Okay, continuing on.
Whatever speech is well spoken, this is a blessing for the one who says it and a blessing for the one who hears it.
Speech is a very powerful thing.
If you've ever done, if you've ever said something nasty to someone, you'll find quite quickly how much suffering that is, how much of a curse it is.
You lose friends, you lose credibility.
When you lie, when you try to deceive people with your words, it only feels bad afterwards.
But when you say good things, when you repeat good words, and when you have a Subhasita, Subhasita has become this word in Buddhist culture to mean good sayings.
I don't know whether if it's actually was the case in the Buddhist time, but it means like an...
What's the word?
An idiom?
Is that the word?
Like a famous saying.
Like, ganowo ma upachaka, don't let the moment pass you by.
Or, yadisang wapade bijang, dadisang harade palang, you reap what you sow.
Buddha said it.
Whatever seed you plant, such is the fruit that you reap.
Kalianakari, kalianang babakari, jababakari.
These are subhasita.
So whatever speech is well spoken.
This is a big thing now.
People are always posting quotes.
I subscribe to these feeds where people post wisdom quotes.
And a lot of them I just...
But then there's the occasional where we say, oh, that's a good quote.
That's a Subhashita.
It's a blessing because it makes you...
It wakes you up.
It makes you think.
And it brightens up your day.
It brightens up your mind.
It sets you in the right frame of mind.
So we should try to surround ourselves with these things, with good speech, and use good speech ourselves.
It's a blessing for the one who hears.
It's a blessing for the one who says.
.
Caring for your mother and father.
Yes.
Remember, this isn't a mother or a father speaking, so it's not like the Buddha had any conflict of interest in this one.
He really did believe that taking care of your mother and father is a great blessing.
And you know, one very simple way it's a great blessing is because your children are more likely to take care of you.
I've seen when children don't take care of their parents, the children of those children, they turn around and don't take care of their parents either.
And so you can see how it's actually, to create this culture of not taking care of your parents is a very terrible thing that we've fallen into in modern society.
You see in many traditional cultures where you have three, four generations living in the same house.
This is really taking care of your elders.
And then the elders turn around and take care of the grandchildren as well.
So it really works out quite well.
But nowadays we just put our parents away in homes and let the doctors look after them and the doctors don't look after them and they wind up just getting medicated and turning into vegetables and they're not happy.
No one can be happy without loved ones around.
You can go to these old age homes and they say, oh everything's wonderful, there's a
whatever, lawn polo and there's good food or there's nice gardens and so on.
No one would be happy there, not without their family.
Taking care of your parents is a wonderful thing.
I had an opportunity recently.
My good luck that my father got in a car crash.
He was coming to pick me up at the airport when I came from Thailand recently and he got in a car crash and it was such a stroke of good luck.
That's a terrible thing to say, isn't it?
But it had a silver lining in that dark cloud because we got to spend five days of high quality time together.
in the hospital.
And I got to take care of him for five days and five nights.
I got to the hospital at 1 a.m. People said I was crazy.
What are you doing going to the hospital in the middle of the night?
They're not going to even let you in.
They for sure won't let you stay there.
And I got there and they said, who are you?
Look, my father was coming to pick me up at the airport.
I had two big suitcases full of my computer and books and tent and everything.
And
And I said, he was coming to pick me up at the airport and he got in an accident.
Can I please go to see him?
So I mean, I've got the proof.
I'm carrying my luggage with me.
I'm not lying.
I'm coming from Thailand.
Oh yes, you look like you're coming from Thailand.
This guy's not trying to con us.
So they were, yes, oh yes, come this way, please.
There was some worry about whether my luggage was going to be in.
And it was wonderful.
I got to stay with him.
They had no problem.
They even got me a bed the first night.
Then I was sleeping in a reclining chair after that.
But it was great.
I got to feed him.
I got to even bathe him once.
I gave my father a bath, a shower, because he could barely stand up.
He was in pretty rough shape.
So it's a great blessing.
I can verify that that's a great blessing because it gives you a chance.
The big thing is it gives you a chance to give something back after all that they've done for us.
Your parents look after you kind of like servants sometimes.
Often it looks like that.
The parents have to do everything for their kids.
And what are the kids doing?
Ever ask, after all your parents do for you, what have you done for them?
What have you done for your parents?
gave them a card, let's see, carried you in her womb for nine months, fed you her breast milk and cleaned your diapers, sent her a card.
Well, you're getting there.
Send her a card every day for the next million years and she might have a case.
So remember that.
When your parents get old, don't let them be neglected.
Don't neglect your parents.
Looking after your spouse and children.
Looking after your family.
So not just looking after your parents, but looking after your children is a great blessing because
If you do, they're more likely to look after you.
If you teach them well, if you teach them good things that are useful for them, if you teach them to be good people, they're much more likely to take care of you, for example.
Of course, that's the most base thing, but it's a wonderful thing because then you get to see them grow up well.
You don't have to worry about them.
If you give them the right knowledge and wisdom, then as they grow up,
they will do good things they will be beautiful people and they will spread goodness around them and so you will never have to worry about them as parents and you will never have to fight with them you will always have good relations with them if you teach them correctly give them the right start in life because that's the thing is you're not trying to preach or to force them but children have nothing they can't even talk
If it weren't for parents, they would be like wolves.
