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Okay, hello and welcome back to our study of the Dhammapada.

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Today we go on to verse number 47, which reads as follows.

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Which means,

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Like one who collects or gathers flowers.

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Man or a person who is with a distracted mind or with a negligent mind, with a heedless mind.

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is carried off by death or death carries away such a person just as a great flood carries away a sleeping village.

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So one whose mind is distracted, or who is distracted in mind like someone collecting flowers, is carried away by death, just as, carried away unexpectedly by death.

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or unready, not ready for death, just as a sleeping village is carried away unexpectedly without any time for preparation by a great flood.

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That's the verse.

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So this was told in regards to a fairly famous story and quite a long story.

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So I'll try to abridge it, give you the condensed version.

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Basically, it starts with the, well it doesn't start with, the important part of the story starts with King Pasenadi, who was a king in the time of the Buddha and he gained great faith in the Buddha and

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as a result invited monks to come to the palace and for a few days he looked after them but then something like after the seventh day he stopped he lost interest and went back to his worldly affairs and as a result the

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and the monks weren't taken care of because, you know, if the king doesn't give the orders, no one really cares.

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And so the people in the palace, when the monks came, weren't doing it out of faith.

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No one was really interested in the monks, and so they

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They weren't fed or they were fed late or there was much confusion and it wasn't really a wholesome scene.

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So as a result, the monks slowly, one by one by one, stopped coming to the palace.

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until finally the only one who was left was Ananda because Ananda had this great quality about him of protecting the faith of families so no matter what he would stick to his stick to his duties for the purpose of keeping the faith of the king in this case and

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So one day the king remembered the monks and he came to see, oh, how is it going with the feeding of the bhikkhus?

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And he goes there and he sees that there's only Ananda and he says, what's going on?

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Where are all the monks?

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Oh, well, when you stopped coming, they slowly stopped coming as well.

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And he went to the Buddha and I can't remember what the Buddha said.

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The Buddha gave him some

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Gave him some reasons as to why the monks weren't coming or something like that.

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And the Buddha taught as a result of this.

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He didn't force the monks to go there.

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He said if, this is he gave in the Anguttara Nikaya, he said if families don't,

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have nine traits, nine qualities, it's not important to go to.

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You need not bother with visiting those families.

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But if they have the opposite nine qualities, or if they're free from those nine qualities, or if they have the opposite, then they should be visited.

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So this is like if they stand up respectfully when the monks come, if they stand up and are respectful and are happy to stand up as a respectful gesture, if they hold their hands up, if they venerate you respectfully, if they do it happily,

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if they put out seats happily, if they bring you lots of food, if they don't do these things, if they give coarse food and so on, if they don't listen to the Dhamma when you teach it, if they're not interested in the Dhamma, if when you're talking they don't listen and so on.

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then these are reasons not to go there so the Buddha was kind of taking the side of the monks but the king went back home and so what it was is the Buddha had told him that it must be because there was no one there

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There was no one familiar there, or they weren't familiar with the king or something like that.

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Because the point of this story is that the king got it in his head that he would find some way to make himself dear to the monks.

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And Sainadi, if you know the story about Sainadi, he wasn't the brightest, what do you say, he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

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so instead of thinking maybe I'll practice meditation or maybe I'll actually listen to the monks when they teach or something what did he think?

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he thought I'll marry one of the Buddha's relatives I'll take one of the Buddha's relatives as my queen and that will be a sure way of getting in good with the Buddha this is what he thought

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And so he sent a messenger to the Sakyas in Kapilavatu and said, please send me a queen, send me a woman to be my queen.

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I want to marry into the Sakyas.

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And you know this isn't going anywhere good.

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Now the Sakyas were very proud.

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It was one of their failings.

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They would never mix with another tribe.

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Yet they knew that if they refused King Basenadi he would invade them and he would start a war with them and they didn't want that because they were definitely not as strong as him nor as warlike.

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So they talked about it and Mahanama, this famous Sakyan prince, he suggested that they send his daughter who was a daughter with a slave woman

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So,

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The point being that she wasn't really a legitimate child.

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And so they wouldn't feel like they were betraying their clan purity or something, whatever.

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And so they did this and they tricked the king and the king for a long time thought that this was a real Sakyan princess and he had a son with her.

