WEBVTT 00:04.452 --> 00:20.308 One of the greatest things that we find when we first learn about the Buddhist teaching, I think, is the sense of empowerment that it brings. 00:26.695 --> 00:33.362 The sense of being in control, in a sense. 00:35.587 --> 00:43.259 We always talk about how everything is anatta, uncontrollable. 00:48.848 --> 00:57.822 But anatta has to do with our experience of things. 00:59.084 --> 01:02.590 On a conventional level, Buddhism puts us very much in control. 01:11.294 --> 01:39.782 the saying you only live once the saying that you only live once is a license of course to do whatever you want and to not take life seriously to just make it a good time but it's actually also quite scary I think you've only got one chance to 01:43.643 --> 02:07.137 to live Buddhism is quite empowering or the idea of rebirth for example is quite empowering because it says you have another chance and another and another and another there is no you never hit the bottom 02:09.530 --> 02:13.615 And you can just keep falling and falling until you find your wings. 02:16.398 --> 02:18.000 There's no dead end. 02:24.487 --> 02:26.049 There's no full stop at the end. 02:28.572 --> 02:32.136 It's quite encouraging for people to hear this sort of thing. 02:33.077 --> 02:37.562 Especially if they've been taught to believe that you only have one chance. 02:43.600 --> 02:45.102 And it's empowering in another way. 02:47.586 --> 02:55.358 The teaching on karma is of course very empowering because it says you're in charge of your destiny. 02:58.883 --> 03:03.590 People always think of karma as relating to why I have to suffer so much in this life. 03:07.997 --> 03:10.941 So instead of feeling sorry for yourself, you can feel guilty. 03:13.199 --> 03:14.761 But karma isn't either. 03:14.781 --> 03:24.255 The law of karma is a teaching to help us to see how much power we have. 03:24.275 --> 03:25.957 How much power our actions have. 03:32.386 --> 03:36.192 And in fact not to feel guilty or sorry for ourselves. 03:38.154 --> 03:40.017 But to take it. 03:41.380 --> 03:46.853 to be invigorated by it. 03:46.873 --> 03:50.942 Why sit there wallowing in self-pity when you can do something about it? 03:50.962 --> 03:51.844 That you're never helpless. 03:53.327 --> 03:54.951 These two teachings combined are 03:56.129 --> 04:25.866 incredibly empowering the fact that you have the time to do something about it and you have the ability to do something to change your life to change who you are we should never feel useless or hopeless we never have reason to feel hopeless if the path is going to take us a million lifetimes to reach the goal 04:28.495 --> 04:38.889 Well, we have millions and millions and millions of lifetimes ahead of us. 04:39.570 --> 04:44.177 We have uncountable lifetimes ahead of us. 04:44.197 --> 04:45.839 So a million doesn't seem so bad anymore. 04:48.042 --> 04:52.669 It's impossible to be hopeless. 04:52.689 --> 04:55.653 Because you always have more time. 04:55.673 --> 04:57.355 More time to learn, more time to 04:59.377 --> 05:24.743 develop for someone who hasn't begun to develop themselves or hasn't set themselves on the idea of developing themselves and making themselves a better person then of course it's possible to spend an eternity just running around in circles 05:27.659 --> 05:54.443 But rather than feeling discouraged by slow progress or minimum results, pitifully small realizations and seemingly poor practice, we should be invigorated by how 05:55.756 --> 05:57.101 How possible it is for us. 05:57.683 --> 06:00.595 How doable this is. 06:00.615 --> 06:02.061 We have to think of the long term. 06:02.823 --> 06:05.293 Maybe it will take a long time for us to become enlightened. 06:09.982 --> 06:31.500 but by putting one foot in front of the other by working continuously we can make it there this is something that should be invigorating that should give us encouragement and keep us moving on the path it's only when we feel like it's hopeless that we stop but if you know that you can't go wrong you can't run out of time you can't fail 06:33.826 --> 06:37.973 The only way you can fail in meditation is by stopping. 06:37.993 --> 06:56.526 If you stop meditating, if you stop developing yourself, if you stop straightening your mind, if you stop learning about yourself, learning about experience, then you go back to running around in circles. 06:57.485 --> 07:00.273 or staying put. 07:00.634 --> 07:03.161 If you never move, you'll never get to the goal. 07:04.225 --> 07:09.179 But here we have the time, we have the power to reach the goal. 07:11.084 --> 07:11.646 Everyone does. 07:28.130 --> 07:43.781 So with this power and with this potential, our first task as human beings is to reflect on how we best spend our time. 07:44.763 --> 07:49.412 And you find this is a large part of the 07:52.700 --> 07:57.205 question that we have as a human being. 07:57.225 --> 08:01.209 What is the meaning of life? 08:01.229 --> 08:02.410 What should I do with my life? 08:02.430 --> 08:07.095 What should I make of my life? 08:07.115 --> 08:16.385 Here I've been I've found myself in this state of being a human. 