They wouldn't even know how to speak, let alone how to tie their shoes, how to use the toilet, everything they couldn't do.
So we have to teach them so many things.
This is the role of parents.
So people wonder what should parents do?
Should they just leave their children alone or should they force them to do this or that?
No, you have to teach them.
A parent has the responsibility to teach children what is for their benefit and what is for their harm.
We make a mistake in modern society to think that benefit and harm are something different between right and wrong, you see.
We think sometimes doing the right thing is painful.
And it can never be.
If you really do the right thing, it can never be painful.
It can never be harmful to you.
It might be painful for the body, but it will never be painful for the mind.
If it's painful for the mind, you're doing it wrong.
Remember that.
So you're trying to teach children happiness.
Parents are not trying to make their kids miserable.
Well, they do sometimes.
This is the problem.
You should not be making your children miserable.
You should be teaching them how to be happy.
Sometimes you have to make them miserable in order to help them see it.
It's true.
Very difficult to deal with children.
So it's a great blessing if you can.
If your children are mean and unruly, it's a curse.
So we should be thankful that we can get along well with their families.
Anakula chakamantau, engaging in harmless occupation, deeds or activities that are anakula, which are harmless.
I think it means straight and not crooked.
Akula I think means crooked, anakula means not crooked, although I'm not sure.
So yeah, don't get caught up in, not getting caught up in crooked deeds.
We should never be engaged in crime to make a living or harming other beings to make a living or cheating other beings to make a living.
We should try to live our lives in a way that brings goodness to other people.
So becoming a nurse, for example, becoming a doctor, becoming a teacher,
I don't think there's any better profession than becoming a teacher, a public school teacher, besides becoming a monk and teaching meditation.
But in the world, if you look at how profound the understanding of teachers is about how the mind works, just to have this natural understanding that is somehow special to the teaching profession.
They have to be patient if they're a good teacher.
But I mean, this is the point, is doing something that is of benefit, that is not crooked.
You're not just there to make money.
A teacher is not just there to be a tyrant.
You should be straightforward and honest in all of your work.
It's a great blessing because it doesn't bother you and people respect you and so on.
Dhanancha Dhammacharya Cha
Charity is a great blessing.
It makes you feel good.
People esteem you and respect you.
There was a story I told last night.
I don't think any of you were here, so I'll tell it again.
This man, this woman, she saw a beggar on the side of the street, and so she took her purse and she just dumped the contents of her purse into his bowl.
That's what it said.
I mean, you know, it must not have been a purse because that would have had other things in it.
She dumped something, the contents of her change purse maybe, into his bowl.
And then walked away.
And he said, thank you.
And she walked away.
She thought she dumped a bunch of change in his purse.
And then she got home and realized she had put her wedding ring in with her coins.
and had dumped her wedding ring, her engagement ring or whatever, with a big diamond on it.
And she was so horrified, she thought, what am I going to do?
There's no way I'm going to get this back.
And she went back the next day.
The guy wasn't there.
And it was just the most embarrassing.
And it was just such an important thing to her, this ring.
And then she went back the next day, and he was there.
And so she went up to him and she said, you know, I think I put something very valuable into your bowl.
And he said, was it a ring?
Because I kept it for you.
And he gave it back to her.
And that's not the best part of the story.
The best part of the story is then she was so grateful for him, for his gift, in fact, his kindness.
that she started talking to him and she asked him, you know, is there anything I can do for you?
And somehow he mentioned his bike was, he had a bicycle and it was broken and needed a new tire or something.
And so she said, you know, look, forget about just that.
I'm going to, I'll do something.
I'm going to do something for you, whatever I can.
And they put on the internet,
They told this story on the internet, and they put up on this, they have these sites that you can go to to raise money for causes.
And she said, anyone who wants to contribute, please support this lovely man.
When they wrote this, there was an article that came out, and at the time of writing the article, they had raised $100,000 US for this guy.
And it wasn't over.
I mean, it could be at half a million dollars by now.
Because...
So this is...
In the Buddha's time, you heard stories like this.
You heard stories of, you know, people would give gifts and then suddenly become rich.
They would do good deeds and suddenly wonderful things might happen to them.
It's not always the case, but it can happen.
Here's a perfect example.
This guy was...
He could have taken it and done what he wanted, but... And you know what he said?
He said...
What's the big deal?
He said, what kind of a world is it when you don't steal something that someone obviously didn't mean to give you?
And it creates all this excitement.
It was the right thing.
Which shows, you know, he's right on track, this guy.
This is someone worth... And so you see how much of a blessing it is to say that, that he said.
and to do what he did.
This is what the Mangala is.
This is what the Buddha was trying to impress upon us.
Dhammacharya means acting according to the Dhamma.
This is not dana.
He didn't give anything, really.
He just didn't take something that was obviously not supposed to be his.
But Dhammacharya means acting according to the Dhamma or living according to the Dhamma, the truth.
This is what he did.
Because he knew that there's no way he could accept this ring.
This was obviously a mistake.
I don't know.
Some people might say, well, she gave it to me.
But it's amazing that he actually kept it, no?
Of course, the cynic could say, well, what if he was caught upon it?
People would think he stole it anyway, right?
I don't know.
I doubt it.
