Francesca Donatella says, you just made me scared.
So much freedom seems dangerous.
Lucas, Lucas looks scared.
Are you scared of freedom?
Well, we don't even know what freedom is.
How can you be scared of something you don't know about?
Nothing about.
Well, xenophobic.
It's called xenophobia, fear of the unknown.
To me, it makes perfect sense.
It's like, suppose you had a bottomless pit.
Or no, maybe that's silly.
The idea of infinity, of having no bottom, or of having nothing to cling to, of infinite possibility.
It's quite scary, no?
There's no reference point.
There's no guiding point, right?
It's scary to have no reference point.
Nothing to fall back on.
I mean, it's really easy to believe in Jesus Christ, right?
Okay, that's easy.
Right.
Bible.
Got it.
There you've got a reference point.
Buddhism, in the sense that I'm explaining it, doesn't have a reference point.
But...
In my other video I did qualify that because there is one.
Nibbāna is a reference point.
So you strive towards Nibbāna.
Here and now would be also the reference point.
That's another good one.
So yeah, you don't need purpose to have a reference point.
You don't need to be going... Another thing you might say is you don't need to be going somewhere to have a reference point.
So...
well yes we have freedom and that makes you scared to do anything well in a sense Buddhism is not about doing something it's about coming back to in a sense not doing anything so yeah the present moment is an excellent it's an excellent point that we have we have something to cling to in a sense it's the present moment yeah
I Lucas yeah I just want to re I one more time there was a film philosopher called Seneca and he said that if you still have a fear in you you're definitely are not free to carry on the fear then you could become a free or know the freedom so how you can be afraid of
being free.
It's a state without fear.
There's another thing as well, is that the fear itself is a reference point.
The fear itself is something to not cling to, but quote unquote cling to, in the sense of you're afraid of this and it paralyzes you.
Well, don't go further than the fear, which is of course the present moment.
that's I think a general important point is that when you are angry about something well the anger is the most important thing when you're afraid of something well the fear is the most important thing so this goes with such philosophical questions as is there a purpose to life well how do you feel about the question how do you feel about the answer it makes me afraid well much more important is the fear welcome Troy Troy do you want to tell us about yourself where are you
I'm in Canada, and I have two small kids here, so I might go on mute.
And if it becomes disruptive, please let me know.
What part of Canada?
I'm in Toronto.
Cool.
I think you were originally Canadian, or a Canadian citizen, should I say?
I am Canadian, eh?
That's right, eh?
No, I'll be in Toronto in April.
I'm coming back to Canada.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
I'm going to try to set up.
I'll be staying in Caledon and trying to set up a center there.
Oh, excellent.
If there's any posts you put up in that regard, I'll be paying attention.
Yeah, you can also join our... If you'll go to my web blog, I think my latest post at utadamo.syriamanglo.org is... There's a link to our mailing list.
If you're Canadian, if you're in Canada, you want to get on our mailing list, find out, get emails about updates and get involved, and you're welcome to join that.
Thank you.
Sorry, I'll put myself on mute.
In fact, I probably should go and pick up my phone.
Okay, okay.
Well, thanks for coming.
Bye-bye.
Fellow Canuck.
Yeah.
You're done recording, right?
No.
Oops.