22:13.145 --> 22:13.887 That does sound good. 22:14.408 --> 22:15.510 And we do have questions. 22:16.011 --> 22:16.753 All right, go for it. 22:17.476 --> 22:24.355 Bhante, I may have recalled wrongly, but I thought I'd read before in some sutta that the Buddha named four causes operating in the world. 22:25.097 --> 22:30.732 The karmic cause, genealogy cause, physical laws cause, and something else. 22:31.494 --> 22:33.038 Is there such an exposition? 22:37.118 --> 22:44.107 There are five niyamas, five orderlinesses, that I think are in the commentaries. 22:44.187 --> 22:45.869 I'm not sure if the Buddha actually said them. 22:47.712 --> 22:57.464 I don't know. 22:57.484 --> 22:58.806 I don't have much to say on that. 23:01.469 --> 23:03.932 What is the difference between awareness and knowing? 23:04.733 --> 23:14.968 After a car accident, I can mentally play back the events that led up to the crash, even though I was not consciously aware of them at the time. 23:15.989 --> 23:22.057 So at a subconscious level, I must have known that seeing, hearing, touching, etc., even though I wasn't aware of it. 23:22.878 --> 23:23.379 Yeah, right. 23:24.020 --> 23:25.502 It's not subconscious. 23:26.866 --> 23:34.735 There's no such thing as subconscious, but you could argue or you could explain it as the brain keeps track. 23:35.738 --> 23:38.428 But there's also a sense that 23:40.433 --> 23:54.741 And the nature of the mind, not just the brain, but the nature of the mind is such that it's able to recall or it's able to give rise to mind states that are very similar to mind states that happened before. 23:54.781 --> 23:57.347 And that's how you have to explain it because a memory doesn't come back. 23:57.447 --> 23:59.511 Something from the past doesn't come to the present. 24:00.493 --> 24:01.615 It's like an echo. 24:01.595 --> 24:05.505 It's not exactly the same, but there's a similarity. 24:05.545 --> 24:07.811 It's similar to something old. 24:08.814 --> 24:13.166 And the mind is able to, there's a process by which this occurs. 24:13.908 --> 24:16.735 But that would require you to actually have experienced it before. 24:17.862 --> 24:29.769 It seems that the brain is also able to record even without potentially the mind being aware of it and play it back later. 24:30.009 --> 24:32.074 So there's that potential. 24:32.813 --> 24:33.254 I don't know. 24:33.274 --> 24:36.961 I mean, again, this isn't all that important. 24:37.182 --> 24:39.967 I mean, the question is between awareness and knowing. 24:40.007 --> 24:45.879 They're just words, and there are many definitions of both. 24:46.139 --> 24:48.383 What's important for us is mindfulness. 24:49.105 --> 24:52.972 When it does happen, to remind ourselves it is what it is. 24:53.854 --> 24:54.315 That's all. 24:55.848 --> 25:05.463 So if you're not doing that, I mean, the thing about a car accident, it's quite traumatic, and therefore there's a strong imprint, and that's why it's actually easy to remember the things. 25:05.483 --> 25:09.790 But that's nothing to do with mindfulness, not in the sense that we're looking at it. 25:11.453 --> 25:16.020 The mindfulness we're talking about in Satipatthana is quite a specific type of mindfulness. 25:17.062 --> 25:21.028 It's reminding yourself, this is this, it is what it is. 25:26.662 --> 25:31.413 In the sleeping well talk, you speak of how extreme is the effect of lust on us. 25:32.155 --> 25:35.944 What is the antidote of lust when it arises to a very extreme level? 25:36.686 --> 25:39.673 Will just recognizing it as lust, lust help? 25:40.294 --> 25:41.076 Thanks. 25:41.461 --> 25:55.539 If it's really extreme, there are other things you can do, like focus on the body, focus on your own body piece by piece to help you see that there's nothing worth lusting after in the body or in the physical realm at all. 25:57.081 --> 26:08.937 But yeah, in the end, it's just a matter of whittling it away through looking at it and seeing it as it is, seeing lust arise and seeing that there's no reason to react to it. 26:10.199 --> 26:12.143 There's no reason to have lust in the first place. 26:12.183 --> 26:13.286 There's no benefit to it. 26:13.366 --> 26:14.809 It doesn't actually make you happy. 26:14.829 --> 26:17.174 It doesn't actually do anything positive. 26:18.356 --> 26:21.523 And that just comes from lust, lust. 26:21.543 --> 26:25.471 You know, lust is maybe a bit abstract, so it's liking, liking, or wanting, wanting. 26:25.552 --> 26:26.233 It's more clear. 26:32.153 --> 26:36.562 In modern society, it's been widely spread that human beings should sleep at least eight hours. 26:37.403 --> 26:45.880 I'm finding that by doing so, I'm less focused during the beginning of the day, and I also have an excess of energy manifested as nervousness or restlessness. 26:47.022 --> 26:51.451 I'm beginning to think that sleep isn't the best rest for the body after all, although necessary. 26:52.292 --> 26:54.617 How long is it suggested that lay people sleep? 