No, he could have gotten...
rich off that and he did get rich off of it but this is anakula acting in the proper way it's these things that are useful to think about these kind of examples that it's useful for us to hear about because it changes who we are and how we approach situations when we're in a situation where we could even rightfully take advantage because rightfully no one would have blamed him if he had gone and pawned this ring but it makes us stop and think is that really the right thing and if we do that
Are we really going to be happy?
Not nearly as happy as if we make sure, try to find this person and make sure that they're really meant to give such a crazy, valuable thing.
Anyway.
Not just your family, but also your relatives.
If you're in good relations with your relatives, they can help you a lot.
Not everyone has this blessing, but if you have this blessing, it's a great thing to be on good terms with your family.
Anavajjani ka maani is the same as Anakula.
Anavajjani means not blameworthy.
Don't do anything that is blameworthy, that people will blame you for.
Your deeds should not be blameworthy because you do get a bad reputation.
It's funny, we don't think about it sometimes and we don't realize how slowly, slowly, suddenly we find ourselves in a situation where we have a bad reputation.
We've done things that have caused people to spread nasty things, spread bad word about us.
That's okay, I've got to be careful here that we get them right.
So this is one, to cease and abstain from evil.
Now this is a no-brainer.
Don't do evil because it hurts you, makes you feel bad, it hurts other people, makes them dislike you, and so on.
Remember, we're talking about things that bring blessings to your life and bring happiness to your life and keep you from falling into trouble.
So if you avoid evil, you will avoid a lot of trouble.
This is really the greatest blessing.
People say, how do I avoid suffering?
Don't do evil.
People will think, how can I get away with stealing?
How can I avoid being thrown in jail?
Steal something and avoid jail.
Well, don't steal and you won't have to go to jail.
Don't do bad deeds.
Don't say nasty things to others.
Don't get in arguments with it.
How do I win an argument with it?
How do I avoid... How do I stop these people from destroying me in arguments?
I'm fighting.
All this fighting, how do I avoid it?
Just stop fighting.
Stop fighting back is often the beginning.
There's an interesting quote.
If someone is...
If someone hurts you and you don't respond in kind, you don't hurt them back, you're actually, in one sense,
stopping the causal effect.
You're nullifying their karma to some extent.
You see, a person hurts you.
If you don't hurt them back, you stop a certain portion of the karma, because the bad karma would be to continue it and to create new bad karma.
See, karma isn't fixed.
If someone hurts me, then part of the result of that is me hurting them back, you see.
But if I don't, I've actually nullified their karma and I've accepted
the injustice.
I've taken on the injustice and forgiven them.
The Buddha said this is the beginning to be free from the cycle.
He said this is why the greater evil is the person who responds with anger.
A person who responds with anger is of greater evil than the person who got angry in the first place.
Because we get angry sometimes thoughtlessly.
When a person gets angry, they don't think, now I'm going to start a fight.
They just get angry.
Often they don't realize that then the person is going to get angry back at them.
But when you get angry back, you're accepting the fight and you're starting a feud.
You're starting the cycle of vengeance.
So the point, because we get angry for so many reasons.
Sometimes we don't realize that we're going to hurt the person.
The first person just says something nasty because they're in a bad mood.
If I'm playing my Nintendo and you come and bug me, maybe I don't listen at first, and then you bug me again and I'm still playing my game.
And then when you bug me three or four times, then I get angry at you.
But I didn't mean to get angry at you.
I just wanted to kill the bad guys and defeat the boss.
That's all it was.
But then when you get angry back at me, you really mean it.
When a person gets angry back, this is what the Buddha said, this is what we have to be careful of.
We have to let people get angry at us sometimes.
We have to accept people's anger.
So if you, oh, what are you doing bothering me?
Then just be patient and say, well, look, you know, I was trying.
We have to accept that we're each not perfect.
Even friends get angry at friends, right?
You see, friends can get angry at friends, but if the friend gets angry back, you're no longer friends.
This is what stops the friendship.
Anyway, I'm a little bit off track.
Madhya paana jasanyamo.
Stopping taking madhya paana, drinks that are intoxicating.
Don't drink alcohol.
Don't be a drunk.
I know from experience.
It's funny, you know, you see a lot of scientists and scholars who like to drink alcohol.
Which is funny because they esteem intelligence so much
Why would they spend time making themselves stupid?
You ever seen someone who's drunk?
Uh-oh.
I don't know if you want to answer that.
How about on movies?
You ever seen in movies when a guy is drunk?
No, I've seen drunks.
Actually, I used to be one.
You become, you can't really think.
You think you're smart, but it's funny because you start to say, and you think everything you say is just brilliant when you're drunk, right?
When you're drunk, you think you're the most charming, witty, amazing person in the world.
That's why people do it, because it makes you feel good.
And you strip naked and run around naked and get in lots of trouble when you're drunk.
It's funny that wise people, or not wise people, but smart people, don't esteem their intelligence enough to avoid this.
But wise people do.
Wise people see that for sure it destroys your wisdom.
A little bit destroys it a little bit.
A lot destroys it.
A lot.
Alcohol doesn't have a limit.
There's no breathalyzer test for stupid.
The more alcohol you drink, the more it poisons you.
It's poison.
I mean, I suppose if you sniff a little bit, it's probably not going to hurt you.