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and

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Then his son went back to, after growing up, his son went back to visit the Sakyas and overheard someone talking about him as that bastard child of the slave woman.

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And so word got back to the king, and the king went to see the Buddha and said, no, that's not really correct.

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They shouldn't have done that.

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And he said, but your son is still the son of a prince.

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And so he consoled the king about this.

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This is, you know, this is quite a bridge, so there's actually a lot more that goes on here.

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But now it starts to get interesting because the son, Witu Daba, Witu Daba is his name, he doesn't let go of it.

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So the king says, well, that's fine.

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Yes, he's right.

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My son really is a prince.

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There's nothing wrong with him.

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But the son himself is really upset by this and feels like he has been, I don't know, somehow he has been wronged by the Sakyas.

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And so when King Pasenadi dies, and he becomes king, he vows to

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Kill all the Sakis.

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He says, when I'm king, I'm going to destroy the Sakian race.

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And I'm going to wash my feet with their blood.

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That's what he says.

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And so he builds up this hatred in his mind.

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He builds up this vengeance in his mind.

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And one day he thinks of this.

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He thinks of this vengeance.

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He becomes king.

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And then he makes plans.

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And finally he gets it in his heart.

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He says, now I'm going to go.

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And he puts together his army.

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And he leaves his home, which would be Sabati, I guess, and heads out for Kapilavatthu with his army.

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The Buddhas have various duties.

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Buddha is considered to have four duties, I think.

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Duty to oneself, duty to the world, duty to one's relatives, and duty to the lineage of the Buddhas, or duty as a Buddha, whatever that means.

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So there are examples of the Buddha looking after his relatives.

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And this is one prime example where he did so.

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Sitting in his kutti,

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it came to his mind that this was happening, that King Vidyadamba was planning to destroy all of his relatives, his whole family was going to go and put an end to his family.

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And

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So he made a decision to travel and to intercept the king.

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And so he went halfway on the path to Kapilavatthu and he found a tree with very little, very few leaves on it, almost dead tree with just a few leaves.

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And he sat under it in the hot sun.

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And Uddhava came up and saw, oh, there's the Buddha.

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And so he got off his elephant and went up to the Buddha and bowed down to the Buddha and said, Lord Buddha, why are you here?

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Why are you sitting under this tree without any shade?

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And the Buddha said, oh, look, the shade of my relatives is enough for me.

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My relatives provide me all the shade I need.

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Oh, the Buddha's here to protect his relatives.

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And so he gets on his elephant and he turns around and goes back to Samadhi.

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But you know kings, they're not the most stable sort of beings.

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And so he's unable to give up this hatred.

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You see, people who don't practice meditation,

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It's funny how he was so close to the Buddha and he never was able to practice meditation, but it's true.

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This is, well, the story says it's true.

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This is the story.

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This kind of thing happens for sure, though.

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People can be very close to Buddhism and even study all the Buddha's teachings and never actually practice.

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And so they're never able to overcome, they're never able to change.

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And so he can't change because he's harbored this from when he was young and when he first found out that he had been

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It's funny because he wouldn't have been born if his father hadn't have married this woman.

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And so he decides again to go out.

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He gets angry again and he's unable to suppress it and unable to let go of it.

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And so he heads out on his elephant with his army.

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And again the Buddha goes, sits under the same tree.

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Says the same thing.

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And Vittadatta turns around and goes back.

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You think that's the end of the story?

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No.

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No, sir.

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He goes home and like a week passes.

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And a week later he's out on the elephant again.

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He just can't handle it.

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And the Buddha looks.

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And he looks back into the past, and he sees the Sakyas have actually built up this state of affairs.

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They've done some sort of bad karma.

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I can't remember what it was.

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I don't think it maybe even says.

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And there's no way he's going to be able to stop.

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We did that, but it's advanced.

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He says his relatives are destined to be wiped out.

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And so he doesn't go.

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He stays at home.

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And Dabba heads out on his elephant and gets to Kapilavatthu.

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And see, the thing about the Sakyas is that they become Buddhist.

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They follow the Buddhist teaching, and they're keeping the five precepts.

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So even the soldiers couldn't kill.

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So what did they do?

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I can remember, I think they'd shoot arrows over the heads of their enemies.

