1
00:00:03,406 --> 00:00:05,331
Is control an illusion?

2
00:00:05,532 --> 00:00:08,059
By control I mean controlling the mind.

3
00:00:08,079 --> 00:00:09,102
It has thoughts.

4
00:00:09,804 --> 00:00:14,838
So if we can't really control the thoughts, then there's only observers, right?

5
00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:17,365
Then we have a choice, isn't it?

6
00:00:19,100 --> 00:00:20,502
We have his choice.

7
00:00:21,163 --> 00:00:21,584
I see it.

8
00:00:21,664 --> 00:00:26,090
I don't quite get the grammar there.

9
00:00:27,472 --> 00:00:28,734
Then we have his choice.

10
00:00:29,035 --> 00:00:29,996
All we have is choice?

11
00:00:30,857 --> 00:00:33,962
I think that's exactly how I would answer it, if that's what you're saying.

12
00:00:34,723 --> 00:00:35,745
All we have is choice.

13
00:00:36,265 --> 00:00:37,207
We don't have control.

14
00:00:37,287 --> 00:00:39,751
Control is an illusion, but we have choice.

15
00:00:40,111 --> 00:00:46,761
We can choose every moment to do something, to respond in a certain way.

16
00:00:46,741 --> 00:00:48,223
That's how I see it.

17
00:00:48,643 --> 00:01:09,508
I don't know if it's exactly true or not, but this is the best way for a limited human mind to come to terms with reality, Buddhist reality, because we deny control and it turns out, quite quickly turns out to be a falsehood anyway.

18
00:01:11,463 --> 00:01:14,829
And yet we're not robots, we're not automatons.

19
00:01:15,871 --> 00:01:24,285
So it seems proper to say, and it's very much based on what appears to be the truth, that we have choice.

20
00:01:24,906 --> 00:01:27,210
There is a choice that can be made.

21
00:01:28,692 --> 00:01:29,853
At every moment.

22
00:01:31,115 --> 00:01:34,218
So this is the Buddha called present karma.

23
00:01:34,559 --> 00:01:35,440
Karma here and now.

24
00:01:36,541 --> 00:01:37,943
You create here and now.

25
00:01:38,043 --> 00:01:39,344
Actually I don't know if the Buddha called it.

26
00:01:39,364 --> 00:01:40,286
This is how we understand it.

27
00:01:40,706 --> 00:01:42,408
You create karma in the here and now.

28
00:01:42,448 --> 00:01:46,693
At every moment you have the opportunity to create karma.

29
00:01:47,214 --> 00:01:48,835
To intend this or intend that.

30
00:01:49,436 --> 00:01:51,038
Or to not intend anything at all.

31
00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:58,604
So yeah, I would say there's not just observance.

32
00:01:59,184 --> 00:02:01,707
There's also intention and choice.

33
00:02:02,388 --> 00:02:04,291
So you can choose not to observe.

34
00:02:04,811 --> 00:02:06,473
You can choose to try to force things.

35
00:02:06,694 --> 00:02:16,265
You can choose to, in other words, can choose to deal with things improperly, can choose to misunderstand things and say, I'm going to control this.

36
00:02:16,305 --> 00:02:17,747
I'm going to turn off my anger.

37
00:02:18,488 --> 00:02:23,995
I'm going to grow a third arm, and so on, things that are impossible.