26:55.627 --> 27:01.679 I guess the idea is sleep as little as you can and still be able to function. 27:01.700 --> 27:10.498 I mean, the question is a bit loaded, I suppose, or it's a bit... 27:11.440 --> 27:16.470 It's not exactly a simple question because... 27:19.235 --> 27:25.667 it's none of our business to tell you how much you have to sleep because what you're talking about is 27:25.951 --> 27:31.518 Really what the answer is, is how much do you need to do your job, which has nothing to do with Buddhism. 27:31.558 --> 27:35.023 We're not going to tell you how much you need to do your job. 27:35.123 --> 27:38.768 I'm not trying to criticize you, but you have to understand that that's really the deciding factor. 27:38.788 --> 27:41.692 How much sleep do you need to do your job, clearly. 27:41.732 --> 27:49.822 Because Buddhist meditators are not concerned if they're dazed or confused or even feeling nauseous or whatever. 27:49.882 --> 27:51.925 It's all good practice. 27:51.905 --> 27:55.469 If you can get away with not sleeping at all, then you feel dizzy sometimes. 27:55.509 --> 27:56.050 It's a big deal. 27:56.691 --> 27:58.413 You can't remember things or whatever. 27:59.474 --> 27:59.955 It's fine. 27:59.995 --> 28:01.276 I mean, it's a great opportunity. 28:01.316 --> 28:09.666 It's not fine, but it's something you can work towards and you can actually work through and eventually be fine with very little or no sleep. 28:11.048 --> 28:12.630 But that's a training. 28:12.610 --> 28:25.607 But you can't do that if you're also working a day job You know if you have a nine-to-five job or something so you need more sleep But how much sleep you need is going to depend be dependent on what kind of work you do and how much work you do 28:26.752 --> 28:29.998 So the idea would be to work less so you don't have to sleep as much. 28:30.098 --> 28:35.307 Because as you can see, when you sleep, you lose a lot of your clarity of mind. 28:35.968 --> 28:39.193 And the more you sleep, the harder it is. 28:39.835 --> 28:41.598 The more you have to drag yourself out of that. 28:41.638 --> 28:46.947 I mean, it's pleasant to sleep, and it brings back a lot of energy, but it doesn't help with your mindfulness. 28:48.590 --> 28:49.992 It's harmful to your mindfulness. 28:55.405 --> 28:57.107 Madi says sort of the same thing. 28:58.489 --> 28:59.130 You don't need me. 28:59.170 --> 29:00.752 You guys can answer your own questions. 29:00.833 --> 29:01.894 Answer each other's questions. 29:01.974 --> 29:04.157 Maybe I won't do an everyday broadcast anymore. 29:04.978 --> 29:06.440 You don't need my answers anymore. 29:08.463 --> 29:09.325 What do you think, Mohamed? 29:09.345 --> 29:15.854 Maybe we'll just do, Mondays I'll do Dhammapada, Wednesdays I'll do this, and Fridays I'll do this. 29:15.994 --> 29:17.115 Monday, Wednesday, Friday. 29:20.720 --> 29:22.543 Saturday and Sunday is probably more 29:25.156 --> 29:26.438 Monday, Wednesday. 29:26.999 --> 29:27.640 Monday, Wednesday. 29:28.982 --> 29:30.685 Monday, Thursday, Saturday. 29:35.032 --> 29:38.878 Maybe we move our Visuddhimagga study class to one of the night spots. 29:40.640 --> 29:40.781 Hm. 29:41.983 --> 29:44.186 Could do. 29:44.206 --> 29:46.750 We could have a volunteer meeting for one of the night spots. 29:49.374 --> 29:51.838 Replace one of these with a volunteer meeting. 29:54.890 --> 29:56.332 I might not be able to. 29:56.352 --> 29:59.637 I'm also thinking with school, I might not be as free to do this. 29:59.977 --> 30:02.261 But anyway, let's get through this first. 30:02.281 --> 30:03.262 What do we have to talk about? 30:04.324 --> 30:07.629 OK, this isn't exactly a question, but it's sort of a question. 30:07.649 --> 30:16.321 A person who was trying to meet you for the reporting session, and the Hangouts wasn't working. 30:16.361 --> 30:20.467 And I know we've got the new website that we're going to be transferring over to soon. 30:20.487 --> 30:21.909 The old one should be working again. 30:21.929 --> 30:22.450 Any updates on that? 30:23.071 --> 30:23.672 The old one. 30:24.033 --> 30:24.914 Suddenly it's working. 30:25.014 --> 30:29.461 Suddenly the other people who had the problem are all saying it's working, and I've checked in the script. 30:30.262 --> 30:33.988 Got a script that was missing the code, now apparently has the code. 30:34.008 --> 30:43.543 I haven't tested it, but it seems to be complete, which reminds me, I haven't actually updated our code, which is what I should do. 30:47.000 --> 30:48.021 Okay, thank you, Bonte. 30:49.022 --> 30:54.228 Last night, you gave a teaching saying that change hides suffering and mentioned changing postures. 30:55.149 --> 31:02.957 I was wondering if there are other practical adjustments to the formal and non formal practice one would make if using suffering as a vehicle. 31:03.438 --> 31:04.199 Thank you, Bonte. 31:06.721 --> 31:11.927 Sorry, the practical practical adjustments. 