Or if you touch someone, your tongue, it's probably, it's negligible.
Sometimes it is used in medicine.
Yeah, that is an interesting point, using it in medicine.
For monks, we're still not allowed to have it in alcohol.
But there it's more of a drawing the line than it is saying, oh, if I have a little bit of medicine and alcohol, I'm going to get drunk.
We draw the line there and we say, no, if I'm going to have medicine, it will not have alcohol in it.
Because, as a point, as making a point, as a principle.
So some of the rules and the strictness of them is just principle.
That's a good example because alcohol and medicine is not going to make you drunk, but we say no, even in medicine I'm not going to take it.
Now for lay people, I don't know.
I don't know that you're breaking a precept if you take it in medicine, but you might.
decide because you're doing a great service if you can keep it as a principle and say no, I really believe that the intake of alcohol is not right.
You'd have to look at the science of it, and if you could make a point that there is some medicine that requires alcohol, then you might have a point.
But that's something that, it's in the same way with pests.
We say the only way to get rid of termites is to kill them, right?
But that's because no one's ever thought of a different way.
No one ever thought, well, how can we get the termites out of here without killing them?
No one ever thought that.
They're seven years into bed, right?
This guy wants to build a theater.
And the Dalai Lama wants this Brad Pitt to make him a movie theater.
You never saw seven years into that?
And so Brad Pitt goes out and starts, tells the people, you know, you need to dig.
And they say, we dig?
What about all the animals living in the earth?
He goes back, these people won't dig.
You can't do it any other way.
He says, you'll find a way.
Oh, and he's just furious, this guy.
And so he says, fine.
Take the dirt out one scoop at a time and find if there's any worms or animals in it and bring them somewhere else.
You see this picture of these people scooping one and saying, oh, I found a worm.
And then they go...
And they bring the worm and they put a little water and make sure it's comfortable in another place.
And scoop by scoop they dig this foundation for the Bodhichitta.
So this is the problem we have kind of as Buddhists living in the modern world is that people have already just trampled all over morality.
And so we kind of have to get together as a group sometimes and think of alternatives.
Termites is an interesting one.
I mean, in the end, I would just let them, you know, it's theirs, they can have it.
But there might be a way to encourage them to go live somewhere else without having to kill them, for sure.
Kerosene.
Kerosene?
You think what?
They don't like kerosene?
Yeah.
You see, there's always, there should be a way.
And in the end it's just, you know, you sacrifice.
Because what are we here for?
Are we here in the world to get everything we want?
Obviously not.
This is not the point.
So for me it's wonderful to be able to make sacrifices and to say, no, if there's one termite in that wall, I'm not going to do whatever, do anything to kill it.
This is a wonderful thing for me.
I'll go sleep outside.
I'll go sleep under a picnic table.
I did that once.
in the middle of North Hollywood.
I would do that.
Let the termites have the house, I don't mind.
Appamādo ca dhammēsu.
Appamāda means diligence or not being... heedfulness in regards to the dhammas, in regards to good practice.
So this means all good things don't...
Don't be negligent in regards to the good things.
We should be clear with our good things and we should not neglect to undertake them.
So the practice of morality we should not be negligent.
The practice of concentration, the practice of charity, the practice of meditation, we should not be negligent.
So this is why I'm trying to get these children to practice at least five minutes a day so that they can start to wake up and to think about these things, think about good things and the actual doing of good deeds, not just learning about them and saying, yes, yes, I'll do them.
To actually undertake to do them.
This is the appamada, not letting your life pass you by without doing something good.
That means all good things that there are in the world, we should undertake to do them.
We should not think little of good deeds, that it's just meditation, I can do it later.
You have to take the Dhamma seriously, that's what this means.
Garavo chani vato.
Garavo means respect.
So we already talked a little bit about that.
Pooja, which means veneration or honor and so on.
Garavo just means respect.
And it's on a lower level, so it can also mean respecting each other.
It can mean respecting people who you esteem as your seniors or so on.
But it can also just mean respecting each other.
We should respect each other.
We should respect all human beings.
It's easy for religious people, even Buddhists, to become arrogant.
No, I've got the truth.
I know what's right.
And, oh, look at you, you're drinking, and so on.
And monks become this way.
I keep the precepts, those monks don't keep the rules, and so on like that.
Or we can look at Devadatta and think he was an evil, nasty person.
But the Buddha didn't look like that.
The Buddha said once something very bad about Devadatta.
But even in the end he said, I love Devadatta as much as I love my son.
This is what he said.
So this is the intrinsic respect that the Buddha had for humanity.
He knew that Devadatta had a mind, that Devadatta was a human being.
and deserve this respect He didn't want to stop Devadatta from doing bad deeds because it would hurt the Buddha He wanted to stop Devadatta from doing bad deeds because he knew it would hurt Devadatta
And in the end, he won and Devadatta took refuge in the Buddha right before he died.
And so they say, in the future, after he gets out of hell, because right now he's standing in hell like this, he's totally transfixed and there's spikes.
It's a very bad torture that Devadatta had to put up with, as they say.
So they say, he's going to become a Pacheco Buddha, a private Buddha, sometime in the future.
The goodness doesn't disappear.
Niwato means being, niwata is an interesting word.
It means, what do they translate it as?
Humble, humility.
Niwato.
But you know what it actually means?