08:17.366 --> 08:18.387 How should I live my life? 08:25.792 --> 08:38.657 I think what's exciting or encouraging or heartwarming is how we found a way to live our life. 08:39.859 --> 08:46.973 We've somehow managed to come to this way of life that is 08:50.277 --> 09:16.774 quite meaningful and special and is taking the taking the bull by the horns taking life to task taking life seriously and here we have this time we have this life we have this strength and this this energy inside 09:19.268 --> 09:49.275 and putting it to good use this was the Buddha's understanding or the Buddha's knowledge of what it means to live a blessed life or to have your life be a blessing and so one way of understanding our practice and our 09:57.288 --> 10:11.044 Our goal or our way of finding meaning in life is that we should make our life a blessing. 10:14.588 --> 10:17.571 That our life should be a blessing both to ourselves and to others. 10:17.692 --> 10:19.554 It should be something special. 10:22.817 --> 10:26.822 Once you see that you have the power, the time and the power 10:28.237 --> 10:44.639 the ability to affect your life, then it seems obvious, really, that you should make your life a blessing. 10:46.321 --> 10:56.995 And I think this is important to say is because without this feeling of empowerment and this feeling of the potential, this is what leads people to 10:58.055 --> 11:20.535 these people to lose their dreams and to lose the give up the idea that they might be special to feel like they're all they're capable of is an ordinary life 11:24.008 --> 11:28.995 How many people just live an ordinary life because they feel that's all they're capable of? 11:29.015 --> 11:51.045 Because they don't see that they too are capable of a life of blessing, a special life, a life that is a blessing to the world, a life that is a blessing to themselves, to other people. 11:53.995 --> 11:55.517 We have that potential. 11:55.537 --> 11:57.600 This is the exciting thing. 11:57.620 --> 12:01.305 We all have the potential. 12:01.325 --> 12:15.666 But if we don't know it, if we don't realize it, if we don't have the encouragement and the confidence in ourselves, we'll never realize this potential. 12:18.329 --> 12:22.615 We have the potential at all times. 12:22.635 --> 12:31.747 Yet how many people never realize their potential? 12:31.767 --> 12:41.801 Here we've come together out of some knowledge, maybe not perfect knowledge, but understanding that we have this potential. 12:44.664 --> 12:45.906 That we have 12:47.708 --> 12:50.011 the power to shape our own destiny. 12:51.833 --> 12:53.375 That this is possible. 12:55.117 --> 12:57.800 That it's possible to become free from suffering. 12:57.920 --> 12:59.362 It's possible to become enlightened. 13:00.544 --> 13:10.195 It's possible to reach the goal of existence, the pinnacle of existence. 13:10.215 --> 13:11.897 This is possible for all beings. 13:14.040 --> 13:16.703 It's just a matter of time, of how long it will take. 13:18.556 --> 13:32.217 and whether they actually begin, whether they actually strive and utilize or see their potential to fruition. 13:39.909 --> 13:45.998 So it's quite encouraging and something that I'd again like to 13:48.020 --> 14:15.023 express my appreciation to see what we're doing what is happening in here and in this world among Buddhist circles that people are trying trying in a way that most people never try to become special to become blessed 14:16.302 --> 14:42.225 to make something of their life beyond just money and possessions and sensual pleasures and beyond old age sickness and death, beyond just living your life to have a good death, but living your life to become eternal, to become immortal. 14:47.167 --> 14:48.790 Living your life to see through death. 14:49.932 --> 14:51.194 To see through old age. 14:51.274 --> 14:52.476 To see through sickness. 14:54.058 --> 14:54.960 To see through life. 14:55.060 --> 14:55.340 Life. 14:56.382 --> 14:58.065 Life lives. 14:58.385 --> 15:00.629 To see through birth. 15:04.055 --> 15:04.956 To see through birth. 15:14.217 --> 15:21.910 So we should never feel discouraged or unworthy or useless or poor meditators. 15:22.791 --> 15:27.820 We should never feel like we're incapable or substandard. 15:30.244 --> 15:37.997 We should never be afraid that we're not as good as other meditators or not as quick or not as 15:40.154 --> 15:44.660 not as apt or capable as them. 15:50.769 --> 16:01.724 We should feel confident, we should feel proud of ourselves, encouraged. 16:01.744 --> 16:04.288 From my own point of view, it's quite exciting, it's quite 16:05.990 --> 16:29.415 encouraging for myself to see and to feel great joy arising inside, rejoicing in seeing people really working to make themselves better, kinder, wiser. 16:30.863 --> 16:38.635 It's something we shouldn't be afraid to be, in a sense, proud of or confident in. 16:39.917 --> 16:41.179 Because this is what we're aiming for. 16:41.199 --> 16:45.667 We're not aiming to hate ourselves. 