31:19.163 --> 31:20.766 There's kind of another part to it as well. 31:20.866 --> 31:27.617 Also, I wondered if one should strive not to change postures in daily life as well as during formal practice. 31:28.839 --> 31:33.767 I mean, yes, noting first before you move, definitely. 31:34.808 --> 31:38.995 Obviously, it's more difficult to do during daily life, but noting first before you move. 31:42.957 --> 31:45.600 You're looking for tricks. 31:46.341 --> 31:49.105 Sounds like you want me to give you some tricks and tips. 31:50.086 --> 31:51.407 It's not really like that. 31:53.270 --> 31:54.511 Yeah, this is a trick. 31:54.591 --> 31:55.152 It's a tip. 31:55.172 --> 32:00.398 It's just to not... You don't use suffering as a vehicle. 32:00.639 --> 32:03.162 You use mindfulness as a vehicle. 32:03.442 --> 32:04.263 You'll see suffering. 32:05.284 --> 32:07.267 The point is be mindful rather than reacting. 32:07.307 --> 32:08.829 If you move, it's because of reaction. 32:09.970 --> 32:10.751 So it's a good teaching. 32:11.572 --> 32:12.373 But... 32:14.362 --> 32:18.888 I don't have any other advice for you specifically on that front. 32:18.908 --> 32:23.174 Sorry. 32:23.194 --> 32:31.124 When trying to sit completely still, should one know even slightest intention to move, relax muscles, swallow, et cetera, and not act on it? 32:31.745 --> 32:35.290 Or would that be overdoing it as it leads to a lot of discomfort and shaking? 32:39.539 --> 32:40.100 It's fine. 32:40.120 --> 32:41.382 I mean, shaking is fine. 32:41.502 --> 32:44.427 Yeah, if you can sit completely still. 32:46.811 --> 32:58.309 You know, if it gets overwhelming, you might actually feel it's more beneficial to actually move because otherwise your mind is becoming stressed until you're able to take it. 32:59.230 --> 33:03.998 But once you're able to bear with it, once you're able to sit still, you don't have to move. 33:04.018 --> 33:05.260 You're better off without moving, yeah. 33:11.939 --> 33:21.510 Monty, is it fair to say that if you're forcing yourself to sit still and you're having extreme pain and focusing on the pain, doesn't it at some point become like a samatha? 33:22.951 --> 33:23.191 No. 33:23.992 --> 33:25.034 No. 33:25.054 --> 33:26.996 No, you're not forcing yourself to sit still. 33:27.016 --> 33:34.504 You're just not reacting to the 33:39.513 --> 33:44.460 If there's a strong desire to do something, it's true. 33:44.500 --> 33:52.951 If there's a strong desire to move and you're not moving, it's often not simply because you're mindful. 33:52.971 --> 33:54.953 It's because you're saying, no, I'm not going to move. 33:54.973 --> 34:03.264 And you're just repressing or you're cultivating aversion to the desire to move. 34:04.906 --> 34:05.968 And that creates stress. 34:06.008 --> 34:06.749 That's what I was saying. 34:06.769 --> 34:09.132 If it's just building up more and more stressed, 34:09.922 --> 34:17.136 then you should probably move because you'll find your practice is actually... Until you get good at being able to sit still. 34:17.978 --> 34:30.141 But if it's just physical and if it's just a desire to move and you're able to say wanting to move and then it disappears and you don't have to move again, it doesn't matter how the body goes. 34:31.437 --> 34:33.118 Unless you're going to injure your body. 34:33.138 --> 34:58.921 I mean there are certain extreme cases where it can cause injury But for most people that's not the case you can sit and let your legs go numb and there's no problem Yeah, I know with myself if like there's a certain part on my knee begin to hurt and it you know that pain can really build and build and build and that's the only thing but just the tiniest adjustment and It goes away. 34:59.021 --> 34:59.942 So it's 35:01.255 --> 35:16.526 It's a good opportunity, a good example of learning to let go rather than react. 35:16.546 --> 35:17.789 If you can just stay with it. 35:20.735 --> 35:21.897 Thank you, Bhante. 35:22.433 --> 35:31.603 When you are talking about beings not being in your experience, just as light touching your eye, could you explain a little in relation to meditation and in relation to life? 35:32.324 --> 35:39.552 Because at the end, I exist, others exist, even when, of course, I cannot have their experience as a being because I can only have mine. 35:39.572 --> 35:40.673 Thank you. 35:43.817 --> 35:44.938 Well, beings don't exist. 35:45.578 --> 35:46.259 You don't exist. 35:46.359 --> 35:47.060 I don't exist. 35:47.080 --> 35:47.961 Others don't exist. 35:48.702 --> 35:49.723 That's just a concept. 35:51.593 --> 35:55.622 What exists is experiences, and experience arises and ceases. 35:56.564 --> 36:00.392 You have an experience of seeing, hearing, spelling, tasting, feeling, thinking. 36:00.853 --> 36:04.882 To postulate that someone exists is just a conjecture. 36:06.305 --> 36:08.269 You'll never have a knowledge of that. 36:09.869 --> 36:15.157 You see, Buddhism disregards conjecture and hypothesis. 36:16.699 --> 36:19.503 It only deals with what you can know, which is very, very little. 