1 00:00:00,638 --> 00:00:01,459 Okay, good evening. 2 00:00:04,203 --> 00:00:09,892 So tonight we are looking at the Dhammapada. 3 00:00:09,912 --> 00:00:15,320 Verse 194, which goes as follows. 4 00:00:17,764 --> 00:00:23,052 Sukho buddhanam upado, sukha saddhamadesana, 5 00:00:24,736 --> 00:00:45,439 Which means happiness is the arising of a Buddha. 6 00:00:45,459 --> 00:00:48,803 Happiness is the teaching of the Dhamma. 7 00:00:55,617 --> 00:01:01,063 Happiness is a community that is harmonious. 8 00:01:03,446 --> 00:01:06,309 Happiness is the harmony of a community. 9 00:01:11,154 --> 00:01:25,050 The exertion of those who have samaki, who have harmony, 10 00:01:26,195 --> 00:01:26,956 is happiness. 11 00:01:32,824 --> 00:01:34,486 This is a fairly popular verse. 12 00:01:34,906 --> 00:01:38,371 It's one when I was in Thailand we would chant it every morning. 13 00:01:41,896 --> 00:01:47,443 I'm not sure why we chanted it every morning but it is a fairly beautiful verse and 14 00:01:48,908 --> 00:01:49,829 It's a good reminder. 15 00:01:49,869 --> 00:01:56,778 I think one of the reasons for chanting it is when you're in a monastery, harmony is very important. 16 00:02:00,703 --> 00:02:02,365 There's not much of a story behind this. 17 00:02:02,425 --> 00:02:11,716 It's another one of these verses that just arose from a question, or no, arose from some talk. 18 00:02:11,736 --> 00:02:16,502 And so the story goes that the monks were sitting in 19 00:02:17,613 --> 00:02:28,904 the Dhamma Hall, a group of monks, and they were asking, one of them asked, what do you think is the great happiness, the greatest sukha? 20 00:02:31,346 --> 00:02:40,956 And I say sukha because the word had some sort of colloquial meaning, right? 21 00:02:40,976 --> 00:02:43,198 It literally means happiness, I think, but 22 00:02:44,798 --> 00:02:46,380 could be translated as pleasure. 23 00:02:47,522 --> 00:02:56,413 So it's not quite clear what they were talking about, but I don't know how philosophical it was because their answers were kind of odd for monks. 24 00:02:57,314 --> 00:03:02,041 One of the monks said, well, I think the highest sukha is rulership. 25 00:03:06,046 --> 00:03:12,915 I suppose we could assume that they were talking about happiness and they just hadn't made the connection between 26 00:03:14,009 --> 00:03:15,911 a more refined sorts of happiness. 27 00:03:16,972 --> 00:03:19,214 The Buddha often talking more about suffering, right? 28 00:03:20,896 --> 00:03:27,302 So maybe they just heard about suffering and they didn't associate the practice of Buddhism with happiness. 29 00:03:27,362 --> 00:03:30,345 Maybe they hadn't found any happiness in the Buddhist teaching. 30 00:03:30,405 --> 00:03:42,396 They maybe saw that it was good or beneficial, but they were still probably, maybe they were still suffering, struggling with the practice. 31 00:03:43,793 --> 00:03:52,237 So when they thought about happiness, the first one said rulership, being a king, being in charge. 32 00:03:53,681 --> 00:03:59,237 Second one, another one said, or some said, 33 00:04:00,702 --> 00:04:02,885 which means sensuality. 34 00:04:03,065 --> 00:04:06,069 They said sensuality is the highest sukha. 35 00:04:07,470 --> 00:04:13,978 So this is attachment to sights and sounds and smells, the pleasure that you get from them, so sensual pleasure. 36 00:04:15,821 --> 00:04:28,296 And some others said things like food, getting the right food, being able to eat good food, pizza every day or cheeseburgers or whatever it is, the food that you like. 37 00:04:32,917 --> 00:04:41,269 And the Buddha heard them talking, and he came in and said, what is it that you were talking about when I came in? 38 00:04:42,290 --> 00:04:47,177 And they told him, and he said something like, what was it, or something like that. 39 00:04:48,078 --> 00:04:49,039 What are you saying? 40 00:04:51,723 --> 00:04:53,085 Literally, what are you saying? 