16:45.687 --> 16:52.257 We're not aiming to be angry or to deny ourselves. 16:52.277 --> 16:56.584 We're aiming to be enlightened, to be noble. 16:59.399 --> 17:01.321 something special. 17:02.903 --> 17:05.686 We all have this potential. 17:05.706 --> 17:10.711 We have to encourage it in ourselves and in others. 17:10.751 --> 17:19.701 The Buddha had much to say on what it means to live a blessed life, what it means to live a special life. 17:19.721 --> 17:26.588 He gave this talk, a very famous discourse on the blessing. 17:28.289 --> 17:35.677 And if you look at it, you can see really how to live your life in a blessed way. 17:35.718 --> 17:40.723 It's the perfect outline for how to live your life. 17:42.505 --> 17:44.488 How to live a life of blessing. 17:46.890 --> 17:48.132 Live your life as a blessing. 17:49.553 --> 17:50.595 Live a special life. 17:50.615 --> 17:53.638 Live a noble life. 18:01.448 --> 18:26.528 So it's important for us to remember these things, first of all for guidance of course, first and foremost to guide us away from improper or deleterious practices that make us become base and impure, and to encourage us, to guide us towards those practices that 18:28.313 --> 18:39.571 are beneficial both to ourselves and others and really improve both our own lives and the world around us. 18:39.591 --> 18:52.251 But the other useful thing is to give us encouragement when we see that our lives are special because of this, that our lives do have blessings in them. 18:52.732 --> 18:54.675 This is called counting your blessings. 18:56.731 --> 19:18.199 So if we talk about counting your blessings in Buddhism, we have 37 blessings that we can count in the Mahamangala Sutta, a very popular sutta that most Buddhists who were raised Buddhist have heard and oftentimes memorized at some point in their lives. 19:21.048 --> 19:30.313 one that we chant quite often at ceremonies, at blessings and so on, because it is a story about blessings. 19:31.757 --> 19:34.846 In the time of the Buddha, everyone was asking, what is a blessing? 19:34.866 --> 19:36.390 What are blessings? 19:39.661 --> 19:45.028 So some people said when you hear this bird or that bird, it's a blessing. 19:45.048 --> 19:50.034 Some people said when you see this or see that, it's a blessing. 19:50.595 --> 19:51.216 These omens. 19:55.902 --> 19:59.647 Or some people said a horseshoe is a blessing or a rabbit's foot is a blessing. 20:00.428 --> 20:02.450 Lucky, you know. 20:02.470 --> 20:08.638 These are things that are able to have some magical power to them. 20:09.901 --> 20:22.018 Everyone had a different idea about what was lucky, or what had the ability to ward off evil. 20:22.038 --> 20:23.219 Because the word is manga. 20:23.360 --> 20:24.401 Manga means evil. 20:25.082 --> 20:29.428 La means to destroy or to kill, to vanquish the evil. 20:31.653 --> 20:36.558 So, for example, when you say something unlucky, you knock on wood. 20:37.458 --> 20:40.141 And that's a mangala, because it's able to destroy. 20:40.201 --> 20:44.525 People say it's able to get rid of the jinx. 20:47.368 --> 20:52.272 They say when you put a horseshoe over your door, it's able to ward off evil. 20:52.292 --> 20:58.498 When you wear a cross or something around your neck, it's able to ward off evil. 20:59.499 --> 21:00.580 Vampires and so on. 21:08.170 --> 21:36.017 and so everyone was asking this and this was a philosophical question that got to the angels and the angels took it up as a topic of conversation and they went all the way to the king of the angels to Sakka, the king of the angels who we learned about in the Dhammapada and he told them to go to see the Buddha and the Buddha is the one who will know and so one angel went to see the Buddha and asked him why 21:36.503 --> 21:40.688 said that everyone's wondering what are the blessings. 21:40.708 --> 21:44.994 And Buddha told what are the 37 blessings in life. 21:45.014 --> 21:51.662 And so it became quite a famous, well-remembered discourse. 21:51.682 --> 22:00.233 We can start, we can go through some of these here, maybe tonight we'll go through some, and then the next days we can go through some and try to finish them all. 22:02.153 --> 22:09.479 just to give us an idea of how our practice should progress, talk about wholesome qualities. 22:11.205 --> 22:11.927 One of the greatest 22:14.523 --> 22:43.028 assistance for the development and the cultivation of mind of course is the discussion or the talk listening to talk or even discussing wholesome and unwholesome qualities profitable talk talking about good things encouraging each other in good things so the first blessings are asevana jabalanam 22:44.510 --> 22:52.619 not associating with fools, with unwise people, with foolish people. 22:53.541 --> 22:58.346 Associating with wise people. 22:58.546 --> 23:06.496 Paying homage to those worthy of homage. 23:10.420 --> 23:12.002 This is the first stanza. 