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And I think they held up grass.

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They collected grass and they held it up like a weapon or something like that.

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And sticks.

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I can't remember, but it's quite funny if you read the story how they fought.

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how they fought back and they all were wiped out all were killed and he washed his feet with their blood and so it says the Sakyas were actually wiped out which is interesting because many people in Nepal claim to be related to the Buddha Sakyas Sakyas so the story seems to suggest otherwise but on the other hand it's quite difficult to wipe out everyone in the race it's not an easy thing so maybe some escaped

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Anvita Dabba was victorious and happy and feeling like he had won the day and so he headed back, started heading back home and he got to this river and he got all his men out and he went down by the river and washed the blood off of his feet and they laid down to sleep by the river.

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Oh, and they also had Mahanama with him.

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They captured Mahanama and they wanted to torture him or something like that.

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So they had him tied up as well with an army.

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And they slept there overnight.

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And as they were asleep, Mahogo, a great flood came and swept them all away in the night.

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And so the monks were talking about this and they said, it's amazing that there's this, how the world goes.

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You think you're on top of the world, victorious in battle one day and whoosh, you're gone the next day.

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And so this is why the Buddha taught this verse.

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This is where this verse comes from.

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The Buddha said, indeed, we're negligent.

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We think, we think, uh,

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I think we're invincible.

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People become so caught up in their arrogance and in their conceit, in their intoxication with life, intoxication with health, intoxication with youth.

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I think I'm still young.

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There are children who die, some people die when they're like five years old.

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True, no?

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Buddha said, Who knows whether death will come tomorrow?

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If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, would you be negligent today?

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Would you just go and do whatever you want today?

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If you knew this was your last day,

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What would you do today if you knew it was your last day?

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Go ahead and get a puppy?

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Would that make you happy?

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Well, the problem is that when we die, the mind continues, no?

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If we have clinging in our mind, we'll die with sadness.

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We'll die crying.

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We'll die longing.

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This is why people are born as ghosts.

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If you love your puppy today and then tomorrow you die, you'll be born as a ghost haunting your puppy.

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It's the danger of clinging.

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and don't realize that everything gets cut off.

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The only thing we bring with us is our subjectivity, really.

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If you look at how this new research that I keep talking about, after people die, people die and then they have these experiences.

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Brain is dead.

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Heart has stopped.

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The temperature of the body is dropping.

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And they keep, I think they were in Japan, they actually pump ice or cold water into the bloodstream just to keep it from rotting.

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And then hours later they bring them back to life.

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And these people talk about their experiences and it's totally subjective.

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It's based on the things that they've done in their life.

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It's based on their religion often.

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It's based on their ideas.

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It becomes totally subjective.

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So imagine what it would be like if you had such strong clinging to something.

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If there was something that you, suppose you were afraid of spiders and

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You would see spiders.

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And then how would you react when you now had nobody?

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There was nobody there to put the spider in a cup and take it outside.

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Suddenly, spiders crawling all over you.

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This is what you'd see when you die.

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And what if you couldn't handle that?

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So this is why the Buddha said we're like picking flowers.

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Is that preparing yourself?

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What if you knew there was a flood coming to Winnipeg?

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And you said, well then I'll spend my time picking flowers.

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Is that wise?

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This is what we're like.

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It's not like we're, it's actually not even like a sleeping village.

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It's like a village that knows there's a flood coming.

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And all the villagers say, well then let's go pick some flowers.

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That's what the Buddha is talking about here.

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Like a sleeping village, but it's even worse than a sleeping village.

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It's like a village that goes to sleep knowing a flood is coming.

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We know there's a flood coming.

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We know death is coming.

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We don't know when.

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We know it's coming.

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And we know from Buddhism, we have this, you could say we have a belief that life continues after death.

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But there's many ways it doesn't have to be a belief.

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And one of them is now this kind of evidence even of people when they die having subjective experiences.

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and how it becomes totally subjective, or totally based on your mind.

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Could you imagine Ritu Dabu who had just washed his feet in the blood of his enemies?

216
00:23:01,302 --> 00:23:03,084
What do you think he was thinking about when he died?

217
00:23:04,286 --> 00:23:08,090
When his brain stopped, what images do you think he conjured up?