41 00:04:54,820 --> 00:05:05,531 He said all that sort of happiness, all of those kinds of sukha are bound up, are caught up, or they belong to pariyapana. 42 00:05:06,713 --> 00:05:12,159 They belong to the suffering of vata. 43 00:05:12,179 --> 00:05:15,842 Suffering of the vata. 44 00:05:15,862 --> 00:05:17,364 Vata means around. 45 00:05:17,664 --> 00:05:22,009 It means a sort of a circular path. 46 00:05:23,508 --> 00:05:52,249 cycle literally probably cycle and he's maybe referring to samsara but this is what the Buddha said and he said real happiness is and then he taught this verse so I think we can get two sorts of lessons out of this the first comes from the story where the Buddha points this out about how these types of happiness that 47 00:05:53,748 --> 00:05:57,553 these monks were coming up with are not really happiness. 48 00:05:57,573 --> 00:06:00,998 He says those belong to the realm of suffering. 49 00:06:02,961 --> 00:06:10,611 But he used the word vata, the cycle of suffering, because it has to be admitted that there's pleasure involved with all those things. 50 00:06:12,714 --> 00:06:23,248 Even though there's pleasure involved with all those things, they're caught up in a cycle, meaning they involve an inevitability or an inevitable state of suffering. 51 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:28,804 When we talk about happiness, it's a hard thing to pin down. 52 00:06:29,645 --> 00:06:32,348 Just like suffering, I think, is a hard thing to pin down. 53 00:06:33,289 --> 00:06:35,111 How would you define suffering? 54 00:06:35,251 --> 00:06:36,892 Or how would you define happiness? 55 00:06:38,254 --> 00:06:39,655 I don't think we have to. 56 00:06:40,156 --> 00:06:42,739 I don't think this is a sort of philosophical thing. 57 00:06:43,900 --> 00:06:48,865 I think we can get a fairly easy agreement 58 00:06:48,845 --> 00:06:52,233 about suffering and happiness. 59 00:06:52,333 --> 00:06:57,304 If we talk about the kinds of things that are suffering, we're going to all get a sense of what we mean. 60 00:06:57,364 --> 00:07:00,632 There's no real ambiguity there. 61 00:07:00,652 --> 00:07:01,734 And the same with happiness. 62 00:07:03,939 --> 00:07:05,503 The problem comes when we 63 00:07:06,749 --> 00:07:17,468 conflate what we want with what makes us happy or with the cycle of addiction with happiness. 64 00:07:18,670 --> 00:07:27,005 We think that because we want something, it's a part of it, that thing, the acquiring of that thing is happiness. 65 00:07:29,910 --> 00:07:31,052 And the problem is that 66 00:07:32,905 --> 00:07:35,670 that sort of thinking leads us to a lot of suffering, right? 67 00:07:35,710 --> 00:07:37,032 It's involved with this cycle. 68 00:07:37,112 --> 00:07:54,801 So it may be very true that anyone would say getting the food that you want or being in charge of other people, controlling other people, or just indulging in sensual pleasure, that there's pleasure there, that there's a pleasant feeling, there's happiness there, there's sukha there. 69 00:07:54,821 --> 00:07:56,584 Maybe we could all agree on that, but 70 00:07:58,100 --> 00:08:07,013 When you think like that and when you follow and pursue that path, you end up in a cycle of suffering. 71 00:08:07,653 --> 00:08:08,374 What a dukkha. 72 00:08:13,702 --> 00:08:20,512 And so we'd be better off thinking of happiness as this sort of answer to the question, are you happy? 73 00:08:22,054 --> 00:08:26,520 When we ask someone about their life and we say, okay, you're doing this, but are you happy? 74 00:08:28,897 --> 00:08:45,983 And well, we'd have to be honest with ourselves and be actually mindful to be able to have the ability to see whether we are happy because I think it is quite common for people to not really be sure if they're happy or not really know if they're happy. 75 00:08:47,525 --> 00:08:52,392 Many people who come to meditate are quite sure that they're not happy and they know that they're not happy. 76 00:08:54,375 --> 00:08:58,161 Another problem is that 77 00:08:59,693 --> 00:09:01,615 we experience things differently. 