This might sound naive, but is there really such a thing as good or bad?
Or is it just our minds that puts everything in those categories?
Sorry, it's a silly question.
It's not a silly question.
We just discussed this though, didn't we?
We didn't record it.
Something is good or bad if it causes suffering or happiness.
That's the Buddhist definition.
We do talk about good and bad, and the Buddha talked about good and bad.
But he was scientific about it.
So whether you agree with him or not, good is something that brings happiness, bad is something that brings suffering.
And there are, according to Buddhism, those things that do invariably bring suffering, and there are those things which do invariably bring happiness.
So that's what we mean.
Now, what I was saying earlier is that, agreeing with Larry, that
Everything should be looked at, as you say, as objective realities.
We shouldn't look at things as good or bad.
That's, in fact, quite important, is that even the things that cause you suffering, you should not look at them as bad.
Because that is intellectual cheating.
It's begging the question, maybe.
You're jumping the gun.
You're coming to the conclusion before you have the premises.
Meaning is you're pretending that you know that something is bad for you without actually knowing that it's bad for you.
The practice to see what is good and bad for you is to look at things objectively, not as good or bad.
Look at them objectively and see whether they are good or bad.
And so it's actually two different definitions of good and bad because
It sounds like the same thing, but in practice it's two totally different things.
Thinking of things as good or bad is judging them.
Seeing that things are good or bad is understanding them.
And it's two very different mind states.
Judging is negative.
It distracts you from the truth.
It prevents you from seeing the truth because you're no longer objective.
But realizing that things are good or bad is liberating.
It is the moment before you let go of something.
Once you see that something is bad, you let go of it in the next moment.