218
00:23:10,413 --> 00:23:10,753
Blood.

219
00:23:12,355 --> 00:23:13,757
He's not going to a good place.

220
00:23:19,610 --> 00:23:24,240
So the Buddha said death carries you away, unprepared.

221
00:23:28,209 --> 00:23:38,631
There's something about this that is not obvious unless you've been practicing meditation, and that's that we store up all of our experiences.

222
00:23:39,893 --> 00:23:42,215
Everything that we've done is stored in our mind.

223
00:23:42,295 --> 00:23:43,877
And you only see this when you meditate.

224
00:23:44,758 --> 00:23:48,402
As soon as you begin to meditate, you realize how much you're keeping inside you.

225
00:23:49,383 --> 00:23:51,605
All of the little obsessions that we have.

226
00:23:52,346 --> 00:23:53,707
Because when you meditate, they come out.

227
00:23:53,727 --> 00:23:57,431
You remember things and, oh, that was this bad thing.

228
00:23:57,471 --> 00:23:58,332
I did that bad thing.

229
00:23:58,933 --> 00:24:01,315
You realize how you've hurt other people.

230
00:24:01,375 --> 00:24:04,298
You realize how you've caused suffering for others.

231
00:24:07,687 --> 00:24:34,487
and you feel very strongly the things that are causing you suffer when you meditate you'll think about what you want all the things that you want you will think about and it will become so strong and so much suffering until you finally give it up this is why some people when they practice meditation they think it's

232
00:24:35,783 --> 00:24:36,304
torture.

233
00:24:37,465 --> 00:24:45,277
Think of meditation as some kind of bad idea, because it actually causes suffering.

234
00:24:45,297 --> 00:24:50,965
You have to sit still and go through all of this stuff that you'd just rather forget about, right?

235
00:24:50,985 --> 00:24:52,427
I don't want to have to think about this.

236
00:24:53,348 --> 00:24:56,172
I don't want to have to think about how much I want this, how much I want that.

237
00:25:02,412 --> 00:25:04,775
But that's exactly why we do it.

238
00:25:04,795 --> 00:25:09,280
Because if we don't work these things out now, we're going to have to work them out when we die.

239
00:25:10,442 --> 00:25:11,443
They're going to all come up.

240
00:25:14,807 --> 00:25:16,249
And it's not even only when we die.

241
00:25:16,509 --> 00:25:17,650
Death is just one example.

242
00:25:17,670 --> 00:25:18,832
It's an extreme example.

243
00:25:18,912 --> 00:25:20,854
But it's true in all cases.

244
00:25:21,695 --> 00:25:28,403
If we have anger inside, then when anything happens, we'll get angry and we'll say bad things to others.

245
00:25:28,822 --> 00:25:34,789
If we have greed inside, then anytime we want something, we'll be impossible to deal with.

246
00:25:35,590 --> 00:25:37,232
I want it, I want it.

247
00:25:37,252 --> 00:25:37,832
Let me cry.

248
00:25:39,234 --> 00:25:40,355
Sound like anybody you know?

249
00:25:54,232 --> 00:25:57,175
This is called negligence.

250
00:25:58,859 --> 00:25:59,941
We cling to things.

251
00:26:00,121 --> 00:26:02,425
We always try to get what we want.

252
00:26:03,387 --> 00:26:04,609
And that's like picking flowers.

253
00:26:05,571 --> 00:26:07,714
Because getting what you want doesn't make you a better person.

254
00:26:07,774 --> 00:26:09,197
It doesn't make you a happier person.

255
00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:16,369
You have this idea that the more you get, the richer your life is.

256
00:26:16,469 --> 00:26:17,351
It's really not true.

257
00:26:17,391 --> 00:26:20,737
Not by any stretch of the imagination.

258
00:26:20,797 --> 00:26:24,343
The more you get what you want, the more wanting you have, the more clinging you have.

259
00:26:26,602 --> 00:26:28,966
the less fun you are to be around.

260
00:26:29,326 --> 00:26:31,850
Who are the nicest people, the people we love the most?

261
00:26:32,912 --> 00:26:36,838
Are the people we love the most the ones who are the most taking people?

262
00:26:38,300 --> 00:26:39,522
The ones that take all the time?