36:20.345 --> 36:23.890 You can only know experiencing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking. 36:23.930 --> 36:34.746 You can know impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, or inability to satisfy, and the uncontrollable nature of things. 36:34.726 --> 36:37.069 And you can know Nibbana. 36:37.290 --> 36:39.052 There's not so much you can know. 36:39.993 --> 36:47.704 Everything else, you, I, etc., is just a concept. 36:47.724 --> 36:50.428 Is it harder to reach enlightenment having a woman's body? 36:53.672 --> 36:59.501 Apparently a woman can't become, you can't become Buddha in a woman's body, apparently. 37:00.081 --> 37:00.662 I mean, who knows? 37:00.682 --> 37:03.366 This came out of a highly patriarchal society, but 37:04.814 --> 37:05.976 May very well be true. 37:06.076 --> 37:06.597 I don't know. 37:06.717 --> 37:20.181 I mean, it's not like, it just seems to women that seems kind of silly and absurd, you know, and it hints, it sounds suspiciously like misogyny, right? 37:21.102 --> 37:21.503 I don't know. 37:21.723 --> 37:25.329 Maybe it's just a misogynist teaching, but maybe it's true. 37:26.031 --> 37:30.298 Because the same goes for Mara, you know, a woman is apparently unable to become Mara. 37:31.696 --> 37:39.348 I think even Brahmas are all, they're all single gender, but whether they're male, I suppose they're not male either. 37:39.389 --> 37:45.979 That's the thing I was talking to this Israeli monk, he's a really good monk, and he said, you know, men can't be Buddhas either. 37:45.999 --> 37:49.485 An ordinary man, it's not like they're just going to become a Buddha. 37:49.505 --> 37:55.054 The Buddha's body, forget about his mind, the Buddha's body is a special type of body. 37:56.738 --> 38:16.047 yes it happens in in orthodox views to be of the male gender but it's highly specific i know that doesn't really it doesn't you know it's not a it's not a solution it's not a good answer but 38:17.528 --> 38:44.768 that's all I got but easier to become enlightened to become a Buddha in this life the person to become a Buddha is always apparently male, masculine but as far as becoming an Arahant becoming enlightened even a Pacheco Buddha I don't know about a Pacheco Buddha but I think even a Pacheco Buddha male or female is kind of meaningless 38:50.063 --> 38:50.824 We don't know. 38:50.864 --> 38:53.870 We don't know for sure if there were Pachanga Buddhas that were female. 38:54.812 --> 38:55.553 Good question. 38:56.795 --> 38:58.378 Off the top of my head, I can't think of any. 39:01.383 --> 39:04.609 I may even say that a woman can't become a Pachanga Buddha. 39:05.811 --> 39:06.773 I think they're all, you know. 39:08.609 --> 39:11.572 I wouldn't dwell too much on that. 39:11.592 --> 39:14.835 If you want to become a Buddha, just focus on becoming a Buddha. 39:14.855 --> 39:18.679 If it means, oh, suddenly I'm a man, okay, suddenly I'm a man. 39:19.059 --> 39:28.428 I guess the big problem is that it kind of makes women feel inferior, and it makes men feel superior, and it seems kind of like a sexist teaching, which I can understand. 39:28.468 --> 39:29.830 I'm not trying to defend it. 39:29.890 --> 39:34.634 I don't really understand it itself, but it's all I got. 39:34.674 --> 39:36.456 Life isn't perfect. 39:37.786 --> 39:42.972 But the Buddha in the Jataka stories, was he sometimes male and sometimes female in his past lives? 39:43.512 --> 39:43.793 No. 39:44.333 --> 39:44.994 He was always male? 39:45.434 --> 39:45.855 Always male. 39:46.856 --> 39:46.956 Ah. 39:48.678 --> 39:51.341 There was one story of him being female, I think. 39:51.401 --> 39:59.229 I think he was this woman who got hit with, I think, who got hit with a rolling pin. 40:00.130 --> 40:04.055 But it's a story he tells apart from the Jatakas, before he was a Bodhisatta. 40:04.175 --> 40:06.257 Actually, I can't remember if it's actually him or not. 40:06.794 --> 40:10.218 There's one story of the woman, but maybe him, maybe not. 40:10.238 --> 40:14.203 Someone who remembers these things better probably can say. 40:14.263 --> 40:23.834 But no, that's the commentary saying that once he makes a determination to become a Buddha, he will always be born male. 40:25.116 --> 40:26.037 Always be born male. 40:26.077 --> 40:27.899 I don't think he'll ever go to the hell realms. 40:29.401 --> 40:30.522 I'm actually not sure about that. 40:30.642 --> 40:30.963 I don't know. 40:30.983 --> 40:33.426 I mean, it's all, this is all commentary. 40:34.067 --> 40:35.288 Could be right, could be wrong. 40:35.328 --> 40:36.109 And it's all just, 40:37.658 --> 40:41.743 It's not really all that important for us. 40:41.763 --> 40:46.087 I sometimes find myself suppressing my anger, but doing that doesn't make it go away. 40:46.107 --> 40:51.834 In fact, I think the feeling or sensation gets bigger in my experience and makes me suffer even more. 40:52.895 --> 40:59.583 Sometimes I've heard from psychological teachings that the best way to actually liberate these feelings is to express them and acknowledge them. 41:00.223 --> 41:01.365 What are your thoughts about this? 41:01.785 --> 41:02.586 Thank you, Bonte. 