23:14.378 --> 23:34.982 So thinking about these ones, first off, that should really give us confidence in what we're doing and how lucky we are to have found a community where we don't want to brag or not to say that we're special, but that the people here are not fools. 23:36.944 --> 23:39.247 If you look around this monastery, you don't see fools. 23:40.929 --> 23:42.090 You don't see foolish people. 23:44.230 --> 23:46.773 Some people might say, well, Tarindu can be foolish at times. 23:51.679 --> 23:55.443 But we know, from a Buddhist point of view, we know what it means to be a fool. 23:56.284 --> 24:06.456 It doesn't mean to joke or to laugh or to be simple or to be unintelligent and unlearned in math or science or so on. 24:06.476 --> 24:12.583 To be a fool means someone who's engaged in evil deeds, drinking and 24:13.407 --> 24:25.944 killing and stealing and lying and cheating and so on, drugs and alcohol, gambling, engaged in debauchery and partying and all of these things. 24:30.711 --> 24:35.938 We're able to avoid so many unwholesome relationships just by being here, no? 24:38.720 --> 24:40.882 In this world we depend on the people around us. 24:41.803 --> 24:44.667 We rely on them. 24:46.389 --> 24:50.293 We rely on community, we rely on society. 24:52.576 --> 25:01.085 And so often it's the society, the community itself becomes a danger to us. 25:01.105 --> 25:03.428 With thieves, with cheats, 25:04.505 --> 25:17.098 liars, murderers, rapists, all kinds of evils in the world. 25:17.118 --> 25:17.959 And look what we found. 25:17.999 --> 25:29.011 We found a small group of people who share a like interest, and that interest happens to be the development of purity, the development of goodness. 25:30.112 --> 25:32.014 Where will you find a group of people 25:33.985 --> 25:51.207 who are actively working day in and day out to remove the anger from their mind, remove the greed from their mind, to remove conceit and views and so on, who might have all of these things. 25:51.227 --> 25:52.068 But what are they doing? 25:52.108 --> 25:53.970 What is their activity day in and day out? 25:53.990 --> 26:01.680 It's to become better people, to make their life a blessing for themselves and for others. 26:03.398 --> 26:31.633 we have that, we have a community not to feel complacent or brag about it or so on but to feel good about ourselves to feel confident that we can do this we have blessings already paying homage to those worthy of homage 26:37.823 --> 26:48.606 In Buddhism, in a religious sense, this is something that occurs in all religions. 26:48.626 --> 26:55.140 Paying respect to God or paying respect to your religious leader, if it's a cult or so on, you pay respect to the cult leader. 26:57.382 --> 27:08.054 And even in Buddhism we talk a lot about paying respect to the Buddha, how great it is to bow down to the Buddha and to recite the Buddha's qualities and so on. 27:08.374 --> 27:14.961 But this is an ordinary way of paying homage that you see in all religions. 27:14.981 --> 27:20.487 It's worth discussing, and respect in general is worth discussing, because 27:22.610 --> 27:36.538 It's a very common thing nowadays to find that people don't want to respect their teachers or don't want to respect their elders, don't want to respect anyone in terms of putting anyone higher than themselves. 27:36.558 --> 27:43.993 Puja really means putting something higher than yourself. 27:46.910 --> 27:57.453 On an ultimate reality level, there's a good point there, but the problem is people are unable to separate ultimate reality from convention. 27:59.317 --> 28:02.023 And we can't live just on the ultimate reality level. 28:03.707 --> 28:04.608 We can't function. 28:04.629 --> 28:06.252 It's lying to yourself. 28:07.143 --> 28:10.088 We can't even talk without using conventions. 28:10.909 --> 28:19.323 So when you try to talk in terms of ultimate reality, like we're all equal because everything is equal, you're conflating two levels of reality. 28:20.445 --> 28:25.293 You're talking about beings, and yet you're talking about them as if they were ultimate reality. 28:25.313 --> 28:26.535 So you're just lying to yourself. 28:28.304 --> 28:42.550 The only way to exist on a conventional level is to have respect for those people who have given you support and who have been a guide for you, and so on. 28:44.588 --> 28:54.685 So this is one important reason why this is a blessing in all religions, not even just in religion, in all facets of life, all aspects of life. 28:54.705 --> 28:57.169 This is why paying respect to your parents is a blessing. 28:58.371 --> 29:00.915 Because on a conventional level that is the truth. 29:02.017 --> 29:05.663 They are your God. 29:05.703 --> 29:07.947 They are the God for the children. 29:10.306 --> 29:39.823 they are the ones who provide for us they are the ones who created us it's all conventional level but we don't discard the conventional level all of our lives is conventional even the lives of arahants it's all conventional even though they see ultimate reality they don't go around saying I'm not your husband that's not my you call them by their name they say I'm not that name I'm just Rupa and Nama they don't say that 29:40.900 --> 29:43.857 When someone calls them by their name they accept that that's their name. 29:44.601 --> 29:46.995 When they talk about people they talk about them as people. 