Wata means wind.
And ni means out.
So, not being, what's the word in English?
Inflated, being puffed up.
That's right.
You see?
This is what it's referring to.
It actually means not puffed up.
It's translated.
Niwato.
not being puffed up.
So we should never be puffed up.
We shouldn't be pompous.
We shouldn't be self-righteous.
But not even that.
We shouldn't be too serious.
We should feel natural.
We shouldn't say, well, I'm a Buddhist and I have to do this and this and this.
Being a Buddhist is about understanding reality.
We have to come back to nature.
Why I say this is because I've seen so much in Buddhist cultures that is so vato, is so puffed up.
You know, a teacher comes up and says, And you can tell that he's not really, he doesn't really feel it.
It's not natural.
That's why they give Dhamma talks in Thai.
I shouldn't...
I'm sorry, I'm not supposed to make fun, but...
I'm not trying to make fun, actually.
I really wasn't.
I was trying to... Because you can feel this.
You can feel it in people, and you can feel it in Buddhist cultures.
And I'm not trying...
I really wasn't...
I could have... That was the kind of thing you'd do if you wanted to make fun.
But I didn't.
I really didn't.
The idea is that...
We should see this.
We should stop trying to be the perfect Buddhists and we should start to learn about our nature.
Monks, you can't blame the monk because they feel the pressure.
They think they have to be like that.
They think they have to stand up and be the Buddha.
And maybe the culture demands it as well, but I don't think so.
I've had the most success in Buddhist culture just by talking to people, by being natural, because that's really what they want.
They have these hard jobs.
They have to work all day.
And when they come to the monastery, they want to be at peace.
They don't want some guy saying, you know, preaching to them.
Preaching is the word.
This is vata.
That's not quite, I think, what it's meant.
Niwata should mean, more specifically, being puffed up and thinking yourself all-important.
But it's the same sort of quality, taking things too seriously and making them artificial, pretending to be something you're not.
You don't need to be.
Like the blowfish, right?
The blowfish gets really big and, ooh, it's a big, scary thing.
But it's actually just a little, little fish.
They're also poisonous.
Santutthi, contentment.
Santutthi is a wonderful one.
Santutthi.
Tuththi means happiness or joy.
San means with what you have.
I'm assuming that's where it comes from.
Because it means contentment.
Being happy with what you've got.
This is what the Buddha said.
Santutthi paramandhanam.
The greatest wealth is contentment.
Right?
What's better, to be content or to have a Game Boy?
Content.
Content?
Why?
Xbox.
PlayStation.
PlayStation 4.
It's Xbox, yeah.
Xbox.
So I thought they were the same thing, you know, having a Game Boy and be content.
And be content, yeah.
Well, let's see how that works, right?
Because once you've got the Game Boy, you need games, right?
You have to buy games for the Game Boy, right?
What do you use?
You don't have a Game Boy.
What do you have?
Xbox.
Okay.
Do you have to buy games for it?
Two.
Is that enough?
You don't want any more, no?
Have you ever seen any games that you don't have that you want?
So this is called contentment, right?
If you're content with what you have.
But you can see how you kind of want them, right?
And if I had them here for you, if I said, you know, in my room I've got some Xbox games that I'm not using, would you like them?
Would you take them?
If you say yes, then maybe.
I could just give them to you in secret.
But you want them, right?
You see, this is wanting.
This is called discontent.
And it knows no end.
Because once you get the games I have, they will quickly lose their...
They'll get boring.
You see, this is discontent.
Your sister's wife.
You will get bored after a while.
No, I think you understand it as well.
You see where I'm getting at, right?
We have these desires.
I'm not blaming you.
We have these desires.
And that's discontent.
And so getting all the things that you want, that's not real wealth.
You're creating more discontent.
The Buddha said that a shower of gold falling from the sky would not be enough for one human being.
Amazing.
It would hurt.
That's the least of your worries.
No, it's true.
It would hurt.
All right.
The best way to prove that is meditation.
Contentment?
Yes.
It's the only way.
Because it has nothing to do with the things that you have.
You can be rich and still be content.
It has to do with your attachment to them, your desire for them.
It's how the brain works.
It's nothing magical or hard to understand.
The brain, the pleasure sensors in the brain are non-static.
They're dynamic.
So the more pleasure they get, the more they need.
the first time you get the pleasure, dopamine or whatever, reaches the receptors, the receptors become weakened or taxed.
So the next time, the same amount of dopamine doesn't give them the same amount of pleasure.
That's how the brain works.
That's why addiction is a cycle.
You need more and more and more.
That's why
There was this, my video, my video on pornography and masturbation got on, it's a very popular video on the internet.
Someone asked me about this.
He said it was, you've seen it maybe?
Yeah, that's right.
Whenever you search for me, you get this video because that's what people are looking for.
It's actually not now.
It's moved down on the list of my videos.
The one on karma is higher up, which is a bit of a saving grace now.
But the point was, one of the reasons it got popular, probably not, but one reason why it got popular, it got on a self-help site for men who have pornography addictions.
So I get these links, it tells me where everything is, people are looking at it, and if I'm clever enough I can find where it is.
And so I looked on this site, and this site had other information that was quite interesting, because it's an addiction.
And it says, this, what I've been saying, is why...