263
00:26:39,943 --> 00:26:40,744
Oh, I love that person.

264
00:26:40,784 --> 00:26:43,949
Every time I go over to their house, they ask me, they ask if they can borrow something.

265
00:26:44,029 --> 00:26:45,091
They ask me for money.

266
00:26:46,473 --> 00:26:47,414
I love that person.

267
00:26:48,156 --> 00:26:48,736
Who do we love?

268
00:26:49,077 --> 00:26:51,681
Every time I go to their house, they give me something, right?

269
00:26:54,547 --> 00:26:55,688
They're always helpful.

270
00:26:56,009 --> 00:26:56,890
They're always kind.

271
00:26:58,351 --> 00:26:59,633
These are the kind of people we love.

272
00:27:01,876 --> 00:27:03,317
So what's the kind of person that we want to be?

273
00:27:03,377 --> 00:27:06,161
Why is it that we want to be the person who gets things all the time?

274
00:27:07,202 --> 00:27:08,223
Gimme, gimme, gimme.

275
00:27:08,243 --> 00:27:11,146
Why do we want to be that person when nobody likes such a person?

276
00:27:20,377 --> 00:27:21,258
We get a benefit from the thing that we get.

277
00:27:21,278 --> 00:27:23,541
What is the benefit that we get from the thing that we get?

278
00:27:26,170 --> 00:27:32,379
Like, do we like what we get?

279
00:27:34,963 --> 00:27:37,146
If we want it, if we want it, then then we get it.

280
00:27:37,166 --> 00:27:37,727
Do we like it?

281
00:27:40,411 --> 00:27:41,853
And then are we satisfied with that?

282
00:27:47,501 --> 00:27:55,333
Like when you get a new toy or Christmas, when Christmas comes, how long before you're bored of your toys at Christmas?

283
00:27:56,613 --> 00:27:57,314
How many hours?

284
00:27:58,816 --> 00:27:59,537
How many minutes?

285
00:28:00,738 --> 00:28:05,264
I remember Christmas when we'd get all these wonderful, really cool, just the coolest toys.

286
00:28:07,447 --> 00:28:11,211
And then the next day we're like, OK, next Christmas I want this.

287
00:28:11,231 --> 00:28:11,692
Easter.

288
00:28:12,653 --> 00:28:13,294
What's next?

289
00:28:14,656 --> 00:28:15,156
Birthday.

290
00:28:15,256 --> 00:28:16,137
Birthday is coming up.

291
00:28:18,180 --> 00:28:18,881
Do you have Christmas?

292
00:28:19,522 --> 00:28:20,663
You must have Christmas, yeah.

293
00:28:23,630 --> 00:28:30,402
We had Christmas and Hanukkah and eight.

294
00:28:31,346 --> 00:28:32,813
Hanukkah's eight days of presents.

295
00:28:36,792 --> 00:28:42,861
Well that's the theory, it doesn't really happen that way.

296
00:28:44,103 --> 00:28:47,869
But no, these things don't satisfy us.

297
00:28:47,889 --> 00:28:54,519
Things that we need are useful, but the point isn't getting what you want, the point is dedicating your life to that.

298
00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:56,843
What is most important in your life?

299
00:28:56,823 --> 00:28:59,869
Usually it's getting what we want, right?

300
00:28:59,889 --> 00:29:04,337
So there's no question about whether they're useful or not.

301
00:29:04,397 --> 00:29:07,824
The question is, why is that the focus of our lives?

302
00:29:08,104 --> 00:29:10,008
Why is that the kind of person we want to be?

303
00:29:10,048 --> 00:29:11,491
Someone who gets.

304
00:29:12,873 --> 00:29:14,376
Why is that how we're using our life?

305
00:29:16,550 --> 00:29:20,354
We all know people like this, people who want, people who cling, people who take.

306
00:29:21,535 --> 00:29:23,036
We don't want to be around such people.

307
00:29:23,557 --> 00:29:24,918
Oh, I don't want to go near that person.

308
00:29:24,938 --> 00:29:26,700
I know they're just going to ask me for this or that.

309
00:29:28,282 --> 00:29:31,605
Kids in class who are always, what you got for lunch?

310
00:29:33,307 --> 00:29:35,229
Or, did you do your homework?