41:03.815 --> 41:06.237 Well, there's a difference between expressing and acknowledging. 41:07.098 --> 41:08.479 Acknowledging is acknowledging. 41:08.519 --> 41:10.621 Expressing is cultivating. 41:11.162 --> 41:12.924 Expressing is cultivating as a habit. 41:13.024 --> 41:16.787 Everything we do becomes a part of who we are. 41:16.807 --> 41:27.918 And the more you do some, the more you engage in a certain type of activity, the more that type of activity becomes a part of your habitual tendencies. 41:28.018 --> 41:33.163 You're more inclined to do the things that you do. 41:33.143 --> 41:40.072 So when you choose to get angry, you're more likely to get angry. 41:40.693 --> 41:42.455 It doesn't actually solve your problems. 41:42.475 --> 41:44.258 It doesn't make you less likely to be angry. 41:44.738 --> 41:50.406 Of course, suppressing, what we call suppressing is actually, it's like a reaction to the reaction. 41:50.446 --> 41:52.048 So it's another layer of reaction. 41:52.068 --> 41:56.094 So it's actually better to get rid of that, to stop trying to suppress it. 41:56.274 --> 41:57.936 That's true. 41:57.916 --> 42:03.344 Pure anger is just anger, but when you get angry at the anger, you're messing yourself up. 42:03.424 --> 42:05.347 You're creating layers of complexity. 42:05.567 --> 42:10.895 When you feel guilt about your anger, that kind of thing, it just makes things more complicated. 42:11.536 --> 42:14.420 So you create complex chain reactions. 42:14.921 --> 42:16.363 Something happens, makes you angry. 42:16.503 --> 42:18.186 Angry makes you guilty. 42:18.246 --> 42:19.628 Guilty makes you angry. 42:19.888 --> 42:21.370 It becomes all messed up. 42:21.390 --> 42:23.974 Then you get worried and afraid. 42:23.954 --> 42:28.321 This is what leads to paranoia, neurosis, this kind of thing. 42:30.304 --> 42:31.826 So, yeah, suppressing is not so good. 42:31.846 --> 42:33.469 But acknowledging is the best way. 42:33.609 --> 42:34.811 Acknowledging I'm angry. 42:34.831 --> 42:35.672 That's it. 42:37.435 --> 42:38.657 Taking the meaning out of it. 42:39.358 --> 42:39.779 So what? 42:40.099 --> 42:40.500 That's it. 42:41.021 --> 42:41.602 I'm angry. 42:42.303 --> 42:43.084 Not like I'm angry. 42:43.144 --> 42:44.626 Oh, my gosh, I got to do something. 42:45.307 --> 42:46.549 This is a problem. 42:47.511 --> 42:48.352 This is bad. 42:49.113 --> 42:49.714 This is me. 42:49.774 --> 42:50.395 This is mine. 42:50.415 --> 42:51.357 No, this is anger. 42:51.637 --> 42:52.138 That's all it is. 42:57.147 --> 43:03.798 As a new meditator, I ask if there's a difference between thinking and reflection, contemplation, study. 43:04.680 --> 43:10.069 Sometimes I find that I've been thinking about the teachings in one of your videos and gain some insight from this. 43:10.730 --> 43:11.751 Is this just thinking? 43:12.292 --> 43:13.975 I've been noting it as thinking. 43:14.883 --> 43:29.736 I mean, if you're meditating, these kind of teachings should have an impression on you and they should resonate with you because you're experiencing things, but you're not really clear on what it is that you're experiencing. 43:29.756 --> 43:33.043 So the teaching helps that gel or helps that... 43:33.023 --> 43:36.348 It helps clarify what it is that you're experiencing. 43:36.408 --> 43:38.490 So yeah, it's a very important part of the practice. 43:39.292 --> 43:47.783 If you're meditating, listening to the teachings is great direction to sort of clear up and help you realize what it is you're experiencing. 43:48.124 --> 43:49.526 And it's only because you're meditating. 43:50.086 --> 43:59.419 If you weren't meditating, you wouldn't really gain those feelings, what you call insights. 44:09.541 --> 44:15.671 A rather long question, the core of which is, what do you think of Jiddu Krishnamurti's teachings? 44:17.194 --> 44:18.897 Yeah, again, I don't. 44:19.298 --> 44:26.570 I had a long, long debate with someone who tried to tell me that he was probably an arahant or at least an anagami. 44:29.275 --> 44:31.038 I don't have anything to say about it. 44:32.099 --> 44:32.340 Sorry. 44:32.360 --> 44:32.460 Okay. 44:34.263 --> 44:38.739 Bhante, what was the last teaching that Lord Buddha gave to Mahamoggalana? 44:39.160 --> 44:40.806 I searched online and could not find it. 44:41.569 --> 44:41.910 He didn't. 44:41.950 --> 44:43.415 Mahamoggalana gave a teaching. 44:43.475 --> 44:45.623 He asked Mahamoggalana to teach the Dhamma. 44:47.932 --> 44:54.100 I don't think there is any recorded explanation of what exactly was the Buddha's last teaching. 44:54.160 --> 44:56.262 But he wasn't teaching Moggallana at that point. 44:56.282 --> 44:59.567 Moggallana was an Arahant, so he didn't really need teaching. 45:00.708 --> 45:04.773 The Buddha did teach Arahants sometimes, but not really, not so much. 45:06.195 --> 45:12.623 But when Maha Moggallana went to see the Buddha before he passed away, the Buddha asked Maha Moggallana to give a teaching. 