People start out with soft porn and then they go on to why it has to be more and more and more and you never get enough until finally you get so exploded and you have to give up.
You have to collapse because you can't win the brain game, the addiction game.
Until finally you give up and they're so taxed that you feel withdrawal.
Nothing pleases you.
Nothing.
There's no way to find happiness.
Because the things that used to make you happy are not enough dopamine to satisfy the receptors.
The science, physical science has proven this.
There was a Chinese man who ordained with me and ordained at the monastery I was at in Los Angeles.
And he was a scientist studying addiction.
And so I was like, oh great, I'll teach you meditation.
You explain to me your scientific studies.
And he explained to me many things.
There was another PhD at a university in California, married to a Thai woman.
He came to practice with me, and he told me a lot of things, and so I turned around and showed him how to use it for himself, because he was an addiction therapist, and he was taking medication for OCD, I think.
which was probably why he got into the research in the first place, because he wanted to learn about his own problem.
So I explained, I showed him how to deal with this, and how this was really occurring, and how to see, how to break the cycle, how to see the chemicals as merely chemicals, first of all, see the objects as just objects,
And even to see the desire as just desire, not something that needs to be chased after, needs to be followed.
The Buddha said three teachers.
Some teachers teach only objects of desire, but not feelings and not attachments.
Some people teach the objects and the feelings, but not the attachments.
And some teachers teach
the objects of desire, the pleasure that comes from them, and the attachment or the desire for them.
The best teacher is one who teaches all three.
This is what I taught in this video, which is a very important teaching.
It's paticca samupada by the way, it's dependent origination in brief.
So if you can split them up and see them, see this one for what it is or see this one for what it is or see this one for what it is, it won't create the cycle.
Wanting and then getting and then pleasure and then wanting and then getting and then pleasure.
You can catch it at any point.
Am I talking too quickly?
Do you understand what I'm saying?
We're almost done, no?
No, not quite.
Santuti, so contentment, is a big teaching of the Buddha.
Katanyuta means gratitude.
Gratitude is very important.
The Buddha said, no, the Buddha didn't say, it's a Thai saying.
Katanyuta is knowing the things that people have done for you, not forgetting the things that people have done for you.
This is a sign of, in Thailand they say it's a sign of a good person.
The Buddha said it's a rare person to find in the world.
The rare is one who does good things for others without prompting.
And the second rare type of person is one who, when people have done good deeds for them, recognize that and remember that and don't forget the good deeds that other people have done for them.
This is something that protects the world.
It keeps people...
It keeps the world... Or you could say it's a different...
It's the...
It's the aspect of the world that is leading towards the light.
Well, at the same time, we're dealing with many factors in the world which are dark.
Many, what's the word?
many things in the world that are the aspect of the dog-eat-dog nature of capitalism and free market where we take advantage of each other, where we're always trying to get and to take, take, take, consumerism and so on.
as opposed to just always giving and appreciating each other, being thankful for what we've got.
Santuti and Katanyuta go together because you are not only content, but you're thankful in the sense of not expecting things from people, not expecting things from the world, being grateful for what you've got.
But gratitude is good because the people who give then feel appreciated.
They don't feel used and abused.
It doesn't create bad feelings between friends and so on.
Kalena Dhamma Savannam Listening to the Dhamma from time to time.
You see how much of a blessing this is?
Having to listen to me talk?
Are you sure?
I'm glad to hear that.
You can have people nodding their heads, that's always good.
It's a blessing to hear the Dhamma, so that's why we use the Dhamma.
I'm not just pulling this out of my book of Noah's sayings or Yudha Dhamma's sayings.
This is the Buddha's sayings.
So this is why we do this, because it's a blessing.
Not something easy to find, this speech, this list.
It's not easy to find in the world.
Okay, kanti jaso jasata.
Kanti means patience.
Patience is what you have to do when the monk keeps talking and doesn't be quiet.
Patience is what you have to have when you have to bear with things which are unpleasant.
So we have to be content and not chase after good things.
But when bad things come, when we're bored or thinking about our Xbox, we have to be patient.
Why?
Because I'm not going to just let you go and play your Xbox.
You can't go home yet.
Whether you want to play Xbox or not want to play Xbox, you can't go, right?
Until your mother takes you home.
So you've got two choices.
Be impatient or be patient.
Which one's going to be more fun?
It's a no-brainer.
Impatience?
Does impatience feel peaceful?
Not really.
Do you feel, like, unpleasant?
What about patience?
How does patience feel?
Fun.
So which one's better?
Patience.
Patience is better.
Ding, ding, ding, ding.
Get the breath.
Patience is a wonderful thing.
The Buddha said it's the greatest form of austerity.
So in the time of the Buddha, everyone was torturing themselves.
because they had all this lust inside this desire inside wanting inside and they didn't know what to do with it they thought we have to burn this up so they would burn it up by torturing themselves so they said aha well if chasing after pleasure increases the desire then chasing after pain will decrease it so they tortured themselves standing on one leg
Lying on bed of nails.
You know the bed of nails?
That's where it comes from.
They actually lay on bed of nails, bed of thorns.
They would stand next to the fire and burn themselves.
They would stand under the sun.
They would go into the water.
On the cold winter days they would go into the water and come out and stand and shake and shiver.
trying to torture themselves, because they said pleasure is bad, so pain must be good.