311
00:29:35,449 --> 00:29:36,190
Can I copy it?

312
00:29:37,431 --> 00:29:40,434
This kind of thing.

313
00:29:40,454 --> 00:29:41,595
Always, always, always.

314
00:29:41,655 --> 00:29:42,376
Can I borrow this?

315
00:29:42,396 --> 00:29:43,076
Can I borrow that?

316
00:29:43,157 --> 00:29:43,937
Can I borrow money?

317
00:29:44,017 --> 00:29:45,679
Can I borrow things?

318
00:29:46,047 --> 00:29:47,290
These are people we don't want to be.

319
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:55,807
So we have to consider carefully, how do we want to live our lives?

320
00:29:56,469 --> 00:30:02,301
And how should we live our lives so that we'll be ready for anything, even death?

321
00:30:05,740 --> 00:30:09,285
Death is a great unknown and for most of us it's a very sad thing.

322
00:30:09,305 --> 00:30:18,398
I remember when I was young it was one of the things that impelled me towards spirituality and finally Buddhism was being in my house and looking.

323
00:30:19,340 --> 00:30:25,088
I remember it's one of the oldest memories I have, or clearest of my young memories.

324
00:30:25,368 --> 00:30:28,253
I was walking in the house and somehow it hit me, I don't remember how.

325
00:30:29,494 --> 00:30:34,802
And I walked downstairs and I looked at my mother and I said, she's going to die.

326
00:30:36,841 --> 00:30:39,205
And I thought about my father, and I said, he's going to die.

327
00:30:40,447 --> 00:30:42,510
And my brothers, they're all going to die.

328
00:30:46,896 --> 00:30:48,379
What can I do about that?

329
00:30:54,768 --> 00:30:57,573
It's this kind of thinking that's important for us.

330
00:30:57,633 --> 00:31:00,037
We have to have an answer here.

331
00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:04,924
We have to have an answer to these questions.

332
00:31:08,279 --> 00:31:13,305
Death is an inevitability, something that we all have to face.

333
00:31:18,632 --> 00:31:23,398
It often sounds kind of depressing, actually.

334
00:31:23,418 --> 00:31:25,420
You think, well, that's all life is, is for death.

335
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:26,521
But it's actually not.

336
00:31:26,561 --> 00:31:30,606
Death is not a terminal point.

337
00:31:30,626 --> 00:31:32,509
It's a conjunction.

338
00:31:32,529 --> 00:31:33,510
It's a junction point.

339
00:31:34,908 --> 00:31:44,379
between this life is certain, but when we get to that junction, we don't know which way we're going.

340
00:31:44,399 --> 00:31:45,340
Are we going to go left?

341
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:46,381
Are we going to go right?

342
00:31:47,523 --> 00:31:47,923
Which way?

343
00:31:50,666 --> 00:31:52,328
That's very important, right?

344
00:31:52,769 --> 00:31:59,977
When you're driving down the street and you come to a junction point, if you don't know which way you're going to go, you just crash into the sidewalk.

345
00:32:01,379 --> 00:32:02,620
Left, no right, left.

346
00:32:04,456 --> 00:32:05,838
How do you know which way you're going to go?

347
00:32:05,878 --> 00:32:06,860
It's very important.

348
00:32:06,900 --> 00:32:11,426
So death isn't like terminal and you think, well, why waste all your time thinking about that?

349
00:32:11,506 --> 00:32:11,767
No.

350
00:32:12,728 --> 00:32:19,358
Death is the moment where we become free from this certain life, this life which is set.

351
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:24,085
Nothing is set in stone at death.

352
00:32:28,469 --> 00:32:34,457
So this verse is a call to, a wake-up call, that we shouldn't be like a sleeping village.

353
00:32:34,517 --> 00:32:39,564
We should wake up and take life.

354
00:32:41,547 --> 00:32:42,608
Take the wheel.

355
00:32:43,389 --> 00:32:54,664
Take charge.

356
00:32:54,764 --> 00:32:56,687
Take charge of our lives.

357
00:32:58,237 --> 00:33:04,351
so that we don't become a slave to our desires and a slave to our partialities.

358
00:33:06,275 --> 00:33:06,877
You can see this.