29:51.228 --> 29:56.418 Paying homage is, on a conventional level, it's how we have to live our lives. 29:56.438 --> 30:07.060 If you want harmony, if you want peace, if you want to really and truly develop and cultivate this blessed life, you have to be respectful and humble. 30:08.202 --> 30:11.228 How it creates humility to put someone above you. 30:14.060 --> 30:16.262 In the Buddha's time, there's a good example of this. 30:16.483 --> 30:18.785 The Buddha's relatives all decided to go forth. 30:19.546 --> 30:30.318 There was Ananda and Devadatta and Anuruddha and Baddhya and Upali. 30:30.338 --> 30:34.003 There were a couple of others and then there was Upali. 30:34.023 --> 30:35.524 Upali wasn't one of his relatives. 30:35.624 --> 30:36.706 Upali was their barber. 30:40.370 --> 30:43.273 And 30:45.025 --> 30:54.076 They asked Upali to go with them, to escort them, to be their bodyguard sort of as they left. 30:55.798 --> 30:57.440 Not exactly bodyguard, but their messenger. 30:57.480 --> 31:10.375 Because what they did is then they took off all of their ornaments and so on and gave them to Upali and said, take these back and tell everyone that we've gone forth. 31:12.667 --> 31:16.714 And you be the messenger to let them know that we've gone forth. 31:17.135 --> 31:28.756 And Upali, as they were walking away, Upali looked at the ornaments and he said, if I go back with these, people are going to think I killed them or something. 31:28.776 --> 31:31.080 People are going to think that maybe I... 31:31.060 --> 32:00.814 something bad happened to them he said I'm not going to go back I can't go back and he said I want to go and be a monk as well so he decided that he would join them and he asked permission and they gave him permission to join them but then they had a problem because they said amongst themselves that if they went forth and Upali went forth as well they'd still always be thinking about him as a servant 32:02.060 --> 32:20.524 As their barber And he said this would be Something that gave them conceit And would be difficult for their practice So what they did is They went to the Buddha And they asked the Buddha permission To allow Upali to ordain before them 32:25.060 --> 32:28.486 And the Buddha gave this permission and Upali ordained first of all of them. 32:28.566 --> 32:30.569 And this means that Upali was senior to all of them. 32:31.551 --> 32:33.374 And they all had to bow down to Upali. 32:36.559 --> 32:42.328 And this was their idea, this was their plan to help them to become free from conceit. 32:46.795 --> 32:50.241 You see how important and how seriously they took this one. 32:52.229 --> 32:58.656 Some people are unable, unable to respect others, unable to put others above them, their teachers. 33:00.478 --> 33:02.620 I know how it is in high school. 33:02.640 --> 33:04.843 We always thought that our teachers were just people as well. 33:06.124 --> 33:08.466 What need should we have to respect them? 33:09.387 --> 33:12.531 We think they're getting paid and they're doing it because they get the money or so on. 33:13.592 --> 33:14.913 It's just such a horrible way to think. 33:18.177 --> 33:19.198 It's certainly not the truth. 33:21.473 --> 33:25.044 But we treat them poorly and with no respect. 33:25.144 --> 33:28.594 And they have to use rules and discipline to keep us in line. 33:28.634 --> 33:30.640 It's quite horrible, really. 33:35.598 --> 33:37.321 So this is one way of understanding this one. 33:37.341 --> 33:42.350 But of course in a Buddhist sense nothing can ever be left on the conventional level. 33:43.331 --> 33:45.755 So the Buddha himself didn't rest at that. 33:45.815 --> 33:51.185 Of course he didn't ever deny it and he was very clear that on a conventional level this is important. 33:51.225 --> 33:57.235 This seniority and paying respect to those who have helped you before. 33:59.442 --> 34:03.749 and parents and teachers and even just anyone who supported you. 34:04.570 --> 34:05.872 Sariputta, for example. 34:06.273 --> 34:12.082 Sariputta was the best example, I think, of gratitude. 34:13.364 --> 34:17.531 Because his first teacher, Asaji, every day he would bow down. 34:17.571 --> 34:24.522 If he knew that Asaji was in this direction or that direction, he would bow down in that direction out of respect for Asaji. 34:27.421 --> 34:29.385 But it wasn't only his teachers. 34:30.547 --> 34:33.392 One time there was this one man who nobody would ordain him. 34:33.412 --> 34:35.736 I think probably because he was old. 34:36.938 --> 34:42.328 He was even older than Palanyani, I think. 