And the Buddha said, no, that's not, that's too easy.
He said the real way to burn up defilements is patience.
When you have anger, when you have greed, being patient with them.
This is the greatest form of austerity.
And of course it's just being mindful.
When you're mindful and you force yourself to just see it as it is, to, okay, I want it.
Yeah, so I want it.
It doesn't mean anything.
It doesn't mean I should take it.
There's no law of nature that says when you want something,
the correct answer is to take it, or it has some meaning in it that you should take it.
Because some people want crack cocaine, doesn't mean they should take it.
Wanting doesn't mean rightness in taking.
There's got to be a better way to say that.
So wajah sata means being easy to talk to.
Wajah means talk to.
Wajah sata.
So means easy to talk to.
So means so, which is easy.
Wajah sata, easy to talk to.
So means easily admonished.
For example, when your parents tell you to do something, when you say, okay, and you do it, that's being easy to admonish.
When your teachers tell you to explain you how to do something and you listen to your teachers and you follow their advice, this is a great blessing.
If you're hard to admonish, no one wants to teach you.
Your parents won't keep you.
If you stop doing what your parents do, what they do is they just put you out with the trash and they let you fend for yourself.
Not quite.
But they won't want to help you.
Your parents will just, what can I do with this kid?
The only thing I can do is hit them.
That's all I can do.
Nowadays they don't hit their kids anymore.
My parents never hit me.
But they will just yell at you and they won't teach you anything anymore.
If you don't listen to your teachers, don't listen to your parents,
The Buddha said it's like being dead, not listening.
It's like being dead.
He said, when someone doesn't listen to me, I kill them, he said.
This is what the Buddha said.
There was a man came to him and he said, so you teach horses?
You train horses?
And the guy said, yeah, I teach horses, train horses.
And the Buddha said, how do you train horses?
He said, well, first I give them an easy lesson.
I'm nice to them.
I say, do this, do that.
And then if they don't listen to what I say to do, I tell them, you know, then I have a harsh lesson.
I hit them.
Hit them with a stick.
Don't do that.
And if they don't listen to either lesson, then I kill them.
Because they're useless, the horses.
The Buddha said, well, that's how I teach men, humans.
That's how I teach human beings.
If...
First, I tell them, I have a kind lesson.
I tell them, do this, do that.
This is good.
This is a good thing to do.
And if they don't listen, and they do bad things, then I start saying to them, this is bad, this is bad.
It's a harsh lesson.
And if they don't listen to either of those, then I kill them.
He said, the man said, excuse me?
This isn't what monks are supposed to do, no?
And he said, well, what I mean by that is I stop teaching them.
I decide that I'm not going to teach them anymore.
And all of my students, all of my disciples feel the same way.
They say they're not going to teach them either.
And he said, this is what we call death in the Buddha's teaching.
Because if no one teaches you Buddhism, you can't learn.
Nowadays you can read books.
It's not the same.
I tell you it's not the same.
If you don't have a teacher, a teacher who will teach you, it's like being cut off.
Having your life cut off.
samana nantadasanam Seeing recklessness.
Seeing samana.
Samana means someone who has a peaceful mind.
santimano santimano
Samana.
Santi means calm.
Mana means mind.
So one with a calm mind is a samana.
This is also where the word shaman comes from, incidentally.
It comes from this word shramana, which is the Sanskrit.
But yeah, seeing holy people.
They don't have to be holy, but people who are engaged in a holy life.
People who are following some holy order.
So what they say is seeing monks is a good thing.
Seeing monks can be a good thing because it reminds you of good things.
It reminds you of the Buddha when you see the robe.
When you see a monk's robe, you think that's like the Buddha's robe.
It reminds you of the Arahant disciples of the Buddha as well.
But the big deal here is seeing people who are practicing meditation, seeing people who are peaceful in mind.
This is the great thing.
When you're just being around people who are peaceful, people who are wise, people who are calm, is a great blessing.
It reminds you.
Just seeing them reminds you of mindfulness.
It reminds you to be mindful.
And of course, when you go to see them, you're going to hear the Dhamma.
You're going to hear good things, you're going to learn good things, you're going to practice good things, because you will get, you know, we're like, we become like the people we hang out with.
If you hang out with bad people, as we said in the beginning, you'll become a bad person.
So talking about the Dhamma, there's two kinds.
Listening to the Dhamma is not the only way of learning the Dhamma.
Discussing the Dhamma is also very important.
So maybe after I finish here, if I finish, if I ever finish, we can discuss as well.
We don't have to just be one way.
then you really can stay all night.
This is what they did every uposatha day or every so many days when they were staying together.
They would come together and talk all night.
So you have to go to school in the morning?
What time we can stay until you go to school?
To bring your pajamas?
Tapo means putting out effort.
Actually Kanti Paramangtapo.
So this is actually Kanti.
It's the same thing.
But here he means putting out effort.
Working hard in the Brahmacharya, in meditation.
Brahmacharya means the holy life.
Brahma means God actually.
Charya means faring.
So the God faring or the holy life.
Holy life can be celibacy that sometimes refers to, but it just really means living a virtuous life, doing good deeds.
It doesn't necessarily have to refer to perfect celibacy.
There are ten kinds of Brahmacharya.
The most common one is celibacy.