359
00:33:06,937 --> 00:33:13,552
I think it'd be really interesting to work in a hospice, to work with dying people and to look and learn so much.

360
00:33:13,612 --> 00:33:16,178
I've talked to people who worked in hospices who care.

361
00:33:17,086 --> 00:33:18,248
And many things.

362
00:33:18,408 --> 00:33:22,114
One of the things is how clear the mind becomes just before death.

363
00:33:23,056 --> 00:33:26,722
People with dementia, even schizophrenia, there are studies done.

364
00:33:27,283 --> 00:33:36,418
And probably not enough, but there are studies, if you look on the internet, of people with, I think, schizophrenia, but I think dementia as well.

365
00:33:36,979 --> 00:33:42,688
At the last moment, the mind becomes so clear and pure.

366
00:33:43,968 --> 00:34:08,440
or clear anyway, the point being that there is a lucidity at that last moment and it's at that moment where the person has to face their karma they have to face everything that they've done some people when they're dying you can see the fear in their eyes people when they're in pain there's such fear

367
00:34:09,803 --> 00:34:14,930
And you can see the hunted look in their eyes if they've killed other beings before.

368
00:34:16,793 --> 00:34:28,169
If they can't come to terms with that in this life, if they can't work that out, let go of this guilt and this fear, they'll die with that.

369
00:34:28,309 --> 00:34:30,833
And they'll certainly go to a bad place.

370
00:34:37,107 --> 00:34:39,530
So we have to take charge, and we have to be ready for this.

371
00:34:39,570 --> 00:34:40,131
This is why.

372
00:34:40,171 --> 00:34:43,896
Excellent reason to meditate, because we're prepared for anything.

373
00:34:43,996 --> 00:34:45,899
When you meditate, you're ready.

374
00:34:46,059 --> 00:34:47,261
If it floods, you're ready.

375
00:34:47,601 --> 00:34:54,531
You've built up your things, sand bags, whatever.

376
00:34:57,034 --> 00:35:00,159
Yeah.

377
00:35:00,179 --> 00:35:01,140
Embankments, no?

378
00:35:06,925 --> 00:35:07,847
You're ready for anything.

379
00:35:07,927 --> 00:35:09,070
So you sleep well.

380
00:35:09,230 --> 00:35:10,152
You sleep soundly.

381
00:35:10,753 --> 00:35:15,404
A person who meditates doesn't fear the future.

382
00:35:17,368 --> 00:35:20,174
A person who meditates isn't afraid of what comes.

383
00:35:20,194 --> 00:35:22,660
When you understand meditation, nothing makes you afraid.

384
00:35:24,083 --> 00:35:25,947
Even when you're afraid, you say, what am I afraid of?

385
00:35:28,812 --> 00:35:36,481
It's a difference really, because a person who meditates might still be angry, might still have greed, might still get afraid, you know, they might not have worked all these things out.

386
00:35:37,463 --> 00:35:43,370
But once they understand the meditation, even when these things come up, they don't go to that.

387
00:35:43,390 --> 00:35:45,733
They don't listen to the emotions.

388
00:35:46,754 --> 00:35:48,857
Fear comes up and they just see, oh, it's fear.

389
00:35:51,139 --> 00:35:52,902
They don't say, okay, I have to run.

390
00:35:52,962 --> 00:35:55,765
They don't follow the emotions.

391
00:35:57,348 --> 00:35:59,030
When they're angry, they know they're angry.

392
00:35:59,730 --> 00:36:01,772
When they want something, they know they want something.

393
00:36:02,934 --> 00:36:05,336
Why is it that when we want something, we say, well, then I have to get it.

394
00:36:05,356 --> 00:36:07,678
Why don't we say, oh, I have to work on the wanting?

395
00:36:10,461 --> 00:36:20,731
Why have we fallen into the idea that wanting is a sign that we need something?

396
00:36:22,713 --> 00:36:23,955
Why do we equate these two?

397
00:36:25,136 --> 00:36:26,477
There are many questions like this.

398
00:36:28,499 --> 00:36:32,044
We have to study and we have to understand, is wanting really good for us?

399
00:36:33,706 --> 00:36:34,688
Is it really happiness?

400
00:36:35,949 --> 00:36:47,145
People who say the most important thing in life is to experience, to have these wonderful, amazing experiences.