34:42.348 --> 34:44.853 And so they didn't want to ordain him. 34:48.219 --> 34:50.323 No, he must have been quite old. 34:51.603 --> 34:59.373 and I think there were other reasons, maybe he had some kind of conceit or so on, so they didn't want to ordain him. 35:01.295 --> 35:08.524 And I think there were other reasons, like he was serving them, so they were happy that he was a layman, that's what it was. 35:09.926 --> 35:14.632 He was so useful to them, and they needed a steward, so they didn't want to ordain him. 35:14.652 --> 35:16.935 This you find in monasteries, even nowadays. 35:19.008 --> 35:24.897 You have the steward who wants to ordain, but they think, well, if you ordain, then we've got no steward, so they push them not to ordain. 35:27.420 --> 35:28.382 It wasn't that he was old. 35:30.445 --> 35:36.153 And so he went to the Buddha and he asked, when am I going to ordain? 35:36.173 --> 35:39.758 And the Buddha said, well, is there no one here who will ordain you? 35:39.778 --> 35:40.840 And everyone was quiet. 35:42.763 --> 35:45.827 And he said, is there anyone here who can think of a reason to ordain him? 35:45.987 --> 35:47.209 And Sariputta spoke up. 35:48.100 --> 35:51.024 He said, one time, he said, I'll ordain him. 35:51.204 --> 35:54.549 And this Brahmin, one time he gave me a spoonful of rice. 35:57.293 --> 36:06.345 And this is a story that we tell even nowadays, that over a spoonful of rice, Sariputta was willing to do what nobody else would do and ordain this guy. 36:07.793 --> 36:24.551 This is the reason why Sariputta spoke up and said he would ordain him, because he said, this Brahmin has given us something, a single spoonful of rice, probably not even, not enough to eat, not enough for a meal, just that. 36:25.432 --> 36:30.297 And he had this kind of respect. 36:30.317 --> 36:37.345 So anyone who's helped us, anyone who's given us things, people who have supported the monastery or supported the meditation center, 36:38.708 --> 36:46.381 There should be a certain sense of puja there as well, where we respect and pay homage to these people. 36:47.262 --> 36:51.209 And when they come to the monastery, we always think of how helpful they've been to us. 36:51.970 --> 37:02.026 And as a result, we always make a wish in our hearts that somehow we can give something to them, and teaching them, and so on. 37:02.046 --> 37:04.851 At least being hospitable. 37:07.126 --> 37:13.305 So this is on a conventional level, but on an ultimate level, the puja that we're 37:14.348 --> 37:26.523 exhorted to undertake by the Buddha, the paramaya puja, the highest puja, the highest form of homage. 37:26.543 --> 37:29.567 It's called patipati puja. 37:31.149 --> 37:35.935 It's like that saying, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. 37:36.335 --> 37:37.757 It's along the same lines, really. 37:40.454 --> 37:43.017 Imitation is the most sincere form of homage. 37:44.278 --> 37:53.948 Practicing someone's teachings, practicing the teacher's teachings, following the teacher's advice is the most sincere form of homage. 37:55.930 --> 38:02.857 When we practice the Buddha's teaching, when we follow the Buddha's teaching, this is what it means to pay homage to the Buddha. 38:02.877 --> 38:08.723 So in that sense, on an ultimate level, it's not even a matter of thinking of the Buddha as higher than us. 38:10.019 --> 38:26.695 But it's this acceptance and agreement in our minds, this bringing our minds in line with what the Buddha taught. 38:26.715 --> 38:32.381 That is, in and of itself, an homage or obviously a respect. 38:32.461 --> 38:37.005 The highest respect is emulating the life of the Buddha. 38:38.622 --> 39:06.233 emulating the mind of the Buddha to our best ability so this the Buddha said these three the Buddha said these are three of life's greatest blessings and here of course you can see quite clearly we have all three of them this is something that made me think of this tonight 39:08.727 --> 39:32.187 that here we have a we have set ourselves we've made this wish and this intention and we have set ourselves in a place and in a community 39:35.052 --> 39:48.769 We have made a determination in our minds that we're not going to live amongst the foolish people who spend their lives drinking and gambling and carrying on like there's no consequences of action. 39:49.270 --> 39:55.979 People who don't understand karma don't see that life is not static. 39:56.880 --> 40:03.388 The mind is not fixed and all of our actions affect our mind. 40:04.921 --> 40:25.174 These people who corrupt their minds and corrupt the people around them and create stress and addiction and friction and conflict in the society and the community around them. 40:26.774 --> 40:29.361 We've decided we want to leave that behind. 40:29.401 --> 40:39.248 The Buddha gives this story about that's supposed to happen sometime in the future when the majority of society will decide, will get so based that they will 40:40.426 --> 41:00.527 lose all sense of morality and they will copulate like animals and treat each other like animals raping and taking and stealing and taking advantage of each other like animals and killing each other like animals hunting each other like animals there will be a constant state of war 41:02.228 --> 41:09.899 But he says there will be a certain faction of society, of the world, that decides this is not for them. 41:10.500 --> 41:12.302 Decides that they don't want to take life. 41:12.322 --> 41:19.913 They don't want to engage in such a horrific act. 41:19.933 --> 41:21.355 And goes off and lives in the forest. 