78 00:09:01,635 --> 00:09:08,081 And so some people are very naturally inclined to greater happiness, greater pleasure. 79 00:09:09,903 --> 00:09:12,486 This has to do with the way the brain is wired even. 80 00:09:13,767 --> 00:09:16,330 For some people, it's very hard for them to feel happy. 81 00:09:21,735 --> 00:09:27,861 And so happiness becomes a little bit more complicated than simply saying, well, this makes me happy or that makes me happy. 82 00:09:30,271 --> 00:09:38,266 And not only do we have to look at the bigger picture, the overall picture of our life, but we also have to, I think, look very much at our direction. 83 00:09:39,528 --> 00:09:45,740 So if you say, I'm very happy, I kill and I steal and I lie and I cheat, but I'm very happy. 84 00:09:45,820 --> 00:09:48,465 Could be because your brain might be very much wired 85 00:09:49,289 --> 00:09:55,943 to enjoy life and to enjoy things and to put aside and to minimize any problems that you might have. 86 00:09:57,045 --> 00:10:03,539 But still all those things that you're doing are building up to potential, a great potential for suffering. 87 00:10:04,180 --> 00:10:05,423 They're corrupting your mind. 88 00:10:05,463 --> 00:10:07,467 They're changing your brain, how it works. 89 00:10:07,447 --> 00:10:22,188 Even just indulging in addictive substances or activities is changing the way your brain works, the way your mind works and eventually makes it harder for you to be happy. 90 00:10:22,228 --> 00:10:22,429 Why? 91 00:10:22,489 --> 00:10:29,659 Because it taxes and it changes and it kind of stretches the brain systems. 92 00:10:29,739 --> 00:10:33,825 You need more stimuli to get the same amount of pleasure. 93 00:10:37,147 --> 00:10:49,750 So while I think happiness is easy for us to agree on, it's much harder to understand and to get beyond this idea that this will make me happy or that will make me happy. 94 00:10:51,894 --> 00:10:59,728 And we have to look at, again, the overall picture, but also where we're going. 95 00:11:02,459 --> 00:11:09,634 And so in meditation practice it can be sometimes quite unpleasant as you have to face things that are unpleasant. 96 00:11:09,674 --> 00:11:20,316 But there's a very strong theory in place here that I think is very profound and important. 97 00:11:22,507 --> 00:11:24,149 is that we're headed in a direction. 98 00:11:24,189 --> 00:11:25,852 We're doing these things for reasons. 99 00:11:26,312 --> 00:11:28,175 We're staying with pain. 100 00:11:28,235 --> 00:11:32,100 We're being objective with unpleasant thoughts. 101 00:11:32,821 --> 00:11:38,008 Even our emotions, we're not judging or trying to change them for a reason. 102 00:11:38,849 --> 00:11:41,713 We have a plan, and this is our path. 103 00:11:42,858 --> 00:11:49,628 In many ways, we welcome the unpleasantness. 104 00:11:49,868 --> 00:11:50,089 Why? 105 00:11:50,169 --> 00:11:52,833 Because that's the thing that we are weak on. 106 00:11:54,114 --> 00:12:00,444 If we spent all our time seeking out the pleasurable, well, that's not really a problem. 107 00:12:00,504 --> 00:12:02,427 The problem is where we find suffering. 108 00:12:03,488 --> 00:12:07,053 What is the aspect of the cycle that causes us suffering? 109 00:12:07,073 --> 00:12:11,700 And if we understand that, we can free ourselves from it, and then the rest is just happiness. 110 00:12:14,363 --> 00:12:16,495 So happiness is not just about being happy. 111 00:12:16,515 --> 00:12:19,935 And this is why I've said before, happiness doesn't lead to happiness. 112 00:12:21,265 --> 00:12:27,393 Because it's about a path, it's about the overall picture, it's about something more than just finding what makes you happy. 113 00:12:28,955 --> 00:12:35,224 So that's the first lesson, I think, that kind of frames meditation practice. 114 00:12:35,484 --> 00:12:37,146 Why are we practicing what we're doing? 