401
00:36:49,448 --> 00:36:50,290
But that's just a belief.

402
00:36:50,690 --> 00:36:51,471
We don't know if it's true.

403
00:36:51,491 --> 00:36:52,032
It sounds good.

404
00:36:52,052 --> 00:36:54,135
It's like, yeah, yeah, just do what you want, right?

405
00:36:56,225 --> 00:36:58,147
Okay, let's be scientific.

406
00:36:58,187 --> 00:36:58,908
Let's ask ourselves.

407
00:36:58,948 --> 00:37:00,130
Let's look and see what happens.

408
00:37:00,430 --> 00:37:04,695
When you get what you want, are you really happier?

409
00:37:04,995 --> 00:37:06,557
Is it really a stable state?

410
00:37:06,717 --> 00:37:09,240
And what happens when catastrophe hits?

411
00:37:09,540 --> 00:37:10,622
Are you able to deal with it?

412
00:37:11,503 --> 00:37:12,364
How strong are you?

413
00:37:14,446 --> 00:37:21,214
So many people are, we would say, relatively weak.

414
00:37:21,234 --> 00:37:23,517
Once you start meditating, you see how weak people are.

415
00:37:23,697 --> 00:37:23,937
Weak.

416
00:37:25,064 --> 00:37:27,749
This weakness, this inability to deal with simple things.

417
00:37:31,114 --> 00:37:35,322
And all these stories of people start meditating and then there's a little bit of noise, and they get angry.

418
00:37:38,747 --> 00:37:40,370
It shows you how weak you are in meditation.

419
00:37:40,390 --> 00:37:47,342
So meditation, this is an example of how strong it makes you, how it works out these weaknesses.

420
00:37:49,803 --> 00:38:02,715
Remember after we finished our meditation course in Thailand, first meditation course, and I went into the city with this friend, one of the fellow meditators, and we got into the cafe and we ordered some coffee or something.

421
00:38:04,231 --> 00:38:10,538
And suddenly there was a huge, someone dropped a whole stack of dishes and huge noise.

422
00:38:10,578 --> 00:38:14,542
And everybody in the whole restaurant turned and looked.

423
00:38:14,562 --> 00:38:17,045
And we just sat there, both of us like this, hearing.

424
00:38:17,565 --> 00:38:27,977
And then we looked at each other and said, meditators.

425
00:38:28,057 --> 00:38:32,922
It's exciting, actually, to know that you don't have to follow your

426
00:38:34,184 --> 00:38:34,825
instincts.

427
00:38:35,125 --> 00:38:36,887
You don't have to follow the habits.

428
00:38:38,549 --> 00:38:40,011
You're not a slave to your habits.

429
00:38:41,813 --> 00:38:43,214
You may follow them, you may not.

430
00:38:43,775 --> 00:38:49,802
But you can choose, you can decide, and you can see with wisdom whether they're going to make you happy or not.

431
00:38:51,223 --> 00:38:58,892
So this is the important point of this verse, that we should not be like the heedless person gathering flowers.

432
00:39:00,037 --> 00:39:03,411
Because it doesn't prepare you for the future.

433
00:39:03,471 --> 00:39:04,555
It doesn't make you strong.

434
00:39:04,595 --> 00:39:06,342
It doesn't bring you peace and happiness.

435
00:39:08,351 --> 00:39:10,198
It just gets you a bunch of dead flowers.

436
00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:16,783
Alright, so that's the Dhammapada first tonight, number 47.

437
00:39:16,803 --> 00:39:17,804
Thank you for tuning in.

438
00:39:17,904 --> 00:39:24,049
I hope that this has been useful and a reminder for us all that we should take life seriously.

439
00:39:24,109 --> 00:39:29,314
If you want to be happy, you should seriously figure out what is true happiness.

440
00:39:29,594 --> 00:39:31,336
Happiness is a very serious topic.

441
00:39:31,736 --> 00:39:34,359
If it were not, everyone would be happy.

442
00:39:35,259 --> 00:39:40,864
So let's take this seriously and truly find peace, happiness and freedom from suffering.

443
00:39:40,985 --> 00:39:41,485
Thank you.

444
00:39:41,465 --> 00:39:43,763
and wish you all the best.