41:23.858 --> 41:28.725 And it's these people, he says, that will begin the new society, will begin to change the world. 41:30.511 --> 41:35.317 It's always something to think about that we're a part of that society. 41:35.337 --> 41:46.773 We're a part of that tradition that will be carried on and who knows if none of us then maybe the people we the people we inspire will be those people. 41:47.974 --> 41:51.879 The reason why those people will exist is because we're carrying on this tradition now. 41:51.899 --> 41:58.408 People like us are carrying on this tradition where we have 41:59.992 --> 42:29.577 broken through, broken free from the feelings of helplessness, from the addictions and the hopelessness that people come to, thinking that the best they can ever hope for is a life of sensuality and a life free from physical discomfort. 42:32.678 --> 42:43.815 They have nothing higher in their minds than these base desires and base addictions. 42:43.836 --> 42:46.460 Don't ever think to practice meditation. 42:46.480 --> 42:48.122 Don't ever think to make themselves better. 42:48.142 --> 42:54.973 Don't ever think to respect the truth. 42:56.337 --> 43:01.846 When we talk about respecting for the Buddha, we talk about respecting his, we have to think of respecting the truth. 43:02.728 --> 43:11.262 So this word respect has another meaning, like when you respect the law, or when you respect the laws of physics. 43:13.065 --> 43:16.371 Everything has to respect the laws of physics, it can't break them. 43:17.836 --> 43:24.710 So if we try to break them, we only meet with failure. 43:25.832 --> 43:33.347 Try to break the laws of physics, disrespect the laws of physics, and it only comes back to bring frustration. 43:34.389 --> 43:38.798 The same goes with the extension, which is the laws of the mind. 43:40.685 --> 43:54.884 If you try to break these laws, if you don't respect the truth, which is what we mean by paying homage, really on an ultimate level, what we mean by paying respect to those things worthy of respect, it's not just a being, it's the truth. 43:56.586 --> 43:59.130 The truth is immutable. 44:01.833 --> 44:03.115 It's unbreakable. 44:05.322 --> 44:11.003 So it's true that when we have impurity in our mind, it will lead to suffering in the future. 44:13.051 --> 44:16.885 When we develop purity in our minds, it will lead to happiness, it will lead to peace. 44:22.501 --> 44:27.487 So this is on an ultimate level what we mean by the respect, by paying respect. 44:27.688 --> 44:40.765 This is why the Buddha said it is practice, because our minds should be set on becoming harmonious and in harmony with reality. 44:42.347 --> 44:46.332 On an ultimate level, that's the highest form of respect that exists. 44:47.408 --> 45:01.283 It's the respect for the laws of nature, respect for the laws of the mind and the laws of karma and action, the laws of existence. 45:05.414 --> 45:11.743 And so it actually really just means wisdom to understand reality. 45:11.763 --> 45:14.507 Because when we understand reality, we act according to it. 45:14.527 --> 45:22.037 A person who knows the truth will never act in a way to harm themselves. 45:22.057 --> 45:26.043 If we know that something is going to cause us suffering, we'll never do it. 45:26.063 --> 45:28.266 The only reason why we cause ourselves suffering 45:29.849 --> 45:34.214 It's because we don't see clearly that it's causing us suffering. 45:34.234 --> 45:38.980 It can't be that if we knew it was the cause of suffering that we would perform it. 45:41.863 --> 45:49.132 If we knew that it was something bad, we could never, logically, we could never perform it. 45:49.152 --> 45:55.259 So our practice is what is meant here. 45:55.339 --> 45:57.662 These are great blessings, to have the 45:58.958 --> 46:04.669 as came up today, the idea of having a teacher. 46:05.851 --> 46:11.442 That's not even just having a teacher, it's being associated with good people. 46:11.462 --> 46:16.171 To have these reminders, even just to have a group to practice meditation with. 46:16.191 --> 46:21.220 But of course to hear the Dhamma, to hear anyone speaking the Dhamma, 46:22.988 --> 46:25.892 It's really a much easier thing than to actually practice the Dhamma. 46:26.993 --> 46:31.999 So encouraging people to become teachers, I think, is a very important thing. 46:32.019 --> 46:34.242 People always think they're not qualified to teach. 46:36.144 --> 46:37.726 Oh, I'm not a very good practitioner. 46:37.766 --> 46:38.867 How could I possibly teach? 46:39.408 --> 46:42.211 Teaching is much easier than practicing. 46:42.231 --> 46:45.335 All meditators should engage in it. 46:45.355 --> 46:48.439 Not because they want to be teachers. 