115 00:12:38,127 --> 00:12:46,058 There's something more than just enjoying life as though that were possible to do directly. 116 00:12:47,033 --> 00:12:52,680 We're trying to overcome the things that get in the way of us being happy. 117 00:12:53,801 --> 00:13:10,442 We're trying to change and open up our minds to be less judgmental, less partial, less reactionary, less controlling, less demanding, and happier. 118 00:13:13,645 --> 00:13:21,310 The second lesson comes, I think, from the verse and that's, of course, dealing with these four types of happiness. 119 00:13:21,982 --> 00:13:24,025 We can see these as four types of happiness. 120 00:13:24,105 --> 00:13:30,412 I think maybe it's a little clearer to see them as four requirements for the practice of happiness. 121 00:13:30,492 --> 00:13:32,975 The first is the arising of a Buddha. 122 00:13:34,037 --> 00:13:44,470 Without the arising of the Buddha, I think we take it quite for granted, the profound impact the Buddha has had on the world. 123 00:13:46,772 --> 00:13:50,537 In the West, we're a little more familiar with maybe the impact that Jesus had on the world. 124 00:13:52,070 --> 00:14:05,948 And so if you think of the impact that Christianity has had on the world, not all good, but quite profound, or any religious teaching, what is the effect that the Buddha has had? 125 00:14:05,968 --> 00:14:11,355 We wouldn't even have the concept of mindfulness as a meditation practice if it weren't for the Buddha. 126 00:14:14,940 --> 00:14:18,685 We certainly wouldn't have a teaching on the Four Noble Truths. 127 00:14:20,690 --> 00:14:24,253 We wouldn't have this idea of letting go and so on. 128 00:14:24,273 --> 00:14:30,379 I mean we would have basic teachings, good teachings, but we would have a lot of bad mixed in there. 129 00:14:32,761 --> 00:14:35,843 So the arising of the Buddha is great happiness. 130 00:14:35,983 --> 00:14:47,333 It gives us a practice that is pure and clear and simple and not easy, but conducive to true happiness. 131 00:14:48,574 --> 00:14:49,195 And without it, 132 00:14:50,457 --> 00:14:58,116 Without this practice, it's not like the Buddha just found, just picked a teaching. 133 00:14:58,156 --> 00:15:01,484 It's not like he went out and said, oh, well, this is what I should be doing. 134 00:15:01,525 --> 00:15:02,948 This is what they're doing over there. 135 00:15:04,700 --> 00:15:07,645 So it's not like we will always have the option. 136 00:15:08,347 --> 00:15:11,693 It's not like the Buddha just taught us to do something that was already there. 137 00:15:11,733 --> 00:15:13,777 He actually came up with something new. 138 00:15:14,859 --> 00:15:19,327 So what I mean is that when the Buddha is gone, we won't even have the option to practice. 139 00:15:19,387 --> 00:15:22,633 It's not just that we won't have anyone telling us to practice. 140 00:15:22,653 --> 00:15:24,717 We won't even know anything about it. 141 00:15:25,321 --> 00:15:27,363 the concept of practicing mindfulness. 142 00:15:28,204 --> 00:15:31,287 Maybe someone will come up with it on their own, just fleeting. 143 00:15:32,107 --> 00:15:43,939 But for anyone to be clearly aware and capable of presenting and teaching and spreading this teaching, that just won't be there once the Buddha's gone. 144 00:15:46,261 --> 00:15:48,683 So this whole path will disappear. 145 00:15:50,946 --> 00:15:52,527 A great loss of 146 00:15:54,903 --> 00:15:59,718 happiness and the potential for peace and freedom from suffering. 147 00:16:04,191 --> 00:16:06,658 The second is of course the teaching of the Dhamma. 148 00:16:06,719 --> 00:16:08,845 So even with the arising of the Buddha, 149 00:16:10,681 --> 00:16:12,624 Many people didn't get to hear him speak. 150 00:16:13,425 --> 00:16:38,157 Even now today, 2500 years later, the teachings have spread, but there are still many people in the world who haven't heard the teaching and so they're hearing different teachings probably, or they're coming up with teachings on their own, coming up with practices on their own, or just wasting away because they never had the 151 00:16:40,195 --> 00:16:41,137 the instruction. 