45:12.603 --> 45:16.668 which he did, which would have been just basic teachings. 45:17.389 --> 45:18.830 So it wasn't recorded, I don't think. 45:20.472 --> 45:23.916 On the other hand, it may not have ever happened, because this is just what we have in the stories. 45:23.976 --> 45:30.564 We don't actually have anything in the original texts to corroborate it. 45:35.590 --> 45:40.095 Bhante, aren't angels the Christian concept, and Buddhism does not focus on this? 45:40.767 --> 45:43.014 No, there's lots of angels in Buddhism. 45:43.395 --> 45:51.842 There's a whole section, two sections of the Sanyuta Nikaya dedicated to the angels that came to see the Buddha to ask him questions. 45:51.942 --> 45:54.490 Really worth reading if you want to get a sense of 45:54.824 --> 46:03.098 The Mind of an Angel, because the questions they ask are somewhat different from the questions that humans would ask, and you really get a sense of what an angel is like. 46:03.258 --> 46:04.180 Definitely worth reading. 46:04.220 --> 46:09.729 The Sanyuta Nikaya, I think it's the first and second Sanyutas, right? 46:09.769 --> 46:13.255 The Devata Sanyuta and the Devaputta Sanyuta. 46:13.275 --> 46:13.896 Really worth it. 46:16.964 --> 46:27.566 Sankha just had an interesting information that Buddhas, Pacheco Buddhas, Mara, Saka, Mahabrahma, and Chakravartis are all male. 46:28.187 --> 46:29.229 Yeah, even Pacheco Buddha. 46:30.131 --> 46:32.716 Sorry. 46:32.736 --> 46:38.027 I thought I read somewhere that the Buddha said a woman can become an Arahant the same as a man. 46:38.108 --> 46:38.989 Is this correct? 46:39.249 --> 46:43.253 See, the point that this Israeli monk was making is that a man can't become a Buddha either. 46:44.034 --> 46:47.177 You can't just be born and say, OK, this life, I think I'm going to become a Buddha. 46:47.198 --> 46:48.138 It doesn't work that way. 46:48.619 --> 46:54.045 The person who's going to become a Buddha in this life is already very clear that this is their last life. 46:55.566 --> 46:58.189 They're ready to become a Buddha when they're born. 46:58.229 --> 47:00.712 They're ready to become a Buddha when they're waiting to be born. 47:01.352 --> 47:04.496 They're up in heaven just waiting for the opportunity, saying, this is it. 47:05.276 --> 47:05.837 I'm ready. 47:07.066 --> 47:08.669 And then they have one last life. 47:09.470 --> 47:13.818 And the point is that it's male, which I know doesn't sit well with a lot of people. 47:13.918 --> 47:14.860 And I understand that. 47:15.401 --> 47:19.008 But I think we pay way too much attention to it because none of us have that opportunity. 47:19.048 --> 47:23.175 If you want to become a Buddha, start working because it's a long journey. 47:23.215 --> 47:24.838 And you're going to get to the point where you're like, 47:25.544 --> 47:27.346 I'm ready to become a Buddha, and that's it. 47:27.366 --> 47:29.428 Apparently, you'll be a male. 47:29.649 --> 47:31.390 I'm sorry if that irks people. 47:31.450 --> 47:36.596 It's not my teaching, and it's not really worth obsessing over, I don't think. 47:37.918 --> 47:40.240 There's all these people who want to become a Buddha as a woman. 47:40.540 --> 47:42.282 Eh, I think it's barking up the wrong tree. 47:42.983 --> 47:44.084 Don't waste your efforts. 47:44.104 --> 47:45.526 Man, woman, just become a Buddha. 47:45.546 --> 47:46.908 If you want to become a Buddha, go for it. 47:47.728 --> 47:50.071 Forget about the man, woman. 47:50.151 --> 47:51.172 If you're a man, you're a man. 47:51.272 --> 47:52.414 Maybe it's a part of nature. 47:52.514 --> 47:52.834 I don't know. 47:54.164 --> 47:57.369 It does seem kind of unfair to women. 47:57.389 --> 48:02.979 But hey, maybe, and this isn't what people want to hear, but maybe reality is unfair to women. 48:03.941 --> 48:05.363 Maybe there is something about that. 48:05.403 --> 48:08.488 Maybe reality is, I don't know. 48:08.508 --> 48:10.452 I mean, women and men is a construct. 48:10.492 --> 48:12.054 It is an artifice. 48:12.074 --> 48:14.478 But it may be that there's something unfair to women. 48:14.559 --> 48:14.839 I don't know. 48:16.220 --> 48:20.207 There's no God saying, you know, Buddha didn't make these rules. 48:20.347 --> 48:21.449 He just observed them. 48:22.371 --> 48:23.573 So maybe it is the case. 48:23.814 --> 48:24.214 I don't know. 48:26.579 --> 48:28.562 I just don't think it's worth obsessing over. 48:32.349 --> 48:34.793 It wouldn't be the first time that the women had the short end of it. 48:35.254 --> 48:36.396 There is the whole birth thing. 48:38.240 --> 48:39.021 Having to give birth. 48:39.710 --> 48:41.393 Hello, Bhante. 48:41.413 --> 48:42.614 Thank you for your teachings. 48:42.815 --> 48:46.440 I have been learning how to meditate using the loving-kindness method. 48:46.460 --> 48:48.784 How should one meditate to resolve problems? 