46:52.874 --> 46:58.986 but because of the importance it plays in living a blessed life. 47:00.873 --> 47:02.856 we're going to surround ourselves with good people. 47:03.216 --> 47:05.759 The only way we can do this is to be a good person ourselves. 47:06.701 --> 47:26.526 If we want to be surrounded by people who are kind and generous and helpful, and of course kind and generous and helpful, of course, on an ultimate level means, in terms of the Dhamma, people who are kind enough to support our practice, people who are helpful enough, 47:27.873 --> 47:53.256 to be able to guide our practice if we want to be surrounded by such people we have to be such a person ourselves we can't just take and expect never to have to give it's part of the law of karma part of reality you must be like the people you wish to be around so if you want to be around people who are 47:54.637 --> 48:22.197 good teachers you have to be a good teacher yourself this is I think one of the great karmas that must come from teaching people is that you'll never be without a teacher yourself you'll never have to meet you'll never have to want for a teacher I always feel how blessed I was to have such a wonderful teacher who I consider to be such a wonderful teacher 48:24.758 --> 48:39.139 And so I'm very happy to be teaching other people because I know that if all it means is that I get to meet people like him in the future, then that's enough reason for me to make it part of my life. 48:40.381 --> 48:45.028 And in the future I will always have those people who can guide me. 48:47.455 --> 48:50.622 So these are three of life's greatest blessings. 48:50.662 --> 48:53.890 We kind of overlook them sometimes and think how simple they are. 48:54.692 --> 48:57.518 But the Buddha was very clear that this is the whole of the holy life. 48:58.520 --> 49:02.730 The whole of the spiritual life is associating with people who are spiritual. 49:07.958 --> 49:13.363 and dissociating from people who are unspiritual, because we guide each other, we help each other. 49:14.244 --> 49:15.565 We can't see our own eyes. 49:17.506 --> 49:22.130 Without a mirror, we can't see our own face. 49:22.150 --> 49:24.312 And without wisdom, we can't see our own minds. 49:28.976 --> 49:36.463 So for us to develop wisdom is something that requires assistance, requires guidance, requires support. 49:38.317 --> 49:40.259 That's what we have here. 49:40.279 --> 49:41.840 So these are the first three blessings. 49:44.022 --> 49:46.665 We're going to try to get through the sutta eventually. 49:46.685 --> 49:47.646 We have 34 left to go. 49:48.627 --> 49:49.367 Isn't that exciting? 49:50.028 --> 49:53.351 Here we have three of life's greatest blessings and that's not it. 49:53.531 --> 50:00.558 There's 34 more that we can be happy about and feel good about and feel confident about. 50:01.278 --> 50:03.541 Here we are developing all of these wonderful things. 50:04.161 --> 50:06.163 And if we're not, if we're lacking in some of them, 50:08.185 --> 50:10.568 Now we'll know what they are. 50:11.829 --> 50:17.475 Now we'll realize and adjust ourselves appropriately. 50:17.495 --> 50:22.221 So I think that's a good start on the Mangala Sutta. 50:22.241 --> 50:25.745 We can finish as we go, day by day. 50:26.566 --> 50:34.935 So now on with our practice. 50:36.788 --> 50:42.013 We listen to the Dhamma is like reading the roadmap. 50:42.293 --> 50:44.475 Now we have to walk the path. 50:44.495 --> 50:46.197 Now we have to actually follow the path. 50:50.040 --> 50:51.682 Listening to the Dhamma is useful. 50:51.802 --> 50:53.323 Listening to the Dhamma is helpful. 50:54.664 --> 50:59.769 But we have to put it into practice. 50:59.789 --> 51:04.213 And our practice shouldn't be intellectual and shouldn't be... 51:06.303 --> 51:10.268 It shouldn't be just based on suttas or what we've read or what we've heard. 51:11.470 --> 51:15.475 We have to be careful sometimes that it can be just an intellectual thing. 51:17.318 --> 51:19.260 But I don't think we have really that problem. 51:19.280 --> 51:26.690 It's just a standard warning that I think is worth giving and worth us keeping in mind. 51:28.673 --> 51:33.559 That we're here to find the wisdom within ourselves, to find the truth inside of ourselves. 51:34.957 --> 51:51.058 But I know that this is what we're doing and this is what is so inspiring about being in this type of community and it's something that 51:54.228 --> 52:11.022 gives one encouragement in working to maintain and working to support this kind of a community, working to cultivate and to protect this kind of a place. 52:13.010 --> 52:18.382 at the very least to express appreciation for it. 52:19.003 --> 52:25.197 And we should be clear in our minds that this is a blessing that we have here, something that's not easy to find in the world. 52:26.172 --> 52:50.121 and to make the best of it and to use our time here wisely not let the moment pass us by don't let the moment pass you by so here we have the time let's make the most of it so now as a group if you want to practice we'll do mindful prostration and then walking in and sitting