152 00:16:41,157 --> 00:16:50,673 I never had anyone explain to them a reason for keeping even ethical precepts or practicing meditation. 153 00:16:50,693 --> 00:16:55,481 I never had any guidance for how to direct their mind or how to see clearly. 154 00:16:59,588 --> 00:17:02,473 So hearing the Dhamma is not something we should take for granted either. 155 00:17:03,685 --> 00:17:10,154 great happiness that comes from hearing the Dhamma, because of course that's necessary to be happy. 156 00:17:10,174 --> 00:17:31,144 If you don't ever learn the truth, and we're not exactly claiming that we have the truth or something, it just means whatever is the truth, if you don't have someone explaining it to you, or if you don't ever hear it or learn it for yourself, 157 00:17:33,537 --> 00:17:35,659 You can't possibly find true happiness. 158 00:17:35,679 --> 00:17:43,386 You'll always be engaging in wrong practices and some good, some bad. 159 00:17:43,446 --> 00:17:50,013 You'll just be a mix of good and bad tendencies, caught up in the cycle of suffering. 160 00:17:53,796 --> 00:18:01,924 The third aspect of happiness that's required is the sukha-sankhasa-samakhi. 161 00:18:03,608 --> 00:18:05,291 a requirement for a community. 162 00:18:05,792 --> 00:18:09,217 Let's not say requirement, let's just say it's a part of happiness. 163 00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:17,311 Because it is possible to practice alone, but you could also say, well, that's a sort of a community that is in harmony. 164 00:18:18,252 --> 00:18:22,900 Like when you're alone in your room, you're a community of one that is quite harmonious. 165 00:18:24,247 --> 00:18:30,393 Or you could look even deeper and say, there's internal harmony as well. 166 00:18:30,493 --> 00:18:31,474 Are we conflicted? 167 00:18:32,415 --> 00:18:37,941 When you're doubting the practice, you're of two minds about the practice, right? 168 00:18:38,782 --> 00:18:41,925 Maybe half of you thinks it's good, half of you thinks it's bad. 169 00:18:43,266 --> 00:18:46,790 Part of you, sorry, inside part of you thinks it's bad, part of you thinks it's good. 170 00:18:47,571 --> 00:18:51,655 Maybe part of you thinks you can do it, part of you thinks you're not capable of doing it. 171 00:18:53,508 --> 00:18:55,810 Part of you is keen to do it. 172 00:18:55,850 --> 00:18:57,272 Part of you is lazy to do it. 173 00:18:58,553 --> 00:19:00,495 Then you have a disharmonious community. 174 00:19:03,838 --> 00:19:09,004 But I think the Buddha was talking about a real community, though we can extrapolate. 175 00:19:09,024 --> 00:19:23,498 But having a community, having a meditation community, can be a monastery or here a meditation center, is a great gain for all of us because it encourages us to practice. 176 00:19:24,862 --> 00:19:31,157 We have other people who are doing the same thing, so we have evidence that it is possible. 177 00:19:32,420 --> 00:19:42,904 When you see someone who has been practicing for longer than you and you see how fluent or how well trained they are in it, 178 00:19:44,572 --> 00:19:49,497 how skilled they are in the practice, it's quite encouraging. 179 00:19:49,557 --> 00:19:54,141 It shows the potential for you to continue. 180 00:19:55,383 --> 00:20:01,769 Having other people around practicing is a great thing, but also the aspect of it being harmonious. 181 00:20:02,570 --> 00:20:05,813 So we're all practicing the same way, the same teaching. 182 00:20:08,536 --> 00:20:12,840 And that we all have similar qualities of mind 183 00:20:15,335 --> 00:20:16,677 So one, that we have a community. 184 00:20:16,757 --> 00:20:17,919 Two, that it's harmonious. 185 00:20:17,999 --> 00:20:26,050 The third quality I would say is not only that we're harmonious, but samagi means, it has the other implication, magga. 