The big thing is to live a virtuous life, moral, compassionate, virtuous, generous, and wise and meditative.
ariyasac jānadasanam, seeing the noble truths.
Ah, here we get to the core, you see.
It's not all just about having handicraft and so on.
The core here, we've come to the core already, Arya Satchana Dasanam, seeing the noble truths.
So not just seeing all truths.
Remember in Buddhism we're talking about truths that are Arya, noble.
Noble truths means, in Buddhism the meaning of noble truths is those truths that bring freedom from suffering.
Some truths will not bring freedom from suffering.
The truth of whether Australia exists or not will not bring you freedom from suffering.
The truth of whether Einstein was correct in his theory of relativity, this will not bring you freedom from suffering.
But the truth that clinging is the cause for suffering, when you see this, this will make you free from suffering.
So that's why they're called noble truths.
When you see this, when you see suffering, the first noble truth is all you need to see, really.
When you see and get it, that the things that you are clinging to are actually suffering, when you realize that Xbox is causing you suffering, that's all it takes.
Once you see that it's causing you, so if you're holding in your hand a hot coal, a hot ember, and if you don't know that you're holding it, you think, why am I in so much pain?
But as soon as you realize you're holding the ember, what are you going to do?
Drop it.
Do you have to think first?
Do you have to ask yourself, should I drop it?
Do you have to go and tell your mom, mom, I think I should drop this.
What do you think?
You don't even have to think about it.
Drop it or throw it, one or the other.
Why?
Because you see that it's causing you suffering.
The problem with us is we don't see that these things are causing us suffering.
We think they're causing us happiness.
We think that this dopamine is really happiness.
We're drug addicts, really.
And because of that, we suffer.
Once we see that it's causing us suffering, we give it up.
Nibbāna sat-chīkiri āca, seeing Nibbāna.
Seeing Nibbāna for ourselves.
This is the greatest blessing.
Because Nibbāna is true peace.
We don't have any point of reference to understand this.
You can think, what is real happiness?
If you never realize Nibbāna, you have nothing to compare it to.
What you're thinking of is nothing like Nibbāna.
So to explain what is Nibbāna is very difficult for this reason.
Because anything we said, it's like this or it's like that,
Oh, happiness.
Well, it must be like flowers.
How flowers smell or something.
It must be like a big hug, a nice hug.
We can't even come close to imagining.
Unless you've experienced Nibbana, you can't come close to imagining the type of peace we're talking about.
Nibbana is the greatest blessing.
Nibbana paramang sukhang.
There is no
Nibbana is the highest happiness.
There's no happiness greater than peace.
There's no happiness apart from peace.
When you have this kind of peace, your mind becomes clear and pure, and you experience a happiness that is totally unlike anything that you've experienced before.
This is my favorite verse in the whole sutta.
When touched by the vicissitudes of the world, the worldly dhammas, the mind of one, the mind of whoever's mind is not
is not wavered, is not shaken, is not shaken.
And therefore they are soka, free from soka, which is sadness or sorrow.
Weerajang means without stain or without dust or dirt.
Kemang, safe.
Kemang means safe.
Etamanggalamutamang, this is the highest blessing for that person.
So the Lokadhamma are the vicissitudes of life.
Pleasure, pain, gain and loss, fame and infamy, and praise and blame.
The eight Lokadhammas, they change.
You can't have happiness all the time and not have, you can't have pleasure and not have pain.
You can't be famous all the time, expect to be famous all the time and not suffer infamy.
You can't have always the things that you want and never have loss, never lose the things that you love.
This is the ways of the world.
Loss and gain, good things and bad things.
When one who is touched by both good things and bad things and doesn't waver,
Because of that, they never sorrow, they never feel sad, they never are needing anything, they're never wanting for anything.
They have perfect contentment at all times and there's no stain in their mind and for this reason they become safe, kema.
They're safe from all suffering.
When you suffer in your life and you start crying, you have to think of this, think of this teaching.
When you wonder, how do I become free from suffering?
How do I deal with this suffering that I'm going through?
How do I deal with this stress and this pain that I have in my heart?
You have to remember that this is the mind that is causing us suffering.
Our mind is wavering, it's being shaken.
We have to understand where true safety lies.
It doesn't lie in always getting what you want and never being faced with things that you don't want.
It comes from setting yourself in the mode of objectivity where you see things just as they are, where you don't judge things and you're not partial.
When you're able to do that, nothing can cause your mind to waver.
When you get proficient at objectivity, then nothing can make you waver, nothing can make you hurt.
And then the Buddha says, why?
Because those who have fulfilled all these are everywhere invincible, aparajita.
They find well-being everywhere.
For them, that is the highest blessing.
That is the Mahamangala Sutta.
Very important.
Buddhist sutta, just because it's all around useful.
It's not just for meditators.
It's not just for monks.
It's something that encompasses daily life as well.
So the Buddha taught this to the angel, knowing that this would be something that would be a...
an inheritance for the world, something that the Buddha has given to us as an inheritance, that we can, that has now become a cornerstone in Buddhist culture and philosophy, and something that is
worldly or broadly applicable in the world, both for meditators and for people living worldly existences.
So, that's the talk for tonight, and let's see if it goes viral.
Thank you for suggesting to record it, and now we can stop the recording and put it on YouTube.