48:49.705 --> 48:54.732 My Bhante at my temple said you have to break apart problems piece by piece until it doesn't exist. 48:56.054 --> 49:02.865 I feel the meditations I have been leaning on focus on now and stopping yourself from thinking. 49:03.586 --> 49:05.148 I feel not thinking as being foolish. 49:05.669 --> 49:06.510 Can you elaborate? 49:08.347 --> 49:10.970 It sounds like you haven't read my booklet on how to meditate. 49:10.990 --> 49:13.393 So that's where I'd direct you to start. 49:14.915 --> 49:17.559 I'd rather not elaborate. 49:17.579 --> 49:26.150 I'd rather you, if you're interested in my teachings and my answers to your questions, that you read my booklet on how to meditate and practice according to that teaching. 49:26.891 --> 49:35.181 And if you find that meditation teaching useful, then by all means, I'm happy to answer questions about it. 49:35.161 --> 49:45.252 It sounds like your Bhante has a similar idea because yes, we very much are about breaking things up into their constituent parts so we can see what's really happening because problems don't exist. 49:45.453 --> 49:48.056 All that exists are experiences and they're momentary. 49:48.096 --> 49:48.836 They come and they go. 49:52.481 --> 49:53.782 Do read my booklet if you haven't. 49:56.725 --> 49:59.008 And the link is right up at the top of the website. 50:00.102 --> 50:06.548 When sitting down after walking, should one sit down comfortably or just bear with whatever sitting posture one finds himself in? 50:09.411 --> 50:10.913 You mean during formal meditation? 50:10.933 --> 50:16.999 During formal meditation, you should sit cross-legged with one leg in front of the other or in a lotus position, if you want. 50:18.680 --> 50:21.283 I don't understand, really. 50:21.583 --> 50:26.548 If you're not talking about formal meditation, then I'm not going to dictate how you have to sit and walk. 50:34.139 --> 50:38.443 I'm interested to know who or what set the law of karma in motion? 50:38.944 --> 50:40.965 Yeah, well, if you ever find an answer, let me know. 50:50.054 --> 50:53.157 So we're caught up with today's questions and yesterday's questions. 50:55.539 --> 50:58.682 I had a little bit of a question after our last broadcast. 50:58.782 --> 51:01.205 One of the last questions was talking about Buddhist funerals. 51:02.166 --> 51:03.707 And we were saying, well, 51:05.408 --> 51:08.531 You know, in Buddhism, there aren't really the formal funerals. 51:09.933 --> 51:26.810 But I think maybe the question, or maybe an add-on to the question, is not so much what the person cares about in terms of their own funeral, but a lot of us are in families where no one else is Buddhist. 51:26.830 --> 51:33.998 No one has any interest in Buddhism or has any idea of the customs, traditions, or what would be appropriate, what wouldn't be appropriate. 51:34.417 --> 51:46.238 So I think possibly, you know, that that's something that would be interesting to hear about, because it's certainly in my family, you know, no one else has any concept. 51:46.278 --> 51:49.905 If I were to pass away tomorrow, they wouldn't have any idea. 51:50.145 --> 51:52.189 So I guess no, I mean, there's no 51:53.772 --> 51:59.261 There's no like, oh, my family didn't do a proper Buddhist funeral for me or something. 52:00.082 --> 52:03.107 Let them take your ashes and throw them in the wind. 52:03.627 --> 52:05.150 Take your body, dump it in the river. 52:05.470 --> 52:06.913 It's dead. 52:08.215 --> 52:08.775 That's true. 52:09.597 --> 52:12.702 So maybe it would be a good thing to donate your body to science. 52:12.842 --> 52:14.444 Now that's a Buddhist thing to do. 52:15.226 --> 52:15.726 I did that. 52:15.887 --> 52:19.392 I'm an organ donor, I think, a long time ago. 52:21.734 --> 52:22.475 Absolutely. 52:22.535 --> 52:23.896 Donate it to science. 52:24.717 --> 52:30.383 Make you feel good about your body that you actually did something good with it, not spiritually good. 52:31.584 --> 52:43.596 If you want, what people do is they donate their bodies to monks so that they can practice meditation, watching the corpse fester and fall apart. 52:43.756 --> 52:45.198 It's a great meditation object. 52:45.498 --> 52:45.818 Really? 52:45.899 --> 52:47.120 People really do that? 52:47.720 --> 52:48.882 They donate their bodies? 52:48.962 --> 52:50.323 I don't think they can do it anymore. 52:50.742 --> 52:53.387 But there are monks who actually go to morgues these days. 52:54.869 --> 52:55.971 But yeah, I mean, that would be great. 52:56.011 --> 52:58.195 Donate your body. 52:58.215 --> 53:00.058 I think that's probably illegal. 53:01.240 --> 53:06.850 But donate your dead body to the monks, to a monastery. 53:08.734 --> 53:14.083 We went through that in the Visuddhi Manga with the objects of meditation they were very specific about. 53:15.312 --> 53:17.155 the bloated bodies and the dead bodies. 53:17.255 --> 53:20.660 And yeah, I can imagine it would be hard to come across that. 53:22.242 --> 53:30.194 If you could argue, if you could specify in your will, you want your body put out in an open field and left there to rot. 53:30.214 --> 53:30.996 I think it's illegal. 