186 00:20:26,070 --> 00:20:32,759 Samagi literally means harmony, literally means being on the same path or people who are on the same path. 187 00:20:32,819 --> 00:20:38,507 But another important quality is not just any path. 188 00:20:38,487 --> 00:20:53,543 So if you're a harmonious bunch of thieves who are all stealing, or if you're a harmonious group of cannibals, I don't know how that would work, but harmonious group of hunters, let's say, um, 189 00:20:56,948 --> 00:21:05,123 Not a lot of happiness there, but a harmonious group of Buddhist practitioners, of meditators, people who are mindful. 190 00:21:05,944 --> 00:21:12,696 So you're not only on the same path, but you're all on the path of mindfulness. 191 00:21:14,549 --> 00:21:15,811 There's a great happiness there. 192 00:21:17,274 --> 00:21:24,347 It means that we're not going to be distracting each other or manipulating each other or hurting each other. 193 00:21:25,329 --> 00:21:34,245 We're going to be giving each other the space and the encouragement and the appreciation and the kindness that allows us to practice. 194 00:21:38,562 --> 00:21:46,373 Tapa comes from tapa meaning heat, literally. 195 00:21:47,214 --> 00:22:00,452 But it came to mean much more in India, even before the time of the Buddha, it means exertion, or it had a more religious significance like asceticism, austerity, like torturing yourself. 196 00:22:03,368 --> 00:22:12,362 The Buddha called patience the highest form of torture or tapa, the highest form of religious practice you might say. 197 00:22:14,786 --> 00:22:21,136 So the patience, but here I think it means more like exertion because that's really literally what the idea is. 198 00:22:21,156 --> 00:22:24,101 When you work hard, you generate heat. 199 00:22:24,121 --> 00:22:26,945 So it came to mean work, exertion. 200 00:22:28,708 --> 00:22:29,950 So the work that we do 201 00:22:31,921 --> 00:22:56,865 the fact that we're all working on the practice and the engagement with the practice and the intention, the inclination that we all have to practice is quite powerful. 202 00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:19,647 Thinking more broadly, it might be hard to see on this limited scale, there's only a few of us, but thinking more broadly, imagine first, just simply if all of society were to understand the concepts of mindfulness, you know, were to 203 00:23:21,247 --> 00:23:35,823 look at experiences and situations and problems and conflicts in terms of now I'm angry at you and trying to appreciate your anger and see it clearly so that you're not reacting to it, right? 204 00:23:35,883 --> 00:23:44,372 Rather than saying, you make me angry and I've got to kill you for that or hurt you for that or yell at you for that. 205 00:23:44,392 --> 00:23:46,675 Imagine a world where people were all meditating. 206 00:23:47,095 --> 00:23:49,718 Imagine a world, society even, a 207 00:23:51,301 --> 00:23:51,842 a city. 208 00:23:51,862 --> 00:24:00,677 If you think of all the conflicts that we have in this world, how many of them would be solved? 209 00:24:03,121 --> 00:24:15,402 So having people around you that are mindful, and this is only a microcosm here where you're only here for short times and people are coming and going. 210 00:24:16,850 --> 00:24:20,174 This idea of having a community we shouldn't take for granted. 211 00:24:21,116 --> 00:24:24,961 We should consider it a part of our practice to encourage other people to practice. 212 00:24:30,368 --> 00:24:46,249 But another part of this is an exhortation, well, not just to be Buddhists or not just to be in agreement that the practice is a good thing, but to actually practice. 213 00:24:48,220 --> 00:24:58,556 And so the great power that you are generating through your practice, the clarity of mind and wisdom becomes a communal thing. 214 00:24:59,318 --> 00:25:09,313 It's something that makes this a great place, a place of great benefit and great happiness. 