53:31.016 --> 53:31.957 I think you can't do that. 53:32.398 --> 53:35.763 I think there's contamination issues and I don't know. 53:37.085 --> 53:39.028 Like if you lived in the countryside, would you be able to? 53:39.068 --> 53:42.653 I don't know how it works, but human bodies, I think they're highly regulated. 53:43.409 --> 53:44.771 Maybe it depends on the country. 53:44.831 --> 53:50.842 I think in Tibet, don't they toss them off the mountain or something for the vultures to eat? 53:51.503 --> 53:57.754 Yeah, I mean, in Asia, I mean, in Sri Lanka, the old abbot died at our monastery. 53:58.114 --> 54:00.518 It's one of the few times, you know, I've been around where someone died. 54:02.922 --> 54:04.565 He passed away while I had dengu. 54:04.926 --> 54:07.931 So I got back and he had just passed away. 54:07.991 --> 54:09.113 And then a few days later, 54:10.223 --> 54:14.151 Or a day or two later we had the funeral and we just burned his body down at the bottom of the hill. 54:15.253 --> 54:17.377 Had a big celebration, a big ceremony. 54:21.104 --> 54:22.727 But, you know, not a big ceremony. 54:22.747 --> 54:30.983 We just had a ceremony and then just built up some logs and people built up some logs and put his body on it and watched it burn. 54:33.612 --> 54:34.853 And they were all afraid. 54:34.913 --> 54:49.308 The other monk, who was really the acting head for a long time, he was jokingly suggesting we should go and meditate there, but it was like he wouldn't do it because it was too scary. 54:49.729 --> 54:52.111 That's because of the ghost factor. 54:54.093 --> 54:58.658 It's kind of bizarre how in the West it's kind of like ghosts, really. 55:01.068 --> 55:06.294 I think in the West we'd be more freaked out about seeing a dead body, a burning body, a bloated body. 55:06.755 --> 55:08.417 The ghosts, eh, not so much. 55:13.183 --> 55:15.386 What are Buddhist views on transgender people? 55:19.271 --> 55:21.193 I've talked about this a bit before. 55:21.273 --> 55:28.442 I think to me it's an obsession that you'd be better off letting go because gender is something that we do try to let go of. 55:28.878 --> 55:36.149 If you're a man and you feel like, if you're in a male body and you feel like more comfortable being in a female body, I've learned to let go of that attachment. 55:36.790 --> 55:37.171 I don't know. 55:37.191 --> 55:43.300 I mean, I'm not such a person, so I don't know. 55:44.221 --> 55:48.288 I mean, I could feel just as comfortable being in a female body, I think. 55:51.813 --> 55:53.215 It's just a body is the point. 55:54.393 --> 56:21.514 learn to let go of the body because if you've got to take hormones and you're just we're just asking for trouble I think I wouldn't I wouldn't mean it's not an obsession I would worry about gender I'm a man you know who cares man is a male body female but so it's like it's kind of like homosexual people people who are homosexual there's nothing wrong in my mind with being homosexual no more than being heterosexual but the problem is 56:21.933 --> 56:28.604 is that for the longest time they've been obsessed with it because it's weird, it's different, it's queer, right? 56:29.545 --> 56:36.777 And because of it being exceptional, I mean, heterosexual people don't obsess over the fact that they're heterosexual, for the most part. 56:36.837 --> 56:37.598 Some do, actually. 56:37.618 --> 56:38.940 Some are homophobic. 56:39.802 --> 56:47.434 But homosexual people, the problem that I would see is potentially being concerned about it. 56:47.414 --> 56:48.115 Everyone is. 56:48.155 --> 56:56.692 Like, my cousin is homosexual, and my father told me, he said, you know, so it turns out your cousin is gay. 56:56.712 --> 56:59.918 And I said, you know, really, why are you telling me? 57:00.379 --> 57:03.866 You're going to tell me that you have sex with women next? 57:03.886 --> 57:06.230 I think I was a Buddhist monk already at the time. 57:07.252 --> 57:07.633 It was just 57:09.183 --> 57:09.644 I don't know. 57:09.664 --> 57:11.786 I mean, my reaction was kind of like baffled. 57:11.826 --> 57:14.549 Like, it's not really information that I need to know. 57:15.490 --> 57:16.912 This guy's having sex with men. 57:17.052 --> 57:17.533 Okay. 57:17.553 --> 57:18.093 You know what I mean? 57:18.814 --> 57:20.516 Don't come to me with that information. 57:22.058 --> 57:24.741 You want my advice on it? 57:24.761 --> 57:27.965 So yeah, transgender, all that. 57:28.966 --> 57:30.388 Don't go down that road. 57:30.408 --> 57:32.170 Learn to let go of gender entirely. 57:32.230 --> 57:33.371 That's more important. 57:33.391 --> 57:34.212 That's the Buddhist way. 57:38.090 --> 57:39.757 Anyway, that's all for tonight. 57:39.817 --> 57:42.026 Thank you, Robin. 57:42.066 --> 57:44.415 Thanks, everyone, for tuning in and for your questions. 57:45.781 --> 57:47.990 Thank you, Bhante. 57:48.130 --> 57:48.572 Good night.