215 00:25:11,897 --> 00:25:15,443 So appreciation, I don't think there's any 216 00:25:18,275 --> 00:25:22,040 any really deep teaching to be had here beyond that. 217 00:25:23,081 --> 00:25:27,727 The Dhammapada verses are often for encouragement. 218 00:25:33,574 --> 00:25:42,746 And so I think this is a very good verse for encouragement and a reminder of the sorts of qualities of a community. 219 00:25:44,548 --> 00:25:47,792 A reminder of the great 220 00:25:50,152 --> 00:26:09,253 fortune that we have to be here in a time when the Buddha has arisen, the Dhamma is being taught, we have other people practicing, we have other people who agree with the practice and who are putting out the practice or undertaking the practice. 221 00:26:10,595 --> 00:26:14,579 So that's the Dhammapada verse for tonight on happiness. 222 00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:15,781 What is true happiness? 223 00:26:15,801 --> 00:26:16,902 Well, it comes from 224 00:26:19,902 --> 00:26:23,385 It comes from progress. 225 00:26:25,107 --> 00:26:28,110 It's not something that you gain just by getting what you want. 226 00:26:29,451 --> 00:26:36,338 It's something that you gain by changing the nature of your relationship to reality. 227 00:26:37,900 --> 00:26:45,167 So that rather than getting what you want all the time, the whole concept of wanting is brought into question. 228 00:26:47,358 --> 00:27:04,963 That's the real tapa, where you work to change the whole equation so it's no longer am I getting what I want and how much of what I want am I getting to an understanding and an appreciation and the letting go of wanting. 229 00:27:05,003 --> 00:27:15,238 And when you have a freedom from wanting, well, you have a freedom from not getting what you want. 230 00:27:17,767 --> 00:27:22,497 It's really a solution to the problem of how you can never be without what you want. 231 00:27:24,442 --> 00:27:26,186 Much better than things like rulership. 232 00:27:26,266 --> 00:27:29,293 If you think of the happiness that these monks were talking about. 233 00:27:31,016 --> 00:27:35,145 Can you imagine being a ruler of a whole country or even a ruler of the whole world? 234 00:27:35,166 --> 00:27:37,210 I was thinking about it and 235 00:27:39,113 --> 00:27:48,964 It sounds nice to be in control of people, but if you think of what it is you're in control of, well, the world is at least 50% evil. 236 00:27:50,345 --> 00:28:03,059 And so you're basically taking ownership of a lot of garbage, a lot of trouble and conflict and suffering that you have to then deal with to imagine being in charge of that. 237 00:28:05,341 --> 00:28:07,804 Sensuality is really the number one 238 00:28:09,269 --> 00:28:11,112 enemy that we point to in Buddhism. 239 00:28:11,172 --> 00:28:19,526 Sensuality is the low-hanging fruit to talk about because there's no question that it doesn't lead to true happiness. 240 00:28:19,686 --> 00:28:22,851 It's just a cycle of addiction. 241 00:28:25,635 --> 00:28:27,378 Food, I think, is even baser. 242 00:28:27,779 --> 00:28:30,964 To hear the Buddha say, what are you talking about? 243 00:28:31,024 --> 00:28:35,952 I think it's not a surprise that he would say such a thing because 244 00:28:38,277 --> 00:28:40,219 Well, food is sort of another obvious one. 245 00:28:40,279 --> 00:28:44,903 It's obvious that people are not happy or unhappy because they're getting the food that they want. 246 00:28:44,943 --> 00:28:52,150 Yes, if you're hungry all the time, it's hard to be happy, but on a deeper level, it's not food. 247 00:28:52,250 --> 00:28:58,556 It's not even whether you're properly nourished or not in the body. 248 00:29:01,179 --> 00:29:05,483 And many people who are very well nourished and still suffering greatly 249 00:29:07,437 --> 00:29:15,799 But even on your deathbed, when you're not able to eat, if your mind is pure, you can be free from suffering. 250 00:29:18,947 --> 00:29:20,732 Anyway, that's the Dhammapada. 251 00:29:20,752 --> 00:29:21,734 Thank you all for listening. 252 00:29:22,817 --> 00:29:23,218 Have a good night.